Rockler has come out with new HB/No. 2 shop pencils, emblazoned with their name on it.
Rockler advertises their new pencils as being suited for marking wood, sketching out designs, jotting down cut lists, and all kinds of other writing or marking tasks.
Advertisement
The pencils feature solid wood hexagonal-shaped casings, and the shape gives them an anti-roll design.
If you haven’t seen this style of pencil before, it’s more of an art or drawing pencil, with a smooth end rather than the typical eraser you might find on office or student pencils.
The pencils are sold in packs of 5 for $4.
Rockler has also come out with a magnetic pencil keeper kit, which also comes with a small sharpener and 3 pencils.
The magnetic pencil keeper fits over the end of the pencil. In addition to the magnet, for sticking the pencil to ferromagnetic surfaces, it also has a pocket clip and eraser.
Advertisement
This kit is priced at $10.
Other Drawing Pencil Options
Here are some other like-priced options if you’re thinking of getting some drawing pencils for workshop use:
Staedtler HB Pencil 12-Pack: ~$12 via Amazon
Tombow Mono Drawing Pencil 12-Pack: $11 via Amazon
Ticonderoga 12-Pack: $2-3 via Amazon
Faber-Castell 9000 Series 12-Pack: $10 via Amazon
There are higher-priced options, and many art-focused brands also offer pencils in different hardness grades. HB is the same as number 2 pencils commonly found at office supply stores, and generally the hardness increases with higher H grades (e.g. 2H), and softens with higher B grades (e.g. 2B).
HB pencils don’t dull very quickly, and leave dark-enough markings on paper and most wood species.
If you’re saying “yeah, yeah, I know all this, I use HB pencils all the time,” well, have you tried 2B pencils yet?
Staedtler 2B Pencil 12-Pack: $7 via Amazon
These Staedtler 2B pencils aren’t artist-grade pencils, they’re described as being writing pencils, but it’s a low cost and low risk way to try out 2B pencils.
2B pencils have softer graphite cores than HB, and so they leave a darker line. They also have to be sharpened more frequently.
If you want a high quality and easy to use sharpener, I really like this Uni, although it’s a bit pricey. This Kutsuwa compact sharpener has tip length adjustments, and this Staedler is inexpensive.
Too “old school” for you? Check out our posts on mechanical pencils.
Why Not Use Office Supply Pencils?
You can and should.
These are all other just options for users who want more. If you don’t know whether more premium pencils will work for you, they are usually inexpensive enough to try them out for yourself. If you’re placing a Rockler order, consider picking up a pack of pencils for $4. If not, art supply stores generally have a couple of different brand and style options.
Personally, I like drawing pencils because they write smoother, their graphite cores are usually of greater quality and are less prone to breakage, and it’s overall an improved experience.
There’s more of a difference when it comes to drawing and sketching, and much less when it comes to marking wood or filling in knife marks.
What About Carpenter Pencils?
What about them? They are a hassle to sharpen and usually leave a broader line. They’re great for thick markings, but lousy for drawing, sketching, or writing on paper.
A drawing pencil is a fret saw, a carpenter pencil is an axe.
A Better General All-Purpose Pencil
I like the Staedtler Norica for general purpose use. They deliver a better experience than typical office supply pencils, but aren’t as pricey as drawing pencils.
You can buy them in black at $16 for 36 via Amazon, or blue at $13 for 24.
William Butler
What’s the deal with fancy pencils? I understand mechanical pencils but why buy a five pack for $0.80/pencil when I can buy 150 pencils from Amazon Basic for $0.08/pencil. Are these pencils really 10x better? I’m a cabinetmaker so I mark plywood, framing, drywall, hardwood, and on occasion rough wood. I also always keep 5-10 pencils on me when I work so I always have one and always have a sharp one. Do you really get what you pay for when it comes to wooden pencils?
Stuart
For marking wood? There’s some difference, but not much. For sketching or drawing, better pencils are smoother. Some are less prone to breakage.
I’ve tried working with super-cheap pencils before, and can’t stand them. The tips broke all the time, and if I looked at the pencils themselves funny they snapped in two.
For general purpose pencils, I like the Staedtler Norica ($16 for 36 at Amazon).
You also get better erasers.
If you go through hundreds of pencils, stick with your basic ones. Better pencils are inexpensive to try, but the challenge is in finding them in small quantities.
William Butler
I can see the benefit of premium pencils for drafting or art, but general shop work probably not. If the finished product is the result of the pencil go for it, but for sketching ideas, writing cut lists, marking material it’s a hard sell. I hand my pencils usually don’t break from use but rather from being dropped or crushed in my pouch. Good thoughts!
Jared
I don’t think it’s 10x better, but it is better. Stuart’s claims of better cores and smoother drawing are true. It’s also $4 to try it out and see for yourself.
Softer pencils are useful for achieving dark lines without pressing harder and damaging the wood grain.
Many years ago now I took a fine arts diploma. When drawing with pencil the technique I was taught was to switch to a softer pencil to achieve darker line, rather than pressing harder. If you had to press hard enough that it rubbed away the paper texture and created a shiny spot – you used the wrong pencil.
Koko The Talking Ape
Even though the nice pencils cost 10x more than the cheapest pencils, they’re still pretty cheap. So getting nice ones doesn’t cost that much more.
I did some drafting and drawing in college, and you really could tell the difference between nice pencils and cheap ones. The nice ones felt silkier and smoother.
But for marking cuts and the like, I’m not sure I could tell. Anyway, I use a marking knife, and sometimes a crayon to label pieces.
Wayne R.
I feel like a grumpy old man. Pencils & screwdrivers? Oooh! At least they don’t have Bluetooth…
Hon Cho
Country of Origin Please! Many don’t care where their products come from but some of us do, especially when paying premium prices. Thank you.
(By the way, I know that country of origin and trade is far more complicated than just where things come from. There are fine products from countries I’d rather not support and crappy stuff from places I would like to support. However, I really despise products that put a big Stars and Stripes Flag on their package and brand themselves something like “USA Products” and then put in tiny print “Made somewhere other than USA.”)
Rant Over.
Stuart
I’ve asked Rockler, will see what they say.
Most brands don’t specify where their pencils are made – you buy them and that’s how you find out – sometimes.
Some pencils specify, others don’t. Tombow Mono 100 are made in Vietnam, but I only know this because it’s on my box of 12, as the individual pencils aren’t marked. My Uni is marked “Japan.”
I have some General white charcoal pencils marked “USA.”
If you want made in USA, consider General Semi-Hex ($8.30 for 12 via Amazon). According to the General’s website, these are made in USA, but this isn’t shown in the Amazon product image.
schill
I’ll include my standard vote here for General Cedar Pointe pencils. They say they are made in New Jersey (don’t know where the materials come from).
These are unfinished – no paint or varnish on the wood. I really like the feel and they write well.
It looks like availability is limited right now.
Charlie
My wife brings home 10 packs of florescent pencils from the dollar store. My workshop absorbed the first package but the second pack brought me to saturation level…a game changer as I now have pencils I can find, within reach.
MichaelT
Your saturation level made me chuckle. I’ve felt the same way about safety glasses.
Charlie
It is true, also with tape measures, push sticks, etc.
It’s such a relief to just acknowledge this quantum thing is going on in the workshop, can’t be fought through organization or conventional physics, and just buy multiples.
Nathan
I find I use mechanical pencils and or markers. and recently I found I need to get something to mark dark woods with. so I guess that’s a quest too.
but to the point here I do use softer leds in my mechanicals. smooth clean dark lines.
fred
You might try a white marking pencil that made for sewing or a welder’s pencil. Amazon seems to add a lot to the price – compared to my local welding supply store – but the give you “free” shipping.
https://www.amazon.com/RevMark-Silver-Hex-Pencil-Lead/dp/B08LNVKKGG/
Pink porkchop
I bought the Pentel 1000 kit from Amazon, comes with . 3, .4, .5, .7 & .9 for $37. The retracting tip is the big seller. Even on job sites I carry a cheaper pentel and carpenters pencils.
JoeM
So this really is a thing Tool companies do? I thought Lee Valley was alone in this. Okay. That’s pretty cool. Cool Tools, Matching Pencils. I see the appeal already.
This is the first time I’ve seen anyone other than Lee Valley make, or imprint their name on, shop pencils before. At least to my knowledge. I’ve seen other brands of Pencil do it, but this is only the second Tool Company I’ve ever seen do it.
David Zeller
Incra makes mechanical ones to pair with their rulers. And of course Milwaukee has its markers.
JoeM
No no, Markers I knew about. I’ve seen many a Milwaukee or DeWALT branded Marker of one sort or another. Never knew about anyone other than Lee Valley imprinting their name/brand on Shop Pencils. I think Lee Valley even counts as 2 now that I think about it, since they do both Lee Valley logo, as well as Veritas versions. Or… Used to do Lee Valley, and now imprint the same ones with Veritas instead… Either way… Lee Valley. And Incra makes sense to make their own Shop Pencils, because they make other Stationery equipment. Shop Pencils are just an extension of what they already do, so that makes total sense.
And specifically Shop Pencils, not promos, not Mechanical (because those I’ve seen other brands do as well), not the brand name of a pencil-making company like Staedler… I’m talking A Tool Company. This is genuinely one of the few instances where I’ve seen Shop Pencils come from a company that isn’t known for Pencils. Great Tools, Yes, they’re known for making them, but Pencils specifically, this is rare for me.
Didn’t actually know Incra made shop pencils to match their other stuff though, so thank you! I may look out for those. I doubt I’ll replace the Pentel Graphgear 1000 that Stuart introduced me to, but I like to know what’s out there too! Thanks David!
Stuart
Home Depot has a couple of store-branded pencil options – a thicker round pencil in addition to carpenter-style pencils. Does that count?
JoeM
Honestly? No… I’ve seen Store-Branded Stationery since I was 5. Sears, Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Rona, Grand&Toy (Now Defunct, used to be THE place for Office Supplies in Canada.) Staples does their own imprinted pens, pencils, and all sorts of rulers, and I don’t think it would be difficult to find Shop-Style No-Eraser ended pencils among them. When we had Zellers (which became Target in Canada, and then folded faster than an Origami Master makes a Paper Airplane.) they had huge school supply sections imprinted with their name, and even dollar stores do this. And, yeah… it’s a little rare to find stock of them, but they all seem to have at least one or two varieties of that coated-eraserless Shop Style Pencil. Store-Branded Stationery is… Well, everywhere.
And I do believe nearly every art supply store does the full gamut of thickness and hardness, even colour, Shop-Style Pencil out there. They may, or may not, do Carpenter Style flat pencils the same way. But these are all Stationery related. So, it may not be our obvious choices for retailers, but Art Supply stores really do have quite the output for tools we use and need for marking and layout. And yes, they often have their store’s imprint on those pencils, and it’s expected.
And I’m not joking when I say this is only the second time I’ve seen a Tool company, specifically tools as their specialty of manufacturing, not sales, imprint their name on a Shop Pencil. Lee Valley/Veritas was the first one I had ever seen, and I suppose that is another “To Be Expected” one. But these Rockler pencils are an extreme rarity to me.
Frankly… I’m a little shocked DeWALT, Woodpecker’s, Milwaukee, even Bosch, haven’t released Shop Pencils like this. Or maybe they did and it was such a quiet release that they’re just… out there and we overlook them? Milescraft, makers of lots of gadgets for power tools, is a good candidate for this, and yet I’ve never seen them release one either.
I wonder if this is an industry secret product line? All these companies we know of every day have secretly been imprinting, and releasing, their own Shop Pencils, and before now, they’ve gone without any fanfare or recognition? None of us are truly Omniscient, so it’s entirely possible we missed a lot of these amidst all the FlexVOLT and M18 level releases for tools, perhaps? I don’t know. I do feel rather naive about this. I feel like, if I owned a full-time, full-sized shop of some sort, I’d be more in tune with what shop pencils are out there. I only recently bought a set of Pica pencils for doing my Leatherwork, and that was in a special 15th anniversary pack with both HB Leads and Red, White, and Blue Leads. The Colours being perfect for marking on Leather.
This is rambling a little bit, but I do feel I’m just covering all the details, listing off all the places I should have seen more Shop Pencils from other tool brands, but didn’t. Stores do promotional ones all the time… Swag… Like Shirts and Hats… They have Pens and Shop Pencils made… Atlas Machinery in Toronto makes/has made for them, some of the most comfortable hats I’ve ever worn, I don’t think it would be difficult to find they have their own Shop Pencils too. This, I will definitely look into and report back.
*NOTE* Ontario, Canada issued a full Stay-At-Home order yesterday, April 8th, with massive fines for leaving your home unless you’re an essential worker. Though I could probably communicate with Atlas, it might be quite some time before their showroom or warehouse was open for their employees to check, should it be an old product they once had. This is true for every tool retailer, and restaurant as well. So, the search might take however long it takes to burn out some of the Covid variants that put us in this state of Emergency Shutdown. I apologize for the length of that note.