Appreciation post: a 1940s drafting manual I found at a yard sale had a tip about pencil hardness I never knew

I picked up this old 'Mechanical Drawing' book for a dollar last weekend, and it said draftsmen back then used a 9H pencil for the absolute finest layout lines on vellum. I always thought 4H was as hard as anyone would ever need for clean work. Has anyone else run across old-school techniques like that which actually still work well?

2 comments

2 Comments

parker_foster536d ago

Wow, did it say what paper weight that worked on without tearing?

garcia.charles6d ago

No kidding, I found a 60s lettering guide that said the same thing about using crazy hard leads! @parker_foster53, it was on super thick stuff, almost like card stock. Those old methods are surprisingly solid.