Leadholder

Wow, this site brought back a lot of memories! The days of laboring over a drafting table and parallel bar, sharpening the lead after every few letters or lines, dipping the tip in that dirty foam thing to get the excess off the tip, switching between leadholders or changing out the lead to go from 2H to 2B to HB and back again. Today's reliance on computers for drafting means the mouse has replaced the leadholder, but at leadholder.com: The Drafting Pencil Museum, it's alive and well. This slightly obsessive page features just about every leadholder, drafting pencil, lead pointer and lead box ever made, as well as historical documents and advertisements, a history of the leadholder and descriptions of its mechanics. Who ever thought a site on this topic would exist, much less be so thorough? If you've ever used one, you need to check it out.

I found some of my old college gear, most of which I still have but haven't picked up in years.


From top to bottom: Staedtler Mars Lumograph 200 holder, Staedtler Mars Lumograph 200 - plastic roll top box, Alvin "Tech" Da De-Lux leadholder, Koh-I-Noor Select-O-Matic II 5614 (with adjustable lead softness indicator!), Staedtler Mars Lumograph 100, and (left to right) Staedtler Lead Pointer 502 & Teledyne Post lead pointer.

(via Design Observer)