Mechanical Pencil options

[KMCloonan]

I received the request below from a potential customer who saw some of my 2mm mechanical pencils listed on Etsy. My pencils are the PSI 2mm kit, where the nib portion mimics an actual sharpened pencil.

"I was curious if you might be available for a custom mechanical pencil. A kind of semi-mimic of the classic Yellow #2 pencil. I would absolutely adore the kind of thick pencil body you have for you 2mm lead, but fit for 0.5mm.

I am uncertain if any of this would be possible or if you would even be interested, but I thought I would try. Thank you again for your time and I hope to hear from you! Wish you well and good health, bless."

Does anyone know of a mechanical pencil that uses the thinner lead (0.5mm) but mimics a real pencil? Conversely, is there a way to retrofit the PSI mechanism with a pentel or other thin lead mechanism?

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[Jarod888]

So my suggestion is to do a Pentel pencil. There are several tutorials. You can do either a .5 mm, a .7 mm or a .9 mm.

There are two methods of doing them.
The original is with the long step bit
The other is one done by don ward. I watched his demo at SWAT a few years ago, and I really like it because it uses a 7mm tube and the top "finial". Both methods have tutorials here on IAP.

You could get really fancy and do facets along the length, to mimic the hexagonal design of wooden pencils. For that matter, you could inlay a thin strip of black wood into some yellow heart or Osage orange and really mimic the old fashioned wooden pencil.

 

[egnald]

If you can find a ballpoint pen kit that uses a Parker style refill that meets the criteria, like maybe the Multifunction Tool Pen Kits, or the PSI Yellow one, Exotic Blanks sells a Schmidt DSM 2006 Pencil Mechanism in both 0.7mm and 0.5mm that replace a Parker style ink refill converting the pen into a mechanical pencil. I've used them with several kinds of kits, like the Sierra/Gatsby and Cigar styles. So far I haven't been able to get the 0.9mm one to work as a drop-in replacement, but the 0.7mm and 0.5mm do.

A twist mechanism will work, but a single action transmission is more intuitive than the double action transmissions and of course a click mechanism seems to work best.

Dave

PS Based on what I see available online, I think those PSI Multifunction Tool Pen Kits must be discontinued as there are not many nor many options available -- likely limited to whatever remains in stock.

 

[KMCloonan]

Thanks Patrick and Dave - I will explore those options.

Kevin