wrote in message
...

An ordinary pencil with the same tip shape has a stronger 'lead' as wood is stronger
than graphite.

You can't get ordinary pencils with the same tip shape as a carpenter's pencil.
That's the whole point(NPI). Next off, you'll be claiming you can get pencils
with the same tip shape as a tailor's chalk. (Triangular pieces of chalk with
three sharp edges)

The lead in a carpenters pencil is oblong like the shaft of a miniature chisel,
and as with chisels and tailors chalks its sharpened to an edge, not a point.

How you keep the edge sharp is another matter. Possibly as with chisels
you can create two angles. A shallow "grinding" angle created when you pare
away the wood and a more acute "honing" angle which is topped up by regularly
rubbing the two sides on a stone as you go.

As with tailors chalks drawing lines with a chisel edge rather than with a point
presumably has advantages which aren't immediately obvious. In the case
of the former, it can't be wear as you'd imagine they'd wear out quicker.

Maybe both were in regular use before pencil sharpeners became
widely available and haven't been bettered.


michael adams

....