Pencil and Eraser combo for leather

C

Chris 54326

Joined
Sep 13, 2017
Messages
257
As a newbie, I've been having to ask lots of questions of you more experienced folks. One of those was how to mark leather for cutting and design work. Some mentioned softly marking lines with a scribe, tracing tool or the like. I have trouble seeing lines marked that way and went in the direction of pencils....................only then I had to ask what kind of eraser to use to remove the pencil lines. None of the suggestions I was given worked for me. (I have no doubt they worked for many who suggested them..........just not for me) Anyway, I thought I'd share what I've come up with and am very happy to have found.

I found a KOH-I-NOOR pencil called "KOH-IN-ALL". It's a #1555. Works on multiple surfaces. Used softly so as not to indent the leather, it still produces a dark line I find easy to follow. But I was hesitant to use it because removing it from the leather was very difficult. Tried every eraser I could find. Used every fluid chemical I could find with no luck. Finally my little wife, who is an artist, suggested I try one of her erasers and it worked perfectly, leaving absolutely no pencil residue behind on the leather's surface. It's a TOMBOW brand Plastic Eraser called a MONO. She also had a Staedtler Plastic Eraser I tried that worked fine, so I'm sure any Plastic Eraser would work as well, so brand and name are unimportant. Anyway the combination of this pencil and eraser are a great solution to one of my "newbie" problems. Just had to share.

Edit:
I've had this pencil for so long I don't even know where I got it. Wanted to provide a link so folks who might be interested would know where to get one. Turns out it's considered an antique and is "collectable"!!! "No longer available". :( I've contacted several Artist's supply houses to see if anyone makes a pencil that replaces the one I have. I'll post that info as soon as I can find it.
 
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Okay, here's the update on the pencil. Took a lot of research and emails back and forth from companies and even some of the companies archivists. (no kidding!)

Anyway, the pencil from KOH-I-NOOR was discontinued in 1990. The only pencil that "might" replace it would be The Stabilo All from (of course) Stabilo Pencils. https://www.stabilo.com/com/products/writing/graphite-pencils/stabilo-all/
I'm not presently in the market for a pencil, but will keep this info for the future. If any of you purchase the Stabilo All, I'd appreciate hearing your comments.

Hope this helps someone.
 
Hi C Chris 54326 , any idea which of the Tombow erasers you used? Amazon has several and I'd rather order the right one. I found the Stabilo pencil on amazon as well, $ 5.65 for one pencil. I'm sure I can find it for less at an art supply store locally but things being as they are in SoCal and work taking up the little spare time I thought I had, I will order it on amazon and get back here after trying it. Amazon shows a delivery date of 01.05.21 soooo....we'll see.
 
Yes, the Tombow eraser was marked "Plastic Eraser" on the wrapper. Glad to know you can buy one pencil. I'd gladly pay $5.65 for one. I'll put it on my "Add to Amazon orders" list. I do that to up the total price when I'm short of being able to get free shipping. :D
 
Yeppers, that's the one I bought. I'm probably going to get a black pencil for my leather work and a white one for my forge work.
 
Great! Be sure and come back and comment so we'll all know. I just hope the Stabilo All is the same as my KOH-IN-ALL. Sure has put that concern behind me!
 
I received my pencil and eraser! On veg. tan it shows fairly well and the eraser works like a charm. I pressed very lightly on the pencil but there was enough for these old eyes to see the marks. I'll post the pictures as soon as I figure out this thing.
 
Water soluble graphite is fascinating! I found it a couple years ago in an art pack. Mine are solid woodless pencils, I'm glad to see these smaller lead wood pencils! Fantastic thread!
 
As promised, though it took a while.
Before
20210112-103104.jpg

And after
20210112-103157.jpg
 
Thanks for the follow-up. I don't press anywhere near hard enough with a pencil to leave an impression, so I'm really tickled to see that even then, the eraser was still able to remove the mark. But I will also say the new pencil doesn't leave a mark anywhere nearly as dark as the one I have.
 
Chris 54326 said:
Thanks for the follow-up. I don't press anywhere near hard enough with a pencil to leave an impression, so I'm really tickled to see that even then, the eraser was still able to remove the mark. But I will also say the new pencil doesn't leave a mark anywhere nearly as dark as the one I have.
Click to expand...
I was reading about graphite drawing pencils and it would seem the 4B ones are the softer ones up to 9B which is apparently too soft and crumbly to be practical. I will order a few 4B pencils to try out, they are definitely more cost effective, $ 9.00 or so per dozen. It will take me a little while to order and test them, work is keeping us hopping with the expected rise in Covid cases after the holidays - I really hope the predictions are wrong but I don't think they are.
 
Here we go. I ordered a mechanical pencil and a pack of 4B graphite leads (these are 2mm leads and I couldn't find 6B which I wanted to try) All in all about $23 with amazon prime. I really like it, the lines are very clear and dark and the eraser performs flawlessly.
20210123-145350.jpg

And after
20210123-145411.jpg
 
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