Carpenter's pencil

So when you put it down it doesn't roll away?

AAA - Doesn't roll away when put down BBB - Can be sharpened with a chisel to produce a long 'line' with a narrow 'edge' for marking wood. {BTW; one can purchase 'carpenters' pencil -sharpeners - rather a weird 'eccentric' action - but it produces a nice result}

You sharpen it to a chisel edge, and this allows more finer lines to be drawn be drawn before resharpening.

Sharpened down to a flat 'chisel' edge, they give a fine line when marking out. The chisel edge also seems to be reasonably long-lasting.

Or on the edge of an angle grinder..;-)

LOL! I use a bench-mounded belt sander. I'm really intrigued by the "mechanical" sharpener though....

It's just like an ordinary pencil sharpener but has a rotating ring that the pencil fits into. It produces a normal round point, though, so rather wasteful compared to traditional methods - ie a good sharp chisel.

Also better IMO for marking sawn timber - thicker lead doesn't snap so often.

In message , Newshound writes

Maplin (Bleurgh!) are currently selling sets of carpenters pencils with a rotary sharpener. It's like an ordinary sharpener but with a rectangular guide that rotates. It seems to work unlike most of Maplins stuff.

Yup. But twice the price of the identical article at my local Sunday market.

I've not had a problem with Maplin selling rubbish though. They're just a tad expensive.