I've never used anything else in my shop... I'm sure there is something better, but I am stuck in my ways. The great thing about a lead holder is that it can write on anythi...
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When I was in college 30 years ago I discovered that Koh-I-Noor mechanical pencils also worked well as roach clips.
I'm a huge fan of the Staedtler leadholders. I tend to bear down pretty hard, and the large diameter leads are great. Used in the shop, on the road, and in the right seat of the rally car....
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Staedtler Website
I'm a huge fan of the Staedtler leadholders. I tend to bear down pretty hard, and the large diameter leads are great. Used in the shop, on the road, and in the right seat of the rally car....
![]()
Staedtler Website
These look smaller dia. than the OP items.
Are they?
and in the right seat of the rally car....

Another thing that I didn't know existed, that I now feel I must have.
I'm a huge fan of the Staedtler leadholders. I tend to bear down pretty hard, and the large diameter leads are great. Used in the shop, on the road, and in the right seat of the rally car....
![]()
Staedtler Website
Another thing that I didn't know existed, that I now feel I must have.
The website shows them as being 2 mm, and the OPs is 5.5 mm. Quite a bit smaller, but I've used them and they are quite hard to break. I would imagine 5.5 mm would be pretty impossible to break unless you were trying.
I had difficulty finding the 2.0mm in the US, but found someone in asia selling them on ebay. I got a softer (less brittle) lead for it, and it's great for shop use!! They also make a little sharpener that works well for the 2.0mm leads.
This is what we draftsmen (drafter is the PC term) used in the pre-CADD days in the architecture firms I've worked for
http://leadholder.com/
Another thing that I didn't know existed, that I now feel I must have.
