Comments on: Ruwe Pencil Co. 205 No. 7S pencil

By: MJ Bivouac

MJ Bivouac — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 01:17:59 +0000

I have a 1/2 gross of vintage Ruwe pencils, white in color, banded in groups of 12 pencils and all in their original display box. They are marked as 2 and 4/8ths instead of the usual No. 2 pencil. I am willing to sell these if anyone is interested. I’d prefer to sell the entire box rather than piecemeal them out, but any interested parties contact me at:
allegra11@mindspring.com
Photos are available.

By: LORNA

LORNA — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:28:03 +0000

My all-time favorite pencils were made by the Ruwe Pencil Company. A former free-lance employer who was getting rid of some old supplies gave me a box of them that had three dozen in it back in about 1984, and I’ve been doling them out to myself slowly since then. I’d love to know what makes them stand out and to learn whether someone makes their equivalent now.

Unfortunately, they bear no indicator of what type or hardness they are; they say only American Metal Market Forum in white letters on a red background. I’m guessing there would have been a standard type used for such promotional pieces.

I’d be grateful for any suggestions or thoughts. Thanks!

By: penciladmin

penciladmin — Mon, 25 May 2009 02:58:55 +0000

For anyone unaware, Bob is the force behind Brand Name Pencils.

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 24 May 2009 03:55:38 +0000

I was contacted today by a women interested in selling Ruwe pencils for use on Polyester Films…..anyone interested in connecting with this person let me know. I must charge one example of each since I do not have them on my site:-)

By: penciladmin

penciladmin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:12:34 +0000

Mark, thanks for leaving a comment. I definitely want to watch Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (the original!) after perusing your website.

I appreciate what you’re saying, though I’m surprised at the mention of easy erasure – I would imagine that a CAD program’s “undo” function would be an advantage.

Barrel, ‘S’, ‘N’, ‘K’, and other lead grades seem to exist in the polyester drafting film world. With a digit being part of the grade, 1S would be softer than 2S, and so on.

Just what do those letters mean? Maybe someone out there can tell us. Staedtler seems to have used both ‘K’ and ‘N’ for their specialty drafting film pencils.

By: Barrel Of A Pencil

Barrel Of A Pencil — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:48:22 +0000

What on earth does the ‘S’ stand for? We see variants of ‘B’, ‘HB’, ‘F’, and ‘H’ all the time, sometimes even variants of ‘E’ in the pencil companies’ grading systems, but ‘S’?

By: mark nelson

mark nelson — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:22:17 +0000

Well you’ve found another hand drafting architect; I’m in Colorado Springs. I have 2 drafters who help me and we still do it all by hand–the drawings are just done more carefully I feel, the drawings just look better, and I can quickly erase and re draw things as needed. I use a mechanical drafting lead holder with sanford Turquoise no. 2H leads on mylar for schematics and renderings, and on 1000h vellum for construction drawings.

By: penciladmin

penciladmin — Sat, 31 May 2008 22:04:44 +0000

Good detective work! Those are some interesting pencils.

By: Guest

Guest — Thu, 29 May 2008 04:48:44 +0000

The Staedtler Mars Dynagraph pencils are still listed at Lowell Blueprint Inc.'s website. It's quite possible that the Turquoise Filmograph pencil is still in production (and sold NOS at Genesis Art Supplies and The Complete Line), although this is only from limited deduction, as it is still listed off to the side on Prismacolor's website. Both appear to be a proper plastic or polymer lead (at least from what I can see out and about leadholder.com and search engine queries). Best of luck in your search.

By: penciladmin

penciladmin — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:43:16 +0000

Rick, your comment has remained on my mind.

It is quite fascinating to learn that you are one of the last architects to use woodcase pencils. I think there is a great story here waiting to be told.

I don’t know what sort of budget you may have, or if you are aware of other firms that need this pencil type, but it might be possible to get one of the smaller pencil companies to do a special run for you.

By: penciladmin

penciladmin — Tue, 27 May 2008 11:02:07 +0000

Rick, sorry to hear about this situation.

Staedtler once made the Duralar and Dynagraph pencils – is any pencil currently made specifically for use on drafting film?

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:46:45 +0000

Is there anybody out there that can help me out? My office is one of the few architects who still draft by hand. We prefer to use mylar sheets for drafting and it seems that wood pencils with plastic lead such as the RUWE noted above have become extinct. We still have some of the RUWE pencils and 3S seem to work best and we have used many others over the years. Any suggestions on manufacturers or suppliers?