Eagle #314 Draughting Pencil

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I'm asking this question not out of need, but just out of curiosity. What would be an equivalent to an Eagle #314 draughting pencil?

 

I've been going through How to Draw What You See, by Rudy De Reyna, trying to get better at drawing what I see. At one point, in a chapter on light and shade, he suggests getting a pack of Eagle #314 draughting (drafting) pencils. The book was first published in 1970, and although the instruction is timeless, some of its assumptions are dated. For example, he says that if there are no stores in your town that carry artist's supplies, then any pencil with a soft dark lead will do. Shopping pre-Internet, those were the days.

 

I'll add that he suggests getting a mail order catalog from the art supply store in the large city nearest you.

 

I have plenty of good pencils for the purpose, such as a number of Tombow and Mitsubishi 2B wood pencils, and some darker grades than that. For mechanical pencils I have .5 mm refills in 4B, and .7 and .9 mm in 2B. Still, I'm curious what the equivalent of an Eagle #314 would be. That particular kind seems no longer to be available. I see that there is a General's G314 draughting pencil available. Not sure what the lead grade is, but it looks like a thick soft one.

 

Any ideas? What is actually closest to what an Eagle #314 would have been?

Edited December 8, 2019 by ISW_Kaputnik

[Honeybadgers]

from what I understand it's somewhere between 4b and 8b. Just a super dark, smooth lead.

 

The core is 3mm. You could grab a 3mm lead holder and some 4b-8B lead.

Edited December 8, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[Studio97]

The Eagle 314 is vintage. Usually found on Ebay 40 to 50 dollars a dozen. They have a serious large lead which helps to create the "old time" style of sketches when making bold mark's. I have about a dozen of them.

Edited December 12, 2019 by Studio97

[smoky]

You can check the comments of a now eleven year old post at my blog:

 

http://www.penciltalk.org/2008/04/eagle-draughting-pencil

 

The consensus is that the Eagle 314's formula has not been replicated.

[Honeybadgers]

Maybe I'd have to try one, but I've used a lot of 8B leads, and I have never really thought of any as dramatically better than the others. I can tell the difference in erasers, but not so much graphites (beyond the obvious differences in hardness)

 

But then again there's that one japanese brand of chalk that got discontinued and all the ultra high level math professors in the world immediately bought the rest of the world's supply.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhNUjg9X4g8

 

The one thing I can say unequivocally is that lead holders feel pretty superior to mechanical pencils in my mind. The toughness of the leads and resistance to snapping really does let you vary pressure in ways that remind me a lot of fountain pens. I love my rotrings and pentel kerry, but I'm kind of a convert to lead holders now.

Edited December 27, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[ISW_Kaputnik]

Update on this. I found a dozen NOS Eagle 314s on eBay for $51.85 shipped. That's about $4.32 per pencil, which is pushing my tolerance for wooden pencils, but I decided to get myself a present and try them. For comparison, I also got a couple of General G314 draughting pencils from Amazon at $5.69 for the pair. And I already had some Mitsubishi Uni 6Bs and 8Bs.

 

Although my drawing skills probably don't warrant getting a lot more expensive equipment, the Eagles are very nice to use, very smooth, a bit less dark than the Mitsubishis in the grades mentioned. I've already sharpened the first one several times, and expect I will use them up eventually. They definitely feel smoother than the General G314s.

 

I could see getting more of the Eagles if I ran into a good enough bargain. Currently when I search for them on eBay, I find one person selling three used ones (one of them about half gone), for over $15 shipped. And then there is someone selling Eagle 514s, which he says have the same lead but a hexagonal body, for $37 each. Neither is tempting.

 

I do have some 2 mm lead holders, with leads from 4H to 4B, but haven't been using them much. Maybe I should try them again.

[Grayspoole]

Thanks for the updates and the link to the Penciltalk blog, which is now bookmarked.

 

I appreciate pencils as well as pens.

[Estycollector]

Update on this. I found a dozen NOS Eagle 314s on eBay for $51.85 shipped. That's about $4.32 per pencil, which is pushing my tolerance for wooden pencils, but I decided to get myself a present and try them. For comparison, I also got a couple of General G314 draughting pencils from Amazon at $5.69 for the pair. And I already had some Mitsubishi Uni 6Bs and 8Bs.

 

Although my drawing skills probably don't warrant getting a lot more expensive equipment, the Eagles are very nice to use, very smooth, a bit less dark than the Mitsubishis in the grades mentioned. I've already sharpened the first one several times, and expect I will use them up eventually. They definitely feel smoother than the General G314s.

 

I could see getting more of the Eagles if I ran into a good enough bargain. Currently when I search for them on eBay, I find one person selling three used ones (one of them about half gone), for over $15 shipped. And then there is someone selling Eagle 514s, which he says have the same lead but a hexagonal body, for $37 each. Neither is tempting.

 

I do have some 2 mm lead holders, with leads from 4H to 4B, but haven't been using them much. Maybe I should try them again.

 

I am considering a decent inexpensive hand held sharpener. What would you recommend? KUM looks to make a nice one.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

 

I am considering a decent inexpensive hand held sharpener. What would you recommend? KUM looks to make a nice one.

 

Others may have better suggestions. But I suspect that the Kum model you're thinking of is this one. I like mine fairly well. The clear plastic lid doesn't have a hinge or pivot but just bends back and forth, and is likely to break eventually. Mine is partly held on with electrical tape now. It sharpens well, though, although I seem to have to exercise more care with soft leads than hard ones.

 

At home I generally prefer this Uni sharpener. It's not handheld in the sense that I think you mean, but because it has a clamp that holds the pencil in place, it doesn't need to be permanently mounted and can be used in any room where you're working.

 

The Jet Pens links are to show the exact products I mean. You can buy them at different sellers, and I'm not endorsing one over another.