No lead in my pencil - Compass Question

[Flitch]

Hey Guys,
I broke out my old geometry set and came across this very nice old compass I have had for years. My problem is that I can't find anything lead like that won't pivot when I draw an arc:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2339/2099028793_3fdc5a08a0.jpg?v=0

http://flickr.com/photos/kootenayman/2099028793/in/set-72157602329819251/

I have tried various sizes of graphite and charcoal in the clamp and given the design, nothing will hold as I draw an arc. The piece of lead simply pivots sideways out of the clamp. I have a buddy who says it's simply a scribe but I don't buy that. It must hold something! Does anyone have the solution for me?

Flitch

[Jim Ledger]

That's a compass for India ink. The doubled points, dipped into a bottle of ink, worked like a nib pen, retaining a small quantity of ink and releasing it in a line as the point is drawn across the paper.

[Flitch]

Cool... Thanks Jim. I'll buy a bottle of india ink this week and give it a try.

Flitch

[kc8pql]

Yep, it's part of an inking set.

[Roger Cumming]

You don't dip it into the ink. You put a drop or two between the two knife surfaces, adjust the width with the thumbturn and then draw. If you wait too long after you put the ink in it clogs and you have to do it over again. You need a damp cloth to clean between the edges each time you refill it with ink. It sounds harder than it is, but it's how you made an ink mechanical drawing before rapidograph pens were invented. Now even rapidographs are receding from memory.

[David G]

Keep in mind that only the boldest or most reckless draftsman would start with ink. The usual procedure was to draft in hard pencil, erase and redo as necessary, and then use the pencil version as a guide to ink the final version - using the compass you show to vary the line weights (thicknesses).

Given the easy access to reprographic equipment (xerox), inking died out. Now the original penciled vellums are copied for a final version, then modified if changes are made mid-project. These mods are much easier to do to a pencil document than an inked one. Then the drawings are sometimes modified again to provide an "as built" record of the final constructed version. Pretty unwieldy with inked drawings.

You'd probably be better off spending $10 - 30 at the local engineering supplies store and getting a compass that'll hold a pencil lead, mechanical pencil, etc.

[mmd]

Easier, yes; but the art of pen & ink requires its pound of flesh from its acolytes!

Back in the early days of my career I did pen & ink drawings (sorry, I'm not that old - I used Rapidograph pens on mylar) and we did the "base"drawing in turquoise lead - sorta like a coloured pencil - and then inked over that. The turquoise lines aren't picked up in the diazo blueprint-making process, so there was no "ghosting"of the under-drawings on the final print.

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

.
Ordinary ink pens for drafting used similar fittings as that compass too, sliding into a bakelite handle. They were straight rather than curved, and they came in a few different sizes, but each was adjustable for line thickness by the little knurled nut. Every so often you would touch up the points on the sand-paper block you kept for sharpening pencils.

For years at the start of my career we produced our drawings in pencil on Whatman paper, then inked over them when finished, ruubbing out the pencil after the ink dried.

As an alternative to this process, to keep a more durable record we traced over the pencil onto a sheet of waxed linen -- and later on, on to plastic. The linens would last forever, although the plastic sheets were prone to damage.

A piece of that linen, washed and washed and washed to get rid of all the wax, made a wonderful, almost-everlasting rag for cleaning the nibs of drawing pens, and every draftsman had one hanging from his drawing-table on a piece of tape just for that purpose.

By the time Rapidographs came along I'd pretty-well stopped drafting. But they made great pens for writing with and I still have some, along with three slide rules I no longer use either.... Ho hum, tempus mutandis.

Mike

[Mac Mackay]

That compass is beauty - learn to use it well and you will have sense of real accomplishment - particularly when you can develop a compound curve made up of several radii.
There is a lot to be said for the hand/eye co-ordination needed to produce a fair curve with no blobs or bumps in it, and to keep more of the ink on the paper than yourself.
You need special ink to draw on mylar versus paper so be sure you get the right kind!
I learned to draw with this gear, and on paper. No mylar, no rapidograph, no circle template and no CAD pogram (no matter how fast or accurate) gives the same feel.