Remembering the old days of tracing paper and lead holders

Back in my first drafting job in 2002, I spent half my day sharpening my lead holder and taping down vellum. The whole office had that specific smell of graphite and eraser crumbs. We switched to full CAD around 2005, and while it's way faster, I still miss the feel of a good mechanical pencil on paper. Anyone else keep an old drafting table around just for sketching ideas?

3 comments

3 Comments

ward.piper1mo agoMost Upvoted

Actually it was vellum, not tracing paper. Vellum was the good stuff, that thick semi-transparent sheet. Tracing paper was too flimsy for real drafting.

nina_sullivan611mo ago

My old boss would get so mad if we mixed up vellum and tracing paper.

mason79810d ago

My neighbor's a retired architect, he used to rant about this exact thing. Called me a philistine once for calling it tracing paper. But come on, is it really that big of a deal? 99% of people can't even tell the difference unless you hold it up to the light. I've used both for wrapping gifts and they both work fine. Feels like a weird flex about knowing industry terms nobody cares about.

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