Biss Product 77-579 Striker Mechanical Carpenter's Pencil

by Tools

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• ASIN: B000JYI21Q
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #98,434 in Home Improvement (See Top 100 in Home Improvement)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars not a rave review, but not all that bad, December 18, 2007

By 

Edward Scott "ewscott" (Utopia, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Biss Product 77-579 Striker Mechanical Carpenter's Pencil (Misc.)

OK this isn't an acuasation, but when there are 4 rave reviews for an item that as soon as you use it, you see the drawbacks, you have to check out the reviewers. Each of those four reviewers had only ONE review and it was of course of this product. Here's a review by a woodworker who reviews items all the time, some good, some bad... and the average ones get little attention from me other than in circumstances like this.

First, the good parts. The red case is easy to find. I have not yet broken the case, and since I drop things a lot, that's good. The colored leads make it possible to make a visible line on almost anything... if you happen to be carrying the appropriate lead with you. It's easy to load and easy to advance the lead when needed.

Next, the problems. The biggest one is, when you drop the pencil, the lead shatters into multiple short strips. Since it takes a strip of at least an inch or more to clasp properly, it definitely shortens the usefulness of each lead if it's in three or more pieces. Also once the lead is short, it tends to skew in the holder, so it's sometimes hard to see where it's going to mark if you're, say, trying to mark to the 16th of an inch on a framing square. If you don't work within a 16th of an inch that's fine, then...but it's a bit disconcerting to find you've marked a tight fit wrong and you have to redo it because it's too short or too long to fit.

Another small thing, it doesn't stay in my T-shirt pocket very well. It's too long for the clip to grab very much pocket and oops, you bend over and there's the lead shattered yet again.

Oh, and one more tiny problem is that the point is too blunt to be able to see the lead if you're marking something right in front of you. So you turn the pencil sideways so you can see the lead, but now you've got it on the flat side marking and you have to tilt it to get the corner of the lead (unless you sharpened it, which was the whole idea of getting this pencil in the first place, because you're not supposed to have to sharpen it.

I'll keep working with it because I bought 4 sets of refills and if I find some workarounds or ways to make it work better I'll update. I find dropping it into my jeans pocket is a good idea because it's safer there.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars not good for someone in construction, November 27, 2008

By 

Tommy Relf "tommy" (Rapid City,SD) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Biss Product 77-579 Striker Mechanical Carpenter's Pencil (Misc.)

I had puchased these for my crew and myself thinking it would save time from sharpening the standard carpenter pencil but in reallity they are a waste of time because the lead snaps off by the grooves used to hold it in the pencil and after some wear the lead will get stuck ing the pencil wasting my valuble time trying to get the leadout so save your money and just buy a regular carpenter pencil

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent lead, some loss of precision, February 13, 2007

By 

Vincent Mehringer - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Biss Product 77-579 Striker Mechanical Carpenter's Pencil (Misc.)

Good points:
- lead is very durable and does not wear down quickly
- grips securely without slipping
- easy to move lead down a notch as it is used

Bad point:
- the stepped plastic tip makes it more difficult to draw a line along a straightedge than if using a wooden pencil

Overall, I like the nice thick line and the durable lead. So far I haven't had the lead break! This will definitely have a place in my pocket for drawing long offset lines along a sheet of plywood and writing sizing info and instructions on cut lumber. But for short distances where a precise line is required, a well-sharpened pencil still wins out.