Showerthought: an old framer told me my cuts were fine but my pencil was the problem

Charlie Adams · 2026-10-20T12:25:04.481915+00:00

Back in my early days framing houses in Fort Worth, I was always rushing to mark boards with whatever stub of a pencil was in my pouch, and my cuts were off by a good 1/8 inch half the time. An old guy named Merle watched me for a bit and told me the saw wasn't the issue, my mark was, because I was dragging a fat dull pencil across the grain instead of a sharp one. I switched to a utility knife for my marks and kept a sharpener on my belt, and my fit got way tighter without me touching the saw at all. Funny how something that small sticks with you for 20 years, and now I get twitchy watching the young guys on my crew use a chewed up pencil. What's the one small habit from an old timer that quietly fixed something for you?

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Showerthought: an old framer told me my cuts were fine but my pencil was the problem | Carpenters - Rigidtalk