"D" is for Draftsman

Or "Draughtsman" for our British and Commonwealth friends, of course.

Yesterday I mentioned things that reach an evolutionary dead-end and get replaced by newer technology. A good example of that, one I’m familiar with, is drafting by hand; that is, the craft of making technical drawings with pen and pencil.

I don’t even really consider myself middle-aged, let alone old, but I’m old enough to have experienced some neat things from way back that aren’t around anymore.  Things like rotary dial phones, S&H Green Stamps and glass milk bottles with foil caps, delivered to my childhood doorstep.

I also worked in an old, honorable trade during its final days – hand drafting.

The engineering company I worked for converted fully to computer-aided drafting (CAD) when I was twenty-two (on IBM 286 PCs, heh heh). Before that, I made engineering drawings by hand, either on a heavy translucent cotton paper called vellum (not the real vellum made from sheep skin), or sheets of Mylar film.

I know how to use this and you don't.

 Hand drafting took skill. Drawing neat lines of a consistent width and connecting straight lines to curves smoothly so that one couldn’t tell where the line ended and the curve began were marks of a good draftsman.  Too much pressure with the erasing machine could rub the “tooth” off of Mylar or rub a hole clean through vellum.  Drafting pens had to be held a certain way and were delicate assemblages that had to be cleaned regularly.  Planning was required, as drawing elements couldn't be instantly rearranged like they can in CAD.

   

Of course, a good draftsman had to have good lettering. Mine wasn’t really up to snuff, and never got there before I transitioned to CAD. If a formal drawing needed text, I usually had to use a pantograph-type device called a “Leroy” set. My dad was a draftsman before moving to planning and design, and his lettering was something to behold. His drawings transcended mere conveyance of information and were a pleasure to look at. He was the one who taught me drafting, but six years of part-time work weren’t nearly enough for me to approach the level of his craft. (Side note: he also made me fill out my college application in engineering lettering for practice. Kind of a pain, but it had the intended effect, and to this day I’m still complimented on my printing, at least compared to other engineers.)

Hand drafting has no objective advantages over CAD, so its days are well and truly gone, and I don’t know of any hairshirt-wearing drafters calling for a return to our T-squares. But I love the memories and the tools of the trade and the trade names - Staedtler Mars pencil lead holders and erasers, Koh-i-Noor Rapidograph jewel-tipped technical pens, Keuffel & Esser vernier drafting machines, Dietzgen compasses, Borco self-healing drafting table covers and Higgins Speedball ink, along with planimeters, French curves, railroad curves, stainless steel multiple dividers, erasing machines, erasing shields, circle templates, lettering guides, engineer and artichoke (architect) scales, drafting tape, horsehair desk brushes, pounce, and fluorescent orange triangles.  Huh - come to think of it, some of those things were pretty long in the tooth when I used them thirty years ago.

So how about you? Did you ever have a vocation that went the way of typewriter repair? What were your favorite tools of the trade? ‘Fess up.

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