PRODUCT REVIEW
By PETER BRETT
WHEN it comes to everyday marking, I confess I most often make do with a carpenter’s pencil, and yes, it is sometimes stored behind my ear rather than in the neat little slip pockets provided in the holsters of my work trousers. The truth is, I am often just cutting bits of timber roughly to length ready for preparation, so I don’t need anything more sophisticated.
But I am always sure to bring along some other markers when I go on site – usually two or three different types – because you never know what materials you might come across and what level of accuracy will be required in the marking. Very often, any marker that improves accuracy is not only to be welcomed but embraced.
Introducing TRACER
Some readers will be familiar with the ACER markers reviewed in these pages some time ago. But in the tool trade, as in life, things change, so the new TRACER markers should be seen as an evolution and development of the originals.
As we can see on closer examination, the TRACER markers incorporate a lot of mini-improvements that are the result of consumer feedback and further development work by the Royd Tool Group team.
I would characterise the new TRACER markers as more grown-up and accomplished versions of the ACER
markers that makes them easier to use, more efficient and more versatile.
The new TRACER designs keep all the subtle bits of design that made the ACER version easy to use. For example, you still have the pimpled finger grips on the cases and the tiny, but important, barbed hook on the pocket clips that keeps them in the pocket when the pen is pulled out for use.
Different pens for different marks
The TRACER marker that I used the most was the deep hole pencil marker. It has the virtue of being a simple pencil marker as well as having the potential to mark through a hole up to 50mm deep, and a lot deeper if you are prepared to risk the lead and extend it by pressing the button on the top of the marker. For my common usage, a marking depth of 50mm is enough for marking through the thickness of most battens that I fix to walls.
But it is the subtleties of the design that add to the user-friendly qualities of the TRACER pencil and make it a go-to.
Firstly, the case has been made just fat enough to fit snugly into the slit pockets on the front of many designs of work trousers. The snugness of fit means that when you pull the pencil out, the case doesn’t come with it and makes the possibility of losing it as you clamber around on site that much less.
But if you are wearing the pencil in a shirt pocket with a case, the subtle dot design
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