Adam Savage's Favorite Tools: Pica Marker

Adam puts a spotlight on one of his favorite shop tools, the Pica pen. While he has hundreds of markers in the cave, this particular marker stands out for having a tiny point that can fit into corners and holes. It's extremely satisfying to use for tracing and marking up projects--you may have seen it in previous One Day Builds!

Shot and edited by Norman Chan

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[tested]

Disclaimer: Tested may earn an affiliate commission when you buy through the links here.

[dfcprops]

These videos on Adam's favorite new tools or storage systems or just talking about past projects is super fascinating. Please continue these short videos just talking about tools and your new improvements to the shop. They're inspiring and make me want to invest in my tool collection.

[RuneInternational]

The pica pencil with the green holder is my favorite, as it can go about 7” with the lead fully extended. It even come with a pack of multicolor inserts.

[itsjustme]

FYI These are available in several different brands. I've had ones from the brand Lyra for years and Artline and Edding also makes them, plus I've seen them in various brands I don't even remember. I've always bought mine in wood ware shops. Not saying that anyone is better than the other, just that you can find them both cheaper and more expensive if you google them. They're usually called long nib pens or carpenter pen.

[TomOConnor-BlobOpera]

If you like fine-tips, try Rotring. I've never seen a line so fine. Perfect for pen design work.

[prestonpeters]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned it (I’m not going to scroll through 420 comments to find out) but FastCap makes these in Silver, Gold and Black and I’m pretty sure the barrels are a little longer. They also have a chisel tip on the opposite end. They are called “Long Nose” and they also now have a “Thin Black” version for the times you need an even more precise outline. I have the original three colors and they are amazing. I used them for tracing out my tools for Kaizen Foam.

[samesong]

Been using these for years...

You should try their pencil - it's awesome. Especially with the latest version where they relocated the sharpener...

[thefrancophilereader]

Seeing you sniff that sharpie made me recoil in horror. So now we know where Adam’s energy comes from 😂

[linusroekaerts]

In Belgium, every tradesman uses these. Carrying and using this marker is super easy when you have the holster in your work pants, it's one hand use

[TERRAOperativeOriginal]

As an electrician, these pens are fantastic for marking locations of deep screw holes for attaching equipment and parts to other stuff.

[StephanieLondon]

i agree a beautifully designed pen i must find them for myself as a DIYer and make all of my own patterns for every type of materials

[MidnightFMs]

There's also a graphite version of this pen, with more colors! it's called PICA-dry 3030 (It also has a built in sharpener)

[johanlarsson]

Have had a green pica pen since 2012.. it is still my favorite.

[Frangus_]

I use Pica Dry pencils for my woodworking job and love it. Got so bored of sharpening a pencil and found out about Pica thru Tested

[elliotfinch]

I bought a handful of these a couple of years a go after watching a tested video (maybe a one day build?) and they're honestly so handy, i keep one in various places that i may need one and even gave one to my dad and granddad who both had positive feed back! Definitely worth investing in

[monkeypandatank]

I highly suggest investing in a Rotring mechanical pencil. I have an 800 .5mm and love it. They feel great in the hand, will probably last a lifetime, and aren’t too expensive. I think they’re around $25 and lead refills are fairly cheap.

They were originally designed for technical drawing and the brass feed tube for the lead is relatively long and very thin which helps get close to the edges of objects for transferring.

[prottentogo]

Tieflochmarker. German at it's finest. ;-)

[imghostly]

The amount of pens I have is crazy time to go get these too

[CraftsWithEllen]

I love my Pica pencil! It draws on wood, metal, and whatever else you need :)

[DerZayc]

As a German I just red "Tieflochmarkers"... did some research and... Bin stolz auf ein gutes deutsches produkt!