Liquid Lead Pencils Revisited

In most cases, a Forensic Document Examiner has little trouble differentiating between the stroke made by a pencil and one made by a rollerball pen or a ballpoint pen. The liquid lead pencil, however, presents a more challenging stroke appearance which is a hybrid of the fluid ink of a rollerball pen and the striations of a ballpoint pen. This study will compare characteristics of the stroke lines of liquid lead pencils, graphite pencils, ballpoint pens, rollerball pens and gel pens, on original and photocopied documents. Forensic Document Examiners should be aware of the stroke characteristics of a liquid lead pencil when making a determination as to the writing instrument used on a document.