This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Hello, everybody, and welcome to episode four of the Erasable Podcast. I am Andy Welfle, the editor of woodclinch.com and joining me are Tim Wasem of the Writing Arsenal and Johnny Gamber of Pencil Revolution. Hello, comrades.
Greetings.
Good evening, good evening, good evening. You are both looking lovely today. Hey, thanks, Johnny. I like the new hat.
I feel lovely.
It's a joke because we can't see each other because this is audio.
I'm naked right now, actually.
Yes. Nobody wears pants when they record podcasts.
I don't think it works.
I'm sure Brad doesn't.
Yeah, I don't think it works if you wear pants.
All right, we have a lot to cover today. I think all of us have some good kind of fresh points to touch on, and then we'll get into the meat of our conversation, which is about collecting pencils. We have some. Some interesting conversation and resources for you. So we have. Man, we've had a lot of feedback on Twitter, on Instagram, and all sorts of things. I don't know. I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty impressed with our purchasing power.
Yeah, for real. It's hard to keep up with, like, see, it's always exciting when people, like, reach out and say, I got this. You know, I really enjoy it. And they'll tell you a little bit about it or say it. And every once in a while you get. People are saying, I tried this out and I don't like it at all. Which is great also, because at least they're like, they're trying.
They tried it.
What should I try instead? You know? Yeah, it's really cool.
It's great. It's. Ever since I've sort of been in touch a little bit more with members of the fountain pen community through you, Tim, and through some of the pen addict people. It's really interesting to see people just really get their interest piqued and then go out and buy a sampler pack or something like that and then try it out and get in touch with us about it.
For real.
It's really cool. So, yeah, maybe we should run through some of our fresh points and then get onto the meat of the topics.
So.
So, Tim, why don't we lead in with your fresh points?
Sounds good. First thing I want to talk about, and I swear this is the last time I'm going to bring it up because we've talked about it on every episode, I think maybe not the first one, but we've talked about it several times, which is the New field notes, Shelterwood, which I think things are sort of coming out over time where everybody's really high on it at the beginning, saying, this is the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Just look at it. It's beautiful. And some people are saying, well, no, it's not really that practical. I know, Johnny, you're having some issues with it. You're saying, it's not like that usable in some ways. Use it. So I was just gonna give my thoughts on that, and I came away with it. I'm working on a review for the writing arsenal, and I came up with four main points about the Shelterwood notebook. And the first one, they thought, you know, field notes are pocket notebooks. That's what they're aimed to be. Or that's what they've been aimed to be as people think of them as. And I really come to the conclusion that Shelterwood is not one of those. Just to start, it's not a good pocket notebook. But I do think it's a great notebook. I don't want to shove it in my pocket, but I really love it. And, I mean, the other main thing I realized about it is that the Shelterwood is meant. In my opinion, it is the perfect notebook for a notebook cover. Like, I have a Davis Leatherworks simple cover, which, if you haven't checked out Davis Leatherworks, there are some really great field notes covers that are pretty cheap, and they're leather. They just have, like, a rubber band sort of contraption that keeps it closed. And it's just called his simple cover. I think they run, like, 18 bucks. They're really affordable. And I love mine. I mean, and he makes in several different colors. So I've been carrying a shelter wood in my simple cover, and I've just loved it. It fits perfectly. It's also great because the color from the leather kind of works its way into the COVID The shelter wood, which is really nice.
That's cool. Kind of tames a little bit, basically.
Yeah. Yeah. Which is really, really great. And of course, the paper. The more I've used it, because I never got to use. Is it America the beautiful, America the beauty. I never got to use that one. I really wanted to, but just never got around to it. But the paper is. It's just great. It's perfect. I really. I think I would use it. Even though some of, like, the other little issues I've had with Shelterwood, I would still use this for as long as I could get them for the paper. I like the color of it. It's got that, I guess, or like a creamy tinge to it, which is really nice. And I can use basically any pencil and don't tell anybody, but my wettest fountain pens have been doing just fine. Yeah, sometimes I just do it just to. So it's sort of like a sadistic thing. Like, I wonder what it would feel like with a pen.
You can edit your notebook,
but I've been using it. I really love it. The last point about it, as far as how I use it is I cannot use it as a catch all pocket notebook. What I would call a brain dump. Like where you just throw your thoughts into it. You just get down everything. It has to have a purpose. And I don't know why that is. I think it's just like I. Through the video and just thinking, they're so gorgeous. I have this respect for the notebook that I can't beat it up and I can't torture it.
Yeah. So what do you use it for?
I use it for. I always. In my bag, I carry a dome paper. Who's that? Topo Designs briefcase. If you ever see the done paper. Did that collaboration with Topo Designs and made a mountain briefcase. And I got that for Christmas this year. So I always carry in that one lined pocket notebook, like that size that I use for my terrible short stories and any sort of creative writing that I do. I just like that size because I'm always on the move and I'm always busy. So it's not always realistic for me if I have an idea to pull out these huge notebooks that I use like at home. So that's what I've been using it for. Using it to like draft stories and poems and even like dabble in songwriting stuff a little bit. It's just perfect for that. That just feels right in there.
That's awesome. Yeah. So it's interesting. You talk about, you know, Shelter woods, kind of the honeymoon phase is kind of ending and people are getting into it. I was at a restaurant in Louisville over the weekend, well, last weekend, and I put it on Instagram. But they have a menu cover at the Silver Dollar, which is this bar that is kind of. I really examined it closely and it seems like it's really, really similar to the way that the Shelter Wood is constructed. It has a kind of a. Their substrate. Their craft paper in the back is a little bit thicker, but it's. It's definitely like shaved wood grain that's on the front cover. And these are menus and these are things that are used hard Every day. And I kind of think I can see the future of the notebook a little bit of the shelter wood, just because in some parts, I mean, it still looked really good, but in some parts, you could really see the wood kind of peeling and curling up from the substrate. So that was. That was something that was interesting because nobody, like they said in the shelterwind description, nobody really knows. Nobody's really done anything with this big of a run before. So I guess they haven't really aged it super well. I guess I wouldn't think so. Yeah, this menu still looked really good, but I could definitely kind of see. I was looking at it and I was like, I wonder if this is going to be the future of the shelter woods five, ten years down the line.
Yeah. Yeah, that's true. When I was first using it, I was actually putting it in my pocket, trying to carry it around. And I don't know if you all have noticed this, but when you wear it down or you keep it in your back pocket and sit on it and things like that. Have you had any splintering? Yeah, along the spine. Yeah, I've had two different points where it started splintering. And then I just kept it in my cover and kept it in my. In my bag, keeping it safe.
Mine's, like, full of pocket fuzzies. But, I mean, I like when field dust get beat up, so that's okay.
Yeah, yeah, me too. I mean, I just. With this one. And it's funny that I have so many critiques about it, but I still am just in love with it. I'm trying not to be too much of a, you know, ride the hype too much and say, oh, it's great. Because everybody's saying it's great. I mean. I mean, I really love it. I mean, especially the paper really gets. Really does it for me. So I've just really enjoyed it. Even, like corks and all. And I shouldn't even call it a cork because it's more. I've just found a purpose for it, I guess that it fits really nicely into.
That's cool.
The other point, my other fresh point for the week or the episode is I guess I should start it like, hi, my name is Tim. And then you all say, hi, Tim. I say, I am a pencil snob. This is something I've realized. I am not just addicted, but I am just a definite pencil snob. And that's really gotten bad with my newest pencil that I got in the mail last week, which was the Tombow mono 100. When I got It. It's just a fantastic pencil, and it sharpened really well. I actually was going to visit my advisor. I'm getting my master's degree. I was going to visit my advisor. And I was sitting in the car, and it was like, the first hot day of the year. It was probably 80 degrees outside, which felt like 180 degrees. But I was sitting in my car with the sharpener Johnny had sent sharpening one, because I just picked it up at the post office, sharpening it out the window, and just, like, had to try it. And I've just loved it. And it's. I've. At least right now I'm going through a phase where I'm having trouble using the more, like, humble pencils that I used to enjoy more. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. You know, which I'm sure will pass because I always. Everything always cycles back. But I can't stop using mono 100, the Blackwing, which I know is still. It's snobby. And I think I had a Twitter interaction with Johnny about this, but I felt like a snob. But at the same time, I had a realization that the most expensive pencil I own cost less than a gallon of gas. Oh, yeah.
I mean, that's one of the beauties of having pencils.
Yes. Because the model. The Model 1, hundreds, I think they retail at $28 a dozen. And I was able to get it, I think it was for 20, but it was freight from Japan, so it took like, two and a half weeks to come. And then I had a gift card, so I ended up getting a dozen for like nine bucks, which was awesome.
Yeah.
So it took forever to show up, but when it showed up, I just. Yeah, I just really enjoyed it. And I'm fearing that I'm becoming too snooty for my. My field notes pencils and my forest choice and all this. I'm sure I'll be back, but right now, I'm just too smitten with these. And I actually got a package from Todd from that one pen. Really great blog. Everybody should check it out. But he's checking out some pencils, and he went to A Blick and mentioned that he had some B&2B pencils that he didn't want. And one of them he said was a mono 100. And he sent it, but actually ended up just being a mono. And he messaged me just before and said, just so you know, I think I might have mixed this up. I think it's actually a mono. I was like, oh, that's okay. I still wanted to try it. Which led me to realize that the mono and the mono 100 are the. Basically the exact same pencil with different lacquer. Is that. Am I saying that right or a different finish?
I believe it's liqueur. No, just kidding. I think it's lacquer.
Yeah. And so it's. It's the same core, same wood, but they're, you know, like $13 less. I guess the mono 100 is just like the hundredth anniversary edition, so it's kind of looks a little snazzier.
But it's cheaper too though, isn't it?
Oh yeah, yeah, it's. I think it's. You can get them on Amazon for 15 for 12 for the. For just the plain mono in any variety. So yeah, just be thinking about me there. I think I've got a problem which I. Yeah, right. That's the only one.
You're also. You're preaching to the choir, I think.
Yeah. Yeah. But I think that's all. That's all I've got.
Cool. Johnny, how about you?
Awesome. Well, I'll do a little shameless self promotion and plug my Earth Day pencil giveaway I couldn't resist doing with my inner hippie. So over the years I've amassed some, you know, eco pencils. And a lot of them are like, it's recycled cedar. Recycled from what? Like a pencil that used to be. You glue it back together. But I guess they're like, I don't know, the slats that we're going to throw away and they dovetail them together or something. But I finally have enough to put together like a box of like one of each, some of which are still in the mail. So hopefully they come in time. But to do a giveaway, I don't remember what I put the date says, but I hope to get them out for Earth Day.
I have them here.
You might get them on Earth Day.
It looks like you want to get them out before April 22, Earth Day. But then you. You're going to pick the winner Sunday night, April 20th.
Oh yeah. Thank you.
You're welcome. I have it right here.
I'll be on a sugar rush from Easter. I will not be sleeping. But I just found a new one the other day. Papermate. They don't even put their wooden pencils on their website anymore. I don't know why, but I don't know, since Sanford bought them, everything kind of sucks. So they Earthright, which now they paint green and it's. It's alright. Then they have The Earthrite Premium which is round and black, which is very nice. Now they have the Murado Earthright, which is green again, but with the Murado Ferrule. So those are coming in the mail to see if they're any good.
Cool.
Another thing I wanted to mention, you guys probably know about. I think it was Jeremy Abbott that put this on Twitter. The 2B and not to be shirt.
I forgot to order one.
Oh, I ordered mine right away.
I was like.
I was loading. Loading the car to come home from Durham when I saw it. I was like, oh, okay. When I get home from. When we get back to the house, I need to take care of that. And I totally forgot. Oh, well, it's gonna be okay.
Woot shirts. But was it gray on purpose? Like, is it graphite thing?
Oh, is the shirt gray?
Yeah.
Well, according to their web page, it's asphalt. And I'm actually looking at that right now. And Tim, if you want to jump on that, it looks like it's still in stock.
I'm on my way.
The link is in the show notes. I can't guarantee that this will be in stock when everybody listens to it, but check out the link in show notes.
It's pretty.
Pretty fantastic.
I'm gonna get the last one. The new one's pretty awesome. Did you see the new one?
The one. The one today?
Abracadabra. And it's got Abraham Lincoln and doves and sparks. Yes.
Abaca. Abracadabra.
Abacadabra. There we go.
This is. You know, I've never ordered something from Shirt Boot, but I've ordered something from Woot before, and it's. It's pretty great. So I don't know about the quality of these T shirts, but they're super cool.
I'd never heard of shirt Woot.
Really?
I just. No, I'm living in a shell or something.
I've heard of Woot.
I'm like, what is woot? Is that what kids say when they like something?
Woot?
It's still there, but the price goes up. So the price went from 12 to 12 to 15.
Okay. I don't know if you guys ever see the cotton bureau. That's another shirt website. But they often have pencils. It's usually shirts created by graphic designers, and graphic designers are just kind of in love with the romantic idea of the pencil.
So.
So the cotton bureau will have lots of different pencil shirts too, but generally those are within the 20 to $24 range and not like this.
Sorry to hijack that.
Oh, no problem. We have to meet up and wear our pencil shirts together someday.
Yes, Just like pick a spot in New York at a certain time and show up there wearing that shirt.
And then on top of the Empire
State Valentine's Day, Sleepless in Seattle. But much, much geekier.
Another thing I wanted to mention, it's kind of weird. My daughter's birthday is Wednesday. So this kind of goes back to some pencil sharpeners that Matias from Blysdiff sent me. There's an Asian stationery company called Deli D L I and they make a lot of really cool sharpeners that are along the lines of the classroom friendly pencil sharpener but are coated in rubber, which is awesome. And they're also. Well, they're plastic, but they're not as expensive. Like folks have probably seen that the Kickerland camera pencil sharpener, that's actually a deli sharper that they redistributed here. But that's a cool sharper because it also sharpens fat pencils and it has an adjustable point.
Is that the one you told me sharpens? The Wolfex?
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, we love that thing. But they make like one that looks like an Apple cutaway Kiwi and things like that and like buses and trains and cars. So I let my daughter pick one online and somebody just started selling like dozens of different ones on Amazon for like 8, 8 to 13 bucks range. They're really nice sharpers. She picked a green bell pepper with a worm. But they all have the extendable face plate and the crank and the kids get a kick out of that. They're the most boring one. I'm surprised there wasn't like the Princess Castle. That's what she likes. But I don't remember the seller. So you could just search for Deli pencil sharpener on Amazon. Make sure you put pencil or you'll get just like meat slicers. But if you have kids or you just want a really colorful pencil sharpener, check them out. Also there are two. The camera one is model 0668. There's one that's a model 0635 that Matthias links on his reviews on his website. He sent me one from the UK and it's like one of my favorite sharpeners. It makes a pretty long point, like longer than a kum long point, but not as long as the classroom friendly pencil sharpener. And again, no bite marks. It has really good auto stop that works and it even has a built in manual sharpener. And it's small, it's light, it's awesome. It's a great sharpener. I think I saw some on there for, like, 10 bucks. I've seen them on eBay for seven bucks.
I need to pick one of these up.
Yeah, they're really, really awesome sharpeners. You could buy replacement blades, too, but I think they're like 15 bucks. The sharpener's seven, so. Doesn't really make any sense. But the last thing I wanted to mention is if you live in Baltimore, we've been sort of having a stationary geek geek out nights. We're meeting Thursday in Hamden with Mr. Joe Lebo, who is. Be more Joe, and Aaron Stanley, who's a local photographer, and Cody Williams and myself. And we're trying to get the lady that runs the Museum of the pencil to come out too, which would be fun. Usually we go somewhere that's not just a bar, although it's called 8 Bar. They have a lot of sodas and stuff. Sangria soda. Yeah, they hit sangria soda. I did not try that. You.
You East Coasters have all the cool stuff.
Yes.
You have stationary meetups. You know what we have in Fort Wayne? We have monster truck rallies. We have those.
We're a Southern state.
Yeah, yeah, we have. We have. We don't have monster truck rallies. We have. What's it called? Stock car. That's what we.
Oh, yeah. Well, I do live in Indiana, home of the IndyCar Indy 500, so we do love our racing.
Yeah.
Yeah. I would like to meet Joe someday. He seems like a cool guy, and he is.
Yeah. I've only. I've had interactions with him on Twitter and then we've written some letters back and forth.
He's.
Yeah, he's a really, really cool guy.
Yeah.
He just got the Palomino sampler pack.
Yeah.
I want to see what he thinks of him.
Yeah, I was. I was like, sending him messages about that in, like, all caps, just because I just need to get it now.
And if I'm not mistaken, if I'm not mistaken, he is a fellow APP.net fan, which is that hipster Twitter. So, yeah, I think I met him on there through Brad Dowdy's app.net account, like a year ago.
I still don't understand what App.net is.
It's all right.
I haven't tried very hard, but I don't understand.
It's similar to Twitter, but there's much less people there, much less kind of markety things there. And you also get 256 characters instead of 140, and you can make links in line, so Instead of a link to somewhere taking up URL space, you can actually just link something within the text to that.
Well, if I can't follow the onion on app.net then I probably won't join up.
Okay, that's fine. I don't expect. I follow a lot of tech bloggers on there, so that's why I'll look into it. Cool. Anything else, Johnny?
No, that's about it.
Okay. I have some follow ups, some fresh points. I think I have too many. Maybe I won't go through all these. So, first of all, I want to apologize, guys. I am a terrible audio editor and for some reason my audio comes through much louder than. Than yours and I. Because I'm all recording it all in one channel. I'm not having each party record theirs and then send them to me and then I'm editing them all together. There's no way I can really equalize the volume very easily. So I think one of these days if it just keeps persisting, I'm going to reach out to imike Mike Hurley and see if he can give me some pointers because I am just. I can edit words. I'm not bad at editing video, but audio I guess is where I'm eluded. So I will continue to try to get better and if I don't, then I guess I'll have to learn to control the tone and inflection of my own voice. Sort of like that Will Ferrell character.
We'll get you like a muffler. Like a silence.
Exactly. Like I need one of those like shields for my. And we're all just using, you know, our, our smartphone microphones that come on the earbuds. So I also someday, if we can ever secure a sponsorship, which hint, hint, we'll talk about that at the end. But I want to get us some better microphones that we can control a little bit better. So that's just an apology. I know I've heard from several people about the volume levels and it's something that I'm attempting to control. So thank you all for bearing with us. I also wanted to mention Johnny just brought up the. Or was it. It was Tim who just brought up the palomino collection sampler, pencils.com and what's. What's cool about that is they just recently added the Palomino. Did they add the 602 or did they add the Pearl?
I think the pearl.
Yeah. So now, yeah, all, all three black wings are now part of the sampler. So if you are somebody who is kind of wanting to. Just thinking about pencils or at least thinking about the pencils.com pencils. And you don't know where to start. Get one of these things, they're 10 bucks. You get all three palominos. You get a golden bear.
All black wings, you mean?
Yeah. Excuse me. Excuse me. Yep, all black wings. You get a palomino, which is a really great pencil too. You get a forest choice. You get two prospectors and then two golden bears. Yeah.
I have a very irrational desire to get one of these, even though I have all the pencils. That's how good of a pack this is, that I've got all of them. I actually don't have prospectors, but I have all the other ones. And I'm still like, I need. I need to get one of these sampler packs. As if I didn't already. Couldn't just put one together from what
you have already a foot away from me right now. When I worked, when I worked very briefly@pencils.com, i put together. I just sort of assembled. Assembled these for myself and then just gave them to people who I knew would be interested in pencils or might like pencils. And it's a really just kind of like good entry level. And in fact, it's similar to what got me into pencil blogging, which was a sampler pack not from pencils.com but from somebody else, which included this palomino. So, yeah, 10 bucks, this thing is yours. You have how many pencils did I say? 3? 6, 9. 9 pencils. They're really great. So that's my shameless plug for that.
No carpenter pencil.
No carpenter pencil. Yeah, that's true. Damn it.
Make up the flat ones.
Johnny just gets mad and just drops the mic and leaves. I also wanted to mention, while we're just talking about little things on the Internet, I've really recently sort of been getting into the pen, paper, ink, letter, blog. I shouldn't just say blog. I should say media empire. He has a blog. He has a little shop where he has free downloads of different. What kind of paper alignments. He has a podcast, which he does every month. I just listened to the. The one with the paper setups on it. And it's, it's, you know, it's all Heath, the guy who runs it, talking about it. But he was really helpful. He was really interesting about some of the various, like, lines you can get. You can get dot grids, you can get grids, French lined paper, college, etc. So, yeah, check him out and In May at actually, he's going to do a Pencil week where he's going to just every day posting. I think he said at least two pencil posts. He wants to do just some general information stuff and he wants to do some reviews as well. So I'm really hoping that if his pencil beat coincides with our podcast, we can get him on and have him talk about it. But I don't know. When this guy sleeps, he posts so much and it's great quality too. He's kind of a web developer by trade, so he has a really great website and I love, love his puns. Pen, paper, ink, letter is ppil. And so his Twitter name is we the ppil. So it looks like we the People. It's pretty great. So there's a link in show notes if you want to check out his site.
He's gonna need to change it to the we the pppil though. He's gonna talk about pencils.
I asked him if he's going to change his. His name to be Pencils, but I don't think he's ready to quite take that leap yet.
We'll see how the month goes.
Exactly.
See where he ends up at the end of the month.
So everybody pressure him to just. Just adopt, you know, pencils in there as well. So, yeah, he's a cool guy. He was. I was following his tweets. They had the Atlanta pen show last weekend and I, you know, did not attend. But I know Brad was there and he was there. Heath from we the People was there. It sounds really cool. I would. As not necessarily a pen guy. I still think it'd be fun to go.
I would have. I was close to heading down there. I had family in Atlanta and I was close to heading down, but we were actually ended up going to. Being out of town somewhere else.
Yeah, that'd be cool. So, yeah, check out his blog. One other thing. I have a confession to make to you two. I have sold out. I got contacted from the guy who runs the Pen Chalet, which makes really nice. Or they don't make it, but they sell really, really nice fountain pens and mechanical pencils and stuff. And he actually agreed to review a mechanical pencil.
Well, this podcast has been fun. I really enjoyed it. I'm gonna.
I totally did too. Don't tell my mom,
Johnny.
No.
I was going to live alone in my secret shame, but I'm glad that you're on board too. Okay.
A secret tent of shame.
So are you at liberty to discuss what you got, Johnny, or are you
Oh, I think the same thing as you, but in yellow. And it's backordered for a week or two.
Is it the. The one with the, like the rulers and the stylus on the end of it?
Yeah, that thing's pretty awesome.
Yeah, I actually just got mine today. I wonder if I got the last one.
What color did you get?
I got the yellow one.
Awesome.
Oh, man.
So I at least be yellow, right?
Yeah. We should do dueling reviews.
Like,
we could do it on Twitter.
I think he. I think he's. Yeah, he should. I think he's just trying to hit like a. Just. Just trying to get the pencil crowd. And we're generally with as much crap as I talk about mechanical pencils. This is a really cool thing.
So.
Yeah, we'll see how that goes. I didn't realize you got the same thing.
I have one sitting right here. It's a mechanical pencil.
Don't feel too bad. I have a small section of my heart that is very devoted to my kuratoga as far as at school, because I used it for a long time. I don't use it much anymore, but I used it a lot with gradebook stuff just because it was really nice to write a fine line that didn't flatten out.
Yeah.
You let a mechanical pencil into your heart.
That is over the line, sir.
It was painful. I said it. Very terrible. Okay, guys, this podcast has been great.
Get out of here.
Pencil cup.
I could see.
So I actually really do like. I like the zebra number two pencils. They're those short four inch that look like a wooden pencil. Actually, I'll post a link. I wrote a thing on Medium about. About that pencil as compared to this terrible mechanical pencil made by Paper Mate that they tried to pass off as looked like a wooden pencil.
That one that was like based on the murado.
Well, no, it's. It's much thicker and it's just a very poor attempt to look like a wooden pencil. And the zebra number two actually, like, goes out of their way to emulate it in other ways as well. Like, it has a. Has a real ferrule on it. It has a real eraser. I'll post that link to the medium thing. I basically, I picked one up and it said, like, replace your wood case pencils. And it was this like super crappy plastic thing and I got mad and wrote a thing about it. So I'll post that out.
But does it have a place in your heart? No.
No, it does not. It has a place in my garbage can. Oh, I just saw this picture that. That Tim posted. Excellent. In our thing, we definitely have to
do our big joint photos.
Yeah, we can.
I got my shirt. Yes. I just finished teaching Shakespeare this week. So this is also very appropriate.
Can you wear it to school for dress down day or something?
At one point I might. I'll just wear it over like a suit and tie or something.
Yeah. Jeremy. Jeremy Abbott. If you're. If you're listening, look what I got. If you're listening.
Woot.
Should. Should give you a kickback or something because they.
You.
You got three. Three orders out of us.
Yeah. Thank you. Point that out.
Yeah. So anyhow. Yeah, that's my. That's my sellout moment. The mechanical pencil or from for review. I mean I have a lot of backlog on my blog. I feel like I've been in kind of a like a blogging slump. I don't know if it's just life has gotten busy or if I've. It's. I've been doing so much of the podcast but man, I have so much stuff like in my queue for review.
Yeah, I feel the same way about my. I just. This is a really insane time of year because we're approaching state testing. I don't know if. Andy, did you take the I steps when you're.
I did.
Yeah. So this is. This in two weeks is when Tennessee takes their big state test. So I'm like swamped. So I haven't been posting much, but I do. I will tell people I have three posts that are like in the queue that I just need to polish off and get done. So I will have some stuff up really soon.
I remember. I always remember the teacher for the I step test always saying that. Use a number two pencil and make sure to fill in your bubbles. Clear and dark. That's always what they said because they had to say it.
I've got burned in my head when they have you do that memory thing. They say a lep is a ball. A lep is a ball. I don't remember that. They give you like these nonsense words that are associated with actual things and they give you this weird paragraph of nonsense words and you have to decipher it. That's the stuff that Indiana puts into their kids heads. That's what I. Yeah, Indiana.
So. So yeah. I mean. But despite kind of my blogging slump, it's been. It's been an amazing kind of correspondence and mail month. I actually got back a really, really great letter from one of my contest winners, Richard. He. He wanted to Share some of his favorite pencils with me after I sent him some of my favorite pencils that he won in the contest. So I'm definitely gonna write up a post about it, but it's. It's super cool. He included.
It's.
Oh, let me open this up. I cannot remember the name of this thing. It's one of those craft Design technology pencils. Item 17.
Yeah, those are awesome.
Yeah, he sent me a couple of those. He sent me the orange Mitsubishi pencil, the 9552. He sent me a. Do you remember, guys, the duraflame pencils that pencils.com sold for a while as part of the promotion. You know, Cal Cedar is a sister company to Duraflame, makes the fire logs. Yeah. And they made this really, really cool pencil that I remember seeing when I. When I worked in those offices. It kind of looks like a long matchstick. And so I actually picked one up when I worked there. But he sent me a couple of them, too. He sent me a Calpino pencil. I am not familiar with this. I've never heard of this before. So this is a really nice, thoughtful note where he talked about the pencils that I sent him. And our listeners are the best.
Yeah, I got a few really similar messages from Zhang and Chase, who I sent stuff to. And they sent really nice messages about the podcast and about the giveaway. Heard back a little bit from Chase about the pencils he got. And actually also from that, I did a Laddie giveaway a month ago, maybe a month and a half ago, and that. The winner of that actually just got back to me and was telling me all about that and the other pencils I sent them. So I just feel like, yeah, people have been really on the ball and I apologize. I'll apologize publicly for. I haven't responded to all of them yet just because it's been kind of overwhelming, all the emails getting.
It's hard to keep on top of
direct messages on Twitter and mentions on Twitter. We've got some really. Forgive my French, but kick ass, listeners.
Now I have to put the explicit tag on yes. No, I don't.
I've broken the seal on that one. So you guys can.
Yeah, Sebastian. Sebastian, My other winner as well. He was. He was great. He was.
He.
I felt bad. He was sort of apologetic because he lives in Canada. He was like, I'll pay for shipping. I'm like, don't worry about it. You can. It's just pencils.
Yeah, I can pay the extra $2.
And. And also Johnny, I wanted to thank you for your care package. Yeah, I. I'm using that faultless clip right now. I have a Blackwing 602 that I use down to probably about 4 or 5 inches. And I just took that and I put a cap on it and I put that faultless clip on it, and I just have it clipped to the rim of my messenger bag so it won't get anything dirty inside. And I can just grab it, grab it and go.
I'm actually using the rainbow pencil right now in my doan utility. Utility journal.
That rainbow pencil is super cool.
It's so fantastic. It makes me happy.
Master the twirl so you can, like, write in the perfect rainbow.
Yeah, I've been practicing.
That's the trouble with the, with the triangular pencils. It's hard to do it. It's hard to do a twirl.
Yeah.
Yeah. But no, this is. This is a super cool pencil. I had some of these, I feel like, as kids, and I sort of forgot about them.
Yeah.
So, yeah, that. That about covers it for, for my fresh points. I think that we can get. Move on to kind of the. The main topic here. It's something that I've had some really interesting conversations with with both of you guys about this, but I actually, you know, the pencils that I write about on my blog and the pencils that I have are only like a small fraction of the pencils that I actually have sitting in my basement. The pencils that I like to acquire, and I don't exactly know why I don't talk about them very often, but I not only love using pencils, but I love to collect pencils. Pencils that I know I'll never use for anything, but I want to just kind of have and hoard and savor and keep. And I really thought it would be fun to just kind of explore all those pencils. And what kind of pencils make up a good pencil to collect some of. I picked out a few of my favorites from my collection. And so I know that Johnny's kind of in the. In the same boat as me. I am a. I'm a borderline hoarder. I. I don't collect, you know, pizza boxes and use diapers or anything like that, but I have. I have lots and lots of stuff. And luckily it's mostly little stuff like pencils. But as part of it, my mother was a. Or she still is. She's a collector. She just has vintage advertising products. She has seed packets. She has game board. Game boards. And so it came by it honestly, I think I inherited it from her. But I love to collect things. And I have typewriters. I have some fountain pens. I have little tchotchkes just all over the place. I have way too many books, you know. You know the drill.
I collect typewriters. Do, actually.
Do you?
Yeah, that's the one thing I collect. I have about 15 or 16. Oh, wow. They're all over my classroom at school.
That is super cool. Do kids just like get up to and bang on them?
I've got a few that I let them just harass in the back.
I. Oh, man, I'd love to stray out and talk about typewriters for an episode, but, you know, that's a whole. That's a whole lot.
Yeah, that'd be a little. Little too tangential, maybe.
Let's do that. We should. I don't know.
We should.
We should do a typewriter day, guys.
Yeah.
Yeah. I don't know. So actually, you know, speaking of Tim, you. One of your. Your provisos, there was one of the things that you actually do collect. I know that. That you're coming at it from a slightly different viewpoint than we are.
Yeah, I'm. I'm not. Typewriters is one thing I. I collect, but I. I'm outside of that. I'm really not a collector. I am a user. And this goes for pencils, this goes for fountain pens, this goes for guitars, I guess. Books, I wouldn't call it. I think I'm books. I'm not a collector of books. But yeah, like with pencils, if there's something I'm not using, I'm not gonna keep it. There are some pencils that are even respectable pencils that I just know I'm not gonna use. I'll take them and I'll let my students use them. Things like that. But the one thing I am attracted to, though, I will say this, I'm usually a user, like with fountain pens as well. If there's one I'm not using, I'll typically just sell it if I know I'm not going to use it. And one thing I am intrigued by with collecting pencils is pencils that have odd messages on them. Like, some of them are custom pencils. I posted a picture and I'll put a link to this article. It's in the show notes. But there's a pencil that was recalled and I can't remember where I found this, but somebody posted on Twitter there's a pencil that was recalled because a student figured out an issue with it. And their school was passing out these pencils that said too cool to do drugs, which, you know, good message. Kids should get that message.
Drugs are bad. Okay.
Yeah, exactly. But the only problem with a pencil that says too cool to do drugs is that as you sharpen it, that message is going to take some pretty dramatic turns. It's going to go from too cool to do drugs to cool to do drugs to do drugs to drugs. So things like that, I think are. I would collect them just because they're hilarious. And also this weekend, I was staying with some friends in Durham and one of them actually ended up. This has been happening a lot lately. But they find out that I'm doing a pencil or a blog where I'm writing about pencils in a podcast. And then I find out that they are actually pencil nuts, like friends that I've known for years and years. And they're like, hey, I love pencils. Talk to me about this. Which is amazing. And he showed me a collection of pencils that his wife had bought him. And I don't know, are you. You two Wes Anderson fans?
Oh, yeah.
Okay. She had. His wife had bought him a set of pencils on Etsy. They were all inscribed with the names of the clubs that the main character Rushmore starts.
I've heard of that.
Yeah. Awesome. And so the one was like the. Oh, man. Which one was it? Now I'm gonna blank. I'll have to look them up.
Yeah, I just added this to the list. Calligraphy Club, Yankee Racers Trap and Skeet Club, Bombardment Society.
That's the one that. That's the one he was using when I was there. He was working on some divinity school work and was using that pencil. I was like, where did this come from? And he explained it to me. I was like, I need them now. Yeah, like, so those are. Those are the main kind of things that I'd be interested in collecting. You know, I just love pencils with odd messages or that are. They don't have a lot going on. Maybe even aren't even nice pencils, but just that have some sort of interesting thing on them. Those are really. I really enjoy that kind of thing. And I could see myself getting into those just sort of quirky, strange pencils. As far as vintage pencils.
Yeah.
I don't really know. I do it, but I'm not going to rule it out. I'm feeling a really strong draw to get some vintage ladies just because I love the Laddies so much. So getting some of the original Laddie. Dixon. Dixon. Laddie. I could see myself maybe going the route of getting really into a certain brand and trying to get some older pencils. You know, I have the black wings, but I don't feel much of a desire to go for more Eberhard favors necessarily. But I could see myself getting into Tombows, maybe, since because of this hp, but it's just. It's just not my thing.
Yeah.
So that's kind of my perspective on this, is that I use pencils. I just. It's not that I'm against collecting them, but I just. I just tend not to think about it that way, I guess.
Yeah, that's. And as I. As we were talking earlier, I think that, you know, that's. That's a really, you know, healthy thing for. For your marriage, for your. Your storage. I know that sometimes I just have, like, mounds of pencils laid on my desk. And this is. This is definitely because my mother is just like me in this regard. She. She loves the fact that, you know, she can just get me a whole bunch of crap and dump it on my desk, and, you know, I'll be overjoyed. But some of it, if they're pencils. So misery loves companies. So a hoarder loves. A hoarder loves another hoarder. Yeah. So I kind of wanted to just explore some of the, you know, some of the things that I like in a pencil to collect. I think that unique pencils, like, you know, odd businesses or railroads or just, you know, brands gone by, are super cool. My wife's grandfather ran a. Oh, man. What did they do? They did, like, lithographs and typesetting and stuff like that. And her mother still has a bunch of pencils that were from that shop, and she just kind of doles them out selectively to people she knew would appreciate them. So that's kind of a cool pencil. So businesses like that, souvenir pencils, are really cool. I have, for some reason, I always buy a lot of these pencils when I go to D.C. but I have Presidents of the United States pencil that has Barack Obama on it, but it has all the presidents up up until him. I bought that not too long after Obama was elected. So it was a super cool thing to find.
Cool.
And I know I can't use it because then I would wear off George Washington, Grover Cleveland, John Adams, Benjamin Harrison. So. So, yeah, I can't use this thing or else some of the presidents. I'm gonna erase history. I have a really cool Supreme Court of the United States. Pencil. It says, with liberty and justice for all the Supreme Court of the United States. And the fair rule is actually there's two erasers end to end from each other, and it's stuck on the top like a T, so it looks like a gavel. That's a really neat one. I have some other. I have some National Archives pencils. I have some. I have a bunch of Smithsonian pencils. One of them is that color changing pencil. Sort of like that Maryland Zoo pencil that you sent me, Johnny.
Oh, those are cool.
Yeah, dude.
Pencil.
Yeah, I actually have. I have a Nazi pencil.
What?
A Nazi pencil?
Yeah, no, I heard you.
So we have this. We have this antique store in town that sells a disturbingly large amount of Nazi memorabilia. And I went in there one day and, and I actually, I had since looked this up online and I know that people have made reproductions of this particular pencil. So I, I have no way of knowing offhand if this is a reproduction or if it is a. An original. But it says, I'm going to butcher this because I don't know German. Eigenten der Waffen Waffen, probably, which I believe means owner of weapons. So maybe like the armory. And it's. And then it has the SS logo on it.
I just say you better, Better look into what that pencil is made of.
Yeah, exactly. Human skin. No, it's. It's. It's a. It's a cedar pencil. Cedar. Ish. At least. It has a very faint lacquer on it. And there's a human tooth. Yeah, there's a kind of a flaw at the end of it. There's a. Looks like a little tiny knot in there. And it's. It's in really good shape. I bought it, it was 20 bucks, which is usually a little bit more than I pay for that, but I was like, you know, I have no particular special fascination with the Nazis, but this is a Nazi pencil and it's unsharpened and I had to get it, so I do have a Nazi pencil.
Good to know.
Yeah, I'll. I'll run through a few of my favorites and I don't know if you. If you have any to. To share with us, Johnny. Sure. But yeah, I'll. I'll kind of go through. I just, I just went down the basement for this podcast. I keep all my pencils, by the way, in cigar boxes. So I have several that are dedicated to souvenir pencils and advertising pencils and just old pencils. I have a really cool carpenter pencil. It's from The Handyman Club of America. They gave these out to their members and to people who, you know, subscribe to that. It's a, it's a really cool one. Just very simple as imprinted Handyman Club of America. By no means a handyman. This one I think, I think you would really like, Tim. Just kind of based on the kind of pencils you look for. It's just a plain white pencil and it has three of the six sides are imprinted and it says compliments of your worthy matron, Dorothy Byers, 1973.
I want one now. I'm going to head to ebay. I'm just going to buy like as many things as possible by the end of this podcast. That sounds fantastic.
So I have, I have no idea why she's our worthy matron. I'm guessing it's probably something like she's like a house mother or something of a fraternity or a sorority. That's my guess. She's our worthy matron. I talked about that Nazi pencil. I have an old, old McDonald's hamburger drive in pencil from Green Bay, Wisconsin. Before McDonald's was a really big thing. There's no arches on here. There's no. It just says McDonald's hamburger drive in intersection. Military and Schwano. Green Bay, Wisconsin. So that's a kind of a cool pencil. I have a whole bunch of like railroad pencils from kind of the Wabash Line, the nickel plate railroad line, which all kind of ran through Fort Wayne.
There's a lot of, there's a lot of antique stores here in East Tennessee. In this area I'm in like the downtown, there's four or five. Yeah, I was there the other day and there was a few railroad pencils that I almost picked up just kind of for fun. But then, you know, like I said, I'm just not much of a collector and so I didn't end up picking them up. Maybe I'll go back and look at them because they're, they're real plain looking, but they just seem kind of cool because it was a local railroad.
Yeah, yeah, those are always kind of cool when you get those. Like the local ones especially, I love. And collecting bullet pencils is a whole different thing. But I especially love bullet pencils that you know, are local and then also have like a three digit phone number. Like I have a, I ordered a, I found a Johnston Commission Company Union Stockyards bullet pencil from Fort Wayne, Indiana. And the phone number is a 7229, which is pretty great.
Like the Seinfeld phone numbers.
Exactly.
Weird phone numbers.
Yeah. So kind of last but not least, I have a very kind of mysterious pencil. It has this interesting kind of green iridescent lacquer on it. And all it says, it's stamped in the side, it just says greetings. That's all it says, just greetings. It's pretty great. So it has that green lacquer and then the eraser is green and it's an old, old pencil before many erasers are green, I think. And what's cool about this is it hasn't petrified like it's still. You could erase with this. I wonder if those. The kind of green, a little bit more gritty erasers. I wonder if they don't develop that patina over the eraser.
Like.
Like the pink rubber ones do. But yeah, so, yeah, those are just some of my favorites. I have. I mean, I have cigar boxes upon cigar. I have probably eight cigar boxes full of these things. And I haven't really fully sorted them out yet, but they're. They're pretty great. Do you have any, Any favorites, Johnny, in your collection? Do you have any Nazi pencils? Let me ask that first.
No, I don't have any Nazi pencils.
For the best.
Denied that we were German after World War II.
Oh, wow.
But if you've seen a picture of him, it's kind of undeniable. We all have a certain nose. It's very German.
Tiny mustaches.
Spanish Inquisition pencils or like Trail of Tears pencils or anything.
I do have a Spanish Inquisition pencil. Nobody suspects it from my 12 years in Catholic school. But I can't show it to you.
You have a pencil that looks like a gavel that you use to hit Galileo over the head.
It just says death to galley on it. I didn't know what it meant. I had to look it up. For me, my sort of like big giant stash of pencils, they sort of come into like, I guess, two strains. Like, I have a small collection of pencils. Like if I go somewhere and I'm in the gift shop where it's just full of junk and junk pencils. I'll get the junk pencils. They take up less room.
Oh, yeah.
But in that one, I have some really cool ones. I have some Mr. Yuck pencils. I have no idea who gave them to me, but they're like that puke horrible green with green erasers. They're really cool. But I have two and the kids, like, want them, so I'm gonna lose those. But, like, I have A bunch from, like, if you go to Harper's Ferry, they have like the worst pencils, but there are like 20 different ones to get. I have one from Eisenhower Farms from, I guess like the early 2000s in Gettysburg. It was the only pencil they sold. Apparently it was something with Eisenhower. When you came to the farm, they gave you this pencil. Pencil that was hopefully nicer than the one that I bought because it's like really junky. And then in that clock collection of carpenter pencils, specifically from National Lumber, which is a local lumberyard, because they usually buy foil stamped pencils even now. So my first carpenter pencil was white with blood red foil on it.
It says National Lumber.
Really cool pencil. And I actually stole the idea from a friend of mine who actually gets
them for me all the time.
Then on the other hand, I have a stash of pencils that I tell myself I'll live long enough to use. I don't think my grandkids can use them all up. But say if I get pencils, I probably give seven or eight of a dozen away, especially with the kids wanting them. And now my wife is trickling into it a little bit, which is cool. But, like, recently I picked up some vintage Mongols and I only got five. So I put away one just like, I don't know, so I could show my grandkids this is what they look like. And I'll sharpen the other ones up and use them because they're cool. So there are a lot of listings, like on ebay for like an untouched dozen of pencils. I never go after that because then I wouldn't touch them and I want to sharpen them and use them. So if you shop around a lot, you'll find. I just bought one the other day, like a lot of, I don't know, a dozen random vintage pencils, but they're kind of busted up. So you use them. Yeah, as like a little time machine, which is cool because Mongols are so pretty.
I have some new Mongols that I have, I still kind of go through and use. I need to get some vintage ones.
Yeah, the lacquer on it is really thick. The pencil's thick. Yeah. I never liked the fair when I was a little kid. I hated it, but it's kind of growing on me. I like the big number two at the top.
This is a two pencil nightmare on pencils.
But I guess my friend refers to my pencil stash as the archive, because we go into there and take stuff out all the time. And it's sort of understood that it's for use, but anything that's old, I'll keep one unsharpened, or at least I won't sharpen it past where you can see the imprint. So a pencil like a Mongol, like three sharpenings and you start wearing off the word wood clenched. So that one will probably stay in that category. Aside from the Mongols I got recently, last time I was in Memphis, in like 2006, there's a store on Beale street called a Schwab. It's like an old general store type place. I found these really cool pencils from Empire called the Mustang that I had when I was little in the 80s that have a square, plastic, white ferrule, big giant eraser.
Oh, yeah, Yeah.
I bought like, they had like a million of them. They were really cheap. I bought two packs.
I was like, I don't want to buy them all.
But now I wish I bought them all. My father drives a Mustang, so I gave him a red one that matches his Mustang, and he thinks it's the coolest thing in the world, usa. And nothing says USA anymore. But, yeah, I guess that's. That's like my collecting is not collecting. Like, not quite hoarding. I. I don't know. It's like stockpile, I guess.
Mine is definitely hoarding.
Someone's gonna use them.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
I do have an untouched dozen of Noblots because I don't know why I
don't want to touch them.
I have a couple of loose ones. I don't know why, but those are my one untouched dozen of vintage pencils that I don't mess with.
I really know what you mean about the kind of untouched packages. I have a case. I have a gross of old ticonderogas from the 60s and a friend of mine. Okay, this is really complicated. The Kalodi student of a friend of mine is a lawyer in town, and we've met a few times, and his mom died not too long ago, and he was cleaning out her house, and she was a schoolteacher, and she just had a big case of these Ticonderogas. And. Yeah. So he was like, I have no use for these. Do you want them? I'm like, yes, please. So I really should break them out and try one and compare it to a current one, but I just can't. I can't bear to break up the pack.
So I have a question for you too. Yes, that comes right out of this. That I was. Teachers in Tennessee get observed four times a year, or three, or three to five Times a year. And today I had an observation. I went down to my, the principal's office. I was sitting there and he was talking to me about my lesson. And I couldn't help noticing and I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that he was. On his desk was a Dixon Ticonderoga 13882. Soft like a, like a USA made Ticonderoga. Should I have asked him where he got it?
In situations like that, I've offered someone a dozen new ones for the old one and they're like, okay, give it to you.
Okay, maybe I'll make him a return visit tomorrow. But the whole time I was thinking about it, the whole time I was like, I need to ask him. No, this is a serious conversation. I can't ask him about this.
Just swipe it. He probably wouldn't notice.
Yeah, I've definitely been in a 10 year old pencil. Go. That thing is worth a portion. I've definitely been in client meetings where he, you know, it's something important and we're talking about websites and it's super important. And then I'm just like fixated on some cool old piece of writing equipment on their desk. I'm just like, where did you get that? Can I have that? Where'd you get that? So, so yeah, we, so we have, you know, we talk about, you know, procuring these pencils. I have a couple, a couple of resources for those of you who are interested in starting to collect pencils. If you're, you know, if you, it's kind of a rabbit hole and if it's something that you don't kind of have the inclination to do, don't do it because you're just going to spend all your money and take up all the room in your house. So, so if it's something you're not necessarily interested in now, but you might want to become interested in it, just kind of think about that before you try it, see what happens. But if you're like me and you're just kind of a natural procurer, you just have to figure out how to get something like that. Then, then definitely there's, there's a really, really, really great website and I don't remember if we've talked about it here before or not. It's called brandname pencils dot com.
I think I mentioned it when I was talking about the round.
Yes, yes, that's right. Yeah, so, so we did talk about this before. But if you run across like on ebay or something, just some of these Old pencil brands that you don't know much about. Venus Velvet, an American or an Eagle Pencil Company, something like that. Go to brandnamepencils.com and check it out. There's good chance that the proprietor, Bob Truby, has a picture and a description of that pencil.
Sometimes he has extra ones that you
can buy off of. Yes, yes, I traded.
If you're looking for a General's Quilter's pencil or something like that, then you can. That's one that I just saw on the website. That's a real thing. General's Quilter's pencil, the General's Mardi Gras. Pretty cool stuff.
They're just putting words on it like General's Broomstick pencil, Generals Outlet pencil. Yeah, yeah. He. He has an amazing collection. He categorizes them by brand. He kind of sorts them by year. He has great pictures of them. I actually, he does. He does do trades, which is cool. He needed some black wings, some original black wings, and I sent him a few of them and he sent me a whole box of just like one offs of these, just like old brands that I've never seen before. So, yeah, he has an amazing collection. It's a really great reference site. I've referenced it on many occasions, so
it's really enjoyable just to browse through it.
I don't think he's updated lately. I don't know what Bob's been up to, but I haven't heard from him lately. But yeah, just what he has. And he admits he does not have all of the pencils. So actually if you have a pencil that you don't see on that site, you should email him and send him a picture and see if you can get him to get you some information about it. It's super neat. So the other thing I wanted to share with you is kind of a. You know, this could probably be a whole episode in itself, but if you are interested in networking with and connecting with a bunch of these pencil collectors, you know, there's Twitter, there's Facebook, there's the Field Nuts group on Facebook. There. There's a whole. Actually. And did you guys know this, that there is a subreddit for pencils?
I'm not a Reddit user.
Okay.
I haven't seen that, but okay, it's. It's nice.
It's mostly mechanical pencils, but. But there's a. There's the whole subreddit for that, which I just started following. It's interesting. But anyhow, you know, there are a bunch of people over over a certain age or people who aren't necessarily using social media to connect with people about this. But there is a group called the American Pencil Collector Society. And I found out about this place through a guy named Doug Martin, who writes thepencilpages.com which is kind of the authority on the original Blackwing when it comes to its history, why it shut down. He actually called the Eberhard Faber factory in the 90s to find out why black wings were stopped being made. But so, you know, his website's been around forever and he is the editor of the newsletter for the American Pencil Collector Society and which you can find that. By the way, they do have a website. It's@pencilcollector.org Is it pencil collector or pencil collectors?
I think just collector. Collector.
Yeah, you're right. It's a pencilcollector.org and it's a. Basically it's a group of people who collect and use and talk about bullet pencils, wooden pencils, clutch pencils, mechanical pencils, what have you. And there's some pens and colored pencils too. But it's a really cool society. It's $10 a year to join. I joined it several years ago and actually just recently mailed in my, my renewal check just because they, they're not that great about reminding me to renew and spend money, give my money to them. But, but they're, they're really neat. There's some really kind of cool things about it. So for $10 a year, you get, you get assigned a member number. My number is 2099. And you do have that number for life. If your membership lapses, you can always, can always renew and you still have that number. And then what you do is you get some pencils made, some, some personalized pencils. It can be bullet pencils, it can be wooden pencils, it can be imprinted, it can be foil wrapped, whatever you want to do. So you get with your name and your member number and maybe some contact info, and then you trade them with people. You correspond with some of the other people in the directory or within the society. You can reach out to people through the newsletter, place a little classified to say, hey, I want to trade some member pencils with you. They, you know, write you a little letter and send you a couple pencils and you write them back and send them a couple pencils. And it's super cool. I'm actually a horrible member because I have not yet made my member pencils. And that's just mostly because I know that I Want it to be perfect. And I haven't quite figured out how to do that yet. So I think what I want to do is I'm going to try to get some. Get a gross of golden bears and then find somebody. And if anybody's listening to this podcast and you have the ability to foil stamp a pencil for cheap, let me know because I am super interested in your services. It's. I don't know if you guys know this. It's really hard to find somebody who will stamp your own pencils for you. And I want to get some and then, you know, be part of this. But I definitely want to do a golden bear or an equivalent because, I mean, member pencils are cool. There's some really crappy ones out there. You know how I feel about foil wrapped pencils. There's definitely some of those. So yeah, whenever I find one that's actually foil stamped, I really appreciate it. There's a member, Martin Rose, who listens to this podcast. Actually, I corresponded with him and I was really apologetic. I said, hey, Martin, I'd love to trade pencils. I don't have any member pencils, but he sent me his Anyway, number 2160, which is really cool. It's interesting because from what I understand, the lower the number, the more rare the pencil is because the older that member is or some of them are deceased. So the more valued those pencils are. I know. Johnny, you found a member collector's society pencil, didn't you?
Yep, it's a bullet pencil number 523.
So I, I don't know. I heard that the triple digits are much. Are very sought after by pencil collector society members. So. That's super cool. You should hold it for ransom.
Yeah, it's in really good shape. It's mine.
I don't know how you make that sound. That voice. That's amazing.
I don't either.
It's your Dr. Claw voice. So. So yeah, it's. It's a really great. They send out a quarterly newsletter or is it monthly? I can't remember. Quarterly or monthly? And it. Honestly, it's great. Like, it's. There's some classifieds in the back sometimes. This one time, if I had like $3,000, I totally would have done this. Some longtime member of the society died and his wife just didn't want his pencils anymore. And she was, she took out an ad in this newsletter and said, hey, if you can, if you give me this and pay for shipping, I will send you all of his pencils. And I was Just like. Like, that would be super cool. She posted some pictures of it. She posted just a bunch of stuff. And yeah, there's stuff like that. There's, you know, bullet pencils for sale or trade. There's, like, little stories. I contributed to one of the newsletters. I think I just repurposed a blog post. But, yeah, it's.
It's.
It's a pretty cool place, and I have a feeling that I'm the youngest member. But call to action here. All of you listening. If you love pencils and want to spend $10, go become a member of the Pencil Collector Society. I think that they could use an influx of new members and just get some activity going. I would love to see that happen. And tweet me if you do. If you do become a member of the society, I'd love to connect with you and share a member pencil someday if I have one. So the other cool thing is every once in a while, they do conventions. I have never been to one. The last one, I think it was in 2011 or 12, and it was in Holland, Michigan. Before this podcast, I sent an email to Doug Martin, and I just said, hey, is there anything I should talk about? He says that the next convention will be held in the summer of 2015 in Wisconsin. Details yet to be announced. So I don't know what you guys think about that, but maybe we should make this our Atlanta pen show.
Yeah, man, I'm there. Yeah, there.
We'll go to Wisconsin.
It's probably nice there in the summer, right?
I think it's nicer in winter, so we should probably. Probably hope that it's in winter. No, just kidding. Yeah, it's. Yep. It's in the summer of 2015.
It's two feet of snow.
Yeah. I'm sure it'll be nicer than Tennessee in the. In the summer.
That's probably true. So.
So you have mountains, though. That's true. Yeah. Wisconsin, you have cheese and fields and lakes. You have lakes, I think.
Yeah, cheese and dells.
Yes, yes. So, yeah, that's a cool thing. I just renewed my membership, like I said. So I'm looking forward to getting the newsletters again and getting kind of back into it. So, yeah, if I can get one of you listeners to find me a way to foil stamps and pencils, I will get back into it and I will trade some member pencils. So let me see what else Doug said. I'm trying to see if he. Yeah, he said pretty soon he's gonna try to establish a APCS presence on Social networks. Yeah, it's. It's pretty old school. It's mostly through, you know, you know, we're all pencil users. But you know, like I'm a, I work for a web development company and I use the Internet. This is a freaking podcast. So they're walking the walk as well as talking the talk. They're pretty, pretty set on paper and pencil. So yeah, check them out. Pencilcollector.org does anybody have anything else before we wrap it up?
Have a note on hoarding.
Okay.
Sounds kind of crazy. The pencil that got me into pencils sort of went away and I had like, you know, a couple dozen and I gave them all away and I realized I never hoarded them and they went away. So now I can't find them anymore. They don't exist. And it was a really cheap pencil. So it's not really gonna like show up anywhere unless, you know, it'll be someone's basement.
I'll find it.
So if there's a pencil you really, really, really like, they don't dry out. Buy like, if you love them, get like.
Was it, was it the paper made American Natural?
Yeah, yeah, the one that was like blue foil stamp. So pretty.
If anyone's listening, it has those. Let us know. Yeah, because we should get those for.
I'll trade you Johnny better pencils for them.
Yeah,
yeah, that's. I mean, hey, you're right. I mean I'm, I'm a, I'm a hoarder myself and I definitely have. If ever there's an apocalypse and the world. You people start using pencils as currency, I'm gonna be so rich. Tim actually found. Reminded me of. Oh, there's a kid in India who has the world's largest pencil collection.
Well, no, I think he actually has the second largest.
The second largest.
There's some guy in Hungary or something that has the largest. He's just, he's the, I guess the LeBron James, like the rising star, which I guess he's been around a while, but he's like the new guy on the block. The Mike Trout of pencil collecting.
So I'll post this picture to the show notes. But it's just a picture of this kid with just cases upon cases.
And he apparently has two pencils that he thinks were used by Queen Elizabeth II that are in this like nice wooden case.
The second or the first?
I think it's the second.
Okay, that's cool.
Yeah, so it's still pretty cool.
My, my mother in law has a. So she went to a Neil diamond concert in the 70s. And she, she wanted to get the autograph of Neil diamond for a friend of hers who was really, really loved Neil diamond, but couldn't be there. So she tracked him down on his golf cart and he was apparently, I don't know if he was drunk or what, but he was kind of a little stumbly and she kind of ambushed him and, and got him to sign this autograph for a friend and then she kept the pencil. So my, my mother in law has a pencil that was used by Neil diamond which, which is definitely much more famous and better and more valuable than a Queen Elizabeth pencil. Yeah. So yeah, we'll post this picture of this kid sitting just among these cases upon cases of pencils. Yeah, Merka. Well, Neil diamond, is he Canadian? Is that what I.
Maybe.
I don't know.
This is North America.
Yeah, this is North America. Yeah. And these cases this kid has are really cool. I need to look into this. You know, I have just cigar boxes which aren't nearly as cool as these cases.
Yeah, it's pretty impressive.
So cool. Anything else, guys?
I think that's it.
So this episode is titled Woodfellas, which is pretty great. The pun is a credit to Johnny Woodbury from Hatcasts. Hatcastes.com It's a collection of several different podcasts. You should go check it out. I'll put a link in the show notes. And he was responsible for a few of our really great, great puns. So yeah, that's the podcast. Johnny, where can people find you on the interwebs?
I am@pencil revolution.com I'm on Twitter @pencillution, pencil u t I o n on Instagram @johnnygamber and I have a Flickr account, but I don't remember what it is. It's all on Instagram anyway.
Okay, Tim, how can we find you on the Internet?
You can read my writing@thewritingarsinal.com you can contact me via thewritingarcenal.com contact and there you can email me and I've also got my mailing address there if you are interested in writing a letter. So that's there. And then you can follow me on Twitter Itingarcenal. And I think on Instagram I really should write this down. I think it's the. Is it the writing arsenal? Yeah, it's the writing arsenal on Instagram
and I know that some people have tweeted DailyCarry at Twitter and that no longer goes to Tim, so. Writing arsenal.
Yeah, it's writing arsenal. No, the. Just writingarsinal Gotcha.
And I am Andy Welfle. I am at A W, E L, F L E on Twitter. My first initial and last name. Or you can get me oodclinched on Twitter. I finally procured that. And you can read my writing@woodclinch.com and because I'm an Internet hipster, find me on app.net and I'm on Instagram too. It's Andy. It's Awelfley on Instagram. So you can find erasable podcast, all three of us @erasablepodcast on Twitter, and then Erasable us on the Internet or in your friendly local itunes podcast directory. So thank you for listening, everybody, and have a great week.