This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Very small explosion, which is my brain, a smaller one that is my heart. And then silence.
Hello and welcome to episode 25 of the erasable podcast. I'm Andy Welfle, one of your co hosts, and I am joined by the Carlton and Hillary to my will, Jonny and Tim. How are you guys?
Fantastic.
How are you doing? Good.
Very good. I was going to say something along the lines of, like, my two friends that I will smell later because of the, you know, the cat of you home, smell you later, but I decided not to.
So which one of us, Carlton?
I leave that to you just to decide.
I'll be Hillary. She had fuller hair.
So you are a weather girl. And I can dance.
So I'll be Carlton.
Can you dance like Carlton? Do the Carlton?
Oh, yeah.
I'm doing it right now.
I could be the cab driver.
So we are talking about the Fresh Prince of Bel Air because this is the second in our Fresh Points of Bel Air episodes. I don't know why we all of a sudden started doing themes. Like there was a Big Lebowski theme last week, which I think went over pretty well. People seem to enjoy. People seem to like Big Lebowski.
The power of the pun.
Yeah. And literally nobody, nobody doesn't like fresh pencil Bel Air.
So, yeah, it was a wholesome program.
So, yeah, whenever we do a Fresh Points episode, which this going to be a short episode just to take a breather. Coming up upon our one year anniversary. Guys, can you believe that?
Boom. Crazy.
I can't believe it.
Yeah, I think that we're actually going to be one, like, episode behind coming out once every two weeks. Right. Because next episode will be episode 26, and there's 27 two week segments in a year.
Right?
Yeah.
Which seems wrong because I feel like we had some spans of like four weeks where we didn't put a episode out. So I don't know how we did,
but we did a couple where we did every 10 days, which is less than 10.
That's true. That's true.
Rapid fire action.
So, yeah, I tried to catch back up, but, man, I just can't put them out. Like, you know, Doughty and Hurley can, like once a week. That's rough.
Yeah, it's impressive.
So, yeah, we're going to be talking
about fresh points, drink a lot of coffee.
We have some pencil of the week discussions for you all. We have our tools of the trade, et cetera. So let's get started. Tim, what are you drinking and writing with?
I am drinking some starburst, strawberry, fountain pen, ink, it was actually blessed by Brad Dowdy himself.
What does it taste like?
Exactly what you'd expect it to.
So does the sugar clog your pen?
If by pen you mean esophagus, then yes.
If by esophagus you mean heart arteries, yes. It tastes pretty good.
It's basically. Yeah. You take about 30 strawberry starbursts and you melt them down in a nonstick pan, and then you mix in some, you know, the ink of your choice, and then you mail it to Brad. He blesses it, sends it back. It's. It's a really. Yeah, it's a really ridiculous process. But, you know, be careful.
Starbursts are.
It's worth it in the. It's worth it in the moment.
Yeah.
So I think.
I think that maybe Johnny Gamber is struck again in the show notes.
You think what?
It wasn't me.
I think maybe Johnny Gamber struck again in the show notes.
Well, I left my computer with the kids, so apparently they can type.
Yeah. And I am writing with a bit crystal that Johnny and I have been talking about a lot this week in 82. And it is filled with the congealed blood of a student who passed off his own work as Hemingway's. I wouldn't want that. Yeah, I guess that's the opposite. The real story is I am drinking a Hop Hunter by Sierra Nevada, which is a ipa. So it's made with distilled hop oil, and it is very good. It's like the first, actually. I've not had the Sierra Nevada ipa. I've only had the apa, the regular pale ale. It's kind of like that, but, you know, up a couple notches. It's really, really good. And I am writing with an EF Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602 tonight. Pulled out in honor of our Pencil of the Week. I pulled out the one Blackwing that I am kind of chipping away at. You know, like the. I have one unsharpened. I have one that's sharpened, and this is my sharpened one that I like to pull out every once in a while. So I am riding with that.
Johnny, how about you?
I'm not drinking anything as interesting as Tim. I'm just drinking Sam Adams cream stout because winter won't leave Baltimore, and this is a good winter beer. And I'm writing with a Black Wing also, but not an Eberhard Faber. Mine's just Palomino, but it has a pink eraser, so boom.
Well done.
It works better.
But I actually. Well, I'll bring It. I have something to say about that, too, but we'll talk about that later.
Pinky Ranchers for life.
What? So I am drinking a drink that Johnny concocted called a fresh pint of Bel Air, which, by the way, I think you should totally make warden drink names, because that's amazing. It's 2 ounces of wild turkey rye, 1 tablespoon of mustard greased from one Philly cheesesteak.
Mmm.
Fancy artisanal ice and cheese whizzed for garnish, which, you know, obviously, so I
threw up when I typed that. I really did.
I definitely want some artisanal ice.
Yeah, I love that part. The fancy artisanal ice. I'm sure it's real, not just artisanal ice. It is fancy artisanal ice.
Vapid, and it's very big and it has no bubbles.
Not that crappy artisanal ice.
Perfectly clear.
David Rees quality garbage from your ice maker.
Yeah, and I'm writing with onions.
I'm writing with a chain pen I stole from the bank and ran over with my car, which I steal this, man. No. I've been getting really into anchor beers lately, just because it's, like, a local institution, and I like the anchor steam a lot. I found an anchor saison, which is like a. It's kind of a. Like a fruity beer without it being like. Like a shandy or even like a. Like, a blue moon type of beer. It's like, kind of a sharp, like, citrusy beer, and it's very springy, very delicious. And I am writing. I actually have my Palomino Blackwing 602 in front of me for reasons we'll make clear in a second. But I'm writing with a Muji wooden ballpoint pen because I. It's a very fine point. It's like a 0.4 ballpoint, which is pretty darn thin. And I am mostly writing with it because I was kind of late coming home to get started with the podcast, and it was, like, the closest thing in front of me, so I just grabbed it.
Is that the one that you sent us if you've been sued?
I think so. I can't remember if I sent you the wooden one or, like, the brushed aluminum one, but I think it was the wooden one. It's really.
Yeah, they're cool little pens. I like that pen.
Yeah. The Muji store is just fantastic.
They.
I'm told. I'm told there are wooden pencils at some of them, like Muji brand wooden pencils, but I have not encountered Any yet. So they sell erasers and they sell pencil sharpeners and, like, pencil like holders. But I have not. I have not found any, like, actual wooden pencils. Well, today our pencil of the week is something that I think probably everybody who listens to this podcast is familiar with. It's the Palomino Blackwing 602. It's the second in the series of the remakes of the Blackwing. And this one is a little bit closer to, in aesthetics and I think, performance to the original ever hard Faber Blackwing. They released this in. Is it 2011, guys?
Yep.
Yeah, 2011 after the first Blackwing Palomino Blackwing. The. We call it the Blackwing MMX because it was released in 2010, but some people might call it the classic. Exactly. So it's not the classic classic, but it's the new classic, I guess. But this one, it writes a little bit harder than the mmx and it looks, except for the fact that it comes with a black eraser instead of the pink eraser, like the original one performs a little bit closer to the original. So I think everybody pretty much loves it. At least that I've talked to. I've never talked to anybody who just really is like, super down on it, at least for performance reasons, for marketing reasons. That's a whole nother story. But what do you guys think of this pencil? Tim?
Yeah, I just kind of gathered myself.
If nobody in this class talks, then I'm going to pick somebody.
It's good. That's the answer you would get if you're actually in the classroom.
If you taught, for example, it's cool.
Why? I don't know. I like, like it. You know, it's good. I'm. Like you said, it's kind of hard to. It's almost hard to talk about because it is so good and because so many people like it and there aren't a whole lot of negatives besides maybe the. The eraser, which I'm sure we'll get into. But, you know, my first impression is. Or my, like, first thoughts when getting ready to talk about it, it's not. Or it's the pencil that I grab more than just about anything else. It's a standard when, you know, like, with us having, like. And people who listen to this too, have so many different pencils. You'll have like a rotation going and a pouch with a bunch of different stuff that's kind of coming in and out usually. This is one that's always in there no matter what. And it's one that I'll carry in my pocket more than any other two. Just put a cap on it.
Yeah.
So it's just. I'm also just. Which we've talked about this before, too, but I'm just kind of a sucker for things that have connection to history, you know, and which this. Which this pencil, of course, has. It's probably the most famous. Well, I don't know. How would you say that it's not the most famous pencil ever? Because, of course, the Dixon would be, but it's, like, the most.
Maybe it's the most storied pen. Like, maybe celebrated pencil even.
Celebrated. Yeah. Like that.
Yeah.
Yeah. Johnny, how about you?
I like this pencil a lot, but I find I don't use it that often. That makes sense. Like, if I have a vest on, I've got a pen, a pencil, and a knife in the pocket, and it's usually a Blackwing 6 or 2, but I usually have another pencil on me that I'll reach for first. It's sort of like my backup pencil, so I really, really like it. You know, the pencil cup. I don't always grab it.
Yeah.
And it could be because of that black eraser, which is ugly. It doesn't work very well.
Do you have the. The pack of pink erasers?
Yeah. The one in front of me right now is a nice pink one. It's so pretty.
Yeah.
You wouldn't think that would make such a difference. It's such a tiny little part of the pencil.
Yeah.
I feel like. I'm sorry.
I was gonna say it's like, the one thing that separates it from the original besides, you know, having the Palomino logo on there.
I wish.
I think they could take the Palomino logo off. I feel like the Blackwing branding is stronger than the Palomino branding, and they own it, so.
Yeah.
Own it.
I really like this pencil, but I think a part of me resents the Blackwing line a little bit because they took so much attention away from the palominos, which were really good pencils. And I know they put a lot of thought into the new finish, and they want to distinguish the eraser ones as a writing pencil and the graded ones as a drawing pencil, but they're ugly, and they ruined a really good pencil with the way they did. Sorry, Charles. But.
Yeah, that.
The old palominos are just, you know, remarkable. You'd pull them out.
Wow.
What is that? And I pull it out, and nobody says anything.
Yeah.
I mean, not that you want a lot of attention for your pencils, but
before 2010, I think that yeah. The Palomino was kind of the. The you know, the darling of the kind of the boutique pencil world.
Yeah. And the blue one is still one of my favorite pencils in the world.
Yeah. Yeah.
The non eraser one, especially the blue is perfect.
That white eraser on the Palomino is a pretty, pretty good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I feel like it doesn't look bad on there, but I don't like it on the black wing.
Yeah.
That much. Although I'm used to it on the mmx. I don't know if you guys changed yours.
It's kind of off topic. The, the white eraser.
Yeah, I hate it. But I don't like anything else in it. I like the black one in there.
Yeah. Well actually with the, you know, with the black nano. Andy, you do this too. Switch the pink erasers in for the black ones and then I. I'll put the black ones into the mmx. So it's just black eraser.
That's a good idea.
And it looks really cool. So that's usually what I do. And then I just get rid of the white because the white just gets like dirty looking.
Looks like a Chiclet.
It looks great until you use it.
Just pop it in your mouth, get
fresh brush, get a little Chiclet. It cleans your teeth off A little abrasive.
The only thing that sometimes I guess I would have a complaint about with the Blackwing 602 or really any of the new blackwings is when it's freshly sharpened. It is a big pencil. You can't like fit it in your pencil bag. You can't easily like you can really just put it, put it on display in your pen cup. I actually have it at work. I have it just sort of like sitting across the top of my keyboard and it's. Yeah. Takes up a lot of room. But I mean it's a big pencil. That ferrule is pretty big.
See my. I'll have to track down. I have a pretty sweet picture I took of my. My due deck divide with three of each in the holes like lined up or. Yeah. So there's like nine pencils of each. It's a pretty sweet shot. So if you got one of those, it's pretty easy to put on display.
I just bought one for my father in law's birthday.
Nice. The divide or was it just the cube or.
I think it's. I think we went with the.
Oh man.
Which one did we go with? I have to look that up because I Can't remember but yeah, Katie had been looking at mine and like, I think my, I think my dad would like that because he, he appreciates kind of the Ron Swanson craftsmanship of, you know, nice things like that. Where is that receipt seat?
Sure. Dudek will appreciate the Ron Swanson comp.
The groove.
Yes. He's the, he's the Ron Swanson of the stationary world.
He is.
It's woodworking. He just needs to drink scotch constantly while he does it.
But I require all the bacon and eggs. When I say all the bacon, eggs, I do not mean a lot. I mean all. Yeah, he's. Yeah. My father in law has a lot in common with, with Ron Swans. I think we've talked about this before, but he's doesn't like the government, but he does like, you know, some good craftsmanship. Yeah.
So.
Yeah.
Who's Ron Swanson?
Oh, you need to watch Parks and Rec, Johnny.
I'm not that much older than you guys.
Get this. Yes, it is to Indiana what house of cards is to Baltimore.
Yeah.
So if you're from Indiana, it's like. Except it's like hilarious instead of terrifying.
It's funny because. Troubling because there's a lot of things that producers clearly didn't know about Indiana. Like they. Yeah, like they, they say Lafayette and, and there's. Yeah, there's a bunch of stuff in there. But there's also like a character like Ron who's I feel like, like a archetypical Indiana dad.
He's.
Yeah. So they got some things right. So. Yeah, the, the Blackwing, it's. It's not a cheap pencil, if you are not aware of it. It's. It's $20 for a dozen, which is actually going up in price soon.
How much is it going to go
up, Johnny, do you remember? I think it's just a couple bucks, but I think it's two bucks. Yeah.
It's going to be like new boxes are pretty.
Yeah, it's gonna be $22. They also have new boxes.
Yeah.
I always thought the box that this pencil came with was not up to par with pencil. Kind of thin and every time I got one they were crushed. Even if they were in a padded box. And usually pencils.com does a very good job of packing stuff.
Yeah.
Which is. It's still on the subject of the price and I know you all make this argument to people just as much as I do, but it's 20. Whatever. Even if it's $22 a box, that's still under $2 a pencil. And if you comp it to like a gel pen or something, it's gonna. Arguably it might last just as long if you're not like sharpening it constantly. I mean, if it's like average use, it's gonna have pretty long shelf life. But it just. The pencil has that. Of course, the. Everybody has these preconceived notions about pencils being these cheap disposable things. When you have a nice one, which this is, it's gonna last you a long time. I mean, I probably, I'm just about to finish one. I don't remember how long I've been using it. So.
Yeah, I mean, this is, this is the pencil I usually give people when they're like, like. Oh, well, you know why? Why pencils? I don't like pencils. And so I give them a black wing. And it's so drastically different than like an Office Depot pencil or something that they're probably used to then, you know. Yeah, I get that reaction a lot.
No, I hate cheap pencils. I revise my opinion.
Yeah. So, I mean. Yeah, you're right. It's still less than $2 a pencil, which is well worth it at least in, you know, in our books. I guess I can't say the same for everybody, but it's. Yeah, it's. It's. The most expensive pencil is still cheaper than most cheap fountain pens.
Oh, yeah.
If that makes sense.
Even those disposable ones. Yeah, they're a couple bucks a piece.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And they're like. I've gotten a few people hooked on them, which we've talked about before. A couple people I work with, my brother in law also is now using. Yeah. And some students. And the students, I should note on the subject of them being expensive. Those students don't lose those pencils. Oh, I bet they don't go missing. But what I was gonna. What was I gonna say? Oh, just that like people who. With just like average use of a pencil. People who aren't using writing constantly, they last. My brother in law's bought one box of them and he's been working, but he uses them all the time at school and stuff. He just doesn't write a lot of longhand stuff. So he's had it for, for a while. So a box will last you a long time?
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
I was always wondering something that I was wondering if you guys might have a theory behind, and that is how come this one seems to be the most popular Blackwing, especially Among like the Field Nuts crew and even in our Facebook group.
I think it's because the majority of the people who use it are there for writing. You know, they write and take notes and things. And this is probably the hardest of a very series of very soft pencils. So I feel like it's. It's optimized for writing. Plus, if you're. If you're a purist, it looks much closer to the original than either of the other ones. Like the, The. The pearl is just gorgeous. Like, it's beautiful. But yeah, it doesn't. It just has a whole. Has a whole other, like, mythos kind of look about it than in, you know, then. Then the black wing than the original black wings. So, yeah, I feel like, yeah, this is the most. This is the most used and loved by writers because it's the hardest. Like, the hardest graphite.
Yeah. I really like the mmx. But, you know, you can sign your name Sharpen.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's like. Yeah, it's well put. Well, but just not everybody likes sharpening as much as we do.
Yeah, the. The mmx. Sometimes it's so soft, it just feels like. Like a grease pencil.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I tried to put a pearl and a bullet pencil. That didn't last very long. Like, I think I put a picture of that like the black bullet pencil and the white pearl because it looked awesome.
Yeah.
But I just didn't. I didn't like it because it's not, you know, that easy to sharpen.
Yeah.
Bullet pencil stub. So I was just kind of sick of it. So I put something harder in.
Yeah.
Even the. For bullet pencils, the 602 is a little borderline for me.
Yeah.
I like to stick to a, you know, force choice or I even started putting in. Right, dudes. The USA Naturals.
Oh, cool.
In bullet pencils. And that works really nicely.
Is the 602, the default pencil that comes with. That comes with the twists.
It was for the Kickstarter. And then I actually, John, I posted a picture or I said something about using like how I. The forest choice was my favorite. And he said actually that's what they're going to be switching to. So I think they're going to. It's going to start coming with forest choice. So he's going to. That's going to be the new standard, which is exciting because the coolest thing, the best. The best thing about using the forest choice and that is when you unscrew it and open it up, the smell that like, comes out of the pencil Is so intense because it just like stews inside.
Yeah.
Hot boxing itself. And then you open up this cedar smell. Just like pretty amazing.
Somebody should put some spinsels in there.
And oh God. My daughter took one out of the tube and put it in her pencil box like two years ago. And still even fragrant pencils smell like strawberry bubblegum.
I can't stand those spinsels.
They don't even write well. They don't do anything well.
I just like to say smencil.
They have smends too.
They have what?
Svens. Sounds gross. That sounds more disgusting for some reason.
It sounds like some really Easter ish men's store. Come to smends. Get your very tight jeans.
Get your smitty jeans.
The sales Guy has 12 pounds of glasses on his face.
You're describing every San Francisco shop ever.
I don't get kicked in the face.
All right, so Tim, how would you. How would you grade the 602?
A plus. A plus is gold. Gold standard as far as I'm concerned.
It's if the Dixon, if the Ticonderoga is the gold standard for like the semi cheaps, like the regular pen, like mainstream pencils, this is the gold standard for the boutique pencils. And it's. Yeah, it is a relative newcomer compared to like Tombows and Mitsubishi's.
But it's.
Yeah, it's pretty good.
I was just gonna say if like the High Yuni and the Tombow and pencils like that started coming out with ferrules and erasers then things could get interesting.
But
I don't think that's gonna happen.
Johnny.
I'd go with an A because the black eraser is not doing it for me. Yeah, but that's really the only thing I can think of. Especially now that they're redoing the box.
Yeah, definitely. I'm going to go along with Tim and put an A on here. I agree. I have a bunch of pink erasers so I'm just happy switching one out. But yeah, it writes really well and I definitely use one every day.
Cool.
Do you guys want to get on to our main topic which in our case are fresh points?
Sure, sounds good. Absolutely.
Tim, would you like to lead us off?
I would love to.
No, I see you have just one word on here and it's the name of a chipmunk.
Alvin. Yeah.
Simon, Theodore.
I got. Yes. My first fresh point is just that I finally got an Alvin Bullet pencil. Sorry. Gosh, I can't talk. Alvin Bullet sharpener.
Yeah.
What do you think? I finally Got one. It's one of those things that I've put in my. I put in my Amazon cart like probably a dozen times before I made the $5 plunge and got it. It's not like it's that expensive, but I don't know why I just kept taking it out. And finally my wife was just like, just buy it. Getting something for our son. Just like put it in there. Just do it. Just get it. I'm sick of hitting save for later on Amazon, but I got that. And it is small. It is so small. I guess sharpeners, you know, like, you always have that kind of sort of shocked at how little they are when I get them. Because you see them in pictures on the computer and the picture on the computer is like 10 times bigger than it's gonna be when it's actually in your hand. It's amazing how small it is.
Especially Mark. Mark Tucker's. He wrote a thing about these on the. On right. Analog. And yeah. That photograph. His photography is amazing. So it just like just blew up just right on your computer screen. It looks huge.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I. I just got that and was just really kind of smitten with it. And so I just wanted to bring it up and say that I finally have gotten with the times and I've gotten one.
It feels really nice in your hand.
Yeah. I love the. The knurling that like really easy to.
Yeah.
So easy to use.
I. I wish the point was a little bit longer, but are you good with the point that it comes with?
Yeah, I wish it was longer too, but there are certain pencils that I like that point with, you know, with like the force choice and those sorts of. That are like a little bit on the harder side or that. Right. Dude's natural things like that that I actually don't. On a harder pencil. Sometimes the super long point kind of annoys me.
Yeah.
So I like it. I like it for bullet pencil use too. So I've been. This week I've been carrying it with my twist so I can. Which has. I had the brass tip in. So it's like matchy matchy. My pockets are getting. My pockets are getting heavy. And it's definitely not because of money.
I'm just gonna say that in fact. Less money.
Yes. Like, I just realized that this week that I've been. What I had in my pocket this week was my. My knife, which is a. The Cadet. Was that not Swiss Army. What's the company that make Victoria Knox Cadet? It's like. It's like the knurled silver one. So I was carrying that. The Alvin bullet sharpener. My twist bullet pencil with the brass tip, a Keras customs pen. That's like, machined aluminum. And so I had all this stuff in my pocket. I was like, oh, my gosh. I feel like I run into something. I could crack glass if I bumped into a door just because my pockets are so heavy.
You're a tactical human.
Yeah, I'm, like, turning into Robocop or, like, the nerdy version of Robocop, which is Inspector Gadget. Yeah, there we go.
I'm always on duty,
so that's that. I just wanted to bring it up that I got it and I like it. And actually. And I was gonna. This leads me into my next point, because one thing I realized about it is that it works with the Laddie. I feel like my life in the pencil world is just a series of discoveries about the Laddie. It's like my whole world should be
the name of your memoir.
Yeah. My Man, Laddie man, or something like that.
Laddie Ladd,
the Tim Wasem Story.
Or Laddie's Man,
Laddie's Man. That's a good one.
Yeah.
That's our subtitle for the show, I think. Ladies Man.
So the Alvin works really nicely with the Ladee, which I had also. And now I forget. I forgot the name, but somebody. I can't look it up that quickly. But someone else on the group had made me realize that you can use the ladee with the Kum 2 stage long point sharpener, which works in that really well, which is awesome. Also, I figured out how to shave some of the finish off so that I could fit it in a bullet pencil, too. So I've had, like, a lot of discoveries about this thing. It's, like, at the center of my. The center of my writing world, but.
Hello.
Hey, Laddie.
Hey, Laddie. I just think of. Did you ever see the. The Ladies man skit on snl?
Yeah. Ooh.
With a Laddie.
Yeah. So that's that. I was just gonna say I feel like the Laddie will be my legacy because I talk about it so much. But the one other, like, sort of weird thing about it. I don't know if you all have noticed this, but I've noticed it with different boxes of Laddies. Sometimes they're thicker, which, of course, you haven't noticed it because you're not as obsessed with them. Don't spend as much time with them. But sometimes the finish is thicker than other times, which is really strange. But like, there are some laddies I have that I can fit somehow into my classroom. Friendly. And then there are others that don't. It just depends on, like, thickness. So it's kind of inconsistent, I guess.
That was really weird.
Kind of Dixon's hallmark these days.
Yeah. Consistency.
Sorry.
Maybe we can get a pencils.com to. Or palomino to redo the Ladee. They can just, like, have a hostile takeover of, like, the Ladee brand. Just, like, make them. Make them really good.
Or a mini jumbo would be. Yeah, they should make a mini jumbo. Like, if they made the. The Palomino HB round and bigger. Oh, my gosh.
Did you ever try a spangle? Are you familiar with the spangles?
I know what it is, but I haven't tried it.
I am. Oh, man. Somewhere. Somewhere in this terrible organization system of pencils. I have. I have one. If I. If I can dig it up, I'll send it to you. Because it was. It was the kind of like the California Republic stationers. I don't know if it was a jumbo or a mini jumbo, but it was. It wasn't super big.
Yeah, they had both, I think.
Did they?
I never had anybody. Yeah, I had the jumbo and then mini jumbo, which is just, like, funniest thing in pencil.
Yeah.
Mini jumbo
jumbo shrimp. Yeah.
I'm a big dude.
Cool. The next quick point I was going to make is that. Have you guys seen this? That there's a new rhymo, or. I feel like there are always. There are always new rhymos. We are working up to a full set of all 12.
Every month.
Yeah, Every month will be a rhymo, and then people will write something different every month, which I guess would be awesome.
There should be one that's like Graffiti Writing Month. It's like Nagro Rhymo. Yeah.
The one that's starting, I guess it's. This month is journal writing month, which I think is a new thing that somebody started up and is trying to get going because they followed me on. On Twitter, and so I saw, and they didn't have a lot of followers, so it's not, like a huge thing. But it's nadjo rhymo or nadjurimo. It doesn't really work to pronounce it correctly. Journal. So nadjurimo. But it looks like Nadjo rhymo. And I don't know if I'm gonna do it, but I just thought I'd mention it because it's kind of interesting.
That's for March.
Yes. Yeah. And rhymos tend to make me feel claustrophobic. And so I end up, like bailing on them pretty quickly. So I probably won't do it. But some people like that sort of thing. So check it out. I think next month is. And this one's more long standing, but April is National Poetry Writing Month.
That's true.
Yeah. And that one's a pretty well established thing.
You should do some sort of contest with that pencil. Haiku.
Yeah.
I bought at our used bookstore yesterday. I bought a book of baseball haikus. I'm pretty excited about that.
I feel like that was literally written specifically for you.
Yeah, tell me about it. So. And the last point I'm going to make or that I want to bring. Last thing I want to bring up is. And I should have brought this up earlier on the subject of the 602. But did you guys see the post on. Steven's post on her Facebook group about his just totally bonkers Eberhard Faber 602 collection?
It's amazing.
I had a dream about it. I did.
Really? I don't doubt it. I mean, it's a dream.
It was mine.
Let's do like an Italian job and just like go steal it. We'll get a bunch of little Mini Coopers together.
A Black Wing job.
It was just. It's sort of bewildering when I see. I'm like, wait. I wasn't sure if this was. Yeah, it was like one of those things. I had to convince myself that I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. I'm trying to look up pictures of it right now. But for those of you who haven't seen it, you should join our group so that you can check this out. But there's a. Stephen, a member of our group is a collector of the original 602 and as well as. Is it the Van Dyke. Is that the other one? Yeah, yeah. The yellow. Which is. Which I guess I've heard and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but is the same. Has the same core. Or traditionally had the same core but just looked different. Is that true?
I have no clue. I can't remember. Yeah.
Or is it. I could be wrong. It could be that microtonic or whatever it's called. Is the other one that has the same. Same. The same core. But it's a. It's a similar era pencil from Ever Hard Faber that I think will probably. My guess is that it'll be the next one that everybody's starting to Collect and scoop up on. On ebay.
Yeah.
And things. Because all the 602s are going to be gone for $500 a box.
Yeah.
Just. Just nuts. So. And so he has, along with his collection, which. How much do you think those. Those pencil holders that he has them in. How much do those.
You know, I've never. I actually have an alert for some of those on. On ebay and I've never seen one. I've never seen one for sale. I know that Sean from the Blackwing pages has. Has one or two of those. Stephen has one. I. I can't even begin to guess. How much does it sell for?
Okay, so. Well, I've seen. I've come across one since we've done this. Like one showed up on ebay or something. And I think it was in the $200 range, something like that. So here's his picture. So it's. I think it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Good podcasting here. 13, 14, 15. Okay. So there's 15 rows and it looks like they're three deep. So it probably has like 45 to 50.
Yeah.
Of these in there. So 45 to 50 of the black wings. And he has kind of all the varieties like the ones, the black band and the ones that don't have it. And then on the left side, he has another one of those containers that is filled with.
Are you on the post right now in the group?
Yeah.
Would you maybe comment on it? So it bumps it up to the top.
Does it do that?
Yeah. Yep.
I'm just gonna say bump.
Yeah.
Okay, cool.
So, yeah, there it is.
Yeah. And then in the middle, he has some like, sort of half used ones. Yeah. But just go take a look at it. It's pretty bewildering is just the only word I can use. My first comment I left on it was just that my head was spinning because I couldn't like believe what was in front of me. So check it out.
That's super cool. I see you commented. My head is spinning on.
Yeah, I tried to get him. I asked him over how long of a period has he been gathering these? And I. I didn't really get an answer. So I'm still wondering. I'm still like, how long has this been going on?
But we should call it the German job, because Eberhard Faber. And then we'll drive like little tiny German cars.
The German job.
We get really good gas mileage on our way. The German job, the most efficient heist ever.
Signal run on time.
The Verb is at the end. Oh, my God.
Yeah. Well, that's all I've got for fresh points.
How about you, Johnny?
I do have a few for folks that are following the Caroline Weaver pencil enterprise. You probably noticed that she's opening a store in Manhattan next week.
That's so cool.
This week? This week on the 11th. So I think I get to accompany my wife on a work trip in a week or two. So I'm super excited to go, drop in and spend all my money and buy all the pencils. Just hold the place up.
I really, really want to go. There's a Facebook office in New York City, and there's some people I work with who are there. So I'm trying hard to find a. Find a way to justify going out there, and I'm definitely hitting up CW Pencil Enterprise.
Do it this month. We'll meet up, we'll get a coffee.
Oh, heck, yeah.
She needs to open up her Asheville branch, I think.
I think so.
That one's coming in April.
Really?
Oh, man. That was just like. I had like a. It was like the equivalent of somebody saying, hey, do you know that tomorrow's Christmas?
What? No, it's not. I saw on social media that she's got a pencil stamping machine. Like, stamping while you wait.
Yeah, I saw that too. It's like an old school one, too. Like manual. I am excited to go.
Really, really excited to go.
She is. She has a big stock, too. That picture of those shelves she posted. Yeah.
There are stacks and stacks of boxes above them.
Yeah, there's been somebody. Somebody in the group just bought a bunch of pencils there the other day, and it just looks gorgeous. They bought like, maybe like four or five of each.
Yeah.
Is it. Is her Instagram CW pencils?
I think so. Instagram.
I was gonna try to find the pictures. We can. Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yep. Oh, no, it's not CW pencils. CW underscore pencils.
Maybe.
I think it might be private.
Yeah, private. So, yeah, you should go there and take lots of pictures and report back. Maybe you should bring a little audio recorder and record an interview with her. Like, in the field.
I think most of what you record will be me squealing. Very small explosion, which is my brain. A smaller one that is my heart. And then silence.
That was very poetic.
And then a siren.
Yeah. You take us like a. You need to take like a video tour for us on your phone or something.
Oh, yeah.
Borrow people's bot cam. Roll in there. Point this way. Also, I sort of ventured into Enemy territory today and went to the pen show. The Baltimore. I think it's called the Baltimore Washington Pen Show now with Mr. Joe Lebo this morning, which was a lot of fun. I met the nice gent who runs Lead Holder and the Andersons. So, you know, nobody threw anything at me for wearing a pencil shirt and not buying any pens.
That's good.
That was cool. They're really nice, nice folks. I could totally want to go to the Washington one in the summer. Although I hear there are pencils at that one. So he.
What about the Atlanta pen show?
I don't think I'm gonna be able to make it this really close to my daughter's birthday.
Mm.
Maybe it's like, get on my bike,
go away for a couple days.
I know that My bicycle.
Tim, you're going?
Yeah, I'll be there Saturday. I might try to pull off Friday night, but probably I'll just be there. I'll get there halfway through the day on Saturday, and then I'll be there for anything that happens. That's cool.
And I think Will is going.
Oh, cool.
Should have a Tennessee teachers meetup.
Yeah. Now that we're finally back to work,
can I say y' all like a hit for saying that?
You say what? Y'. All.
Y' all in Tennessee.
Oh, yeah. And it's. I have resisted until, like, six months ago, and finally it slips out every once in a while because it is a necessary thing that we don't have in our language. Spanish has it, but we don't have it.
What is it in Spanish? It's nosotros.
It's vosotros.
Vosotros. Yeah.
Isn't it? Yeah. Because nosotros is us, so.
That's right. Yeah.
So it's you all is. I think it's Vosodrus.
Yeah.
In Baltimore, we don't say y'. All. We say youse.
Yeah, Youse guys. The floral of you.
Come on, youse.
Get over here. Wow. That was fascinating.
We Indiana. You say you guys'.
Yeah.
Hey, is that you guys car?
So true. I haven't thought about that. I haven't, like, remembered that in a while. I never said it. So that's why.
So you went to the pen show?
Yeah, I wore my erasable shirt, which was cool.
Yeah.
And Chris from Write Notepads came, and he bought one of those forever pencils that I don't understand how they work. They react with the paper somehow, and they write. They're pretty neat. I can't really sharpen them, though. They were trying to egg me on to going over to the nib grinder and asking him to grind my pencil. I did not.
It'd probably, like, ruin his machine. Like, gets all full of gunked up with graphite and you're like, thank you. He's got a $30 pencil sharpener you ruined.
It was a good pencil. I had a nice Tombow 8901 sharpening on it. Long and fragrant. Yeah. Only other fresh point, which I don't know if it is a fresh point, is that the boy is getting into graphite now. The boy being my son, who is a little over a year and a half. So this is like the start of brand new adventures in our house. He sort of curled up on the table the other day next to me and opened up my Harry Potter pencil box and just pulled out of Norris and took my field notes and scribbled in it and put it down. What else did he take? He took a different pencil and started scribbling it. And I looked at him, I said, do you want a color? And he goes, no. And he walked away.
You didn't see the single tear falling from your eye.
Yeah. I waited till he left the room.
My boy's growing up.
Yeah. This is going to be the start of a lot of blog posts that might irritate people that don't like really cute kids.
I hate cute kids.
Yeah, cute kids are the worst. They're the worst.
Especially those little boys with curly hair who say really cute things and they have big eyes.
Yeah. He's like a little cherub poop on that. That hair is so curly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Those are all my fresh points. How about you, Mr. Andy?
I think the biggest one is last weekend I met Elaine from Jetpens, which is pretty cool. A lot of you may know her. She's the. The marketing person at Jetpens, who's kind of the blogger outreach person. And she lives in San Jose. And in fact, Jetpens is in San Jose. I did not get to go to the office, which would have been awesome, but maybe someday. We had brunch and kind of walked around San Jose. It was pretty neat. It's funny how. How much she knows about, like, the pencil and pen stationary community and have. And haven't met them. I. I think it's.
I just think, like, how much dirt she has on everyone.
She knows everything. She just keeps everybody's secrets. And she's like, if you don't write good things about Jetpens, man, I'm gonna let it go, Johnny. That you were at a pen show.
Who's the leak?
She's like the Frank Underwood of the stationary community or I guess like the Doug Stamper of stationery.
Oh, I love Doug Stamper.
Doug's pretty great.
I actually ran into a guy that plays Doug Stamper around the corner from my house a few months ago.
Are you serious?
When they were filming it, Yeah. I like walked by and he went into this shop they have called Bazaar, where they sell taxidermy animals and stuff like that. And I kind of. I went to the coffee shop. Like, who was that? I should have said hi. I'm like, oh, that's the guy that plays Doug Stamper.
Wow.
Yeah, that's how I knew he'd be back in season three.
Spoiler.
Spoiler.
Well, it happens in like the beginning scenes of season three, so you're spoiling like the first 30 seconds. Yeah. So Elaine's awesome. It was so good to meet her. I live 20 miles away from. From there, so we're gonna hang out again. And yeah, it's just interesting to hear about, like, how Jetpens works because it's. It just like, has never been like a physical place or a physical thing for me. Just like this website where you give them some money and suddenly you get some cool pens. So, yeah, that was. That was pretty good. I also, it's. It's funny, by the time of this recording, I'm gonna let everybody on a little secret. We had some. Some Skype issues with recording this episode. So as we're recording now, we're about five days later than when we started recording this episode. So if you notice a subtle change in like my voice or background noise or something, that's why we've been recording for five days. Just straight. We had to.
Why are my arms tired?
So, yeah, this is as of right now, Sunday the 8th. I know that the Baron Fig. New items. There's a bunch of them that are sold out. Really? Yeah. I didn't get a chance to get
in there and get one yet.
I think the dot grid may be sold out. But that's all right because I know how much Tim hates dot grid.
I like their dot grid, actually.
Yeah.
Nice to meet.
They.
They released a one year anniversary notebook and it's a. Both the Confidant and the Apprentice are kind of a like a slate gray, like a charcoal gray. Much darker than the. Than the standard one that they have. They're called the Maker series. They're really beautiful. Yeah, I got a couple of them. I don't know. There's something. It's just a slight change. It's like they darkened the gray by 30%, but it's. It looks so nice. What do you guys think of that?
Mine come this week and I am losing sleep.
Yeah, I might be ordering one before we get off this car.
I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're, they're, they're pretty gorgeous.
Might resort to begging.
Yeah, just let me just give me one. Yeah, Joey, that's also on my, my New York City list is if I, if I get to New York City, I need to stop by. You should do this, Johnny. You should go stop by their office. Oh, you know what? I'm gonna do that. Yeah, you should just hit them up. Yeah, they're pretty great. So, yeah, I'm looking down in their little buy now thing and I guess, yeah, the deck grids are sold out. They just have blank and ruled, which are perfectly fine. Perfectly nice notebooks. So, yeah, check those out. It's the same price as the, the old ones.
I.
Oh, I was just going to quick mention the, the brass twist bullet pencils. You guys have seen those, I assume. Yes, they made a few of the, the bodies in brass as well as the, the caps for the pencil.
And they did aluminum raw as well, right?
Yeah, Yep. They did a raw aluminum too. Yeah, the brass, just gorgeous. It looks, it looks really steampunk. Like, I feel like we should put like a Musgrave testing 100 in there and like, which is silver and it'll just look like some sort of a steampunk pencil.
I think it looks awesome. I think it looks awesome. But I can pretty much tell you, like, ahead of time, I wouldn't be able to use it just for like. It's gonna be so heavy.
Yeah.
Unless you had a short, short pencil in it. But they just look. It will look awesome. I just know, like, for my preferences, like with Keras Customs Things pens, I. Anything heavier than the aluminum options just doesn't. Yeah, it doesn't, like, appeal to me. I think it just. I might just have like a light hold on things.
Yeah. I asked John on Twitter how much it weighs, and I'm trying to find my conversation, but I think it's. I think it's 1.8 ounces, whereas the aluminum one is 1 ounce. So it's almost, almost twice as heavy.
Gee, that is serious.
Yeah. Still lighter than I thought they would be, but twice as heavy. And finally, the last thing I was going to mention. So some of you out there may know what slack is. We use Slack at my old job for just kind of communication between the team. It's kind of a cross between like a chat room and like a Facebook group and instant messenger even. It's like lightweight communication, but you can do a lot of cool stuff with it. Brad Dowdy has started a pen Addict public Slack channel, which I think if you go to our group, I believe he posted something in there. If not in our group, definitely in the field nuts group. But it's a place to go. The discussions are kind of separated out by like in different channels or basically different. Different chat rooms almost. And there's. There's 120 people, 20 members of this group. So it's pretty high volume. I'm sorry, there's 140 some now. There's a lot. People talk a lot. And there's one for pencils. It's probably the. One of the least trafficked areas of the. Of this chat because these are mostly pen nuts. So if you're interested in having almost like a. If you guys remember AOL chat rooms, if you want to have an almost experience like that, come on over to the Pen Addict Pencil channel.
Yeah, I signed up and I still don't totally understand why it exists, but I was kind of. I'll just say it. I was kind of annoyed with it and I never even like logged in because I was getting like updates sent to my email and I was like, oh gosh. Like, it's like as if I need another avenue to talk about this stuff.
It's really useful for teams. Like, I know that Mike's Relay, Mike Hurley's Relay FM thing has a network, has a slack. Has like a slack. I don't know what to call it. Like a, like a slack account. And so they'll like do show planning and they'll. There's a different channel for each. Each. Each show. And it's really good for small teams like that. I don't really know how it's going to be with 140 people in there. Yeah, like the Nerd Uprising Network where the Dot Grid podcast is through, they have a. We have a Slack channel. But yeah, it's. It's great for when you have like 10 people. And I know that there's been some interesting discussion. Like I pop into the EDC channel on this Pen Addict one every now and then and people are just like yelling about carabiner clips and stuff. The paper. The paper one and the pencil one are my favorites. Those are usually pretty, pretty tame. So, yeah, sorry.
To me, it just like, feels and I, I need to like, dig, I need to check it out and see what I think. But my, my instinct tells me that it's going to be like the equivalent of like deciding to carry a second cell phone with a different phone number.
Yeah.
Like you can call me here or you can call me here. Same thing. But like some, some people have this phone number and some people have the other phone number.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think a Facebook group is a little bit, it's a little bit harder to post. You can't post as instantly, which I think means you have fewer, better quality posts. But if, if you're really into like a pretty rapid fire back and forth
about something, it would, Yeah, I should get in touch with somebody over at Facebook to talk about this. But I think it would really, it would be a really good idea if the groups, if you could have like, almost like a little channel in there so that, because it's, that's the one thing about our Facebook group. It's so awesome. But it's hard to kind of like organize what's inside of the group, like kind of what happens. It's all very like in the moment, you know, whatever's happening right now. But it'd be cool to have almost
like a big group discussion lines.
Yeah. Yeah.
It's interesting. Yeah. Oh well, too bad you don't know any of those people.
Yeah, I'll just also, I guess I'll go to the contact us page on facebook.com and just fill it out there. Send something out into the void. I'm sure no one's emailing Facebook.
Yeah, no one cares. Nobody pays attention to like 70 year
old, 70 year old people.
Do they have the Internet at Facebook?
Like 70 year olds like emailing to like figure out how to like. It's funny to send a private message, watch on tv.
It's funny to look at Mark Zuckerberg's public posts because there's, there's people in there who are like, Mark, can you fix my account please? Or like, I want to upload bigger, bigger photos, something like that. It's like, I'm sure he's going to get right on that since he's got
a, a big ledger book that he's like keeping track of all the requests of him. Kathy asked me to love you, dad.
So yeah, that is, that is. Those are all my fresh points. And I think we'll probably wrap the show up pretty soon just so we can.
Yeah, I actually had something else that I thought of we should talk about because I Don't think, think. And you can edit me out if I'm wrong. We haven't talked about TJ's awesome new banner that he made for us.
Oh, gosh, you're right. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Which we need to give him a shout out for that because it's awesome.
Absolutely.
A member of the group tj who's also working, I guess he's working on some videos and things, but he designed us an erasable, like, banner or logo, whatever you want to call it. This image that is modeled on one of the variations of the Blackwing box. And it's pretty. It's pretty amazing.
Gorgeous. Yeah, it looks. It looks like the. I think it was like the 1930s 40s Blackwing Box. It has like these blue and white stripes and he replicated the fonts really well. It's currently the. The group cover photo for the erasable group and. Oh, and it's going to be. It's definitely going to be stickers pretty soon.
Someone just barged into the room demanding water. I'm gonna get him some water. So you guys can. I'll keep going. Just keep going. I'll be right back.
So, yeah, that's something we need to do. I need to get on the ball with that. We have more stickers coming. We have designs, we have sizes. And I think what's going to happen is up on our website. I'm just going to put like pre orders so people can order as much as they want for like, like a month or something and then I'll get it filled and then Mitt will have enough extra to. To keep a running stock instead of selling out in 48 hours like last time. So I think I'm just always underestimating the number of, like, the demand we have for that. So, yeah, this is super cool. We need to have TJ on. Have you, have you ever talked to him? Johnny?
Not voice wise, but I made a joke about some gum that Charlotte bought on Instagram. It's some sort of gum and it's a joke that it gives you an Irish accent. And he said that he already has an Irish accent. This is a good month for that.
Yeah, he was on an episode, the network where I do the dot grid podcast, Nerd Uprising. They have another show called Stuff and Things with Rob where they have, like guest panelists and he was actually a guest host on that show, that episode.
So.
So if you want to hear his voice, I'll put a link in the show, notes to it.
Sweet.
Yeah, he's pretty cool. Are you back, Tim?
I am back, yes. The person who barged in was my two year old, just in case you're wondering.
You didn't give him the other mug, right?
No, I didn't.
So we're going to keep this short. Next week, next time we record will be a year. It'll be a year since we started recording, guys. Isn't that amazing?
That is crazy. We went by so fast.
I know we have some some things to talk about then, but we should probably keep that a surprise. So be sure to listen to episode 26. This is a short episode 25. Just a bunch of fresh points of Bel Air. Tim, where can people find you on the Internet?
You can follow me on Instagram timwassom or at writing Arsenal. I'm on Instagram Arsenal and then my reviews and things are@thewriting arsenal.com.
cool. Johnny, how about you on the interwebs? I am@pencilrevolution.com I am Ensolution on Twitter and onnygamber on Instagram.
Awesome.
I am Andy Welfle. I am awelfley on Twitter or clinched. You can find my website@woodclinched.com and yeah, you can find me in the erasable group too. Which by the way, if you want to join the erasable Facebook group, it is facebook.comgroups erasable. Our Facebook page is facebook.com erasablepodcast we are on Twitter raceablepodcast or on the web at erasable Us. This episode show notes and a recording can be found at erasable Us. And please review us and give us ratings on itunes. Recommend us on Overcast or whatever your podcatcher of choice is that helps us be shared with more people and allows us to grow. So thank you all for listening and you too. Thank you so much for getting together for these last five continuous days.
It's been a wild ride.
We're finally going to let you go.
I have to pee.
I'm going to go empty this cup.
Yeah. All right, all. Thank you for listening.