This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
I'm going to go find some vintage jeans now that are very baggy and light colored.
Hello, and welcome to episode 43 of the erasable podcast. Tonight we're going to be talking about the Blackwing 1138 and also updating our top five for the new year. But I'd like to introduce two guys who've taught me that HB really stands for homeboys. Johnny and Andy. Wow. You're welcome.
That was amazing.
Yeah.
I think we just found our tattoo idea.
Homeboys with a Z, hopefully.
Yeah, well, the Z is just the two for HP. Number two.
Just HBZ. It's 3B. We're the three boys.
HP. Three HB.
Three.
Three boys. Just three boys. There we go.
Hey, guys.
Hey. Everybody having a good day off today?
Yeah. Well, Johnny. Johnny always has a day off because he's. He doesn't work outside the home.
Nothing to do.
I think he just goes to coffee shops and Instagrams.
Today I got to go to the bathroom by myself.
Super tough.
Somebody grabbed my leg while I was brushing my teeth.
Awesome.
Daddy, what are you doing? What does it look like I'm doing?
Oh, don't you love that? Our Henry does that where you say something and you say it very clearly. Would you like a sandwich? He goes, huh? Would you like a sandwich? Huh?
Would you like a sandwich? Quit effing with me.
So I'm excited to be back on. It took us a little while to get back from the last episode with tj, so we had kind of intended to do a close up episode soon after, but as things have happened in the past, they got in the way.
So turns out you can't follow. You can't follow tj.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah. We've just been at the drawing board dreaming up how this episode could top the last. Where do we go now?
Yeah, yeah, we actually recorded three and we scrapped them.
Yeah.
Like, ah, these suck.
All these rough drafts. Yeah. And I think we need to stop just saying we'll go ahead and record next week. Like, I think we've learned our lesson.
Don't. Don't commit to anything that doesn't.
Doesn't work for us. That sort of accountability doesn't really stick. So.
Yeah.
But tonight we're going to be Talking about the 1138 kind of having our official discussion, but we'll get to that later. Also, we're going to do a quick kind of run through of our top five pencils for the new year, however you want to interpret that, whether it's an update of our one on the site, which is down right now, or our top five of the year kind of thing, which you've sort of talked about before. But I think, Johnny, were you saying that you were thinking it would be something like the five that you're really enjoying using right now?
Like, that's what I did.
Kind of like starting the year instead of finishing the year.
I couldn't think of it. It's opened the pencil roll and I'm
like, those are short.
I guess those are it.
Well, that sounds good. So, well, let's just start out like we always do with tools of the trade. Andy, will you get us started?
Yeah. So it is 11am here and more like 11:23, but I did get up before this, I swear. But I'm having coffee right now. Just had some breakfast. So I am drinking a roast that a blend that was roasted in Palo Alto. So semi locally, it's called Cupa C O U P A. And I'm sitting in my. What was built as a dining room, but we kind of use as like a reading slash pencil collection slash book room. There is construction happening on my apartment complex. So if you hear like. Yeah, if you hear like drills and things, I'm going to try to mute when I'm not talking, but that's what's happening here. They work during the day and apparently they do not get MLK day off. So, yeah, that's that. So I'm drinking coffee and writing. Somebody is drinking something with ice in it.
Oops, Joanie, it's almost gone.
Drinking coffee and writing with my 1138 in prep for discussion today and writing in the last page of my Shenandoah field notes notebook that I'm using.
Sounds like something's trying to beat down your door.
Yeah, they're removing stucco from the outside wall and everything's made of stucco out here. And so I'm just. Yeah. Sitting on the opposite side of the apartment, but apparently it's still coming through. Curse these sensitive microphones.
You do like In A Beautiful Mind and just yell out the window very politely like I'm podcasting.
Yeah, give it a rest, boys.
They shoot a nail gun at you.
So that is. That is my setup. How about you, Johnny?
Well, I don't really drink anymore, but I'm drinking right now because it's empty. So I'm having Crown Royale Northern harvest rye, which is delicious for blended rye. And I'm writing with a black wing 1138 and a field notes Snow blind edition, which is getting dirty really quickly. How about you, Mr. Tim?
I am using my Darth Maul Palomino HP, which is an orange one.
What?
Oh, yeah, a Darth Maul Palomino hp. I sharpened it on both ends.
Do you flip it around? It's like.
Yeah, yeah. And it's like you never stop. Just keep writing. And I am drinking a doctor Enough, actually. So I'm the only one without
for now, as usual.
Wait till the break. I'll join you.
One time I drink online. I drink very small whiskey.
Crown Royale. I have a funny story about Crown Royale. They. You know, the purple bag, Whatever.
Yeah.
When I was taking driving lessons in Northwest Indiana, the guy who would give us our. Who was giving me, my buddy, our driving lessons, he would pick us up. He didn't carry a wallet, but he carried a Crown Royale bag. Like the little sack. And he would just, like, put all the stuff in it. Oh, yeah. So every time he'd pick us up, he'd have this pouch, Crown Royale pouch on his lap. And it's like, hopefully I don't get pulled over because this guy's holding.
That sounds very Northwest Indiana.
Yeah, yeah. And he would. He was missing several fingers and he would always have us drive him to the bowling alley and he'd get out for like 20 minutes and go see his friends inside and then come out and then we'd go back and drive. Like, one of us would drive him to the bowling alley and the other one would drive us back home from the bowling alley. Yeah. So Northwest Indiana bowling alleys in Crown Royale.
We have somebody in the chat from Northwest. Northwest Indiana.
Really?
Yeah. D. Franks is from Sherville.
Sherville.
What? Yeah.
That's wild, man. Munster. Well, anyways,
but that's.
Yeah, that's it for me. I'm still using Chipping away at my Bobsleigh Mountain Tom 6x4, so. Still chugging away in that one. Yeah. Well, let's get into our Blackwing discussion. It's 11:38, so we. I apologize in advance because a lot of my thoughts about them are kind of similar to the mini discussion we had when we had tj. But we're going to talk through it to kind of take it step by step. Maybe we can start by maybe. Andy, if you want to describe what the project was, describe the pencil and what they tried to do with it. And then we can get into giving all of our feedback and having a discussion about it. So, Andy.
Absolutely. So this is the third pencil in the Palomino volume series. It's the first one that's made from a Core of the original Blackwing Palamino. Blackwing classic, as we call it, the mmx. So it is definitely the softest and darkest of the. Of the three so far. The styling on it is. It's a. It's a movie on a pencil. They actually took kind of a amalgam of the frames of. What's the name of the movie? Journey. Journey to the Moon. It's an old, like early 1900s silent movie where it's just like a sci fi movie about 13, 14 minutes long. I think you can watch it for free on YouTube or anywhere.
Netflix has it right now.
Netflix in color? Oh, man. Yeah. Well, they took the original black and white version. They took all the frames and they condensed it down to fit on a pencil barrel. So it kind of looks like a cross between a barcode and just like some black and white and gray stripes. It's really striking. It's not my very favorite design ever, but you can definitely tell that there's like some sort of a sequence happening here. There's periods of like lighter colors and darker colors. And then they put a silver ferrule on it, which I just love. I think that's my very favorite part of this pencil. And then a black eraser on the end. So this pencil had a lot of discussion in the group. People loved it or they hated it. I think they pulled it off really nicely. It's not my favorite. It's a little. I don't want to say it's gimmicky because I don't think that's the right way to say it, but it's very specific. Whereas I think like the Blackwing 211 was basically just sort of like it was themed, but it was very simple. You know, it was like wood and nature theme. So they used a recycled eraser. They use, you know, like a very clear natural lacquer. This one is so specific. But I mean, it writes really well. It's the same process that they. When they put that fade on the 725, I think it's the same for this one too, because you can see the. You can see when you sharpen it kind of like a white undercoat below the printing. So I'm guessing maybe they had like white blanks that they then printed over. Does that seem. Does that seem accurate, Johnny?
Yeah, sounds right to me.
Yeah.
And they said it wasn't, you know, a label.
Yeah, yeah. They don't. They don't foil stamp it, which is good, or foil wrap it, I should say. So I appreciate that. Because I can't stand those pencils. But I really. I really love. As we talked about last episode, I really love that they used a silver ferrule. Because to me, that just means there's another thing entering the mix. Maybe someday we'll see anodized ferals in different colors when we finally get our blackwing blackout, they can anodize the silver feral to a dark color. So, yeah, it's gorgeous. I love that feral a lot. It goes so well with that black eraser.
And, you know, if they did that for one of them, they surely didn't just.
Yeah.
Do it. One is like a one off. I'm sure they'll use it in other ones. And they probably even made a ton of them.
And somebody has dozens of tubs sitting around full of silver ferrules.
Yeah.
Scrooge McDuck
Charles just swims in his Civil Affair roles every day.
And I'm kind of hoping that maybe this is a precursor or kind of a hint towards a new standard one. Not like the pencil itself, but just the silver feral being part of a new, you know, like a fourth. Yeah, yeah. Which, you know, I've been. And we've talked about several times. The. The idea of the possibility of a natural standard. And a natural standard with a silver ferrule would be.
And a pink eraser.
Fantastic. Oh, man.
I put in. God, that'd be awesome. Hope they're taking notes over there at
Palomino because it's got chills because we're
doing some product visioning for them. Yeah, that would be cool. That makes a lot of sense. How's the stock looking for these 1138s? Does it seem like. I know that they're out of stock on pencils.com and the black Wing website, but there's still stores with some stock, right?
I think Jetpens still has them.
Yeah, pretty sure.
Double. I'm double checking right now, but I don't expect. I expect it'll definitely sell out, but I don't think it's sold out nearly as fast as either of the last two, but especially the 211.
So I find myself.
That thing was gone.
Yeah. So I found myself using this a lot more than I use any of the MMXs. And I'm. I'm not sure why I think it. I mean, part of it because it's new and, you know, looks cool, but I think I. I just sort of burnt myself out on the mmx because for a long time, that was the only one there was.
And Joe from The gentleman stationer swears that it's a little harder than the mmx which could make it a little more writer friendly.
I do feel like I, I definitely sharpened it less than I did with the mmx. But that also could be because I'm just subconsciously writing a little bit softer with it. I don't know if that's. Yeah, I don't know. I have not done a comparison side by side.
Well, I feel like the new Black Wings are a good experiment in how the pencil is finished, affecting how it writes because I'm not the biggest Fan of the 602, but I love the 211 just because in the tactile field the pencil's so differently different. And this one feels like you say it's so different than the MMX because it's glossy and slippery.
What's the name of that scientific principle by where just the act of observation changes the outcome of an experiment? Is it the Heisenberg principle?
No idea.
You asked me at science.
Yeah, I'm sure somebody in the chat. The chat knows humanities major. Yeah, yeah. Margaret Landis says it is the. Yeah. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. So maybe, maybe just sort of like the act of, you know, just, just understanding that this has the same core will make us, you know, right with it a little bit smoother or gentler. I don't know. Just. I'm thinking.
I'm following you.
Yeah. So what do you think about it, Tim?
I. So overall I like it. I think it's a really cool concept. I think it looks cool. I think it, I think they, what they were going for, they nailed it. You know, I think it's, it's really original. It's. They got us. I think they led us with 725 and 211 with two fairly simple ones even. I know the 725 had the multi color, which is cool. But this one was great because they went off in left field and something that was very unusual looking that I
think it was kind of a gamble and I do think they pulled it off.
Yeah, I think it set a precedent for the future. Saying that it's not, they're not all going to be simple. Sometimes we can, we can go off and do something really different that you've never seen before because I mean you see a natural 211 which of course I adore, but there are lots of pencils that look like that.
Yeah.
And even the, in the 725 was a little bit kind of out of the ordinary, but still it didn't look out of the realm. Possibility that somebody else would have made a pencil that changes colors. But I think the possibility of somebody doing this. I guess what I'm getting at is that a pencil isn't the typical medium for someone to do something cool like this, like the. What was it called? Film barcoding onto a pencil. I don't think that whatever would have happened if they wouldn't have done it, if that makes sense.
Yeah.
So. Which is really neat. So they could, they could really go anywhere from here. I, I'm not going to use it very much, which is nothing against the pencil. It's just my preference with black wings in general. So. Yeah, there's nothing.
We know you're a 211 kind of guy.
Yeah, yeah. I, that's just. That's just me. So I'm not going to use it very much.
Which.
What I talked about last time, which I'll bring up again, is that one worry I have now that we've had three. You know, we've seen the 725, which was Pearlish. And then we had the 211 which was 602 ish. And now we have the 1138, which is MMXish. And so I'm just hoping that it's not just a constant rotation of just one and the next and the next 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1-2, 3.
Maybe they'll switch it up and.
Yeah, you know, I'm hoping they. They juggle it up a little bit.
Yeah.
Because if I had a subscription and there was a year where it fell, where there were two dozen basically MMXs, that would just be kind of like a waste of money for me because I would never use them.
Yeah.
Which I know we, we split them. So that helps because you're only getting half anyways, which is. Which is. Makes it better because I only have 6 instead of 12 that I won't use. But that's one concern I have, which I don't. I don't really expect them to do that, but it's still in the back of my mind.
So. Something that I found out since. Since we last talk about this actually just by going to the Wikipedia page for the number 1138, is that George Lucas worked the number 1138 into all of the Star wars movies and two of the three of the Indiana Jones movies. Did you know that
I still don't get. Get the name at all.
So George Lucas had a short film.
Was it the number of Leia's cell?
Yeah, yeah. It was the number of Leia's cell in A New Help. Oh, no. It was where Luke Skywalker claimed to be transferring Chewbacca from into Leia cell. And then in the empire strikes back, General Rican issues the following order. Send Rogues 10 and 11 to Station 3. 8. Send. So apparently it was in there. And Return of the Jedi, the number 1138 is inscribed on the side of Boosh Somebody's helmet. It was Bosch in Indiana Jones the Last Crusade, it's shown in Roman numerals in Dr. Jones notebook in the library scene. So it just kind of works its way in. 11:38 can be seen on the back of the battle droid that Jar Jar Binks hits over the head after the destruction of the droid control ship in the Phantom Menace. Yeah. So it originates from one of George Lucas's early films, THX 1138, which is a short sci fi film. So I imagine they were sitting around Palomino headquarters saying, oh, you know, the new Star wars film is coming out not too long after this pencil comes out. We should do some Star wars themed thing. Then they did some research and found out like, this number was associated with it. And then this kind of like turned it into a sci fi general. Sci Fi pencil in general. Which makes. Makes a lot of sense and is really cool. So it is.
It's a cool connection. Was it in the Fortress Awakens? Do we know that yet?
If it is, it's not in the Wikipedia page here. Maybe somebody just hasn't caught it yet. I'll have to watch it another bunch of times. Probably Johnny doesn't want us to just go back down to the Star wars rabbit hole that we did last time.
The new pumpkin spice.
Star wars is the new pumpkin spice. Yeah.
Everywhere.
Yeah.
It's not even fading. I think I'm the last person on Earth who hasn't seen the movie.
I think you are too.
Yeah.
Yeah. So I'll have a link to this Wikipedia page in the show notes, so you can kind of look up all the various references to 1138. It's pretty cool. Yeah.
I think overall I thought it was a really cool project, the 1138. I'm looking forward to the next one just because I don't. I just don't. I'm not getting to use these. I tried for a couple days and I carried it around, but it just sort of re. I was just reminded of the reason I don't use the MMX in the first place, which I know a lot of people who, you know, Some people either don't mind drawing with it or writing with it, or they draw. I know that it's a nice soft pencil for drawing, which I just never, never do. But I still give them kudos. I think they did a good job and I know. Oh, one other thing I was going to say is that, you know, there are. I think with pens and with pencils there are these sort of two camps. You know, there's the people who. I don't want to call it purist, but like the simplicity. Like those are the things that they really are attracted to. And then there are the people who like things that are a little more loud, I want to say, or unusual looking. And I think that camp definitely won out on this one. Those people tend to be the ones who like it the most. Maybe I compare it with the fountain pen world. There are people who are obsessed with fountain pens and have 25 inks to choose from and most of them are blue or black. And then there are the people who have ones that are like fluorescent green and bright orange. And there's kind of two different worlds. And I think this is kind of on the loud side, but still it's just black and white. So it's simple enough that I think everybody can enjoy it, but I think
it can carry over in field notes too. Like Two Rivers, for example, was very like, had a very specific theme like typography, typography, wood printing, woodblock printing, and then something like Shenandoah, you know, is. Is based off of leaves in the Shenandoah Valley, but it's a lot more classic and kind of broad, I guess, rather than something super specific. So yeah, I think there's a lot of people like. And I do like the variation, while I do prefer like the more like broad, I guess. I hate to say pure, but like, you know, something like the Shenandoah or the 211. I do appreciate when they do get specific like this because it just shows like a range in their. In their creativity.
Yeah. Anybody else have any thoughts about the 1138?
No, I have. I have a question. Especially folks that are listening live. Am I the only one who got a dozen where half of them have weird chips in the Finnish?
I don't think mine does.
Mine all did. I mean, I don't really care.
Did some, any of the ones I sent to you, Tim, have any?
Not that I noticed. I actually did notice with my. Some of my two 11's have like. I guess if you're, if you're holding the pencil upright, they Have. I guess the easiest way to say is they have cracks that go along the pencil that are like 2 inches long. Pretty good sized cracks. They don't actually open up. And I think the. Whatever the little sealant they put sort of locks it in. Doesn't really sound. Doesn't seem to make a difference. But I've noticed that a couple of those had some longer cracks, which is really odd. Just. Just two of them that I noticed that so far, but I have three dozen I haven't looked at yet. So.
Geez, I'm kicking myself for only getting two.
But yeah, I haven't noticed that with mine. The one I'm looking at right now, I don't see any sort of chips or cracks or anything.
When is the. When is the next one due out?
Oh, yeah, maybe soon, I guess.
March.
Ish.
Yeah.
So I wonder if they communicate with the folks at field notes to make sure they don't put them out at the same time.
I don't know. I feel like. Yeah, good question. That's. I feel like it's been like a week or so after the field notes announcement usually, and it should be. I feel like it should be February because it was.
Well, December.
January. Yeah, March. Never mind. I can't count. So that'll be interesting because it'll be sort of like the end of the subscription cycle. So that'll be really interesting to see who decides it's worth it to renew.
Oh yeah.
Who doesn't? I'm sure that there will be some people dropping off, but it'll be.
They should push them back a little bit so they're good Father's Day prisons. Yeah, that was my Father's Day present last year.
Hint, hint, hint.
What do you want for Father's Day? $100 worth of pencils. Okay. But then on Father's Day I had nothing to open.
Yes. Get a card.
It's a nice card.
Yeah.
Well, should we transition over to tools of the trade or. I mean, sorry, should we transition over to fresh points?
Yeah.
All right, so we got some kind of build up fresh points over the last couple weeks and we're going to have Andy get us started. You got a couple that I can't wait to talk about, so why don't you get us started?
Yeah. The first big exciting one that I can think about is just sort of like on some random day in the group, John Fontaine from Metal Shop ct and then also from the twist bullet pencils just posted this picture of a twist bullet pencil but with a, like a wooden Barrel. It was so beautiful. So it's something he's experimenting with. I believe that he said that they're going to try doing a Kickstarter this summer, before the summer. Do you remember what he said?
I don't remember, actually.
Yeah. Yeah, they're going to try doing a Kickstarter for this and then offer it maybe in, like, three different colors. Kickstarter in March, D. Frank says in the group. So, yeah, it's gorgeous. I actually used a picture of it for the, like, album art for the Mixlure and the Facebook event that we created for the recording here. It's. Yeah, I think they did a super great job just on that. That version. They had a little contest to see what they wanted to name it. I suggested the timber twist, which I think is.
I was pretty great. I was literally about to type in the same thing, and I looked up and saw yours. It's like, hey, cool, two mines, but
with a single thought. So. So if that wins, I think. I think they should give us both some. Unless, you know, they give it the good. Sorry. Yeah, they give us one to split the good one. Yeah, for the good wood. The good wood.
But to split it down the middle, like, it looks so amazing, and I can't wait.
All.
All I can think about is two. Two things I'm excited about. One is the weight difference. It's gonna be a little lighter, which is gonna be awesome. And also, I can't wait to get one and then see what it looks like in 20 years. Like, it's gonna be like an old, like. Yeah, like the top of, like, a bar table, you know? Yeah. After, like, it just rubbed and gets smoothed out and smoothed out and discolored, and it's gonna look so awesome down the road. I can't wait. What are the wood choices? It was cherry.
Cherry, walnut, and mahogany.
Man, I want me some walnut. Walnut.
But yeah.
Yeah, just like the due deck. Due deck stuff. Oh, yeah, that'll be awesome.
It's. Yeah, they're kind of. They're kind of playing to a biased crowd since we all like. Obviously we like wood. Wood anyway. But, yeah, it's. It looks pretty great. So somebody suggested that they make, like, aftermarket kits where you can buy just kind of the. The raw bullet pen, like, the metal part inside, and then people can turn their own wood for it, which actually, it already exists in some other form. There's a. Like a bullet pencil shell that you can buy that you can like, put your own. Gosh. And hear that. That drill. I keep talking you can, like, turn your own wood and put it on the top of it so that I know that that exists already. So I'm sure that there's a market for it. But yeah, I'm definitely. I don't know which. Which wood grain I would want, but it's.
It would be cool to have an option to just get all of that, which. I don't know how it goes together. I'm assuming it comes with the cap and you just unscrew that and you can slide the wood piece off or something. I don't know.
I imagine. Yeah, that would be. Yeah, it'd be cool if you could, you know, buy, you know, the wood. The wood part, you know, separately. So you can switch out the wood.
Get all three. Yeah, like.
Yeah, collect all three. Just swap it like trading cards and
make one out of, like, make a little sleeve for it out of cork or something.
Yeah, the copper tubes like Dr. Hans has.
Yeah, yeah.
So I think when. I think when this Kickstarter launches, we should have them. Joe and Jay, John and Jay back on and to talk about it
for show.
Yeah, sounds awesome.
The other thing I wanted to mention, we were talking earlier about the 1138 and how, you know, were we sure that it was like the mmx or does it, you know, how does it compare? Does it compare really well? And that I was thinking about how there is only, from what I found, one sort of comprehensive video out there, one comprehensive review of all six of them of the Palomino Black Wings. And that is a video review by somebody who is in our group. He's actually, I'm assuming, the youngest member of our group. It's Jerry. If you come join our erasable group, you can meet Jerry. He's pretty active. He recorded a video where he had all six black wings and he just. He just put them all side by side and just reviewed them.
He was in the chat here for a minute.
Yeah. Where did he go?
He ducked out, but.
Jerry, are you listening? I don't know. Well, yeah, so definitely there's. There's a link in show notes. Definitely. Go check out Jerry's pencil review. It's. It's a bit long. It's what, 15 minutes long. But he definitely, you know, you can see the inside of his notebook. And this kid is going to be a scientist someday. I think it's. It's very complete. And he spent a lot of time just kind of like doing a qualitative and a quantitative review of the. Of the two. Of all six of the pencils. So, yeah, way to go, Jerry. That's awesome.
Yeah, it was awesome.
He has some other videos too. He. I've. I've never met a 14 year old more enthusiastic about pencils. I like pencils. When I was 14 and I was not quite this enthusiastic. Yeah. So, yeah, that's pretty awesome. Also, I was going to mention, at long last, I finally got my landaland field notes. I think I ordered it just because I was just at the right place at the right time. It sold out in like 40 seconds or something like that. They just had a limited amount and then so I just pressed the order button to get it and then they all got lost in the mail for like two months. So finally they just came like everyone's. Like everyone's. So they finally got them back from the post office and then they sort of repackaged them, mailed them back out and they included all this other, like, little fun stuff like, oh, we're so sorry. Here's a coupon for a, you know, percentage off your next order At LAN Land, which I believe that they sell mostly like posters and prints. They're a design shop for, like, bands and concerts and venues and stuff. So they sort of did what DDC did and just did a dead print edition where they just made field note covers out of. Out of some of their old posters. And they're. They really are gorgeous. Like, I don't really want to use them because they're blank paper inside and that's not my. That's not my thing. So, yeah, I'm. I'll have some pictures of that up on the website. I think the last thing I'll mention before we move on is I want to thank June Thomas, who's a good friend of the show and a slate slate.com writer and podcaster. Apparently she mentioned us on the Double X podcast. Yeah, a lot of people listen to that. It's pretty awesome. I know. Tim, you got a text from an old friend about it.
Yeah, a friend who's living in Chicago who I hadn't talked to maybe a year or something when he moved up to Chicago and got a random text and he said, oh, yeah, she mentioned your podcast on there. And I was like, hey, I know that guy.
So, yeah, I had.
It was cool.
I had a similar thing. Somebody sent me a Facebook messenger like, omg, she mentioned your podcast. So thank you so much, June. That's awesome. I also think we should have her on the show sometime. She has an interesting history with paper products and pens and pencils. So, yeah, That's. That's it for me. Yeah.
Thanks, June. That was really.
So that about wraps it up for me. Johnny, what about you?
Well, I have a whopping two fresh points today. One is. I forgot who mentioned it on our Facebook group, but the DAHL 133 crank sharpener, that is, you know, sort of along the lines of the. The classroom friendly in that it, you know, holds the pencil but it has no bite marks and it takes a fat pencil and the point is not super long. And it's 12 bucks on Amazon with free shipping.
Boom.
So I put the link in the show notes. If folks are interested in a crank sharpener that will sharpen all of your pencils, even a Swiss wood. I'm sorry, the black wood to a delicious point, like the point it puts on the Taekone or beginner's pencil is ridiculous. It's awesome.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but.
And no bite marks. The only downside is that I've noticed that like a lot of other crank sharpeners that'll take a fat pencil.
The.
Sometimes a regular pencil will go in there a little off centered and it sharpens fine. But aesthetically, like it just drives me completely crazy to look at the pencil and be like, this pencil was $3. Why is the core not centered? But of course it is. But also if, I mean, I guess I don't know who doesn't live near a Target. Target has, you know, the dollar bin stuff where they'll have seasonal pencils that are wrapped in foil and paper like Andy hates. But sometimes, you know, the quality of them is not horrible. And they've got a lot of sort of designer looking pencils out now that are cool enough that people are buying them up and selling them on ebay, which is really mean and stupid.
But I will admit, I will admit that I have bought more than two packs of Star wars pencils from the Dolphin.
Oh, the lightsaber ones.
Yeah.
So they have ones that are. They're round and natural and they have a dip on the end like a brown one or a mint colored one. They're like the coolest looking pencils. They're like six for a buck. But they're hard to find because people are buying them and selling them on ebay, which shame when you.
You're a poop head.
They also have ones with copper ferrules. Someone was talking about that in our Facebook group recently too. So if you're near a Target and you want some cheap pencils, you know, go check them out. You can also get cheap notepads there too, but they fall apart. The pencils do not fall apart. Yeah, that's all I have today. I see Tim's got a nice big list.
Yeah, some of these are real short, though.
So what does twa.
The writing arsenal. I haven't updated it so long, so. Yeah, I'll start there. So I on, I guess it was right around New Year's. I had thought, you know, oh, I need to. Yeah, I thought I need to double check on my Squarespace subscription. Because I decided that I think it was time to just put the blog out to pasture and just kind of let it die. And the thought just kind of popped in my head and I checked it and it was like within 12 hours of automatically renewing. So it was destiny.
Speaking of Squarespace, erasable us is back up.
Well, I guess I'll. Guess I'll renew my website now. I was just mad about that. I decided it was way overdue. I didn't want to pay another $120 to not blog. So. Yeah, so that web link, the writingarsinal.com is officially gone and dead. So it's not like it's some big sad thing. People were actually very nice about the fact that I stopped. I had some people reach out and be like, good for you. Which is because I decided to stop completely with that because I'd rather. If I'm going to sit down and write, I have plenty of other things I'd rather spend that time on writing. And there are so many good pencil blogs out there, both of yours included, and all these great reviews out that. I mean, I don't really think I'd be adding anything that people are already doing better than me.
And if you have anything pencil related you want to say, you know that you have two places where you are always welcome.
Yes. And that'll. That'll happen for sure at some point. I just didn't want to, like, waste a. Waste a link and just let it be this thing that gets updated once every six or seven months.
I have to admit that my. My blog has gone dormant for far too long as well. One of my New Year's resolutions is try to, like, keep it updated more often. But of course, I never actually, like, set a plan in motion or like anything.
So, yeah, I tried different things. I tried to broaden it and say, I'll talk about pencils, pens, and also writing, and I'll do add this to it just to, like, give me more stuff to post about that. I just never, frankly, Just never wanted to. Like, I was just. We were doing the podcast. I enjoy this so much. I was like, let's just let this be my contribution. Let that go to seed. Which I was already at seed. It was already flowering into something else, so. But that's dead. That's gone. Just wanted to say that. Moving on. I like to share when I come across examples of people using pencils in the wild, especially favorite writers. And I don't know if either of you have heard of Ron Rasch. Are you familiar with him?
His name sounds familiar, but I don't think I am.
He's a fairly. He's a. He's pretty well known in this area, like where I live. He teaches at Western Carolina University and he. I've actually met him at. Coming into ETSU a couple times and he is easily one of my one or two favorite short story writers ever. He's incredible. And I've. I got into him just maybe four or five years ago. Really interesting story. He writes a lot about this, this area. Kind of. It's like his stories kind of feel like Flannery o', Connor, but talks about meth and like, you know, modern things. But he has these characters that are, you know, he writes these stories that are very gritty and real, but the characters are always kind of innocent and trying to do their best. Like you're always. There's that. That rule of writing that Kurt Vonnegut said where you need to write a character that people can root for. They're just these really heart wrenching stories. But also you're rooting for. You always have somebody to root for. Excellent writer. I'd really recommend it. The way you may have heard of him is he wrote a novel called Serena, which was turned into the movie with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper about the logging industry around Asheville, North Carolina. So. But I read an interview with him and he talked about pencils, which was always a kind of cool thing. I mean, he first off admitted that he likes to write on computers because it makes his life easier in the long run because he's pretty prolific now. He's an older guy, he's in his 60s, and he actually didn't get a book deal until he was in his 50s or until he was 50, so. Which is also very inspiring for me.
You have some time?
Yeah, I got some time. But he talked in an interview about how he uses computer because he likes to be able to move a chapter here and there and not have to worry, not make it complicated. But also every time he Gets stuck. His go to is he says that he. He sharpens three pencils and he sits in front of his fireplace and he writes in front of his fireplace. And he talked about. Yeah, over the course of this little paragraph about how handwriting and writing with pencils is basically how he always unblocks himself. And I thought that there was like some wisdom there for writers. There is something mystical about writing with a pencil in times where you are stuck because it's. It's not real until you put it on the computer, you know?
Yeah.
John just heard.
At first I heard like something that sounded like a pencil sharpener. And then I heard some ice clinking and then I heard
Johnny made a mess.
Sorry, the. The last thing I'll bring up, actually, I've got two ones. One's a brief one, but I was at a bookstore earlier around here that I frequent. It's called Mr. K's. And I stumbled across the book in a totally random section. It was called A Better Pencil that it made me mad. First of all, it was a book that just pissed me off, but I didn't want to spend the money on it to bring home even used. So I just left it there. But I took pictures. And so this book, it's by a guy named Dennis Barron, says a Better Pencil, Readers, Writers and the Digital Revolution. And I was going to read the back of it to you. Well, the concept made me mad and then I read the back. I'm still not going to read the book because whatever. Doesn't sound that interesting to me. But the back, this is the blurb on the back. It says, a brilliant look at the computer as the latest in a long line of writing implements, from the clay tablet to the printing press to the Lowly Resilient Pencil. The Lowly, Lowly Resilient Pencil. Is that our episode title? The Lowly Resilient Pencil.
Yeah.
So I flipped through it a little bit and it's obviously just kind of one of those viewpoints of get over it. Like everything's digital now, so let's move on. You know, it acknowledges things as a progression and how the computer is obviously the ultimate end of writing tools. So. Yeah. So if you ever want to rage, if you ever want to not read a book, you might want to think about not reading that one.
It's got a whopping 8 reviews on Amazon.
It's very popular book. Yeah, yeah, it was. The hardback was $5 used, which was a little, little much for me. 50 cents. I might have know, at least bought it taken outside and dropped it in the trash can.
But what's the title of this book again?
A Better Pencil.
A Better Pencil. Yeah.
That's a stupid title too.
It is a stupid title. It just sounds. Your face is stupid. It just sounds.
Got a lot of cats that aren't very nice.
Just sounds defensive.
Like, what do we do?
Are you scared of the pencil? What it reminds me by the pencil.
Reminds me of those. That Papermate mechanical pencil that they have that kind of tries to look like a wooden pencil. It's like finally switch away from those. Those old wood pencils.
Those dumb old wood pencils. And the last thing I was gonna bring up is that I talked about sketching earlier with the Blackwing mmx. And sketching is something that I do or I would like to do more, you know, is kind of a way to occupy my mind that's not playing with a game on my phone or something. Something, you know, it's something that I know. Johnny, you're a sketcher, a doodler and a cartoon drawer. And I always want to try this. And actually I just found this while we were recording. I wasn't planning on talking about this, but sketching is something I'll try to do on a weekly basis. At some point I'll take out a notebook and just kind of start doodling, drawing, trying to draw something. I don't stick with it long enough to be any good at it. But when I was checking the 11:38 on JetPens, I noticed they didn't have any. But have you seen the Jetpens Sketch Starter kit, either of you? Yeah, they.
You posted it?
Yeah, yeah. It's this. So they've created this little kit, Sketch Starter Kit, which seems like a really, really awesome kit and a good deal, actually. I mean, it's $50, but in this kit they have one of those Nema favorite things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's got some of my favorite things. There's a Nimozy notebook, the kind of landscape wire bound.
Yeah.
You know, across the top. It comes with a dozen Blackwing pearls. You get a 0.4 pilot, high tech C, a Pentel water brush, a Sakura Pigma Micron pen, which are really, really cool pens. I've always really enjoyed those. And then it comes with an eraser and also one of those Ratchet sharpeners, which the Rachetta sharpeners, the Sonic Ratchetta sharpeners, which I really enjoy. I actually, I really like that sharpener. So it's a cool.
I like to think that you were saying ratchet, like how Kids sometimes say ratchet.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know if they spell it
the same way my students use that. And, like, do you know what you're saying? No. And it comes with an ooni boxy eraser, so it's a really cool kit. So I encourage you to check it out if you're interested in sketching and want just kind of a cool smattering of things, of pens and pencils and paper and sharpeners and just kind of all together. I think they did a really awesome job of piecing that together. And I'm thinking about maybe going after that sometime in the future just because I, like, I've got. Obviously I have pearls and I have the sharpener, but I don't have the notebook. And I'm actually out of all those types of pens. So it could be a really cool, cool way to get back into it.
I really like that Nemo sign notebook. Nemo Sini.
Yes.
This one is called the Maruman. Maruman.
Isn't that like a cartoon character, too?
Like a Pokemon type of a thing?
Yeah, something like that. All right, well, why don't we. That's all I've got. So why don't we switch over and finish up by talking about some of our favorite pencils now starting 2016. And I will. Spoiler alert. No, I'm just kidding. I'm not going to mention the Palomino hp, actually.
Yes, you are.
Yeah, I just did. I had to start it. I had to say it before we even started just to get my plug in.
Just.
Yeah, but, Andy, why don't you start us out?
Yeah. So I was reading over my list.
You could tell us how you went about making the list, because I think all of us kind of went in some different directions. So explain what the list is and then walk us through it.
Sure. Yeah. So first of all, these are all based on. If you go to erasable us Top five. Top Number five. We have our list there and just something we originally came up with. Sort of the, you know, the top five pencils that we are using either, like, most of the time or in the moment I tended. For me personally, mine are sort of like my classic five go to pencils, the ones that I usually have somewhere within short vicinity of my, like, where I'm writing. And so the five that I had were the Golden Bear, the Black Wing 602, the Palomino Blackwing 602, the High Uni 2B, the Test Musgrave test, scoring 100, and then the Statler Norris like the school pencil. And I was thinking about this and I don't think those have changed. Like, I try. Like, I have kind of a. I have those and I have kind of a rotating in and out of other ones that I'm just playing with. So I guess if I were to add one to the list, it would be that those really great recycled tombows that I talk about with the black eraser and.
Oh, yeah, those are nice.
Yeah. They actually come in different styles as well. You can get them. They actually have a bunch of different styles at CW pencils and at the Mito store out here. But, like, I don't use that one often enough, in my opinion, to put it on this list.
But that ugly test scoring 100, not the generals.
It's so weird looking.
That's the California influencing. You
keep Musgrave weird. We need bumper stickers. Musgrave weird.
Maybe silver with those little boxes on them.
There's an episode title too, right there.
I would put that on my car.
Keep Musgrave Musgrave weird. I wonder how they would feel about.
I don't think they'd ever see it. They don't use the Internet.
It's so epically bad. I've actually emailed them before saying, hey, can I just redo your website? Just please, please keep Musgrave weird. I just like it. It's not super comfortable to hold, but it just lays down such a nice point. And the point retention is so good. I feel like the point retention to blackness ratio is as like balanced as any of them. I don't know how you guys feel about that, but just the way that I write with it, it keeps this point so well.
I'm still a fan of it.
Yeah.
As ugly as it is.
It's ugly and like, it's uncomfortable because there's like super sharp corners and they just sort of like put silver paint on it without any sort of a lacquer.
Yeah, it looks like spray paint.
Yeah, it does look like.
That's true. But the general 580 is so much nicer.
Yeah.
In every single way. Except that it's expensive and hard to get. But I guess that could be a deal breaker.
I just. Here. So the thing is, the 580 just. It just kind of looks boring. Like it's just a black pencil. Whereas at least it's weird looking. But at least the test scoring 100
is like, we're going to have a fight next month in New York. Union Square, buddy.
The Musgraves and the generals.
Dr. Hans is going to be the referee.
Poor Tim is going to be caught in the middle.
I like both. I love both of you.
We'll film it for Tim.
How do I choose?
I have more tattoos, so obviously I would win in a fight.
It's true.
You even have a. An anchor. You have to go to Popeye Tattoo, too.
Yeah.
A lot of stars.
I live in California. We're just always, like, super smoked out and like, hey, hey, man. That's just, like, your opinion, man.
Just like your opinion.
Like, dice the pencil case together.
I watched the Democratic debate, and every time I watch a debate, for some reason, I feel an urge to watch the Big Lebowski afterwards, and I don't understand why. Actually. Actually, I actually said that to the guy I was with. I was like, I just really feel like every time this happens, I just feel like watching the Big Lebowski.
Well, they're equally logical.
We should have an episode where we come up with what pencil we think each of the presidential candidates would use.
I thought you were going to say what every character from Big Lebowski would
use or that, too. Both of those.
Hillary would use a 10 that you can't ever see or trim.
I think that Bernie Sanders would just use an Office Depot pencil or, like, a black crayon. The most. Yeah, the most common. And Donald Trump would. Donald Trump would use that one that they make.
He'd only use the exotic wood pencils.
Yeah, only the exotic wood.
He'd use the Swiss wood. Like Topher.
He's gone. Okay. We shouldn't talk politics anyhow. Yeah. So out of the. Out of the five, I think that I'm just going to leave my list the same because other ones come and go, but I was thinking I was searching my soul, and these seemed like they were just the standard go to, so I should revisit this again and see what happens. How about you, Johnny? What's your top five?
Well, I think I took a different approach in that I just took a snapshot of today. Like, what have I been using the most in the last two or three weeks? So I came up with the Mitsubishi penmanship pencil in 4B, because I've never tried the 6B Blackwing 211, the Caran d' Ache Natura, that. I don't know what you want to call it. It's a Faber Castell grip pencil, but it's completely blacked out. Even the wood, because it's just sexy. And I don't want to put two black wings on there. But the Blackwing 1138. Because I've just been using them both
a lot, drawing mean cartoons.
So, yeah, none of them are repeat from my other list, except for the fact that the 1138 and the MMX in theory are the same pencil inside under the hood. And there's always something German on there, apparently. But I'm kind of ashamed that I don't have an American pencil at all. I wanted to, I don't know, lie and put one on there, but this isn't a lie.
So clearly you hate your country, Johnny.
I do make pencils. Again, Johnny.
I'm not wearing any red or white, only blue.
Gray. Johnny, what pencil would Martin o' Malley use? Would he use like. Would he use like a.
You know what he would do? He would let people waste their money fundraising for him while he didn't even use a damn pencil. That's what he would do.
No, no, he would.
He would. As he did when he was a mayor and the governor. This is horrible. Get a pencil case full of really, really good pencils, sharpen them up and not do a damn thing with them.
All right. Sorry I opened that can of worms.
Yeah, well, we got same sex marriage and we would kill the death penalty in Maryland. And after that, he could just go to another country. His work is done. We're happy.
Now go away.
And you know, he did it for the wrong reasons, obviously. Does anyone on here who doesn't live in Maryland know who the hell Martin o' Malley even is? I do.
Yeah.
Now, he was a good mayor. He was not a very good governor.
We don't.
We don't like him anymore down around these parts.
Okay, moving on. It's my own fault. It's my own fault.
I live in a state that keeps trying to be three states. So. Yeah.
So, Tim, how about.
How about your list?
Yeah, I kind of went about mine in a weird way. It's. It's a weird mix of different reasons of why it's there and as far as what. Looking forward, what seems to be my primary pencil for the year is the 211, close second being the Cedar Point number one. So those two are on my list as pencils that I am using constantly right now, and I suspect I will for the remainder of the year kind of at the center of my rotation, aside from the pencil which shall not be named, the Voldemort pencil. Yeah, yeah. But there's. There's. There are three others I was going to talk about kind of for different reasons. One is, you know, in the past, I've always complained about pencils that were too hard and now I find myself kind of opening up to the harder pencils. And one that I've been using a lot this week is the Renew, which I liked before, but now I really like, and so I've been using that. So I think the Renew is going to be one that I'm going to use a good bit. So that definitely makes my list in the 580, the scoring 580 just because I haven't used it enough lately. And I, I will say that it's. It seems between the, the test scoring 100 and the 580, I like them for different reasons. And I, the, the 580 does seem softer.
Less.
Yeah. Well, I just don't. I never noticed. Smearing, really. I guess overall boring as a. Yeah, it's just black with white letters. But that's on my list. Something I want to use more. And the last one is one that I've never used, which I need to get because it just seems like something I would like. Which is the, the bugle.
Oh, crap. I sent you some.
Which is the. Is that Musgrave or Generals?
Musgrave.
Musgrave. Keep Musgrave. Weird.
Pretty.
I wanted this yesterday.
Yeah, that's actually why I put it on the list is I saw your picture when you With a Movable Feast and in that book or in that pencil. So that's one that I want to get and I want to try because it's one that seems, like I said, right in my wheelhouse and I just haven't made the jump yet because they're a little harder to get because you have to order them. I know CW Pencils has them, and I don't know if you can get dozens of them anywhere for any sort of discount.
But they are cheap, though.
Yeah. Yeah. What are they, like 30 cents or something?
Yeah, I forgot. I just put in an order to CW and I didn't get. Usually I'll get a dozen of those and hand them out to people, but I forgot this time I could have hooked you up. Well, I have a couple. I can hook you up.
I, I need to make an order from CW Pencil, so. Well, I can, I can get some. Thanks, though. I, I, I looked it up on Amazon and the results were cedar points. Three albums by Casey Musgraves Pageant called Pageant Material. Same trailer, different park, and then three actual bugles. Wow.
Actual bugle.
Yeah, like actual bugles. The regiment WI800BG bugle. Yeah.
How much does that cost?
$66 so maybe I'll just get that.
That seems really cheap for a bugle.
Yeah, that seems like a steal, right? There's another one. It's the Boy Scout. Brass and copper blowing Bugle attack War Command Signal Horn, 10.6 inch with beautiful colorful rope. That's the full title. So again, the title is Boy Scout Brass and Copper blowing Bugle attack War Command Signal Horn, 10.6 inches with beautiful colorful rope.
You can blow this bugle in the bathtub, in the living room, in the dining room, outside, inside.
So that's another option. I guess I could go with that. It's only 40 bucks, so that's a. That seems pretty. Pretty fair for the bugle market these days.
You know a lot about the economy of the bugle market.
Yeah, yeah. You just have to stay up to date if you want to call, you want to be relevant.
Just bringing to mind Moonrise Kingdom.
Yes.
I love that movie so much. All right, so, well, that's my list. I guess that's it.
Yeah, we should have a place maybe on the website to collect and publish bugle prices. Bugle prices.
Well, we're leading authority on current.
This seems like a good time to announce our new podcast venture, which is just about Bugles.
Bugle Boys.
There's our episode title,
the Bugle Boys.
All right.
Well, Andy, where can people find you on the Internet?
They can find me@bugleboys.us. no, no, I am. You can find my unfortunately infrequent writings at erasable. No woodclinch.com or you can find me on Twitter at awelfly. Or oodclinched if you want to see specifically pencil things. How about you, Johnny?
Well, I am on the Internet once again@pencilrevolution.com. i put up something last week and I have some more stuff on deck, so that's exciting. If you're me, I'm on Instagram. Onnygamber.
One word.
And on Twitter, ensolution. How about you, Mr. Tim?
You can find me on Twitter im and I'm on Instagram timothywassom. And you can find the erasable podcast at erasable us. And the show notes for today are at erasable us 43. We really encourage you to join our Facebook group if you haven't already. I'm sure most of you have, but need to get on it if you haven't because it's a really great place to talk about this stuff. A safe place to talk about this stuff. That's facebook.comgroups erasable. Also, you can go to our Facebook page, which is facebook.com/erasablepodcast, which is kind of our. Our way of, you know, sort of sounding our Bugle, so to speak, to say that there's a new episode out. You can get announcements about new episodes, new information from the podcast, maybe if we're doing another T shirt sale, something like that. So that's facebook.com erasablepodcast so you can like us there. We're also on Twitter @erasablepodcast, and on Instagram raceablepodcast. So we would really encourage you and really appreciate anyone's ratings and reviews on itunes or recommend us on overcast, whatever format you use, just to help us get the word out about our podcast. Find more closet pencil junkies that need a safe place to talk about this stuff.
Or Bugle junkies.
Or Bugle junkies. Yeah.
Hey, junkies are people too. Terrible Beagles Baltimore Junkie Gambler. There already is a Junkie Gamber. How did you know the third baby name?
Junkie Gamber?
Or you just call him Bugle.
He's gonna come out with a coffee cup in one hand and a stack of pencils in the other, just clinking his eyes.
Clinking his eyes comes out and he spills his drink. All right, well, thanks everybody for listening to episode 43 of the erasable Podcast, and we hope to talk at you soon. Bye. The intro music for the Erasable Podcast is graciously provided by this Mountain, a collaborative folk rock band from Johnson City, Tennessee. You can check out their music@www.thismountainband.com. come.
If I could just count the times this has happened before. Oh, I said.