This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Hello, and thanks for joining us for episode 46 of the erasable podcast. We're recording just one day before Super Tuesday. So to get ourselves in the mood, it's time to go negative. My name is Tim. I'd like to welcome my two running mates in the Make America Sharp Again campaign, Andy and Johnny.
Hello.
And I would just like to say that Johnny is a communist.
That's not even a secret anymore.
Feel the burn.
Yeah. Should see my secret tattoos.
Yeah. Yeah.
Wait, are we recording? We are.
And happy Leap Day, everybody.
Yes. Yeah. It's a special day. It is indeed.
Too bad we're not releasing this on Leap Day. I guess we could just release it, you know, unedited, but nobody wants that.
Yeah, that'd be a disaster. All the stuff that we cut out, I mean, people don't want to hear that. All the sneezing and dog barks. All right, well, tonight, like I hinted at, we are going negative. And by that, what we mean is that we're going to be talking about stationery that we've bought on purpose that disappointed or frustrates us. So. Not crappy pencils that we got for free. Not things we picked up on the side of the road, not things that were given to us. These are things that we went for because we were excited about them and then they disappointed us. So. But before we get to that, let's go ahead and get into our tools of the trade, and we will start with Mr. Cough. Andy.
Yes, well, I'm drinking a very exciting beverage.
It's.
It's. What is it called? I can't think of. Diet.
Two parts hydrogen.
Yeah. Di. Hydrogen monoxide.
Or is it H2?
I don't know chemistry. I'm drinking water. And that is because I've had a cough for the last week. That's why my voice is so low and sexy. And so, yeah, I really shouldn't be drinking anything else except for this and Robitussin. So I will be doing that and then probably staying on mute when I am not actually speaking.
So.
And I'm writing with a palomino HB that I was laying on my desk. So, yeah, that's. That's what I'm. That's what I'm doing. How about you, Johnny?
I am enjoying a bullet rye and I'm writing with a yellow OPEX that has no eraser in the field notes Workshop Companion Automotive Edition, because I broke the wheel in my car last week and I had no other reason to ever use that one. And I'm sure you Guys are going to badmouth the Wopex tonight, so
he's just itching for a fight.
Yeah.
And I'm just going to say I hand sharpened it to a ridiculous point that could reach Tennessee, probably not California.
I'll take that, Beth.
I could drive a little ways and probably reach. How about you, Tim?
I am actually drinking Bullet bourbon, so I'm drinking some Bullet as well.
Cheers.
You guys making me feel sobered. So sad and drinking my water.
Oh, sorry, Andy. And I am writing with my twist Bullet pencil that I just got the cap for, which has made all the difference. It's kind of made me fall in love with it all over again. And it's got a Blackwing 211 stub in it. I'm really enjoying that. And I'm writing with my writepads pocket notebook, the red one with the ledger lines, which I really love. All right, well, let's just get into fresh points. Andy, would you mind starting out? Sure.
Just have two of them. The first one is something. I don't know. I've. I've used it a long time ago and I just never thought much about it. But I'm really getting into the Norris school pencils. I, I had a couple of them laying around and actually I just did a. A trade with Jerry, who is a
member of the group.
He sent me, he lives in Canada. He sent me a bunch of the. An orange tipped Statler Norris pencils. That's the 2B variety. And it's so nice. I, I guess I've only ever had an HB around here. The red tipped ones. There's also a blue tipped one which is an H pencil. And there must be other ones too. So I, Man, I'm, I'm using that a lot. I really like it. I, I don't know why. I never really liked it before. I guess it's not super easy to come by around here.
But.
Do you, do you use them, Johnny, at all?
I do. I adore them.
Yeah. I'm told somewhere.
Yeah.
Tim, do you have any of the Norris?
Yeah, I've got a handful of different kinds that actually Johnny sent to me a long time ago.
Yeah, Johnny sent me. I think that's where the, the regular red tipped one that I had came from. But I also, I think Johnny, you sent me an eraser tipped one, didn't you?
I think one of our listeners sent us some of those.
Yeah.
And I divvied them out. I can't take credit for it.
Just do it.
But take credit. I Mean, it's weird without the red cap, but the feral they use is so pretty.
Yeah. So I'm really enjoying my Norris School pencil. Thank you, Jerry, for sending that. Kind of related to that. I am going in a week and a half. I'm.
Wow.
Less than that. Just. Just over a week. I'm going to London for a week. So I'm looking forward to seeing what sort of like crazy European pencils are over there that are not over here. So sometime a little bit closer, I'll probably be asking the group where I should hit up in London. I'm planning on spending part of the weekend with tj, so. That's jealous.
Hashtag jealous.
Well, guys, just come to London. Just hang out.
Duh. Piece of cake.
Yeah, just.
I'll start swimming now.
I'll pick him up. It's a long drive.
Yeah.
My car is pretty big.
Is it. Is it up and working again?
Yeah, they had to put a new wheel on it.
That's good.
Now one wheel is very clean.
So I guess the only other thing I wanted to mention is a little less specifically pencil related, a little bit more like productivity related. I found myself really weirdly going back to using an online to do list or like a to do list app rather than just writing it out in my confidant. Do you guys use like active to do lists, either of you?
Sort of.
I mean, what do you. How would you define it? Like by active?
Mine, I guess would be specifically for work, like things that I needed to get accomplished or something I have to do.
Oh, sure. I thought you were meaning like a system of any kind.
Like I keep bullet journaling or something.
Yeah, yeah.
I keep a list that I. Yeah. Start at the beginning of the day. I've been doing it in my. My write notepads, ledger book here. Just like I leave the box open to check things off as I go.
That's cool. Do you have either of you ever used like an app to do a to do list?
No. Yeah, I've tried a couple of them.
Yeah.
And I just stopped using them. It's just one of the. I. When I do it by hand, it's like I make the list once, then sometimes some days I'll make the list and I don't even have to think about it just because there's something about writing it down. But yeah, I've used one and I try to remember what it's called. This Wonder Wunderlist. Is that what.
Oh, that a list? Yeah, yeah, I think that's what it's called.
Wunderlist or whatever it would be.
Wonder List.
Yeah, I liked that one, but I just kind of fell out of the habit of using it.
Yeah, I've had things for a long time, which is one of the, like, popular to do list managers. And I feel like probably once every like four to six months, I swing back and forth between like writing it down on paper and putting it in things kind of back and forth. And there's like a little while in there that I will like write it down in both places. But then I find that I spend most of my time like making to do lists rather than actually doing them. So, yeah, I have no idea why that is. Why I just kind of like swing back and forth. I've tried other to do lists. Topher in the. In the chat is mentioning Omnifocus and Task Paper. I tried Omnifocus, but it's just like, it's too. There's just too much like you have to just buy into the whole system. Too much. The GTD Getting things Done system. So I think that's. Yeah, that's a topic for a different podcast, I think.
But that would be a good topic though.
It would. I think we did a dot grade where we talked about, like, to do list managers, but Yeah, I. I just was wondering if anybody else was like, ever kind of like swung back and forth between. Between those. Yeah, I guess I'm.
Yeah. Yeah, I feel like I did for a certain period of time, but I've just. I. I don't even remember the last time that I used the. An app for that kind of thing. Well, I mean, I should take that back. I mean, I randomly will use the Apple one, the one that comes with the phone, which I know is nothing fancy, but that. Yeah, that.
The reminders.
Yeah, reminders. Just because I. I like to use the Siri to use Siri to make it like, set it off an alarm for certain things that I wouldn't think about or I don't want to have to write down if I'm like on the go.
Yeah. So. And what's nice about reminders is it has Siri integration, so you can just tell your phone to remind you.
Yeah, yeah, it's kind of weird. I mean, it feels weird. I remember the first time I did it and it was something like, remind me to get diapers tomorrow. And then it said, okay, I'll remind you to get diapers tomorrow. And I was like, they just creeped me out just a little bit. But I was also like, yes, Siri knows your Life. That was awesome. Like, try to get me, like, Siri, buy me some diapers. Probably would do something. Yeah. Cool. Shows up at my door.
Yeah.
Excuse me. That is all I have on my. On my FreshPoints list. How about you, Johnny?
Okay, so mine will involve new stuff, so you probably noticed that, right? NotePads and company has a new subscription service, but they're calling it a membership. And you can get a membership card, which is freaking awesome. So, I mean, I guess all subscriptions sort of get compared to field notes because, you know, it's quarterly and stuff like that. But what's interesting about this one I just found out is if you subscribe, you get an email from them. So your subscription includes a quarterly special edition, of which you get two packs and three pencils because they're doing a different pencil for each special edition, which is super awesome. And then your first shipment, they're calling your initiation pack, which is also awesome. You get two of their three packs of regular pocket notebooks, which was. One is ledger lines, one is graph, and one is blank. Is that right, Tim?
Yep, that's right.
Because you guys both have them. Yeah. So after you subscribe, they send you an email asking you what you want in those packs. You can have like all one thing or varieties, which is nice. It's a nice touch.
The logistics sound like a nightmare, but it's a great idea.
Yeah. They come in boxes, not just a belly band.
Yeah.
So you. I guess it's kind of like by the end of the year, you'd end up with 10 packs. Yep.
And yeah, it's like $99. And that includes shipping in the US which is really cool. Chris said that if you're a subscriber, you get a shot at the notebooks and the pencils before other people do,
which is really cool.
So there's a little more a sense of. I don't want to use the word privilege, but privilege, you know, your membership is more than just you get them automatically. It's like you get cool stuff.
Yeah.
Get a first shot. And I think you get them a little more cheaply.
It's a membership, not a pre order.
Yeah.
So the. The regular cost of their three packs is 10 bucks, which is crazy steel. And the limited edition ones will be 12. But if you're a member, your additional packs, if you want them, would be 10, which is awesome. I'll probably buy like all the ones I have. But yeah, that was.
That was really. That was really cool. I'm looking forward to seeing how, like, how they Work out the themes. He said he was going to be kind of diving into it. I. I guess I didn't really appreciate the kind of, like, jab that he took at field notes in there, but it was. He said, like, oh, we don't just, like, you know, slap a color on it and then, you know, then call it a. Call it a subscription. But at the same time. Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing kind of where he goes with that, because I think. I think they get a little bit more, like, designy than field notes does. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah. Plus they make the notebooks themselves, so they have a little more control over stuff.
Yeah.
If they contract somebody out to do it. Not if there's anything wrong with that, but, you know.
Yeah, I think. Yeah, some of it is just field notes. They really, like. I think that they take their pleasure in sort of like the supply chaining. You know, they go. They go here to get the paper, and they go here to bind it, and they go here to put on the gold. The gold leaf, and they go here to do this thing. And. Yeah, it's a lot more. A lot more in house, probably with the right pads.
Yeah. And, you know, there's a lot of hometown pride for me, obviously.
Oh, yeah. Just cool.
Did I tell you I.
Good news. Yeah.
I finally got so at work, there's so many different, like, teams and groups that will, like, get their logo put on a moleskine. And so there's all these custom notebooks, but they're all just made from moleskins. And so I. I finally convinced somebody to order a custom notebook run from Wright from Write.
So cool.
I'm definitely looking forward to that happening. Yeah.
Yeah. This is super exciting. They ship the 31st, and on the 15th, on the ides, they'll be unveiled.
Yeah.
Just another thing I need to spend a hundred dollars a year on.
Yeah, I got mine, like, immediately. I've been begging Chris for a couple months to save me membership number seven, because it's my lucky number.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I hope so. He said he did. He probably did, because we can write
these off on our taxes, right? Professional podcasters.
No.
So Adsense isn't gutting my money because everybody uses a mobile device, so I don't get paid as much anymore. So I finally got paid after a year, like, the day before this came out, like, yay. The stars aligned. It's free to me. I think it's free to me. And I made nine bucks, so nice score. So the next thing on my FreshPoints list is the new Baron Fig Seer edition. Don't know if folks saw that, but it's the Apprentice three pack. And a really, really cool sort of like, earthy dark red with an eyeball and some sort of, I don't know, late 19th century graphics on there. Looks like something from a Sherlock Holmes novel. So did you guys see those? Get those.
I didn't get them, but I saw them. I think they. I love the design on the front.
I would have packed straight away.
They're blank, which is cool.
Yeah. Which. Which is the reason I didn't. I didn't get them. But, yeah, they're. They're super cool.
Looking awesome.
Like, there'd be more to say about these, but they're just, you know, they're pretty. Yeah, they're good for mean cartoons. So for my last fresh point, I have been revisiting the field notes workshop companion paper. Because I'm probably not the only person who never opened them. Because they came in a box. They came out, what, this summer? So I just opened them up and like, oh, yeah, these are cool notebooks. But so for everybody that's hating on the Wopex, you know who you are. And also even those Bic pencils, this rough paper is super nice for Wopex. Just saying, there's no smearing or ghosting.
And.
And your foot might taste really good.
Just for example.
For example, you take your shoes off before you take your shoes.
You can make an omelette out of that egg on your face
or frittata. But yeah, this stuff is like, freaking awesome. But it's a little too rough for anything like 211, 602 or softer. Just kind of sands the graphite right off. But the Wopex is so pretty, so fun. I mean, I like the OPEX anyway, because I'm a true believer.
But I'm just going to point out that we haven't even said it yet. But you've said it three times, so. Yeah.
Overcompensating much?
I know you guys. You guys have been taunting me with texts all day. Oh, the negativity episode. Your precious wolf packs, you jerk. Man. Hurt my feelings. Okay, on that note, what sort of fresh points do you have, Mr. Tim?
Well, I was excited to talk about write notepads, so I was outside of that. I don't really have much as far as news for me besides that. I finally picked up the clip for my twist bullet pencil, which I hadn't really been using. Hadn't really been using much at all. For a while. And I had always kind of thought that the. The clip would make a big difference. Just as far as making it easier to use, not having to stuff in your pocket. And the eraser won't crack off. And I was totally right. It's been. It's been with me constantly. In my pocket. I got the aluminum clip that's like all want. Yeah. Or all. All one piece. It doesn't have the little disc that screws into it. And I always. The waiting was a little wonky for me, but for some reason now it's a whole lot better. I think it just kind of balances it out. And I have a shorter stub in there too, which helps.
I like how it uses the kind of the smaller circumference erasers. For some reason, the eraser without the clip just sometimes looks a little big and comical.
The eraser without the clip. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually got the one sans eraser or sans eraser, whatever.
Oh yeah.
With this. The post, it's just one solid. No, this one doesn't even have the post. You can get the one that has like the brass post in it. This is just a solid piece of aluminum. Like there's no. It's just one solid piece. So it makes it a little lighter. Yeah, the balance is great.
That's awesome. I was worried it'd be top heavy and kind of wonky.
That's why I didn't get the eraser, because I thought that would kind of just making it longer and longer. But I really love it so far and I have just aluminum. Both the aluminum. Aluminum clip and aluminum bullet. And I just. I just love it. Using it all the time. It's my favorite thing to carry now and. And I don't miss the eraser at all, so. And the only thing. Other thing I was going to mention. This isn't really a fresh point as much as kind of an update of something we wanted to share with everybody that we're going to be doing. Come around June is we're planning to do another book club. And for the book club that we're planning, we're gonna be doing the famous book by Henry Petroski, the Pencil so excited. Which we've referenced so many times. And yeah, I mean, I bet we probably mentioned on five or six different occasions. But the plan is that we're gonna put an affiliate link in the show notes. If you want to buy the book through that, we'd really appreciate it. It's. If you're a Kindle user, it's one of those books that's been out for so long, and it's on some, like, weird small engineering press. And so the Kindle book is like 18 bucks, which is kind of. Kind of bonkers. But you can get it. You can get it in paperback. They also have old hardcovers that you can use. So we really encourage you to use that link if you're planning to buy it. And we're planning this way out to June because it's. It's not a short book. And it's also maybe not. It's not exactly Stephen King in the page turner.
You shut your mouth.
I'm not saying it's not interesting. I'm just saying you might. It might be the kind of thing that you chip away at. But. So we wanted to give people plenty of time to read it. So we're gonna plan this for June. No specific date, but if you want to join us with this, with this, which we really hope you will, because that's going to be a fun episode. And we're gonna try our best to actually get Henry Petroski on. On the episode. So we're going to be working on that because that would be. That would be amazing. And so having that much time gives people plenty of time to read and also plenty of time to give us topics and questions that you want us to talk about, especially if we have Mr. Petroski, which may be Dr. Petroski, I'm guessing. Yep.
Yeah.
So Dr. Petroski in the virtual house here.
If we can't get him, we can just have Johnny do his Dr. Petroski impression.
I think he has a much deeper voice than I do.
He will get tuned.
I talked to him on the phone one time.
I'll work on it.
He's super nice. He was on New York's NPR station with David Rees, like a year or two ago. I heard they talked about pencils. It was like When Worlds Collide. I thought the radio station would explode.
Yeah, I heard that. I think. Well, I think you sent me the link, but that's all. So there's a link in the show notes to buy the book through an affiliate link, which we'd really appreciate. We get a small, small cut of the purchase. Doesn't cost you anything extra. But if you use that link, it helps us out with the podcast. That's all I've got.
That's awesome. That'll be a good. Sort of like. I'm actually a little surprised we didn't start our book club series with that rather than.
I Guess.
Probably because that stationary book just came out.
Yeah. Is fresh. Yeah.
Well, I'm in London. Should I. Should I stalk James Ward?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. Do a little interview. Yeah. Record an interview while you're there and I've never read the book. I know, Johnny, you said you've read it like two or three dozen times.
No, I only admitted to reading it once,
Johnny. Yeah. So, Andy, have you read it?
I. This is embarrassing. I think I read it, but it was a long time ago. If not, I read parts of it.
Yeah. I have kind of leafed through on different occasions, like finding different sections that looked interesting. But I'm going to start a cover to cover here pretty soon.
I've definitely read the Evolution of Useful Things before, which was super great.
I haven't read that one. I read the book on the bookshelf, which is a really good history of bookshelves.
There's a. He wrote one that I actually just heard about. Here it is, from 2008. The toothpick.
What?
Have you ever read the Toothpick?
I would read that.
I'll put a link to that in show notes too. Just so people. So people see it. He's. Yeah, I think he's just gonna like take every single, like wood based product and make a book about it.
Look on the bookshelf, man. Yeah, I saw. I'm trying to find the name of it now. New book coming out. He's prolific. Yeah, sorry. This is great podcasting right here.
To Engineer is human.
No, the Road taken came out February 16th. It's called the Road, the History and Future of America's Infrastructure.
What? Add to Wish List.
It's the number one bestseller in highway and traffic engineering on Amazon.
There is no future of America's bestseller. America's Infrastructure.
Well, I'm excited about that because I haven't read it cover to cover, like I said. So. And I'm excited to do that with as many people as possible. So please use that link if you want to purchase it and help us out a little bit. And also take part in a really cool, potentially really cool book club if we can get Dr. Petrosky on the show.
Heck yeah.
I actually have two copies of this book. This book because people gift them to me.
Oh, nice.
Yeah, I want a hardback copy of this book.
Book.
They're cheap. They're used, but they're cheap on Amazon. So if you guys have local booksellers who, who might have this, you should definitely support them. But if you don't have a local bookseller who you support. Or maybe you just hate. Hate local. Like buying local. Please, please buy through Amazon and give us pennies on the dollar.
Yeah, same as the author's getting from Amazon. Pennies on the dollar. All right, well, shall we get into our main topic? Yeah, let's do it.
Let's get negative.
Yeah, let's. Let's take out negative rhetoric.
So all of you listening suck.
Everybody sucks. You all suck. You suck. You suck. You're cool. You're cool.
That's the PG version of it.
Yeah, yeah, I was dumbing it down a little bit.
Deirdre, you suck. Johnny, you suck. Jerry, you suck.
Welcome. Not the first time I've heard that today, unfortunately.
All right, well, so for the main topic this week, we had the idea of going negative. And by that what we mean is talking about the biggest disappointments in our stationary life. So these are not things like, you stayed at a hotel, there was a pencil on the desk, you tried it, it was crappy. Or, you know, you bought some ridiculous foil wrapped pencil that you knew was going to be bad ahead of time, then it ended up being actually bad. Like, that's not what we're talking about. What we're going for are things that you, you bought with, with. With hope, and they turned out to
be the audacity of our hope.
The audacity of our stationary hope. Yeah. And so we're going to, we're going to split it up and I think we're going to do it category by category, and I say we just switch off within each category instead of all, you know, doing all of ours separately. But the categories we're going to go over, and some of us, we may have something for every category, we may not. But we're going to talk about pencils, sharpeners, erasers, paper, and then kind of a potpourri category, et cetera, or anything else that fits.
Every potpourri purchase I've ever made has been disappointing.
Yeah, that's my other podcast.
Yeah, your potpourri.
Potpourri cast.
The potty bowl of stuff Hashtag won't cover up the smell of poop.
That one's going to catch on, John. You're going to go viral with that one. So let's work our way up to pencils. Okay, we'll finish with pencils. I say we start with paper. So, Andy, what do you have to say about paper that has been disappointing for you?
Well, I should probably preface this by saying that I should have known better, but I think that the Tomoe river paper has Got a lot of hype. And the trouble is, is I feel like most of the hype has been around fountain pens, because I'm sure it is truly magical for fountain pens. Like, it's. It's a really thin, like, vellum, like, paper, and it just, like, sucks up the ink. But I was like, oh, this paper is amazing. I'm gonna, like, I can't wait to get some. So I finally got some and wrote on it with my pencil, and it was just, like. Just the most. Like, the most meh that I can even, like, think up to say about it. I just want to write meh, like, over and over again in those notebooks
I'm kind of with.
You see it on the next page?
Yeah. It reminds me of the episode of Going Deep with David Rees when he's making the ice cube and he tries pure H2O. You know, it's. This is, like, pure paper. It's supposed to be, like, the greatest thing ever. He's. He goes to try pure water. That's pure H2O. And he takes a sip, and he goes, that is literally the most boring thing that's ever been in my mouth.
Yeah.
He's like, it tastes like nothing. That's kind of. I'm kind of with you with the Tomoe River.
It's just kind of and. And I guess, like, serve a purpose for me. How do you feel about it with a fountain pen, Tim?
It's fine. I mean, it's not like. Yeah, I'm not. I. I feel like it's sort of designed for the. Those who are really picky about that, which I'm not really with. Even with fountain pens. Like. And I also don't really like super glassy paper with. With a fountain pen.
Yeah.
I'm just not that picky, which is probably something that pencils has taught me that's made me less picky with paper. But even with fountain pens, if I can't use. Use it with any kind of paper, like the ink and pen combination, then I really don't want to have to fuss around with it and be like, oh, I'll use this pen. Wait. Nope. I left that notebook at home. That's just such a. That's. That's annoying to me. So it works. It's nice. I mean, doesn't really.
I'm definitely going. I'm definitely bringing up the fountain pen users in the chat right now.
Yeah, I'm ignoring the chat right now on purpose. But I. I have the. What's that notebook called? Seven Seas Writer Yeah. Which I really like that. And I. Because it's just so many pages. That's the. My favorite. My favorite thing about Tomoe river is that like, you can have a notebook that's a decent normal size, but it has like 500 pages in it. So. But I have to use just one side of the paper I love, which
people who have filled up their. Their Seven Seas Writer and there's like a visible bulge in there from. From like the actual ink. And I just think that's fascinating.
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
So, yeah, I guess. I guess I would also kind of add on to that, which I don't have down here, but those notebooks made from paper that's allegedly made from stone.
It sounds like a terrible idea.
It's kind of cool because it's like heavy as hell and you can just throw it somebody's head. But it's just like. It's just bad at writing. I think. It's just. Just kind of resting on the laurels of its novelty. And really it's like stone powder that's been compressed and then sealed with like a plastic. Plastic sheet. So really, you're writing on plastic, I think. Yeah. So really that's most of my, like the disappointment I could think of when it comes to paper.
You could use a plastic pencil on there.
Yeah.
Really great experience.
Armor Wolfex is amazing on that. Johnny, how about you? What kind of.
Probably not. Yeah.
Oh, man, it's going to get really nasty. I'm going to have to get the typewriter bill ready for all this.
For the Wopo. Oh, yeah, the Wopex. Yes. I'm going to cuss you guys a lot.
Johnny's.
The Woe Popo in the. In Baltimore's. It's the Wopex. So.
The what? The wow picks.
The Wopex. You like the goddamn Wopex?
I. I have never been to Baltimore, but I want you to see if it's anything at all like Johnny's accent, because it just doesn't. It doesn't sound like some sort of a. It doesn't sound like, like it doesn't sound southern. It doesn't sound New England. It doesn't sound like educated. Johnny. Johnny, what's your favorite disappointments?
My favorite disappointment for paper was the field notes reticle grid because it sucks for pencil, but it's really grown on me a lot. Or in the Capitol Hill edition, maybe it's not as dark, I can't tell. But that. You guys have tried that, right? Does that make you crazy? Does it cross your eyes.
I really like the reticle grid.
It kind of annoys me. It's like, why don't you just go ahead and make it grid paper? That's how I feel when I use it.
But I think I like it because it has, like, it's very lightweight, like the dot grid. But with the dot grid, sometimes I just sort of, like, lose my place when I'm writing. Like, I lose my line, I guess. And the reticle grid just kind of, like, extends that a little bit. So I think that's why I like it. I like it in the night sky, I think the best.
Yeah, that one made sense. It was sort of thematic with the stars and then with the unexposed. It made sense because the notebooks are so damn ugly, you might as well put the reticle grid inside of them.
What a great transition. That's a great segue into my disappointment.
My other paper disappointment is while I very much enjoy the paper in a Baron fig, the quality control of the Apprentice is not very good. That said, you know, whenever I get a pack and two of them are stitched badly and I can barely open one, I still use the hell out of them.
But, yeah, kind of like a twisted spine a little bit.
Yeah.
My recent pack had a ripped cover, which is kind of.
Oh, wow.
But, yeah, I'll rip it anyway. I don't really care.
Tim, what about you?
But, yeah, that was disappointing because the other ones were so nice.
Yeah, that's what I was saying by that segue is that I was going to bring up the unexposed edition. That's the only field notes I've ever had in my hand that I wanted to get rid of. As soon as I got it, like, I had a really strong reaction, which I usually am not. I'm not, like a dramatic person. But when I. I was in Asheville, North Carolina, and I went into a shop, I was, oh, cool, field notes. And I picked up. They had unexposed, and I hadn't bought them yet. And I think I've told the story on the podcast before, but I, like, literally, like, walked out on the sidewalk outside and, like, unwrapped it like a little kid who just got, like, a pack of baseball cards. And I cracked it open and immediately was just like. And like, put it.
What the hell is this?
Put it in my bag. And before I. And before I made it home from Asheville, which is only like, 40 minutes away, I had already, like, agreed to a trade online to. I forget who I traded with, but I sent it off for a pack of shelter wood because I just hate.
It's a good trade.
Just made me. Gave me a headache, like, looking at it just for a second. It just looked hideous to me. And I do not like the, like, crazy colors. I'm. But I guess I'm just boring like that. I just like the. I tend to. The ones of theirs that I love are the ones that are more of, like, the earth tones, the ambition, Shenandoah, Workman's companion, like a workshop companion. Those kinds of things are the ones that I just sort of go nuts over. So those ones, when I saw those, it's like opening up and just going, nope, put it back in the bag. Like, I am done here. So that was. That's one that was really disappointing for me because I. At that time, when that came out, I was really. They had played overzealous about. Well, well, for me personally, like, about field notes. Like, I was really, like, probably at the height of being into field notes. Like, right now. I still like them, but I'm not, like, obsessing over them. Not. And so I was really excited for the new one to come out. And when it came out, I was just shattered. Yeah. And the other one I was gonna bring up was the 80 pages notebook. Have you tried this? It was a Kickstarter. It was a Kickstarter that I backed, and it was called 80 pages because. Wait for it, there were 80 pages.
That's where that came from.
Did you count them?
No, I didn't even bother because I stopped using it. It was just the. They're really pretty. They're. They're like Notre Dame colors. They're. They had a green. The one I had a green cover and a, like a gold yellow stitching down the side. So they're real, real pretty. But the paper was so toothy. Like, I couldn't use pencil on it. It was like big, fat ballpoint pen or nothing. So that was. That was. That was a bummer. But that was the first. First generation. And I may have heard some things about them changing stuff up, so. But I just couldn't. It was just unusable, which was. Which is always a disappointment. You know, like when you spend money and you anticipate something and it shows up and you're like, wow, I just. Because of who I am, I can't use this. Well, why don't we sidestep into erasers and I'll just go ahead and start us out. We can kind of like Snake do, like, a little Snake back. But for erasers, the only one that came to mind was the Staedtler. The rectangle ones that came out like around school time. Johnny, I know you got some.
Oh those, those ones with like the
little sleeves cutaway thing in it. Yeah, I. I didn't like the, the racer. I thought they looked awesome. And I love how they had the. Yeah, the.
I'm not sure what you.
Bars that like went through the center. It was like a long rectangular sharp or a Sorry, not sharpener eraser. And it came in a cardboard sleeve.
Yeah, those are the ones that were like square.
Yeah, I loved those. Yeah, I mean they look awesome. And so this is, this one. I'm not as. It's not as sort of like soul crushing as the unexposed was or anything like that. It just. I just didn't like them and I was really excited about them and I got them and I think it's because I've just become such a junkie for the. The what's. What's the brand? The high polymer ones who accept like Mars Lubograph? No. Which one would you say?
John Pentel.
Pentel. Yeah. I've just become such a junkie for those that those are like kind of perfect for me. And. And I had like five of those stored up and so I just didn't want to use the others. And so it was just kind of a disappointment because I. I really like the look of them. I like. I like how the Mars. Yeah, the symbol or the. What do you call that? The silhouette of Mars goes all the way through the center of it to both sides. I thought that was really cool.
That's so pretty.
I actually, I still use them like my students. I have them sitting at my desk. So students borrow them whenever they need a sharpener, but. Very pretty, but just kind of a. Didn't really enjoy using them, I guess. Yeah. So what about you, Johnny?
My biggest disappointment is the Faber Castell Castell 9000 plastic eraser that's green because it's gorgeous and it has beveled edges and you know, everything. Fiber Castell is usually pretty good, especially the Castell line, but it's a piece of crap and it doesn't erase stuff. It just makes your paper turn green, which seems like a really bad thing for an eraser to do.
I don't.
Sums it up.
I don't think I. I don't think I know this one. I'm gonna have to go look this up.
Yeah, they're. I mean, they're gorgeous. I kept it because it's a good paperweight, but doesn't really erase. It does the opposite of erasing. Yeah. The other big one is that there's a line of stuff from generals that's sort of like cartooning. So they have this sort of semi jumbo yellow cartooning pencil that's stamped in blue foil with these stupid graphics, but it's a really good pencil. So they have an eraser that's a little rectangular white eraser that's very smooth, and it has stupid looking graphic. And you think it'll be nice, but it also sucks and just puts a hole in the paper, like, okay, not working. And also, honorable mention, the black pearl, which is a great eraser, except for the fact that, like, the other one, it doesn't erase.
Yeah, everything about it's wonderful, except you had one job.
It's pretty. It's easy to get. It's got the really nice shape that you can, you know, get into narrow spaces, but it sucks.
It feels so nice in your hand, though.
Yeah, I use mine as a worry stone. It's like. Well, I spent two bucks on it.
You know, I've been using my.
My.
The one they just started carrying at CW Pencils. The hexagon eraser. I've been using that as a worry stone.
Oh, I haven't tried those. You have very clean hands. If you said use any Racers,
like,
my thumb is so pale. How about you, Andy?
I think that most of the pencils I use are the ones on the back of the pencils most of the erasers I use. So I was thinking of these, and
I didn't think about that angle.
Yeah, I've noticed that with both the Papermate Mongols and with the Helix Oxford erasers, they just, like, snap off too easily. They just, you know, just kind of rip off. I don't. I don't. What do you call it when you, like, press down on the eraser and it just, like. Just rips?
Decapitation.
Yeah, they just. I'm trying to think eraser them.
You have to add this to the. To our glossary. Come up with a name.
Yeah, if anybody has a good name for that, we should do that. Yeah.
The jackhammer. The fracking. The frack.
Mountaintop. Yeah. Mountaintop removal. Yeah.
Frack.
Yeah. We can also coin the creator with the frack.
Rubber fracking. Yeah, rubber frack.
So, yeah, so the helix, it's all fracked up. These erasers are fracked, man. So the helix oxford has, like, that white eraser that's kind of gritty, but it also just doesn't have really great cohesion. So that just like fracks off. And the Mongols and I just don't even know what is wrong with them. They just like the new ones.
Yeah.
The paper mate ones, like the.
Yeah, they have the pink pearl, but it's like sandpaper. That's pink.
Yeah, yeah, it's cute.
It's really nice. It's got a nice little shape on it.
Yeah, it looks beautiful. But yeah, they just like, just frack off really easily. Say this all the time.
Frack you, Elfrey. You know what?
Frack you, frack you both frac off. Wolfex, man.
Is that our title? Frakhoff wopex.
Hey,
so the only other one that was like a disappointment that I. That I bought was I was really excited when Pencils.com rolled out the, like, their Blackwing Eraser Replacement Erasers in different colors. And the pink ones are fine, the white ones are fine, the black ones are fine. But like the other colors, the orange and the green and all those, they're terrible. Have you guys used those?
I've never bought anything except for pink. Okay.
Yeah, the pink ones are the best.
Regular ones aren't that great?
Yeah, well, yeah, that's true. But like, these are just. They're just like little Chiclets worth of plastic that just. Yeah, they just don't erase.
They.
They look cool in your pencil, but yeah, they're not good at all. So those are my. Those are my, my eraser disappointments.
I didn't think about the, like, pencil like the eraser on the pencil. I was always thinking only about the separate ones. If you guess with forest choice. Is that kind of a junkie eraser for you? I feel like it just deteriorates. It's one of those, like, goes really quickly. Yeah, I do. Yeah. Like the pencil lasts 10 times longer than the eraser does.
Yeah.
It's one of those that I lend to my students a lot because I just have a ton of them and it's one that I notice. I. I'll let them borrow it for a class period and I'll get it back and the race will be almost gone.
Is it like extra?
Because I'm also standing over their shoulder saying, no, do it again. Wrong.
Slap them with a ruler.
No, stupid. Raise it. It's like, always comes back, like, almost totally gone. Or it'll have little shreds of eraser.
Are they like extra recycled or something like that?
Or are they maybe. Yeah, cheap.
I don't know.
Should we do sharpeners?
Sounds Good. Andy, why don't you just go ahead and start us out and we'll boomerang back. Sure.
I, I don't know. I've had a lot of disappointing sharpeners in that most of the sharpeners in the world are like maybe that like come with a pack of pencils or something like that are just like crappy. But I think the one that I like specifically didn't think would be crappy. That was, was. And I was excited about it for reasons I'll explain in a second. But there's a KUM left handed sharpener. Basically the blade is mounted on the other side of the, of the holster. So being left handed I can hold the pencil in my left hand and sharpen it like back toward me. So the sharpener was fine but like the entire casing around it is just really crappy. It's, it like doesn't stay on and it would like fall off. And I've had like three of them over the top or over the last like several years. Um, but yeah, they're just, they're just super disappointing. I'll put a link in show notes to these sharpeners. Um, and yeah, we'll try to. Yeah, we'll try to like find links to all of these various disappointments. So you too cannot buy them if anybody wants to buy them and be disappointed as well.
If you're curious what they look at, like you want to look at them like you're at a freak show or something, then just follow the links in the show notes.
Just point and laugh.
Yeah.
Oh man.
So yeah, that's, that's the only thing I really had for that. Yeah. How about you, Johnny?
That single hold long point piece of ding from KUM that doesn't sharpen pencils. But I, I hear they redesigned it. So maybe I just have a crappy one. I bought mine like maybe a year ago. That's like I noticed the new one is like bead blasted, isn't it?
The metal. Yeah. Well, I have two, I don't have that one. One of them is. But like with both of them I have a new one and I have one that I've had for like a year and a half and I had to use the, you know, the trick that, you know, I think Les brought up and then. Wooden graphite had a video of it where you use a flat flathead screwdriver and scrape off a layer underneath the, the blade. Yeah, once I did that it was amazing. But at first it was a sort of an unusable piece of Junk.
But I don't like them because they go dull so quickly.
Okay.
That's why the usually like the masterpiece and the other ones, they have the two step because it just works better with the angle of the blade. Or it could just be I was demanding too much and they didn't like a Wolpex, so, you know, cry for me. And then there's some other ones, like basically anything that's got plastic in it, even if it sharpens really well, I wind up hating it after a while. Like the red cheddar I really like. And then after a while you're like, well, I know I can't replace the blade, so I'm not going to get attached to this thing and it's probably going to bust in my pocket anyway, so the hell with it. Like brass or nothing. Yeah. How about you, Tim?
Well, one thing I was going to mention, which I don't have to say much about it because it's not terribly surprising, but I bought Faber Castell pencils and General's pencils at like Michael's and stuff. And like the kits, you know, where you get like a little sampling of things and the sharpeners that come with them are always such pieces of garbage, which is one of those that I probably should have just left out because of course it's a piece of garbage, but still, if you're going to sell, you're going to send like you're going to sell a package of pencils, a mixture or even just different grades, you put something in there that's good if you want people to use the pencils. Right.
I mean, honestly, I feel like people put those in there just because so many people don't have sharpeners. I don't know how many people I've given a pencil to and they're like, oh, now I need a sharpener. So they're like, oh, we can just put any old thing in here.
Do they still make those? You still, you still find those sharpeners? Yeah, but the, the major one I was going to talk about was the Kum Eclipse. Do you know this? The sharpener, it's like a. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Itty bitty little thing in there.
Yeah. I was really excited about it because I was trying to find a sharpener that was. That would hold shavings and I could put in my pocket and it was, it was like the perfect size for that. But the. It left. It gave me like really weird points on the pencil and also like shorter than I'd like. And you can't change the Blade. And so it was like kind of a bummer because they're not cheap. Cheap. I mean, like you have to pay for shipping. So they're probably three. I think on pencils.com they're 350 plus shipping. And that's just not worth it because it's not a good sharpener. Yeah, it fits in your pocket.
It also is kind of a good worry stone tube, but that's about it.
Yeah. Yeah. But I don't even. That's one of the few, you know, kind of obsessive. And I said. I think I said Eclipse. It's ellipse. Like the Kuhn black ellipse. Yeah, Sharpener. And it's just one of those things like why would you. Why would you waste your time on it? If you're spending 350, you can get two of those single hole long point sharpeners and then like one of them is going to be awesome. So yeah. Yeah, it's kind of a bummer. Well, shall we move on to pencils? Yeah, this worked out beautifully. Okay, I'm gonna build up before you even start.
If you say the Wilpex, I'm gonna come to Tennessee and kick your.
I'll get ready. I have. I have like nine hours to prepare.
I'm also really bad to fight.
I have lots of baseball bats in the house. So I'm. I'm gonna finish with the main event. For me, the first one, and this is probably the most like heartfelt one that I was really excited about, but I ended up not just like being disappointed, but hating it is. I really was excited about the Musgrave Hermitage for editing purposes, which. The hermitage is the. And maybe there's different versions, but the one I'm talking about is the one that's half blue, half red. I was like, man, this is gonna be awesome. I can use this for editing stuff that I've written. You know, do the blue for the first draft of edits, red for the second draft of edits, that kind of thing. But I could. I cannot. And I only have ones. Maybe I got a dud, but I cannot get that thing to sharpen.
That's the way it sucks.
The wood just kind of falls apart. Like in every sharpener I've tried it in. It's just like I start sharpening in the wood, you know, around the collar just starts to like flake off such. It's so annoying. And the profetto pencil is a little better, but it's black and red and that's not as useful to me. I really wanted to have the blue. So yeah, I wanted to like it so much. It was one of those things. I'm like, oh man, if this is good, I'm going to buy 100 of them and I'll just have them forever for my edits. But no, it's just unusable. Which is really makes me sad. I'm still looking, still trying to find good, good quality colored pencils to use for that. Like especially blue and red. So if anybody has any recommendations, I'd. I'd like to hear them.
What do you think about the Eagle turquoise pencils? Do you know what. Do you know those?
I. I know them. I've never used one.
I'll send you a couple.
Oh, that'd be awesome if you tried
the, the generals version of the blue and red.
That's so funny that you said that because as I was getting ready and I was making this list, I was like, I feel like Johnny's mentioned a general's version that's like the same pencil. But I don't, I don't know about it, so I'll have to look.
I will put one in your next package.
Did you just snap a pencil?
That sounds painful.
No.
So that's awesome. Thanks, Johnny. I'm trying to look it up on. Is it on CW pencils? Because I want to see it.
I found with Bob Slate in Cambridge.
Sweet. I love to try.
Just buy all the ones they have.
The other one, the next one is. This is like the lightest disappointment of the ones that I chose just because it was. I think I just had too high of expectations. And it's the Faber Castell 9000, like just the basic. I love the fat one, the big fat 9000 in 2B. I've got some of those and I really love writing with those. But I got the regular ones, like the skinny ones in B and 2B because I finally made it to an art store in Atlanta and was able to pick them up. And I think my expectations were just too high. I had kind of built it up in my head that they were going to be like a grail pencil. Amazing thing. And even the 2B was too scratchy for me. So they're very pretty, very beautiful, but they're just a little too light, a little scratchy for me.
I think 4B is the sweet spot.
Yeah, I probably should, I probably should have tried for that because that's. That probably balances out to the. The kind of. To be that I generally like in the first place. But. So I think that's yeah, probably the case of just having my expectations too high. I've got some of them and I'll probably circle back around to them eventually. But I was disappointed at first because I, you know, we were staying with some friends and I rushed home and kids were taking a nap and everybody was kind of chilling out. And I went and sharpened them up and tried to do some writing. I was like, oh, I really wanted that to be awesome. I wanted that to be like life changing. Back to the. Back to the Palomino HB and lastly
is a close yours, Johnny. Jimmy, kick them out of Scott. Earmuffs.
Earmuffs. Yeah. It's like a pencil invented by Dr. Seuss called the Wopex.
I will not write with it in a box. I will not with it on a fox.
I will not write with it anywhere. In fact, It's one of those that's like. The idea of it is pretty cool. Like what it is and what it's made of and how they make it and the way it feels even. But it's kind of like, I don't know, it's like somebody coming out and saying, you know, we designed this new washing machine and in the center of this washing machine, it also makes milkshakes.
You're like, it's a dessert topping. It's a floor wax.
That's amazing. I can also make milkshakes while I do the. While I do my laundry. But then you think, wait, how often do I drink milkshakes? And how often would that match up with when I'm doing laundry? This is a really amazing thing, like an innovation, but I also just don't want to use it. So that was a really weird example, but it just kind of felt right. It's just. It's too dark or, I mean, too light for me, and I just can't figure out how to sharpen them. So I bought like a. And the reason it was, I put it down as a disappointment is that I bought like an 18 pack of them at Staples or something like that and brought them home. I was like, well, there's 18 pencils I'm not going to use, unfortunately, because it was such a big one. But I wanted to like them so bad. And that was actually one coming. Going back to the Tomoe river paper that was actually. I remember having a conversation with Brian from the group about. And I think I brought up in the show, but that I actually. The one paper I like OPEX on is Tomoe river, which I don't know why, but I like that Combination for some reason, but you know, 90% of the time, just not my thing. Sorry, Johnny.
Wendy in the chat says how to sharpen Mopex. The only winning move is not to
play knife knife for life.
I tried to knife sharpen today for the first time in a while, and I. I have trouble with knife sharpening because. Just because it looks so funky. Yeah.
You know, I'm the worst knife sharpener in the world.
That's.
Yeah.
Quiet, quiet.
That's my anger not talking.
Yeah, I'm sorry, Johnny.
That's okay.
Looks like you've got some. Some zingers in here for us, so why don't you go ahead and go next.
Oh, that wasn't intentional.
I know what that one in there is.
That. No, not. Not intent. I didn't mean that to say they were intentional. Just that, yeah, you've got some that we're gonna. No, no, I really didn't. Just that you've got some that we actually like. So why. That's a good transition. Why don't you go ahead?
So I feel like I'm a jerk because I have the longest list.
But you probably tried the most pencils of any of this.
Yeah, the worst branded pencil I've ever used is that piece of crap that Dixon puts out around back to school that's just yellow and it says Dixon. So I keep one around to remind myself that, like, it's nice to have good pencils.
What's. What are the point of that? Well, I mean, it's not. Is it cheaper than Ticonderogas?
Yeah, I think they're like, back to school. They're like, cool order 50 cents a pack. Some poor kids. Parents probably don't like them.
It's basically just their version of the Office Depot pencils.
Yeah.
Yeah, but they're worse.
I see them on the floor sometimes at school. Like the other. Not too long ago, I was walking down the hallway and I saw a pencil. And then whenever I see it, I'm like, ooh, maybe it'll be a right dudes or something. And I walked up and it was one of those. And it was like literally warped. Like it was. It was like a crescent. They had managed to bend it sideways. Like, that pencil shouldn't do that.
Yeah, I misspoke. Not poor kids. Unfortunate kids. Because the store brand pencils are cheaper and better.
I actually added it to my syllabus this year that, like, where it says, like, supplies do you need? And next to pencils, I write USA Gold. Like, I just like, recommend those because they're everywhere and they work every sharpener.
So, yeah, they last longer because they don't constantly break. And you don't break them in half
because you're frustrated with how crappy they are.
See, they're environmentally friendly.
Preach. Yeah.
So I'm going to skip the next one and come back to it. The Musgrave news. Busted ass core pencil. I've never heard anybody who got this pencil who could sharpen the damn thing. Yeah, I've tried, like a short point sharpener, a crank sharpener, an electric sharpener, a knife, my teeth. Nothing will sharpen this damn pencil. That's it. Next one. The Musgrave test. Scoring 100, which is ugly, smeary, writes like a piece of crap, and to boot, it's not even easy to get. So, like, I don't know why anybody likes this piece of crap of a pencil.
Andy, edit that part out.
I like it because it's so weird.
Yeah, but, man, I'm sorry. I'm looking at the chat.
One thing that drives me nuts about. We're talking about the test scoring, right? Yeah.
Yeah.
One thing that drives me really crazy about the test scoring, and I. And I like it most of the time, is that it's one of those that you'll get one that's fine, and then you'll use one. And it seems like the lead is cracked in like 400 different spots. Spots. Like, I put it. I put it into my sharpener. It just like sharpens all the way down to the feral, like, in one go. Like that. That's.
You're just feeding his hunger.
Yeah, that's what my sharpener is saying whenever I'm sharpening that pencil.
Yeah, I don't understand Musgrave because their website sucks and their catalog is cool. And some of their pencils, like the Bugle, they're like a quarter. And they're really awesome pencils. And some of their other pencils are just so crappy. Like, every time I get a pack of pencils from them, if it's a dozen, four of them have off centered leads that I just give away to people I don't like. And some of the other ones are missing some paint. Like, oh, God. So I stopped buying them. Yeah. Hey, I don't like you. Here's this pencil. You think I like you?
They get home, they go, johnny, he's done it again.
You just got gambard.
I got that text today. So next on my list is any yellow pencil from Generals because, like, the semi hex. The semi hex. The Pacific, the Supreme, the Badger, because they write so nicely, but they can't just put the damn paint on the pencil, Right?
Yeah.
Like, generals make such nice stuff. Why do they constantly make yellow pencils?
Sorry.
Dingy yellow pencils.
Dinghy extra work for Andy.
Even, like, the semi text is such a great pencil, but when you open it, half of them have the paint coming off, but it's steel. But, you know, if you're. If you don't mind what they look like, they're copacetic. And last and definitely least is the current golden bear, which I can't stand.
No, I understand.
Andy. Breathe.
The font is ugly. I've never gotten one that had a good paint job. It smears, but. Plus, I don't like that. It's obviously made by Musgrave, but they put another brand on it. It's just a custom pencil like you
or I could get.
It's not a palomino pencil. It's not up to palomino standards.
But it costs $2.25 for 12 of them.
I like the old ones. The old ones were better. They didn't say palomino. They're pretty.
I had a. I just sort of remembered that I had a golden bear from, like, the old California Republic stationers. That was. That didn't have an eraser on the end.
It was capped. Whoa. Yeah, I've never seen one of those.
I'll have to dig it up. I have it in some random box somewhere.
The triangular one.
It wasn't. Was it triangular?
There were. They had triangular ones that had a blue cap, but I never saw. Yeah, those are the ones. I want to chase those down.
Yeah, those are the sirens. Is that what you're talking about? You're going to chase those down?
Welcome to Baltimore.
It's Polish.
It's the wopo. Wait, what did I say? Yeah, the wopopo.
The police here.
Police car. Police car. Police.
P, L, I, C, E. Police. Police. All right. Yeah.
Are you done with your. With your. With your ranting?
I won't read the rest of them.
No, keep on going.
No, I was kidding. No, I don't. I don't like the golden bear, but I like the Prospector, which is the same damn pencil with different wood. And that would. Is nice, I guess, in theory.
Crappier wood. Prospector is a piece of junk. I would put that on the list. Yeah.
All right, Tim.
All right, Tim. You get that sharp.
Guys, we made it to episode 46. I guess this is our breakup episode.
I'll meet you in Virginia, let's do this.
Let's just hand the keys over to somebody else.
You come to Baltimore, sir?
Hell no. I just heard the sirens.
An innocent Tennessee boy in Baltimore.
That was an ambulance.
Still, how does that make it better?
It was probably just some idiot who can't drive on our crappy streets.
All right.
Yeah, fun, fun.
Well, what's your list, Andy? Well.
Well,
I guess I'll just get the one that will piss somebody off out of the way right now. And that are. That is the full line of Caran d' Ache exotic wood pencils, including, yes, the Swisswood burn. Sick burn. So Topher is in the chat right now. I. It's beautiful. I love the smell of it. Somebody said it smelled like what? Like Pepsi?
Well, Les said something about it smelling like making your hand smell like soy sauce. Yeah, I thought was like really accurate.
Yeah. I so. And somebody else said it smelled like Pepsi. It's Leon Cube.
It's beef stew. Yeah, yeah. The chat's cracking me up right now. Yeah, yeah. Les said smoke and soy sauce. Yeah.
Jerry said it was Pepsi. Daryl Edwards said it was high fructose corn syrup stage blood. It's. But, but like, it has so much character. It's such a cool looking pencil. It's expensive as hell, but I just don't care for the quality of the graphite. Like. Like, I don't even want to say it's the quality. Like, it's just the. It's just too light for me.
Oh man. I like, like cracking up right now. Group's funny. High fructose corn syrup stage blood is what he.
So if you're a listener and you do not join us for the chats, the live chats, please do. I'll give it a plug right now. If you go to. If you join the group, we'll send out an invite there when we. When we actually schedule it. But also if you follow us on mixlr mixlure.com erasable you can subscribe there and get notified when we schedule a chat and just hang out with us if. If it's at a convenient time for you and chat, chat as it's happening. It's fun. So, yeah, Swisswood. Sorry, Topher. It's cool, but I just don't like writing with it. The other one, which. The first thing I thought of, which somebody else mentioned in our thread about it in the erasable group is the Triconda Roga.
Yeah, I almost put that on my list.
I. I love the idea of the Taekharonda. I love like in feels so good. Yeah, it feels so good. So if you haven't used it, it's like a semi thick Ticonderoga that has like, it's. It's triangular, so tri Kondaroga and it has like a rubberized paint on it. And it's. It's actually cool in that the feral is also kind of like tri shaped as well. And the eraser is tri shaped as opposed to a lot of triangular pencils that just put like a round eraser and ferrule on. So. So it's. Yeah, it just seems so great, but it's just so terribly put together. Like that feral comes off all the time. It sharpens and splinters. It's terrible for writing. It's. Yeah, it's not a good pencil, but it just. I just have such high hopes for it.
So that was one that I found like impossible to sharpen. Yeah, like you just could not especially
with that sharpener that comes in the pack with it.
And if you want to like this pencil, just save yourself some trouble and get the lady try, right?
Yeah. Oh, definitely.
Because it's. It's basically like the, the Triconderoga is the lady tri. Right. With a smaller core that is unsharpenable. Yeah, that's basically the difference. But the, the ferrule stays on much nicer on or much better on the tri. Right. As well. So all around it's better.
Yeah. So to me, like this is sort of like the true spirit of the show. Like, I had such high hopes and I was like supremely disappointed in the Triconderoga.
I remember seeing it for the first time being like, oh, something new because I hadn't seen it before. And then.
So yeah, that's. That's the big one. I was also going to mention the. A few other people have mentioned this and I think Deidre mentioned it. Deirdre. Deirdre. Deirdre.
Deirdre. I'm guessing Deirdre.
Sorry. Deirdre. She. She was disappointed for exactly the same reason I was. Is the Bic Extra fun pencil. I bought this D. D, she says just call her D. That's good. I bought this because it reminded me so much of the Yikes pencils from my youth. And I love the Yikes pencils. I wrote a big thing about it on my blog. I have a whole bunch. I love them, but it's just. And it has a plastic feral which is actually really cool looking. It's a super cool looking pencil. It is just not a good pencil. It's it writes very like way more light than you would think it would. It's hard to sharpen because it's kind of like compressed sawdust. It's plastic pencil. No, no Wolpex. No Woe.
I think.
I think Johnny just rage quit on us.
So.
Yeah.
The.
The. They're so cool to look at. I love giving them out to like to younger people. Jerry sent me some. They're. Yeah, they're. They're so cool. They somewhat target. They're cheap but I just am not a. Not a huge fan of using them so. Yikes. They are not.
They're cute though.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They look so good. They look so good.
My daughter finds a user. She sharp colors the hell out of stuff with those things.
Yeah.
I don't know how. She's five.
I guess it would probably be good if you press really hard. I don't know if Charlotte does, but yeah, you get like a normal black line if you press hard. So. Yeah. Finally, the one on my list I was trying to think of to add on Here is the grip 2001 fabric estelles.
Really?
Again, I love the way they look. I think. I love the like weird like nubby grip things on them. I think the wood is crappy and I think it's like really weird and scratchy.
That's a. I think it's really weird and scratchy. There's a title, Weird and Scratchy. I'm actually actually with you on that. And that actually makes me realize that for some reason it seems like with Faber Castell pencils, for me, the fat ones, I like the skinny ones, I don't. I like the Fat Castell or the Castell 9000 and the Fat 2001.
That's an interesting pattern.
Yeah.
Huh. Have you, have you guys tried it in 2B?
No. Yes.
It just so happens I have some for you.
Really? The grip 2001.
Yeah.
I, I mine that I have here with me is actually what's cool about it. Is it also like the Tricondroga has a triangular pharaoh and a triangular racer. The one that has an eraser on the end of says that it's a two and a half which it equates to hb which like. Come on guys. Two and a half.
Come on.
Don't show up. We're like, oh, we are German. We are very precise. Yeah.
As if we need another form of measurement for pencils to make this even more confusing. We don't even like stick to the same measurements anyways.
Yeah.
So yeah, that is. That is my. That Is my ultimate. My. My final disappointing pencil disappointed me for the final time. Should we read some of the the member comments?
Oh, sure, yeah.
I have the link right here. I'll pull that up. Yeah. So Caitlyn, Caitlin Elgin, who was just on the last episode, she was most disappointing. I got Wonder Woman pencils at target. Why? Because 1D, obviously they were wrapped in plastic instead of painted. I feel ya. Which tore when sharpened and had a fantastically crappy eraser and broken core. But I got a Wonder Woman pencil case out of the deal which works just fine. Which is totally. I have bought Target pencils many times for the accessories that come with them. And throwing away the crappy foil wrap pencils. Wendy posted it in the group. She shared, Tim, your Bopex disappointment and my Swisswood disappointment and says that she's also disappointed in the Marauder Black Warriors.
I almost put that on my list as well.
Yeah, they're not terrible, but I once tried a vintage one and it was so much better. And now the modern variant just seems awful to me. I think that most, most of our ills in the world we can blame on paper mate. In fact, I think we should paper hate. Paper hate. D says Bopex hiss. Sorry, Johnny. Johnny's making it up his like list right now.
You can't see that.
How did you know?
Vikram's talking about Lovett pencils. He goes, I decided to get. When I was in first grade, my mom took me to the dollar store and said I could get anything I wanted with the $1 she gave me from doing some chore. Can't remember what. I decided to get a box of 20 Lovett pencils because it was a steal. So I thought, I actually don't know what a Lovett pencil is. Got home and sharpened each, each and every one of them by hand with one of those plastic crappy sharpeners. Not a single one had a core that wasn't cracked in a thousand places. All of them were 3 inches long by the time I got done sharpening and I got mad. Why? Because it was my dollar. I'll never forget the lesson you get what you pay for. That's the reason I was interested in pencils in the first place. Do you guys know what a Lovet pencil is?
It looks like there's some kind of like foil wrapped pencils.
Okay.
Yeah. One unfortunate name though.
Yeah, I'll have to look it up. Named after. I can't think of anybody like named after Lyle Lovett actually. Angela says the big extra fun. Walter says the Statler. All X.
Right.
Is that the one that's an entire. Just entirely graphite.
It's like a giant Wopex, so it's awesome.
Yeah.
How much is Staedtler paying you under the table, Johnny?
They're paying for my various stationary subscriptions.
Yeah, I need to get, like, a yay Wopex.
Yay.
I love wopex, too. I love, love the Whoopix. Paul Hoffman says the brodia triangular wood, which I. I will agree with him, has linden wood. I found the experience. The experience dizzying. Literally. The smell from my pencil made my head spin and I couldn't wash the scent out of my hands. Charles de Curtis talks about the Blackfeet Indian pencils from back in the day. Scratchy. They are scratchy. Weird and scratchy. Jonathan Bannister is the one who. Who verbalized my triconderoga disappointment. And Peter Giori says the. The Fabrica style wood clinched one with the eraser on the end. It's the. Here's a picture of it. I don't actually recognize this. Oh, it's the. It's the wood. The one that has an eraser for the core.
I've seen those things. Yeah. Okay. I always wanted one.
Yeah.
I will not get one.
So Martin Rose says the neon Mopex from Staples. I remember when those came out, we all went crazy for them. Johnny bought like six.
I have a gross of them.
No, I don't.
No, I don't.
Yeah.
So, yeah, Brian says it pretty much any store name pencil. I definitely put the Office Depot pencils in the, like, episode art for a reason.
Yeah.
So, yeah, that's. That's what we think.
I was thinking before we end this conversation or as we end this conversation, we should kind of shake the negative juju out and finish on a positive note. And the way we should do this, I think, is that I was wondering if. And if you didn't have a chance to think about this. Hey, sorry to put you on the spot, but offer what you would say is one underappreciated product. It doesn't have to be a pencil, but it can be a pencil sharpener, eraser, whatever.
Okay.
And I can start if you like, if you're still. If you're thinking. But I had one that definitely came to my mind, which is a sharpener that I got sent to me from Elaine at Jetpens probably a year ago, and it's the sonic ratchetta sharpener. You familiar with this one? Yeah, I. I think it's fantastic. It's one of my Favorite sharpeners that I have. And it's a really great kind of medium point. It's not super long, it's not really short and it does, you know what I was talking about the ellipse and how I wanted something I could put in my pocket that contained the. The shavings. This kind of has filled that void. It's maybe a little big, but you know, it does the trick. So it's, it's a. It's a ratchet sharpener. Meaning like you don't have to keep twisting. You can just ratchet back and forth that sharpener.
So ratchet.
It's so ratchet.
Yeah.
And. And it has a cap that fits nice and snugly. So once you. Once you sharpen you can. It has a nice sound to it. That was it when you. When you close it. So I think that's a really undervalued. And I think I know the weekly pencil D use this. I remember seeing in some pictures that she uses the sharpener and I fully endorse that. I think it's a great. I think it's a great thing. So if you're looking for something that's on the cheaper side and something that's not going to spill shavings everywhere and gives you a nice medium point, I highly recommend it. But don't go to Amazon. Did you see that link up in the show notes?
What the heck?
Yeah. If you look up Sonic Richetta on Amazon there are actually two different listings and both of them cost upwards of $55.
Why do you even.
Plus $6 shipping from a sold by a company called Faith Hope Love. So maybe there's a episode title Faith Hope Love.
They market it in the US Under Bus Stitch. You can get them at Walmart. It's called the. The Twist and Sharp.
That's Twist and Sharp. They don't have.
The colors aren't as cool though.
I think that's a little different, isn't it?
Oh, do you have the one that's the capsule shaped one?
Yeah, it's a capsule shaped one.
Oh okay.
Cuz I. Because I have the one you're talking about too. Which is actually a good. A good sharpener. I'll. I'm going to put a link. Jetpens is where I. Like I said I got mine and they have a lot of options and they're only $5.50. So that is. That's the place to go. So I'll put that here in the show notes. So does anybody else have something you want to offer under appreciate.
Yeah, I have. I'm actually going to go with a controversial choice on this. It's a mechanical pencil. I feel like I've talked about it a couple times, but I really, really like the zebra number two pencil. It's. Well, in fact, I've eaten. I think I've written about it on medium at some point. It's a mechanical pencil. It's about 4 inches long. So it's like right at the Steinbeck stage. And being a mechanical pencil, it's like stuck there and it's just like a really good quality mechanical pencil that looks like a wooden pencil and they. Yeah, it's just a really good pencil. That's all I have to say. I bought a whole big pack of them because they were cool looking. But I was like, oh, it's a mechanical pencil. This isn't going to be so great. And then I started using them. Like, this is so great. So I have these in situations where maybe I don't have like, like a sharpener on hand or I'm going to have to write a lot and I'll know that I'll have to sharpen something wood. But I still want to use pencil. I keep one of these in my pencil bags. So it's. Yeah. And zebra as a brand in general make really great pens. So. Yeah, this, this is a really good pencil. How about you, Johnny?
Well, the underappreciated pencil is obviously the Wopex. No, I, I think the, the Blackwing mmx. Because everybody likes the other two and nobody really likes that one as much. Yeah, definitely that pencil. And also Ticonderoga pencils because their quality control, I guess they fired whoever was in charge of it before and now they've got someone new because the quality control is very good. Now they're back to like recommendable pencils. If you get the new ones that brag about US wood or US cedar wood on the front, they're really good. The quality control is good. The paint, paint's good. The core is nice. Like.
Oh.
But they always make them like this.
But yeah, yeah.
Oh, and also pink pearls because they, they're not rubberish anymore. They feel like a pink plastic eraser. They dyed pink and it costs a quarter. So now they're cute and they work.
Yeah, they're back to the sort of the pumice eraser.
No, now they're. They're just really smooth. They sort of feel like a. Like the German companies erasers that come in a sleeve, but there's no sleeve.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Huh. Cool.
All right, well, should we button this thing up?
Yeah, probably should do that.
All right, well, if you are listening to this, not in the chat, if you don't have them ready yet, but the show notes for this episode are at erasable US 46, and there you can find links to all the things you shouldn't go by and then a few things that you should go by. So please check that out. Johnny, where can people find you on the Internet?
I am on the Internet on pencilrevolution.com on Twitter ensolution and on Instagram onnygamber. How about you, Mandy?
I'm@woodclinched.com you can find me on Twitter at A wealthily A W E L F as in Frank L E or oodclinched. Yeah, that's how you get ahold of me. How about you, Tim?
I'm on Twitter imwasum and I'm on Instagram TimothyWassum. And you can find erasable's website at www.erasable.us. the show notes again are erasable us46. We encourage you to join our group which is on Facebook, facebook.com group erasable. We're now approaching the thousand member mark, which is nuts. So thank you to everybody who's in the group and supporting us. If you're not there, you should come check it out. It's really great place to get to geek out on pencils. Every day there's I would say, what, 10ish posts a day at least sometimes.
Oh, man, more than that.
Sometimes a lot more.
Very active commenting threads too.
Very, very active. So all day long, lots of pencil fun there. Also go like our page@facebook.com erasablepodcast that's kind of our place to send information out. It's not a discussion post as much, but just a place where if you like that, you'll get updates on new episodes and also live streams like tonight, which we do through Mixlr, which is mixlr.com mix erasable. We do this for most new episodes, so keep an eye out for that in the group. We're on Twitter Raceable podcast and you can follow us on instagram now@erasablepodcast as well. Thanks for listening and please go rate and review us on itunes or recommend us on overcast or do whatever it is on your podcast catcher that makes other people see that you like our podcast. If you in fact do like our podcast.
If we are a disappointment just like these pencils, assuming if you made it
to minute, you know, like or hour 1 minute 25 that you probably at least tolerate us. But, please, that gives us good feedback and also helps us become more visible on itunes and overcast and all the different podcatcher programs. So thanks for listening to episode 46. Hope we weren't too negative for you, but we appreciate you listening and go out and vote if you listen to this in time. Good night, America. America, America. Yeah.
Come at the end to save the mother.