This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Talking softball from here to San Diego,
Manningly and Conseco.
Ken Griffey's grotesquely swollen Joe. Steve Sachs and his Running with the Law. We're talking Homer, Ozzy and the str.
Hello, and welcome to episode Big four eight of the Erasable Podcast, still the world's only graphite and wood devoted Internet audio broadcast. I am Johnny Gamber and I am joined tonight by the only two other members of this exclusive club of pencil podcast hosts, Andy Welfle and Tim Wasem. How are you guys doing?
Very good. Good.
Giving you the secret handshake.
So, so awake right now.
So awake.
Never been more energized in my life. I'm sleepy. That's sarcasm for sleepy. So I'm here and I'm very, very happy to be here.
It's a half hour later at night because Skype was acting up.
This could have been at 4 o' clock in the afternoon. I would have been sleepy.
So that's nap time. That's usable. Then you're like Etsy stuff.
Boom.
All right, so for various reasons, we recorded last week's episode a week earlier than we aired it. So if you wondered why we didn't talk about the new field notes and anything else, that's why. So tonight we get to hit the new field notes, the new Black Wings, and the new riot notepads and company membership. So we have like the whole bang tonight. But before we get to it, I'll mention that tonight's episode is sponsored by the good folks at write NotePads and company. They are run by third generation binders and they're Baltimore's own notebook company. Well, usually not to call anybody out, notebooks are designed by one set of folks and produced by another set of folks. But at Wright Notepads, they design and make everything in house right in Baltimore City, near our stadiums. So if you know anything about Baltimore, you know the stadiums are next to each other and they're kind of glorious. We'll talk more about the first iteration of the membership series later on, but this one is way different than the other subscriptions because it's a membership. So there are certain benefits to what entry. So members get to find out about the new editions before the public. We can buy them before the public. I should say we. And they don't cost as much. So I've seen these first ones because I live in Baltimore and I got to go see them. And if these are even left on March 31, I would be seriously surprised. So not just because they're sponsors but because they're awesome and you might like awesome stuff, you should definitely get yourself a membership. Mine is in the mail, so I'm like, super excited. The new one is called the Lenore and it's an homage to Mr. Edgar Allan Poe who died here and is buried downtown. So I thought I was about to learn more about that. No, no, no, no.
That's.
That's the second one. Shh. Cut that part out.
Lenore 2.
So why don't we do what we always do and jump into our tools of the trade? Do you want to go first, Andy?
Sure. I am drinking.
Sorry, sorry. I have to jump in and say that I think this is the first time that we're all using the same pencil.
That's true.
Go ahead.
No, I think you're right. Well, I'm drinking a whole Foods brand cola, which is surprisingly good. It sort of tastes like a cross between like Coca Cola, Pepsi and root beer.
What?
Yeah, I don't know if you've read. Yeah, It's. It's the 365 Everyday Value Cola. And it's not too bad. I just thought I need a little pick me up to stay awake. So doing.
That sounds great.
And I'm writing with my brand new Steinbeck wing. That would be the Palomino Blackwing 24, which we'll talk about in depth in a little bit here. Writing in my field notes sweet tooth notebook, which we will also talk about in depth. How about you, Tim?
I am drinking seltzer. That's in quotes. And I am writing with my. Also with my Blackwing 24, which I was hoping would be a Ken Griffey Jr. Edition, but we'll get to that later. But it wasn't. It's actually this guy named Steinbeck, which we're going to talk about too.
Not as good as Ken Griffey Jr.
Yeah, I mean, he had an okay swing, but Ken Griffey Jr. Was perfect. Both of them were on the Simpsons, I think. Right?
Was Steinbeck on the Simpsons?
Oh, no.
Yeah, he was in a really good softball episode.
Remember when they sang the song Ken Griffey's grotesquely swollen jaw?
Now I'm gonna have it in my
head for a week. We're talking softball from here to San Diego. What's that guy's name who sings all those songs? They did like the. He does all those parody songs. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Oh, Weird Al Yankovic.
No, it's not him. I'll have to look it up later, but that Song at the end of that episode is where he sings it about softball and he mentions all the players that are in that Simpsons episode. There's actually this famous guy and he has like. I mean, this would be sort of embarrassing if I was the guy who's doing this, but he has like 20, 30 songs that are all the exact same tune, but all parodies about different things. But it's all that same tune. So I'll have to put that. I'll find that and put it in the show notes and so I won't be as embarrassed at just singing that song. I listen to a Cubs podcast that uses that as their, like, outro music. And so I've got it, like, ingrained in my head.
I wondered how you just had that at your disposal.
Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, I knew it before, but now I've got it, like, really in there now. But I'm writing with the Blackwing 24 and I am writing in a write pads pocket notebook. I've switched to. I just love these things. They're so great. I'm in love. But I switched to the white one with the blank, which I think is my favorite.
I just finished that one.
Yeah, I think this is my favorite. And so I've got a white one and I think if you saw it on Instagram, I posted a picture and I have a white notebook with the super sweet I voted sticker that Tennessee gave out on primary day.
Oh, yeah.
Stuck on the front of it. So I really like this thing. Yeah, that's me. What about you, Johnny?
Well, I'm drinking Smashing Pumpkins cola, Coke Zero, Coke Zero.
So why is that Smashing Pumpkin's Cola?
The song zero.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I'm older than you.
No, no, the. If I had a guitar next to me, I would go get it and play. But the first thing I ever learned how to play on the guitar was a Smashing Pumpkin song zero. It was. Oh, I don't. I hope not, because I didn't recognize that song. But the.
Now you've got to do the riff.
Johnny. Just keep talking. I'll be right back.
Oh, man, this is going to get intense.
Oh, man.
Well, what are you writing?
A Blackwing 24. And I've actually cracked out the dead Prince field notes. The blank one.
Which one are you using?
I am using my ugliest one. It's a California that's mostly blank.
See, the California ones are like the truest of the dead prints because you can definitely tell that they were, like, printed wrong. So I argue Yeah, I have three
of those that I traded away one for.
I would argue that even though they are ugly, they are the truest of the dead prints.
I just like the. The blank. I know folks don't like that so much, but. Yeah, but the paper's different. So you're. I'm noticing the soft pencils don't smear and they don't look very dark, so it's kind of fun.
Yeah.
Try out some new pencils.
Yeah, I guess. I don't. Oh, when is happening?
Oh, today.
Yeah, there you go. I didn't have a pick. That was the song. I seriously went and got my guitar right there.
So I have a right notepads and company pick.
I couldn't find one because my desk is such a wreck right now, but
I'll send it to you.
That was the first song I ever learned on guitar was Today by Smashing Pumpkins, which I haven't listened to in a long time.
But I was listening to Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness today, so I want to agree.
Billy Corgan's a huge Cubs fan, so he's got that going for him too.
And he's been on the Simpsons bringing him back around.
Yeah.
So should we jump into fresh points?
Yeah.
Andy, you have the most. You should go first.
I hostest with the most.
I had kind of a crazy couple of weeks since we last talked. First of all, I went to London and Oxford and I had an amazing time. I met tj. That was. That was pretty amazing, tj. You know, Johnny, when you and I met, we just sort of like had an instant rapport. Even though we never actually met face to face. It was kind of like that. Tj, like, yeah, he's. He's super cool. We. We talked a lot. We hit up a lot of various stores. We kind of encouraged each other to buy a lot of pencils that we didn't need, but we did. So I have. Yeah, I have some pencils going out to both of you that I picked up there. I found lots of cool, interesting looking like Grip 2001s, even though it was a disappointing product. So I have some different colors of that going to both of you. Bought some more Muji pencils and some more. Some more WOB Hexen.
And of course, so excited about that.
Yeah, all sorts of different, like, varieties of Statler Norris's.
That was.
That was pretty crazy. There were triangular ones, there were fat triangular ones. There were eraser ones. It was so fun. So, yeah, that was a really good time. I was in Oxford for part of the time. And I found a store in Oxford that sells. That still has a couple boxes of two 11s in. In the like in stock, which is pretty crazy.
Oh, I saw that on Instagram.
I was so tempted.
It was still like to ask you
for more, but I was just like, no, it was.
It was 30. 30 pounds for the box, which is about $42.
Oh, never mind. I was not tempted. That's not tempted.
So I don't know if that's just the standard price in the uk. We should ask a couple people. But I also met. So I met tj, but I also had dinner with Jonathan Baddeley from the group, who is. Who is an active member of the group and an interesting guy. So yeah, that was a lot of fun.
I owe John a package from the giveaway I did in the summer.
Yeah, you better get.
Actually I owe everybody one because Henry spilled coffee on the packages as they were getting mailed and I haven't repacked them. They smell really good, but they probably can't go.
I think all Henry's are good at that. Spilling coffee on things.
Yeah. As you're on the way out the door and then all over the wall like, wow, you really got.
It comes. Comes with the name.
I think it was a travel cup with a screwed on lid. How did that. How did you do that? Amazing kid.
You got a power drill in his hand. He's like, what?
What?
Watch this, daddy, your laptop's next.
So that was fun. What. What else? Oh yeah. So TJ also made T shirts for the. I don't quite know where it came from, but I'm wondering if our meetup spurred it. The International Pencil Aficionado Collective. It's like a very like 1960s tool and die seal logo that he put together a teespring for it. He did in an orange and black and then also like orange T shirt, black ink and then a black T shirt, white ink. I ordered the black T shirt, white ink one.
I think that's the one I'm gonna go for.
Yeah. Yeah. So these are actually available for as we record at 6:09pm Pacific Time on Wednesday or Tuesday. It's available for another one day and one hour. So. Yeah, I don't know if we'll get this out before. Hopefully I will. I'm gonna try to get this out tonight, but yeah, we should, we should, should jump on that. He sold a bunch of them. It's pretty great.
Go dj.
Yeah, absolutely. Last thing I'll mention here is Aaron Zeller, who. How is how is Aaron Zeller best known? He has a. Like a pen shop, right? Yeah.
And they made some notebooks too, didn't they? The Barrow books.
Yeah, that's right.
Or Burrow books.
Yeah. He's a really interesting guy. He has. I always get. Yeah. The Zeller writing company is the name of his. His company. He actually just started a new business. It is called White Tailed Grizzly dot com. It's a decal printing business. He makes little. I don't even. They're stickers but they're like solid colors. So they're like laser cut decals kind of a thing. He made special decals, pencil decals for the group which is pretty crazy.
They are so awesome.
They're super cool. One is a light like a light bulb looking thing. It's a pencil on top of basically like the ferrule is the screw part of the light bulb and then there's like outward shining beams which I think would make a pretty kick ass tattoo. So we should. We should talk about that someday. But he made that one and he made a rocket ship and a pencil is a rocket ship. That's pretty great. Looks like they're 10 bucks for both of them and you can order them in a variety of sizes and colors including metallic silver and metallic gold which is pretty crazy. And I guess there's going to be a special mystery decal that he's going to send on send along with it which he shared with me but I'm going to keep it a secret.
Come on.
Maybe I'll post it in our document so my fellow co hosts can see it. But yeah, it's pretty cool.
I'm totally getting one of these for my Subaru. Yeah, my squealing Subaru.
Did you see the field nuts one too?
I haven't looked at that one yet.
That one's. That one's pretty cool. There's one with an orange and a blue butcher knife that are kind of like crossed. That's.
Yeah, I did see that.
Yeah.
Ours is better. But that's.
Yeah, well obviously. And there's. There's also one of a. I have a slightly open like notebook with a acorn on the front. Front for field notes.
Yeah, that's cool.
So yeah, he. I think this is super great. I'm glad.
That's really it.
Yeah. So I foresee lots of custom decals in the future of erasable maybe available through here. So thanks for sharing that with the group. Aaron and I'll have a link in show notes to both the erasable and The Field Nuts packs. So how about you, Tim? What, what do you have for the fresh points?
I'll start with this right here. Presenting the Timber Twist. So that was me doing the voiceover for the Timber Twist.
I like it.
Yeah. So the timber twist is out, which super excited about. I think it's.
They've made even better than almost three times already.
I mean, it's. Wow. Yeah. Metal Shop came out with their Timber Twist, which is the wood cased version of the twist, which is only an improvement. We talked about it before. Like, I. And I have been using my twist every day for a couple weeks now, ever since. I think on the last episode I talked about getting a clip and how I've been using it all the time because the clip makes it really functional for me. But the timber twist just kind of blows my mind. Like I'll use that. That's. That's what I mean, both of them, but especially that one. I can't wait to use it for a really long time and then pass it down to my kid, you know, I mean, it's gonna last forever. And I was super honored when tj, who was doing the video and John, who's obviously the, you know, working at Metal Shop, asked me to do the voiceover for the video. And it was really fun. Just got to sent me the script and I got to record it here at home and send it in and they worked it into the video. And I just, I was honored to be a part of that because it's such a. Such a cool product. I've been sharing it with everybody I know. So if you haven't yet, go over to Kickstarter and look up the Timber Twist. It's doing very well. And it's a for, you know, it's for good. It's a good reason that it's doing really well because it's a very cool product. You can get it in red cedar, walnut. I just, I like the look of walnut, but also my love for Dudek modern goods products makes me just want to go all walnut. So I think that's what I'm gonna go. But I did the aluminum bullet. I'm gonna do a rounded aluminum bullet because I just don't like the pointed one. But I'm gonna do a rounded aluminum bullet with a walnut casing. Yeah.
So the brass looks really good with that wood, but I think I like the aluminum better.
It does. Yeah. I think the. Yeah, the, the brass looks really, really good. And I've got. And I have a brass bullet here as well, from the last one that I can use if I want to, but brass is just a little heavy for me. Yeah, I like the aluminum quite a bit. So thanks. Thanks, John and TJ for thinking to me to be a part of that. It was really fun. I was really honored. It's a really cool thing to be a part of.
They sponsored our last episode, which I'm so grateful because I know they've been super supportive of the community and of what we've done. It looks like they currently have $13,662 worth of their $5,000 goals, so.
Wow, that's so cool.
And they still have 21 days to go.
So crazy.
Yeah, I'm. I'm excited about this. Yeah.
My, my only other fresh point is can be very brief, but if there are any baseball fans out there, we are 12 days from opening day in baseball. And if you've. You may have heard about. If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, as in a year from now or a year back from now, but there is a stationary fantasy baseball group that has people like Brian Greene from Office Supply Geek, Brad Dowdy from the Pen Addict, myself, lots of other people who are in this group. Actually Chris from right Notepads is in the group and we might be having some opening this week or this, this year. So if you are interested in being a part of our league there. There are 10 teams. You may even bump it up to 12 just to. To welcome some more people in. So if you're interested in being a part of a fantasy baseball group with stationary people, stationary themed team names, which mine is, it pains me to say because it is a reference to the White Sox, which are the most vile sports team on the planet outside of the St. Louis Cardinals. But I'm at least making a reference to the Black Sox. The White Sox who were cheating. And so my, my team name is the Black Wing Sox.
So but it has to be S O C K S. Not. Not Sox.
Right? The Black Wing sucks. Yeah. Yeah. So if you're interested in that, get in touch with me on Twitter or you know, Twitter messenger or just contact me on Twitter and if there's an opening, just kind of first come, first serve, I'll. I'll give people a chance to join our, our great fantasy baseball group.
I love so much that this exists. I. I'm.
Yeah, it's so great. I love it. There's. We have team names such as the Brass Bullets is one of the. One of the team names. And I feel like There's a team name called Graphite Drools. I don't have it right in front of me. And that one is Mr. Dowdy.
What. What's Dowdy's? Graphite Drools.
Yeah. Or something like that. It's.
Yeah, it's them spider words.
Oh, no, no, it's a. It's a. Lead poisoning. Is his name. His name is Lead. Lead poisoning. That's awesome. Yeah. Are there pink pearls?
The Pink Pearl.
Yes. That's a great team. We have the. We have a. We have the. The. The Blackwing Socks, the Ground Farewell Doubles, the Lead Poisoning, the California Long Points, the Scranton Clippers, the Strep Mutants, the Brass Bullets, the Unbearables, the Arlington Fresh Princes and the Baltimore Hor. Which I'll let you guess who that one is. But yeah, California, if you're interested.
Pretty great.
Get in touch. Yeah, yeah, it's good.
Who's is that?
That is. It's been long off season. That's Chris Zeitz. He's a member of the group.
Yeah. That's awesome.
Yeah. So get in touch if you're interested. That's all I got.
Cool. How about you, Johnny?
I only have two fresh points, one of which is to point out that we've turned two years old as podcast, which has to be like super old.
So entering our terrible twos.
My kids have terrible tooth. They have terrible.
Yeah, that's. That's more accurate. But we're going to fight a lot this year. Okay. Is that cool? Yeah.
Throw a lot of tantrums. Like with no microphone.
No, no,
I don't like 9h.
I'll use my Henry's line, which is whenever he wants something, he asks for it and you say, no, not right now, buddy. He says just for a second, say. He's like, I want a snack. Like, no, not right now, bud. We're going to have dinner soon. Well, I just want a snack for a second. Like it doesn't really work like that, bud. Sorry.
Here.
And I give it right back. Mine says please, please, please, pretty please. I really want it. Wow. Who could say no to that? Here, take ice cream. It's 11 o' clock in the morning, so I only have one other fresh point, which is really just a brag that I got to go to write notepads again to help out with their. Their video.
Yeah, that's awesome.
And help out with the PO references.
That video is really.
Yeah, yeah. I got to be the stand in dummy for the lights. So I have a funny picture of me that's like Very well lit. Like, oh, I look old, but you can see my tattoos. That's pretty cool. But, yeah, it's fun, you know, Like, Chris told me the story of the pencils, which I guess aren't secret anymore. The Lenore pencils that are, like, completely blacked out. Even the wood with a copper stamping on them.
I love how this is sort of developed independently of the. The 24s.
Yeah, he didn't see those the day they came out. I texted him, like, hey, there's some other black pencils out. So, you know, they all match except for. Oh, I guess they all match the. The candy ones, because everything matches black. But, yeah, it's cool to, you know, one thing that's cool to see the stuff that they use to make notebooks. Like the big cutter. I'm like, just cut 100 pieces of paper. It's like, oh, yeah. Wow, that's pretty neat. You know, it's cool to see the stuff that's actually made there and designed in the same room. And some other secret cool things they're working on. They swore me to secrecy. And also John Moses, who does the photography. He's really talented photographer, really likes the wopecs. So John's listening. I love you.
That's weird.
Actually. I talked to Charlotte about this recently. This week. I said, do you want to play with my new blackwing? And it was the. The 24. She said, no. And she took my wopex and showed me a picture.
Huh. So kids are ignorant. I'm just kidding, man.
She. She's really good at sharpening pencils. And she is a quarter Italian.
Watch out. I'm sure she's brilliant. I like. I like the wopec. I just got started to have fun with making fun of it. I like it more than I. I seem to. So.
Yeah, you better.
I just like to make fun of it.
Yeah.
Because it's awful.
Dig yourself out there, dude. Yeah, so.
No, I'll try some of my woepex. I just have to go dig them out of the backyard. They're. They're buried. They're. They're buried under the flower beds.
Well, you see, since they're plastic.
Yeah. Okay. Good to know.
You can wipe them up with a baby wipe and just roll.
Just look for the spot where there's no grass growing. And that's where you bury your rope.
The grass is there. It's just German and efficient and very orderly grass.
Yeah. Take it out. Baby wipe. Get it on. Yeah.
Baby wipes are good for everything.
That's A good rule to live by. Yeah, So I use them for everything now.
So, speaking of Germans, it's like the German navy and World War II here. There are all these subs out this month.
Oh, nice transition.
Well done.
Yes.
So since there are three of us and there are three new topics to talk about, we thought we'd divvy them up. And since I'm a braggart and I got to see the right notepads, I could talk about them last. And second, Tim, who is a big Steinbeck fan, gets talked about the Blackwing 24. And Andy gets first with the Sweet tooth because he's the sweetest among us.
Oh,
that's totally true.
It's because I'm drinking sugar made with 100 or drinking cola made with 100% cane sugar. Yeah. So I really. I'm here to talk about. Hello. I am here to talk about the latest field notes, which.
My name's Andy Welfle.
Oh, hi. I'm here to talk to you today. Have you heard the good word about sweet? 2 field notes? So these are. These are something that I really just. It took me a long time to form an opinion on them. Not because they're. I was like, I think they're particularly good or bad. I just think they're so different than what they usually do. And I was struggling to just find, like, a really good use case for it, so. Well, I should back up and just talk a little bit about this edition. So you probably. If you are interested at all in field notes, you've probably seen it, but it is. It's called Sweet Tooth. And each pack comes with a yellow, a red, and a blue
notebook.
And the COVID and the pages are all the same color. So they're both. The COVID is a little heavier than the paper is, but it's. It's exactly the same color. It's. What is it? It's lemon drop yellow, blue, raspberry? No, it's blue raspberry. Banana split and tangy orange are the name of the colors. So the paper inside is 70 pound and the COVID is a hundred pound. And they're all French paper. Pop tone. They are blank. Blank pages. They're not lined or gridded or anything. But the weird thing about them is they're all perforated. Is this the first field notes that's been perforated, guys? Do you know? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. It's a really heavy perforation. So because the paper's so thick, like, it doesn't just tear out easily. I think it Would take a lot to actually, like, tear this out accidentally. In the video that they. They always make a little. A short video to intro this every month or every quarter. They were kind of using it as just like little. Little notes that they would take and tear out and pass out. So rather than like, keeping it all together in a notebook, they're suggesting that you, you know, tear out the pages to use as notes, which I have been doing. And actually it's pretty great. I use a lot of, like, little scrap pieces of scrap paper, and I think this really works for that. Have you guys. Do you guys get subscriptions? Johnny, I know you do. Tim, do you. Did you get this?
Not anymore. The last. This is the last time I was subscribed. I think I finished with Shenandoah.
Okay. It's. That's a really great one to go out on.
That one's still out too.
Yeah, yeah.
Folks want to stock up.
They must have made a bunch of them. Yeah, they're. Those are my favorite in a long time. But yeah, these are. These are interesting in that they, like, are gorgeous. They look really cool, but they're not perhaps like one of the more traditional. I wouldn't. I wouldn't use this in the way that I would use the other ones.
I don't think.
What do you guys think about this edition?
Oh, can I go first? Sure.
Please.
I mean, I hope this doesn't make me sound like a jerk, but I feel like on some level this is like a slight middle finger to the fan base. And I mean that in a good way. It's like, hey, guess what, suckers? You just keep buying these damn things and putting them in the closet. You're not going to use them anyway. So here's some crazy paper you're all just going to complain about and never use.
Well, people did form instantaneous opinions about it, which.
Yeah. And then everybody went back on them.
I hate it.
It's stupid. Oh, no, I love it. Just get it in your hands first.
Field nuts are want to do there. It's all about forming the instant opinion. But.
Oh, I didn't mean the field nuts group particularly.
Just. Just people in general.
In general.
Yeah, I kind of did. That's not very nice. But still, you know, it's generally a nice thing to get it in your hands first.
Yeah.
Like people that buy like 10 packs of a notebook they haven't seen.
Yeah, yeah. But.
But I think it's cool. I like it. My kids are all excited. Charlotte wants some from the Easter Bunny. Actually got grounded one of her groundings was that she wasn't getting the new field notes. But then these came out. How can I not get these for.
Yeah, these are. These would be amazing Easter presents. I. I would totally agree with that. Yeah.
These. Sorry.
No, please go on.
I have pretty strong opinions about these. I. I'll start by just saying I love field notes, and I still love field notes quite a bit. This is my. Well, no, I'm gonna. I'm gonna wait, because my least favorite edition that's come out since I've been aware of what field notes are, has been unexposed 100%, because these things are just ridiculous headache machines. But sweet tooth. It just seemed like if it was. If it was not the colors that it is, you know, in the time that it came out, I would be like, oh, okay. I don't. I still don't want it, but it's kind of cool. It just seems a little more, like, kitschy or like, it's just almost too timely, you know?
Yeah.
I don't know. I don't want to be. Sound too negative. Like, it's. I still want to, like, emphasize that I love field notes. I think they're awesome. I think they're just geniuses and what they've created. But I had. This is the only edition since I've even unexposed. At first, I was like, okay, let's try these out. And then I saw them. I was like, nope. No, thank you. Yeah, but with these. Like, as soon as I saw they existed, I was like, not for me. And I don't even want it. Like, I'm not even tempted. And I. There's a. There's a shop here in town called Fouled Anchorage that's very cool, sells some really cool stuff. And there's. They stock field notes. And I went there the other day and bought two packs of the Chicago Notebooks, which I didn't think that they would have, but they did, which was really cool. I got the last two, and they had. They had these, and the owner had one of them open. He's like, hey, check them out. And he opened it and let me see it. And just like, I'm really glad you opened that up. Like, it's. I appreciate that it's different. I appreciate that it's something. Yeah. Just unusual and outside of the box, I think that's what they need to keep doing. That's what I want to clarify is that they should keep doing it. They should keep doing things that are unusual. Just be okay with the fact that sometimes People like me on this version, like, you know what? No, thanks. And my response to it wasn't field notes sucks. Field notes is awesome. I'm not going to get those. I'm going to buy some of the Chicago books instead.
Yeah, yeah.
Which is how I kind of react to it.
We talked about, I think when Shenandoah came out about how sometimes their execution of a theme is very, like, novelty, like, and sometimes it's very, like, elegant and simple. I think that Shenandoah is an example of something where they took this theme of, like, you know, trees and nature and just like, really made something just like elegant and simple super classy. This is not elegant and simple. This is definitely like a novelty that is just sort of like punching you in the face with color and with what it is.
Which is the John Waters edition.
Yeah. Which is also kind of cool in its own right. I think that when you. If we were comparing these to like the Blackwing volume subscriptions, I would say that the Shenandoah would be very much like the two 11s and these would be very much like, in my opinion, like the guitar pencils, the 725s. It's just very kind of novelty. Yeah.
But I think more the 1138.
Or that too. Yes.
Yeah. I would put it more for the 1138, but I see what you're saying, Andy. It's like a very specialized audience or a specific audience.
Have you written in yours in pencil yet?
Yeah, I have. I'm doing it right now, in fact. And yeah, it's.
It.
It does it pretty well. I. Oh, good. Yeah, I really like the, like the thick pages. They've since switching to the 70 pound pages. They've been really good for. For that.
What kind of pencil are you using on it?
I'm using my. Yeah, awesome.
Yeah, I haven't used mine yet. They're just kind of open so I could smell them.
It feels. It's. It's probably not as. It feels toothier than it probably actually is, but it's kind of like a Baron Fagan that. I think it's like picking up the pencil, the graphite particles pretty well.
Oh, cool.
Yeah, it's not like phasing out, but it's also not super smudgy. Like a lot of smooth paper would be excellent. Yeah.
Cool.
So that is the field notes. Sweet tooth. Subscription. I'm enjoying it a lot. But yeah, it is definitely not an addition that I will keep coming back to, I think.
So.
Speaking of the subscription, I guess folks have noticed that there is a lot of frustration in the Field Nuts group, with which I definitely concur that it's taking forever for the subscriptions to show up. Yeah, there used to be. I remember when I first started subscribing, I'm like, 2011, when they announced it on day one, I had them on day three in my hands. It was great. Now you wait like a week and a half. Like, this is. I wish they. Somebody mentioned maybe they could do something where they would charge you for shipping and you got faster shipping that I would gladly pay for.
Do you think that this is just because of scaling? Do you think that they, you know, have so many subscribers now they just can't, like, get.
I don't know.
I don't know.
They used to be. What was the first one that ever got late was Northerly. And I emailed them and they were like, they just went out in shifts. I'm like, okay, that makes sense. But they're using some kind of weird shipping method now that takes forever and seems to go not in a straight line.
I think I'm going to say, and this is based on what we're going to talk about at some point in the Black Wing 24 discussion. I don't know if it's as much field notes as much as the United States Postal Service.
Oh, this is FedEx that zigzags them.
Oh, I didn't realize that.
Yeah, they used to use the Postal Service. Everything worked really well.
I don't. I don't know what it is with. And maybe we should talk about this when we get to blackwing, But I don't know what is happening in the West Sacramento post office, but I assume that it's just like mass chaos. It's like Mad Max in that office because all of us who live on the west coast because Stockton kind of ships out to the Central, like, West Sacramento hub. Everybody gets everything held up in West Sacramento forever.
It's.
Yeah, it just must.
Yeah, that happened to mine.
It must be ridiculous. But yeah, that's happened to me with, with Palomin, with the Black Wing subscription. It's happening with field notes. Yeah, it's West Sacramento, man. I don't know about you. If yours is going through West Sacramento, Johnny, your field notes, then I think we have other problems.
But
I don't. You know what? I wasn't even paying attention to where they went. I was just looking at the X, the estimate delivery data as it moved back and then moved forward like, okay, just want them. And they came and I didn't really
use them right away.
Yeah.
Cool.
All right, should we move on to the Black Wing 24 discussion? Which is why we're all here, Tim.
So a few days ago, Blackwing came out with a new volumes edition, which was the Blackwing 24. Now, this edition is inspired by this dude named John Steinbeck, who we've talked about a couple times on this show. John Steinbeck being my favorite writer, many people's favorite writer, and is a famous user of the original Eberhard Faber Black Wings, not the Palomino Black Wings, but he was a favorite. He enjoyed the original Black Wings. He wrote in a letter at one point that he liked them because they were. They were soft and dark and retained a point. But he said he. He liked to point out that they were three times the price of a normal pencil, but he thought that he would just continue using them forever. So they came out with the Black Band 24, in which, for preparation, which I think is totally awesome, they visited Tom Steinbeck, who's the son of John Steinbeck. And Tom Steinbeck was also a writer. And he talked about his. His father's love for pencils. And he used pencils. And he would start every day with 24 surgically sharp pencils, as he would say. And he would work his way through all 24, you know, each one until it was too dull for his own taste. And he would put it in the next cup. What do you say?
He could get like four or five lines out of each pencil?
Yeah, four or five lines. He put in the next cup, grab the next pencil, and he would. Once he. Once he finished that. Once he finished all 24, he would take a break. He would sharpen all 24 of them and repeat. He said he liked to make sure they're all the same length and everything. So that was how they came with the word Blackwing or the name Blackwing24. It wasn't a Ken Griffey Jr. Edition. It was the John Steinbeck edition, which is okay with me because John Steinbeck is super awesome. Now, some of the particulars of this edition, which comes out in the video is. In the video, Tom Steinbeck says that his dad would have wanted the pencil to be all black. No, he wants it black from top to bottom. No distractions, which seems a little silly, but I have to posit that John Steinbeck would have said the exact same thing. John Steinbeck, which. One of my. Some people's least favorite thing, and my favorite thing about John Steinbeck is when he bangs his drum is the phrase you know, he's banging his drum about something, and he is always talking in extremes. He is always very confident and very to the point and saying, this is how it should be and this is what I want, you know? And so when it comes to pencils, it makes total sense that he would say that his son would say something like, no, yellow pencils. He hated yellow pencils because they were too distracting. And so he went all black because it would be the least catchy to the eye, which sounds silly, but hearing his son say it now is confirmation that that's just really how he was, because he would have. And I've read a lot of Steinbeck. I've read his biography. I've read his life and letters. He would have said the same damn thing. He's. He's always very grandiose and how he talks about something. So I'm not. I have no issue with that whatsoever. You know, I mean, it's. It seems a little silly, but it sounds like him. So. So they came out with a black wing that was black with a black imprint, with a black feral with a black eraser and with an extra firm core, which is a first for the Black wing.
I'm super impressed that this happened. Like, I, for a long time just thought that they would only go with the same three cores that they have already. So I'm excited. Yeah, I'm excited that this exists, which
I'll say one more time, which is the first for a black wing.
Yeah.
And I hammer that home, because when they said that it was going to be firmer, my first thought, not a half second after they. I read that was, oh, they're going to put the Palomino HB core in the. In the Blackwing, which I don't mean that to sound like they're going to take a shortcut, because the Palmetto HP core is my favorite core ever. I love it. That's my favorite pencil. I use it every single day. So. But they. They came out and they said, oh, it's a new formula. There's a new formula. We're going to call it Extra Firm. Just like, well, okay, yeah, fair enough. You know, but if that's. If that's a new formula, which we were talking about this. Johnny and I were talking about this earlier. But if that's a new formula, then it didn't need to be. They don't need to apologize for it. They don't need to use, like, marketing speak to cover it up. If it is a new formula, then it's not Very different than the Palomino hp, which is a wildly successful pencil. And a as high a quality of pencil as you can buy these days, you know, at half the price of a Black Wing. So what I'm gonna finish with is that I still love this edition. I think it's super sexy looking. I love the Steinbeck connection. I love how they went about it. I think their video, you know, Andy, you said that their video is one of the best executed so far. Yeah. Interviewing Tom Steinbeck, having him actually try these pencils out. It's super cool, and it's a great idea because he's a famous Blackwing user. At the same time, you know, as much as I love it and people, I got tech, I got texts and tweets, like, immediately, people saying, like, oh, Tim's probably losing his mind over this one. Tim probably loves. He's probably going crazy. Weirdly enough. No, I liked it. But the 211, more. So with me, I was going bonkers over it. I was like, okay, what can I sell here in my house so that I can buy more? Dozens of that pencil. But with this one, I was excited. And then I got my first two. My. My order, which I ordered two dozen. I got them, and I was like, okay, it's the Palomino HP and a Black Wing, and it's all black. That's awesome. But I don't feel like I need to buy up all of them.
Yeah.
So.
And I have more to say, but I know I need to stop because I've been talking for like, 15 minutes, but. So what do you guys think about this one?
Well, actually, I'm curious to know what you think about the idea that a lot of people have put forth that they might like to see this come out as a regular edition.
I. I think that is gonna happen. Yeah. I mean, I. I'm very sure, because they're not going to introduce a new graphite type and then not make it a standard. That's just not going to happen. Also, like, as you know, you're. You're. You're starting a new brand. Black Wing's a brand. You. You want it to be successful. And Steinbeck is the most famous Blackwing user. It would not make any sense if they didn't make this a standard. Also, because people lose their flipping mind over all black things in this community. Like, you know, blackout, twist, bullet pencils, blackout fountain pens, blackout pencils, blackout. Like, that's just like, people think that is the coolest thing ever, which I don't.
But.
But Most people do, like, most people go nuts when they see that. So it would just be stupid for this not to be a new standard. It has to. It's an extra firm core. They've. They've got the language there, you know, I mean, they have.
Yeah, yeah.
With the. The black wing, which is the soft. The pearl, which. I forget how they say it, but something like medium. For the 602, they say firm, and now they have extra firm. If they don't have a standard extra firm now, then they are just, like, deciding not to make money. That is my. My, like, my final thought on that. It's an excellent concept.
That was very Jerry Springer view. What was my final thought? Didn't he always have a final thought in his.
Yeah, I'll take that. My final thought is this is an excellent concept. I think they nailed it with the. The Tom Steinbeck video and what he said about the pencil. And they just basically followed his lead and said, okay, we're gonna do exactly what he said. He knows better than we do. So we're gonna go after this and we're gonna say like, this is what the pencil he would like. At the same time, I'm not gonna, like, you know, sell my son off into slavery in order to buy as many dozen as I can.
That's the 211.
Yeah, almost did, but I'm not. Yeah, I'm not gonna do that. I think they're great, but at the same time, I would rather.
Indentured servitude.
I would rather just buy my. I mean, I have a lifetime supply of Palomino HBs already. I'd rather just save my ferals and put them on there. And I'd be just as happy.
Yeah.
So. Yeah. So you guys talk for a while, because I've been rambling because this is obviously like a hot button. This is. This is a hot take for me.
I. So I've. I've really enjoyed the. I haven't actually sat down and compared it, like, side by side with a palomino hp. I need to. But I haven't done that yet. I think it is, you know, still, for a lot of pencils, still pretty. Pretty dark and smooth, which I. I think it would. It would be anyway. But it has really, really good point retention. That's something I've noticed. It doesn't. Doesn't seem less dark than a 602 to me in the way that I'm pressing, but it's. It's held. It's like, you know, classroom friendly, long point really well. I haven't sharpened this thing all day and I've been using it pretty regularly and it still has a pretty good point on it. So I really love the formulation. No matter if it's. If it's something new or if it's a palomino core. I'm just really glad that they put it in a Blackwing because I love the eraser. I love the feel of it. So I'm. Yeah. Like you, Tim. I'm not like super into all blackout things. I think it's cool looking. I think that they definitely at some point had to make one. Like everything needs to be in blackout. But I. I'm really enjoying it. I think I like the 211 the best so far. But. Yeah, this is. This is. This is a really great pencil. I need to order another dozen, I think. What about you to Johnny?
Are you gonna call me Tony?
I almost. I was. I was gonna say Tim and I tried to switch to Johnny. Hey, Tony.
I feel like this was a really cojones esque move to make. Went after. What year was that? 2012. When there was a lot of drama about, you know, people accusing Blackwing of things and, you know, I don't know what was going on. I wasn't paying attention.
Co opting the old brand.
Yeah. But one of the things was co opting Steinbeck. So I don't know. I think it's really gutsy that they went anywhere near Steinbeck, you know, in a good way, because I like Steinbeck.
Steinbeck went on record. I mean, he is documented to talk about Blackwing.
So I. Yeah, that was the old one.
I think it's.
Well, yeah, I think it's weird that they didn't just stick to that one because that's the one, you know, that replicates the one he used. But I mean, I'm glad it didn't. That would have been boring. Hey, look, this one just says 24, but it's a 602.
Lame.
But I think what you guys said is probably gonna happen. The new core, but people also went natural. And everybody wants a pink eraser. So if they did something with this core and a natural finish and a pink eraser, especially with a silver feral, that would be just freaking Tastic.
The 211 body with the 24 core.
Shut up.
They could just call it the black wing.
Give me all of your money. Just what is. What's twenties? What's 2016 in Roman numerals?
M, X, I, V, I.
That doesn't sound as good as mmx.
Yeah, MMX looks badass, but they still won't adopt it. But I noticed a lot of people buying, like, you know, eight dozen of this pencil before they've tried it, which just seems like one of those field nuts moves, field notes moves, where people, you know, buy a million of them, like they're gonna barter them later.
So it's definitely like. I think especially the limited edition nature of these kind of things triggers particular hoarding mentality. Like, I. Yeah, I. I definitely have that impulse that is dampened by my not inability to spend, you know, 30 bucks on a $25 on a dozen.
So, yeah, I don't know if I'm gonna buy a second dozen. I think if I see my Bob slate, I might splurge for.
Yeah.
Next week. I don't know if I have them in brick and mortar stores. But then I only actually have. I've only ever had one dozen of every Blackwing, except 211. I have two dozen of. I'm still on, like, my first dozen MMXs. I mean, I'm down to like two, but still, I bought them in a while. They should send us some free black wings because they like us. Let us help test the new one. The Blackwing Ultra.
Ultra.
Yeah. I was kind of hoping that it would be round because Steinbeck liked the round version of the Mongol. That would have been pretty cool.
Yeah, that would have been awesome. That's what I was waiting for. That would have, like, melted my brain if that was. What if they would have made a round wing?
Nobody's mentioned. This pencil is actually metallic.
The paint.
Yeah. If you hold it in the light, it's sort of metallic.
Like a car. Yeah. It almost has, like, flecks in it.
Yeah. The first time I said, I was like, whoa, this is way better in person. But everybody in my family really dislikes it.
My.
My wife doesn't like black wings because they're too soft. And she really likes Steinbeck. So it's like, oh, good Mother's Day present. She's like, no, I don't like it. Okay. Charlotte doesn't like it. She rather have play with a wopex. Even just the crappy green one, like from Staples. Not even like a fancy one.
You know, kids are so ignorant.
She either boogers right in front of me. Yeah. Yeah.
So cool. Yeah. This is. I think this is a really good. Yeah. Addition just to kind of like round out the. The year.
This is. Yeah. So what would you. How would you guys rank the 4? To interrupt you for the End of
the year I would put 211 first. This second I would probably put the 728 third. And then the 11 38. Excuse me. 725. And then the 1138 right with you.
That's perfect. That's exactly how I would rank it.
I took the 1138 second. Second. I really like the MMX core.
What's your ranking, Johnny?
I'd do 211 first, obviously. And then, then the 1138, then this one, but it'll be a very close third. And then the 725 last. I don't know. I liked the core a lot when it first came out, but I feel like that one just smears and ghosts all over the place.
Messy.
I thought that the concept, like the execution on a theme of the 1138 was pretty good. It was not kind of as like, as simple and pure of an execution as like the 211, but I think because it was the original like softest core, which I don't have a whole lot of use for. I don't, I don't use that every day.
It's super nice in these new dead print editions.
Oh, I bet.
By the way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's not smeary.
No, this, this paper is weird. Nothing smears in it.
Magic trapline paper.
Yeah, you probably can't erase a wopex. I haven't tried.
Yeah, cool. Should we, should we move on to the write notepads?
Yeah.
Come over to the east coast.
Yeah, sounds good.
Shuffle up the east coast. For folks that don't know when write notepads makes their books. They're. What are they? Three and three quarter inch by five and a half inch notebooks. They're a little bigger than a field notes style notebook and they have 64 pages and they're perfect bound. Honestly, I don't really know what that means. But they're not stapled and means it has a spine.
Like an actual spine. Like a book.
Yeah, you can't break the spine. It's awesome. I mean you can fold them over but pages won't come out. But on the flip side, they don't open flat right away. But I'd rather my notebook not fall apart and they stay closed, which is good. So for the new one, it's black and the inside is one 16 inch graph paper printed in gray. So I got a message from Chris the other day that he scrapped it all and got it reprinted in an even lighter gray. So it's extra pencil friendly, which is super nice. So also if you don't have the right notepads, books. They come in a custom box that sort of flips down and like every piece of paper on the box has something custom and well thought out on it. So these. The notebook is black and it's stamped on the front that just says Lenore in copper. And then the boxes have the right logo and they have a cutout of the front with, you know, sort of like a copper gingerbread around it. And there's a letterpressed card of Edgar Allan Poe inside that. I don't know if Chris was kidding. He said it's a higher resolution than money or United States money, but, like, it looks really awesome in person.
That's kind of a really amazing, just, like, thing to compare. Like, first of all, it may not be super great because, like, United States money is pretty behind technologically compared to, like, other country money.
But it's letterpress.
Yeah.
But at the same time, that's a pretty amazing brag. It's higher resolution than money. I like that a lot.
Yeah, that's pretty awesome.
They're pretty minimalist. You can't actually go look at the pictures unless you're a member and you log into the website, which I think is really cool. If you're a member, you can buy them right now for $9.99. So the other thing they're doing is fieldnotes releases their edition size, which. And Blackwing doesn't. I don't really. I don't care either way. People seem to feel entitled to know how many black wings they made.
People get real upset that they don't
know that you don't know how many everybody bought. What difference does it make? So they're going to. So they're sort of splitting the difference. They haven't released the edition size, but when they're released to the public, then they're going to tell what the edition size is. So that's March 31st.
I do like that he has a different take on it than the usual subscription model.
Yeah, a lot of people are like, it's just like field notes. Like, no, number one. These books are not like field notes. If anything, field notes were awful close to those Moleskine Cahiers, which I feel like nobody points out.
Yeah.
Aside from them being in a three pack and fitting in your pocket, they're not that much like field notes. The paper is way better. No offense to field notes. But the other thing on these is the one thing you can't see on the website is on the back where it says, write Notepads. There's a raven perched on the logo. So this has inspired probably my next tattoo, which would be a raven, because Baltimore. Where are you gonna get done? Where?
Yeah.
You mean what? Tattoo shop?
No, where. Like, where on your body.
That's tattoo speak. Where are you gonna get it done? Reed street tattoos. Probably on the lower part of my upper arm, where there's a little less of a giant patch of hair.
You're running out of arm space, though.
I have to reserve something. I have a tattoo that involves two kids, and with the third kid coming, I gotta do something to it, so I have to save that. But they also have pencils that go with them. The pencil is called Lenore, and they're black, like the black wings, but the wood is black too. They're, like, totally black, except for the logo, which is stamped copper. That matches the notebooks. So if I remember right, what Chris told me is if you subscribe, you get your two sets of notebooks and you get three pencils, so you can buy them by the dozen. They're $13.99 right now. They're made by Musgrave, obviously, because everybody's made by Musgrave, and they're in black boxes. They actually make in house. Like, you showed me the secret way in which they make these boxes, which is really cool.
That is cool.
But I wrote with one. I swear, it feels a little different than Musgraves usual pencils. It's a little smoother and harder in a good way. So that's good news. What's the other cool thing to mention? Where was this written down? Sorry. Yeah, I think that's it. Oh, I reiterate. If you don't have a membership, get one. Or you really might not get these notebooks because they're not that many. I know that there's a very limited number of the pencils.
How. How much is the membership?
The membership is $100 a year. But for the membership, this is where it's sort of like field notes. You get two packs of each, and then with your first packet, you get two packs of their regular books. But after you subscribe, they send you an email and they ask you what you want. So I get a variety pack, and then a three blank pack. And you also get a membership card, which is numbered, which is awesome. Yeah, I get number seven. I already saw my card, because I got to see the cards. They print. It look really cool. So they call that your first shipment, your initiation pack, which is really, really, I don't know. I Like that. It's cool.
Yeah.
So if you think about it, you're getting, you know, a hundred dollars worth of notebooks, free pencils, and free shipping delivered the postal service. So mine shipped to today, and I'll probably have them tomorrow. Not just because I live in town. Also, when things ship out of Baltimore, they tend to get to their destinations very quickly because of our proximity to D.C. so that's good. And also, you know, Edgar Allen Poe. It's awesome.
Yeah.
Chris wouldn't, you know, tell any secrets of what the next ones might be? But I know they're already in a production or concept, but, yeah, these are really, really awesome. I'm probably not gonna sleep tonight waiting for these to show up tomorrow.
Awesome.
Shut up. I feel like they're, like, they're extra surprises that I got to see that I don't want to say anything about, but I did not steal a pencil. They had, like, a pile of them when I was there, and I sharpened one and used it. And like, God, I really want to take this with me, but I did not because there aren't that many.
Do you guys. Do you guys feel weird living in a world where there are just, like, at least three different, like, stationary subscriptions that you can get now?
I like it.
No, I think it's crazy. Yeah.
I think it's probably reined in my spending because, you know, I'll be somewhere. I'm like, well, yeah, but I already have three subscriptions. I'm not going to buy that.
Yeah.
Yeah. We're basically just, like, kind of lumping together our spending into kind of like one lump sum with this. So what's really interesting is that if field notes and write notepads and blackwing were to sort of space it out, we could have, like, one release a month, just like forever.
What if they don't agree with that?
No, I'm sure they wouldn't. They're going to do it.
This is Baltimore. You don't come down here. Disagree. That's not funny.
All right.
Yeah.
Yeah. Cool, man.
We're going long tonight.
We are. This is supposed to be a mini episode.
Yeah.
Oh, so the other thing I should mention is if you go in there, the logo for the membership is. Looks like a doughboy from World War I. And the bayonet on his rifle is a bullet pencil, which I didn't notice until I saw the poster in the shop, which I also wanted to steal. But, yeah, definitely check them out.
Cool.
So we're wrap it up.
Yeah, we should button up, so.
Thank you again to write notepads for sponsoring this episode. So they're probably going to have a sponsored episode for all of the releases. So this will be the place where you can learn the most about right notepads. Not just because Chris is a friend of the show, but also because they support us and we support them. So we talk about where to find us. We are the Erasable podcast. We are at erasable us. You can find this episode at erasable us 48. We're coming up on 5o soon. Check out our Facebook group which is approaching a thousand members every day. Just facebook.com group erasable. Yeah, it's mind blowing. Our mouthpiece sort of is facebook.com erasablepodcast or Twitter erasablepodcast and increasingly frequently on Instagram erasablepodcast. I am Johnny Gamber. You can find me at pencilrevolution.com on Twitter en solution and on Instagram onnygamber. Where can folks find you?
Gents, I am at. This is Andy. I am@whitclinch.com on Twitter Wealthley A W E L s or oodclinched and on Instagram at Awelflly as well. How about you, Tim?
All right, you can find me here on Erasable obviously. And you can find me on Instagram TimothyWassum Awesome.
Thanks for listening. Please, you know, review us on itunes and overcast to increase our visibility and spread the pencil word, which is very important. Thank you for listening to our super long quarterly episode.
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 at www.thismountainband.
I can taste the days of a
long past summer if I could just
count the times this has happened before.