This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
I'll mute the Cubs game.
Thanks for your commitment.
You're welcome.
Hello, everybody, and welcome to episode 51 of the Erasable Podcast. This episode is sponsored by CW Pencil Enterprise, the world's only wooden pencil store. They have a great deal that we're going to talk about just for Erasable listeners. We'll get more to that later when we start our segment Today, we're going to talk all about jumbo pencils. I have to admit that I was trying to think of a clever pun or something I could say to tie jumbo pencils into our discussion, but everything I could come up with is not particularly appropriate for all audiences. I was thinking about fat bottom pencils. I was thinking about, I like big pencils, and I cannot lie. I was trying to talk about how you guys have jumbo pencils. I don't even know. So this is the point of the show when I would normally introduce the two guys who hold a jumbo amount of affection with me, Johnny and Tim. But at the moment, we are a man down. So Johnny is having some audio problems, and we are 45 minutes into our recording. And so Tim and I thought we would start. Us start ourselves off and see if we can add Johnny later. So as soon as he gets it together, we'll add him back in.
So, yeah, Skype is not playing nice tonight, so it's not his fault.
Skype's playing great for you and me, but it doesn't seem to be playing great.
Well, how's it going, Andy? It's good to talk to you.
I'm pretty good. It's been a while. We haven't recorded in, like, three weeks, so lots going on.
We had testing at school. They got canceled.
Yeah.
Crazy.
It sounds like the Tennessee educational system. You probably don't want to talk much about it, but.
Nope, I won't let you comment.
I won't make you comment, I should say.
But I did. I think I broke my toe yesterday, which was.
Oh, man.
Exciting. Yeah. Thought it was a stub, and I just, like, went totally silent and hit the ground.
Yeah.
Oh, man. Jane was in the next room. My wife was in the next room, and she didn't even realize it had happened. And I just walked in.
I was like, I think I hurt
my foot really bad. And it. It looks like it's, like, four different colors right now. So that was exciting.
Sure, it's. Is it turning black and about to fall off your foot?
Yeah, it's possible, but I couldn't see it all day because of my hippie Sandals that I had to wear. Cause I couldn't fit my foot into any of my shoes because of my swollen toe. Exciting times.
As we speak, we're trying to add Johnny to the call. So if everything gets super disoriented, we'll know that Johnny. Johnny has joined us. But I guess in the meantime we should talk about our tools of the trade.
Sounds good.
Tim, do you want to. Do you want to start us off?
Sure. I am drinking cold brew coffee I made. It's perfect time of year for that. I like to make a big 2 gallon jug of it and then I can. It just makes mornings. The mornings are so much better when that's around, so. But I had some.
You make your own cold brew. That's. That's something.
It's so. It's. I mean it's really easy. I mean I just kind of got. Got a. A pattern down. It's made with. I'm still working my way through Thanksgiving blend from Starbucks just because we bought like four pounds of it because it was super cheap. So it's made with that and it's really, really good. I like it. And I'm writing with an Atoya jumbo pencil that Caroline scent from travels to Japan, which I'll talk about later. It's just a fantastic pencil. And I'm using my Chicago field note.
Nice.
The Chicago flag field. What about you?
I am drinking the very hard beverage of lime Lacroix.
Nice.
I. Yeah, I actually don't have any beer in the house. Well, I think I do, but I was just going to sit down with this. It's. I don't know, I've been having like a headache today and I just didn't want to add to it. So doing that. And I am writing in my BobSlate Mount Tom notebook.
Nice.
Do you have one of these?
Yep.
Johnny sent. Yeah, Johnny sent us to. Sent this to us. I'm. I really need to go to Bob Slate sometime because I don't really exactly understand what it is, but I do love their. I do love their notebooks. This Mount Tom is. It's called a six by four. So it's maybe a little bit. A little bit bigger than a six.
Yeah, yeah,
yeah. So I love the amount of time I've been using this. It was the perfect size on one page to. To review four. Four thick pencils or as I wrote at the top, four fatties.
Yeah.
We're just kind of laughing at the text message thread that we're getting from Johnny right now. It is full of a Lot of words that I'm not going to repeat on the show. Maybe the After Dark will just like do a dramatic reading of this. I feel really bad for Johnny. He's now saying there's a storm in Baltimore and so the Internet's being wacky.
Literally. Imagine him like putting on like a big raincoat and like charging outside to like find a place record.
He should hold his go on the roof. Hold your laptop in the air, Johnny.
Just grab yourself a fatty. Just chill.
Literally an act of God is keeping us from talking to John right now in Skype, God and Microsoft. And I am writing with a Big Dipper pencil, which plays a big part in the show today. Um, so we'll talk about that. I. I have actually that. That same itoya sitting in front of me that I should have sharpened up, but.
Oh, it's so good.
I. Yeah, I. Well, I'll talk about that in a bit, but I'm having some sharpener. Sharpener woes for my jumbos.
We can fix that.
Yeah. Johnny, according to the notes, is drinking coffee only says he's only on his fifth today. Maybe Johnny's just like so over caffeinated.
He's like, johnny, are you okay?
His computer is fine. He just can't like, he's operating at a much different. He's operating a different frequency from, from all of us.
This is like different dimension. Yeah.
This is the most crystal clear, I think our connection to each other has been.
It's ever been. So.
Yeah, and he says he's. He says writing camel gray slash gray. Sorry, Camel natural gray pencils in parentheses, omfg.
Which I have no idea what that is. I can't wait to hear him talk about it. Yeah.
So this is the point of the show that we're kind of excited to announce and I'm sorry that Johnny can't be here with us. We'll see if we can add him as time goes on. This is a brand new segment. Um, it's kind of a remake of an old segment, the Pencil of the. Of the Week that we used to do. Um, we don't yet have a good name for this. We've just been calling it the Pencil for Of the episode. So I kind of want all of your help in helping us name this. Namely, this is a collaboration between us and CW Pencils. We're going to be doing an ongoing sponsorship with Caroline and the Pencil ladies. And now gentleman of CW Pencil Enterprise, Gentle Pencil Lady. Yeah, the Pennsylvadia CW Pencils, ladies and lads, of course, being the go to source for lots and lots of hard to find pencils. We have a pretty close relationship with CW Pencils. We've had Carolyn and Caitlin on our show many times, but certainly you guys have heard episode 49 in which the pencil ladies, Caitlin, Caroline and Alex hosted an episode. So we have a pretty close collaboration with them. We're going to every episode try to bring you a pencil that we're going to talk about and then offer a discount to you for that pencil. So May 3rd, when I believe we're going to be releasing this episode, is Teacher Appreciation Day. By the way, Tim, happy Teacher Appreciation Day. Yeah.
Thanks.
To celebrate, CW Pencils is offering a buy two, get one free deal exclusively for erasable listeners on the JR Moon Big Dipper pencil. So now through next Sunday, May 8, just ask two. Just add two or multiples of two Big Dippers to your cart. Mention the erasable podcast in the order notes. Upon checkout, CW Pencils will automatically include a third Big Dipper for every two Big Dippers purchased. You can do it up to 10 free Big Dippers. So if you want to go ahead and order 20 big dippers, they'll throw in another 10 of them. So anything up to and including that. Yeah, you'll be able to use. So yeah, let's. Let's talk about the Big Dipper guys. Guy.
Guy. Yeah. Well, thanks to CW Pencils for doing this. We're so excited to finally get this off the ground. This is really cool. And I actually just got my. My Big Dipper in today.
Yeah, I've had someone sitting around for. For a while. I sort of forgot that I had it, but I. This is actually one of the only JR Moon pencils that I've ever actually used. I have those, like, tri rights. Is that what they're called? Tri rights? Tri Rex.
Tri Rex, yeah. Yeah.
Like, they're like hex pencils, but each alternating side is bigger than the other side. So it's more of a rectangular one than it is a. Like an actual true triangular.
Yeah, that is a. Yeah, that's a great pencil too. Yeah.
The Big Dippers. I think my very, very favorite thing about this pencil is just aesthetics. Like, yeah, it is gorgeous.
It is good looking. It has a very vintage old school look to it.
Yeah.
With the script.
Yeah.
Big Dipper.
The Big Dipper.
Quotation marks.
Quotation marks. Yeah. It's just a super old school thing to do. I have to admit. I just don't know much about J.R. moon. Like, I want to know more.
And they're about to say the same thing.
Yeah. They're us made, aren't they?
As far as I know, yeah.
Yeah.
They only do a lot in the custom pencils department, but Caitlin has been
telling me that she. Whenever they get these big dippers in stock, they run out really quickly, specifically because they're sort of like your quintessential, like, old school, jumbo school pencil. I don't recall that I ever used a big dipper when I was in school, but this feels and looks exactly like the old Dixon beginner's pencil that I think I did use, which we'll talk more about that when we get to the main. Main segment. But, yeah, I'm a. I'm a big fan of this. It's. I. I can. Looking at the wood grain on this, when I sharpen it, like, on the collar itself, it looks like there's definitely, like, you can see the seam of
the wood,
but it's a. Yeah, it's gorgeous. It writes really nice and dark. Um, I sort of forgot how great that really thick lead is because, like, you can press down super hard and not even, like, come close to breaking it.
Yeah. Yeah. It's really strong and it feels good. It feels pretty good in your hand. It's. It's. I think it's slightly bigger than maybe most jumbos that I've tried. Just a touch. Like, if you've ever used something like the Musgrave Choo Choo, which you can also get at CW pencils, it's. It's actually just. It's a touch bigger than that.
Yeah, it's. It's. It seems like it's about the same size as, oh, the right notepads. Comparing. It may be a little bit bigger even.
Yeah, it's a little bigger.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's super jumbo.
Is this as big as the. My first Ticonderoga?
I've got like, 15 of these pencils spread out in front of me, and I'm trying to see if I have. And that's, of course, of all the ones that's the one I don't have in front of me.
We really need a. Like, what do they call them that you measure diameter with? Calipers. Yeah, I really need a caliper.
If we had, like, these.
If we had, like, Daryl Edwards here or, like, Cody or somebody, I think we could. We could know this right off hand. But I want to say that it's about the same size as the. My first Ticonderoga, which I also have. Just eyeballing It.
Yeah. So yeah, it's a good looking pencil and I would. And I. They, they come in. They come with a ferrule and eraser and without.
Yeah.
So they have both on. On CW pencils.
Do you have. What are you using?
I have the feraless.
The feraless.
Yes, I do.
I do too.
Just the naked tip and. But yeah, it is a good looking pencil. Nice red, rich red color. This is actually a color that I've always wanted to find a fountain pen ink in because it's like, it's what I call the Eminem red. Like the color of a red M M. Oh, yeah. I just love that red. So that's a nice gold print.
Yeah, that's a really good way to put it. I. Yeah, I just, I just love the. Just custom, just the custom typography on here. Like, excuse me, Big Dipper is like one color or excuse me, one font says bonded. It has a little like symbol. JR Moon Pencil Co is another. Another font.
And it's got the number too, which is cool. I didn't realize they numbered their pencil so it's number the full text. Big dipper bonded mjr moon pencil company 600.
Yeah.
Just looks super cool.
So we'll get into discussing sort of the benefits of a, of a Dumbo pencil. But this one, my biggest thing is you can just like press as hard as you want and write as big as you want and you're not going to like snap off anything. Yeah, I shouldn't say as hard as you want because you could probably break it if you tried really hard.
Yeah. I mean, if you wanted to, you could push it through your desk.
So. Yeah. Let me remind you everybody again, if you go on to CW Pencil's website, which will include a link to this particular pencil in show notes, add multiples of two of these big dippers in your cart, mention in the order notes, just say erasable or erasable podcast or what have you, and they will give you one pencil for every two that you've added just to automatically order to your cart.
Up to 10 free pencils.
Yes. Which is a lot of pencils.
That's going to be. That is a lot.
30 pencils altogether. So. Yeah. So thank you very much, CW pencils, for trying this out. And please, everybody, show how much you appreciate them sponsoring us and buy yourself some big dippers. Yeah. All right.
I wonder.
Let's. Let's try to do. Let's try to do fresh notes. You and me, Tim. And then when we get to Johnny's fresh notes, we'll try to add him back to the call and if we can't, we'll just keep on going.
Okay.
That sound good?
Sounds good. I don't have a whole lot.
Yeah, I have. I have maybe one, two. I just have one. So let's do. Let's do our fresh points and then like pause and try to get Johnny back.
You mind starting.
Yeah, no worries. Something. It's kind of old news by now. It's been. It's been a couple weeks. Did we talk about the personalized field notes pack for subscribers?
I don't think we did. It's. Yeah, we might have, but I don't remember talking about it.
And remind me again, Tim, what your. Did you. Did you lapse on your subscription?
I did. Yeah. And I. That almost brought me back.
Yeah.
I almost re. Upped, but I didn't. And I think I made the right choice. They're very cool, but I. Yeah. Just don't. Just don't need the notebook. Yeah. Yeah. But I.
So for everybody.
Super tempted.
Yeah, for everybody. And probably by this point everybody knows. But Field Notes did a really, really cool thing for their subscribers. This. This half. To celebrate the 30th. The 30th subscription, which was the sweet tooth, they did sort of a mid. Mid quarter release and it was just a subscribers. And they sent everybody a two pack of. Of the Butcher Blue and the. The Butcher Extra Blue and the Butcher Orange field notes. Kind of pretty much the rarest two field notes that you can get. They did a reissue and they sent one of each of those to everybody with a belly band that had your name on it kind of normally where it would say graph paper or the name of the edition in big letters it said Andrew Wealthley or Johnny Gamber or what have you. It was super cool and they didn't really tell anybody until they shipped it out. So that's pretty great. Yeah. And just a. Just a nice little like thing to show that they care. And also in my opinion, a great little kind of not like a subtle fu. But you know, just sort of just throwing a wrench into the valuation of the Butcher Extra Blue and the. And the Butcher Orange. Because they're back. Yeah.
And I mean, I'm sure they're. Yeah, they're by far their number one.
Yeah.
Number one. What am I trying to say? Their number one objective with this was to just to do something cool. And I think they nailed it because I think I like that it was sort of. They've kind of pushed back and made sure that They've made things so new and different all the time, you know, and innovative, trying all these crazy new things. And it's cool when they, when they for the first time step back and refer to the past, you know? Yeah.
Yeah.
Which I just think that was really, really cool. Cool idea. So I, I didn't get them and I don't think I will, but I, I'm, I'm very happy for those who got them.
Yeah, I, I haven't broken into mine yet, but they're. Yeah, that's. I think I'm gonna use either the orange or the blue during my next, my next field notes, so.
I see. Yeah.
So, yeah, that is, I think most of the fresh points I have that aren't related to jumbo pencils.
Yeah.
Um, how about you? How about you, Tim?
All right.
Well, I don't have a whole lot to talk about. I was going to mention that I visited with my uncle who's a listener of the podcast and a fellow pencil and pen nut and he's, he's the
one who lives in Atlanta.
Yeah, he does. And he has discovered ebay and pencil like specifically like finding vintage pencils on ebay.
Yeah.
And he's very good at it seems because I went down to visit and he sent me home with a just bouquet of Mongols, Eberhard Faber Mongols, which is really amazing. And he had gotten them all, found them all for really good deals on ebay. So I just going to mention that that is very cool. Some of the stuff he found that I've never seen before. Some of them, one of them which I really like. It's called the Eberhard Faber monitor school pencil and it's a. And I'll try to, I'm trying to. I've got the link to the brand name pencils page but it's a, It's a number two pencil monitor. 1395 is the number and it's, it's a round American made yellow Mongol like version of the Mongol. I just put the link in the show notes if you want to check it out and we can, we can add it there. But several others, of course, just the Mongol number two. You know, the 482 was one of the ones that he had gotten a few boxes of the, the Mongol school pencil, which I had never seen either in person. The mongol is the 484. Yeah. And he also, which this goes with my John Steinbeck shrine. It's not the. What is. It was that weird number that he, he used. It was like the 2 and 38 or something.
Oh, the.
Yeah, the 2 and 3 eighths. So he apparently was associated with the Mongol 480. 2 and 3 8. And so I have a hex of the American Mongol in 2 and 3 8. But my uncle was able to find the just round eberhard Faber, Mongol 480, which I had never seen before also. So it was all these really exciting things. So I just wanted to say give him a shout out and just. There's a lot out there apparently. So if you're interested in these kind of things, you need to check out ebay because some stuff has been popping up lately. I wonder if there's been a, you know, increased demand where people who are in this sort of business of selling things on ebay in this market are like, hey, people are actually buying pencils all of a sudden.
I love the idea that, you know, every few years there's some like old cache of pencils or like vintage stationery that's discovered in the basement of what used to be like a department store or something. Even like an office building.
Yeah.
Gosh, man, that's. That's a. I. I literally was walking through downtown Johnson City and it's a. It's an old downtown that's kind of on the rise. A lot of really cool stuff. New brewery, some new restaurants, new farmers market. Like all this cool stuff is popping up. But there's still all these old building is that you can just see the windows are stuffed with just crap, you know, just clutter. And I literally just walked by it yesterday and you just asked myself, I wonder how many black wings are in there? Because it's not out of the question, just that there'd be stuff like that.
Yeah.
Because they were pretty, you know, these, these old awesome pencils were pretty ubiquitous.
Yeah.
So, yeah. So I just wanted to give him a shout out and just say that if you're interested in those, I'll try to post a picture. But I actually left the pencils themselves at school. They're in a pencil box at school. So I'll post a picture at some point. But I put a link in the show notes for that really cool monitor pencil, which I'm a big fan of already. And gosh, you know, I think that's. I think that's it. I might be go. I'm going to be going to Pittsburgh. Oh, yeah. In a couple days. And so I might try to catch. You know, we don't really have stationary stores here. So while I'm there, I'm gonna try to Catch a blick. There's a. There's a blick there. And a couple other art supply stores that I might try to swing over to. It's gonna be a really fast trip. Going to see the Chicago Cubs play some baseball.
Never heard of them.
Never heard of them.
Yeah.
Until I had a kid in class, I was at the Cubs logo on my smart board because I put their record, like, in the corner, aside from all the other stuff. And it's been up there for months and months and months. I had a countdown to opening day. And I had a kid walk up to me the other day and say, hey, Mr. Wasum. And, you know, the Cubs logo is like the big C and the UBS is inside of it. He goes, hey, Mr. Awesome, I finally figured out what UBS stands for. And I was like, what? And he looked over the board, he goes, ubs. And I've talked about the Cubs, like, on a daily basis. He goes, it's that those. Those trucks that ship stuff that you order online. Wow. I just didn't even. I didn't correct him. I was like, good.
Good job.
You're so aware of your surroundings. But. So I think that's all I've got, though, for. For fresh points. That's all. All I've got.
Well, should we take a short break from. From recording and try to get Johnny back?
Yeah, might as well.
All right. And we have Johnny back.
Hey, Johnny, how's it going?
Good.
We're just gonna, like, straight up talk to you old school on your phone.
Let's pretend it didn't happen.
Yeah. He was with us all along. He was just quiet. He was ending his talking fast.
Yeah.
I didn't realize that I had it on mute the whole time.
It was just.
The whole time
you guys were just
mad at me or something.
Yeah. So, Johnny, what is your. What are you drinking and writing with?
Well, I'm drinking ice cold frustration with several IR cubes.
No.
I finished coffee and water while I was cussing at my computer. And I'm using one of my new favorite pencils, the Camel natural pencil from CW Pencils. And this one is the gray tip.
Yeah, the Camel. Camel is the brand. I have no idea about this.
Yeah. Sort of eyeing them up, and I'm like, it was going to take me a few months.
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
I read everybody your. Your parenthetical omf.
Cool.
And, Johnny, do you want to. He said the S part plenty of times.
I said one of those words over and over.
Do you want to get into your fresh Points, Johnny. I'd love to hear about that first one especially.
Sure. Well, I'll just do the first one. That's the big one. So I got to go to CW Pencils last week with my daughter as part of her sixth birthday present. She was finally off when it wasn't a Monday, because if you're on the east coast, you know the shop is closed on Mondays. So she had like the time of
her life and it talked about it for a long time.
Caroline and Caitlin had a lot of really cool presents for her and she got a little tour. She stamped pencils for her friends at school, which made lots and lots of little kids happy.
Yeah.
Which is cool. Yeah. So now she has a jean jacket with some pencil pins that she's rocking.
Does she have the cat pencil one?
Yep.
Yeah. That was from Carolina. Caitlin. I gave her the little city ministry one.
That's cool. We may or may not. We may or may not had a discussion about it after you said that you were going to take her there.
So
me and the pencil ladies.
Yeah.
Yeah. So she's like many petals richer and very happy.
That's awesome.
She got these pencil machine, which was cool.
What did she put on her pencils?
Her name, her brother's name, her unborn sister's name, her friend's names, and her friends siblings names.
Wow.
Except one. I think she. I don't understand if she thought he was too little or she just couldn't spell his name.
No pencils for you.
He didn't get it. I gave him. I gave him some opex pencils.
That's awesome.
Starting young.
Yeah.
Yeah. And Charlotte got to meet Dr. Hans too, which is awesome. She said, quote later. He's really nice. I know. What are you telling me?
It's true.
I think we were there for like two hours.
That's awesome.
Very, very crowded.
And I totally held up the line because I chose that time to check out with my.
I'm going to spend the night next time I'm just going to bring a sleeping bag.
I'm told, Johnny, that after you left, somebody in line said, is that one of the erasable podcast guys?
That's crazy. Yeah.
I was so incognito. My erasable podcast shirt, I think. So Charlotte. Yes. Her birthday party yesterday and like everybody got her pencils, including some really Pencils I've never heard of by Suki uk. Not Suck uk, but Suki, Like S U K I E, I think. And they're called people pencils. So indie's favorite. Sorry.
Like Gilmore Girls. Spelled suki.
I think it was U. Yeah, it's spelled that way. And they look like people and they write really nicely. Pencils. Many, many, many, many pencils richer right now. But she does go through them, so that's good.
Yeah.
Yeah. I feel like I could rant about CW pencils for a long time.
Yeah.
So I've been trying to wrap my brain about writing a field. I did CW Pencils because you show up with like an actual list in your hand, you'll kick yourself the whole way home. Like, I forgot to get this. I've got to get this.
Yeah.
Which of course, I've done every time I've been there.
Should have that printed up into like a little scout book and then have them available at the door for people who go in. So, Johnny, are you. Are you done with freshpoints? Are you. Should we move on to the main topic? So you missed our discussion of the Big Dipper, kind of in our. In our sponsored segment by CW Pencils, but I'd love to know kind of what you think of them before we move on and talk about thick pencils as a whole.
Did you guys talk about the quotation marks?
We did. We did talk about the quotation marks.
That's where it's at. And also the word bonded is so big.
Yeah.
Like it has brother and sister pencils to which it is bonded.
And it's red.
So I keep looking at. Thinking. Thinking blood brothers. Blood sisters.
Tim mentioned that we really love. He really loves. And I do, too. The color of it. It's kind of like Eminem red.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sort of Christmasy.
Yeah,
Same.
I'll pay you in gratitude.
Yeah.
I think the star of this pencil is the quotation marks and also the other star of it is the core, which is really nice.
Yeah.
I like these winter when my hands crack up because you don't have to make much of a fist and they move really quickly.
Yeah, I agree. Cool. So, yeah, let's move on to main topic, which is, of course, jumbo and mini jumbo pencils kind of as a whole.
Look at analog, Mr. Claw.
Analog. Well, if you watch some of those old Inspector Gadget cartoons like that, they really have not been restored. So they're kind of like in their 90s glory,
as it should be.
Yeah, definitely.
Like vinyl, right?
Yeah. So some of those, like you don't. I don't remember them being like, so poor quality like back then, but probably just because it's been saved digitally and non. I don't know, non digitally, it's like watching, like, old episodes of Rescue Rangers. So bad. Yeah, we're talking about jumbo and mini jumbo pencils kind of as a whole.
Now,
we should probably kind of start by defining what we mean by jumbo and mini jumbo. Johnny, you're the one who wrote this. Do you want to lead us into this topic, or do you want me to do that?
Sure, I'll jump on the jumbo part.
Yeah.
So you're sort of emblematic. Jumbo pencil in the United States is that big fat. My first Ticonderoga pencil, which is like, one of the only ones you can actually just go out and buy at Staples or Target or something. So Dixon lists that as being 1332 of an inch wide. Most pencils are around 8 millimeter. I should have converted the two, but there you go. Usually the cores of jumbo pencils are generally wider, usually softer for little hands, and they sort of disprove immediately that there's ever a standard number two, because Ticonderoga fat pencils that are marked number two don't write anywhere near, like, a regular Ticonderoga. On the flip side, it's sort of hard to write small with these things, obviously, because they have a big, giant core that crumbles and smears, and that's why they're so fun. Also, and this is just me, but I've noticed the ones you can buy for kids in the United States usually have a really crappy finish because kids chew them up. I guess they figure, why bother? Just don't care. And on the plus side, if you find them with erasers, and a lot of them don't have erasers because, you know, people like to torture kids and not give them an eraser. If they have an eraser, it's usually, like, gigantic, which is pretty cool.
Yeah.
So do you want. Any of you guys want to do mini jumbo, which is sort of an accent? We're on.
Mini jumbo, quite simply, is just a pencil that cuts the difference. It's in the middle between a standard pencil and a jumbo pencil. I don't know what the actual measurement would come out to, but it lands in the middle and what I would. What I've noticed, and you guys can correct me if I'm wrong, but I actually have never seen a mini jumbo that's not round. Yeah, Usually a mini Jumbo. Yeah. I mean, most of them, they seem to be round. There's a couple triangular ones.
Yeah. The moon Tri Rex one.
Yeah.
Yeah. So. But the majority of them.
Sorry, that's a great pencil. Sorry.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is great pencil. And. But most of them seem to be around examples such as which, if we're using Dixon as a comparison for Dixon, it would be the Ladee, which I've talked about a good bit, which is a classic pencil. I would actually say that as far as mini jumbos go, ladee's on the small side. As far as diameter goes. Other ones you have. California Republic makes one called the Spangle. Believe is the name of it.
I don't think they're making that anymore. I think they discontinued it when they switched to Musgrave. But they're still. Yeah, there's still a bunch out there. Is it still on their site?
I don't remember. I haven't checked in a long time. But there was. I remember seeing them a few months. But other examples of it. Musgrave makes one called the Cub. There's a mini jumbo landing there. There in the middle. I think the idea behind both of these, in the simplest sense, is that the purpose of a big pencil, the jumbo, is for kids with small hands to help them learn to hold a pencil correctly, to have more control over a pencil, which seems kind of counter. It seems counterintuitive what you think. You think. No, you give them tiny pencils because their hands are tiny, but when you give them the big pencil, it's easier to hold on to. It's easier to control. And they can keep it, I guess, keep their handwriting because they're writing big as well. So you have to think about that. So they use the jumbo. And then I guess the idea would be that a mini jumbo, which also, I've heard it called intermediate size, intermediate pencil, be something like the Ladee, which is kind of the next step up. Someone in. I guess in theory, someone in third, fourth, fifth grade might use something like a. A lady.
Yeah.
And graduate on to a standard pencil. Once they get to be older and they're writing smaller and they're writing more and more and more because the, you know, the more you write in school, the more you write, the harder of a core and the smaller the pencil.
Yeah.
Because you're writing on these, you know, small. The lines just keep getting smaller the older you get. So.
So by. By the time you're like a PhD student, you're writing with, like, bridge pencils.
Yes, exactly.
Is that what you're doing, Johnny?
I assume holding a.
No, I put pencil and a fingernail.
Yeah, you're just dipping your. Dipping your finger in some.
That's why he had that, that long fingernail. It wasn't like his, his. So his like people thought it was
dirt, but it's not dirt. It's a writing medium.
Yeah.
So quick point of follow up. The spangles are, are no longer made, but they're still available@pencils.com so they must have had some backstock, but they're still branded with California Republic.
Yeah, I've got a handful and I think. Or actually no, I just have a couple and I think you sent them to me, so thank you for that. But they present jumbos and mini jumbos present a problem in the sharpening department for the most part, which I think for a kid. Kids don't care. They have those pencil sharpeners that have the, you know, the gauges, the different size gauges. You just turn the thing and you sharpen the, the big pencil. But as an adult when you're writing, you want it to have the finest point possible. And you know, there are, it's. They're pretty ubiquitous. The, the sharpeners that have the small hole and the big hole. Problem with that is that the big hole usually puts a really stubby point on it, a short point, which for adults who write on paper that doesn't have, you know, two inch.
Yeah.
Lines that just doesn't work. Yeah. There are some options out there and we'll get into that later in the mini jumbo. It just kind of depends on the pencil. Usually, you know, some of them can fit into a standard pencil sharpener, some of them can't. And then actually oddly some of them like the Laddie. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. It depends on. Because it's such a fine line.
I actually just stuck earlier today my, my Musgrave Cub into a classroom friendly sharpener which sharpened it but then I couldn't remove it from the sharpener. It was like it just fit in there and I had to actually like reverse the like direction of the, of the grind just to like basically screw the pencil out of the hole and. And then. Well then it just ate up the barrel of my pencil. Like it's, there's just like gashes in the barrel. And so this, this beautiful blue Musgrave Cub is just like has these huge like bite marks in it. Oof.
Ouch. Yeah, some of them, like with the ladee, it just depends on I guess the thickness of the lacquer that sometimes they. I guess there are some versions out there that have maybe just a little more paint on them. They're Just a touch. And so some of them I could put in the classroom friendly and it's amazing. Other ones like don't even come close. I can't even get the.
That's crazy.
I can't even get just the point in there.
So that's crazy. Yeah. I don't know. I really think I need to buy. First of all, I have more jumbo pencils than I thought I did just in digging through my collection and kind of in prep for this. So I think I really need to get like a jumbo sharpener just to keep these things sharp. I've been using this, this weird yellow sharpener that I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I think that it is a like a carpenter pencil sharpener. It says C.H. hansen on the side of it and it's big and yellow.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah. Yeah. I know what you're talking about.
Yeah, I think. Did you send this to me, Johnny?
The sharpener?
Yeah.
Okay, well, I hope you like it minute.
Yeah.
Yeah. Then I think, I don't know who where I got this, but I think it's for sharpening carpenter pencils. But I can also fit a jumbo in there. But it doesn't really hold on to the side. So I have to like keep it really like in line when I'm sharpening it and it makes this terrible sound. So I really should get a like a jumbo sharpener.
I. We should just go ahead and talk about sharpeners now. Let's do it there. But I have an emphatic answer which I, you know, we talked about the classroom friendly, long or large pencil, Large hole pencil sharpener, what they call it, which is pretty good. But the Dahl 133, which we talked about several episodes ago. We talked about several episodes ago. And the reason we talked about it is that it's only 12 bucks. But it's still only 12 bucks on Amazon. Yeah, 1225. And it puts an amazing point on. On a jumbo pencil and on a mini jumbo. So. And it doesn't put the bite marks. So I think that is just. For me that was a no brainer of all the options. I mean there are some hand sharpeners that are, you know, pretty decent, but it just puts the coolest, you know, long point on some of those. Andy, when you finally sharpen up your atoya, you need to, you just need to wait until you get one of those because you'll be, you'll be blown away. They're so cool.
That's cool. I'll I'll get one of those.
Put the link in the show notes, but it's yes, $12.25 for. On Amazon.
For a sharpener, the comb wedge is okay. Like, in a pinch, that's all you have. Like, say if you keep one in your diaper bag. But the M and R Mobius and Rupert Brass round double that I've seen them call the Granada, but they've also just got the round double. It's the thing that looks like a stack of like half a row of quarters with two blades on it. The point is pretty short, which some folks might not like. But a. It's a fat pencil, so, you know, you're not going to get too fine of a point out of it for very long. Also, the way that pencil sharpener shaves it makes the really, really, really thin shavings. So it makes a very, very nice point. So that's my favorite handheld sharpener. I'm sort of stuck between the doll 133 and the classroom free. The classroom friendly makes the kind of a straight line. So I feel like the point is a little more durable, but it's a little less sharp, if that makes sense.
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
Some of the fatties have really, really fragile leads in them. Some of them, yeah. The fatties. The fatty, fatty bow batty sharpener is what I call it. Somacide and silver Sharpie.
So what's everybody's favorite of the jumbo pencils, Tim? What like of the full jumbos. We'll talk about the mini jumbos.
Full jumbos. Yeah, yeah. Of the full jumbos. My. I have a definite couple favorites of the ones that I have, and one is the. Which I think I'm sure I've talked about before, is the right notepads jumbo pencil that he. That they. They've had made. It's a. It's a really nice, solid feeling white jumbo with the nice red printing on the side. I love the font that and. And the look of it that Chris has designed. And it has a really great sharpener all around. Awesome pencil. It's made of cedar. Love it. I can't. I can't get enough of that thing. I use it on a very regular basis of all. Of all my jumbos, for the most part. That's the one that I use definitely the most often. I was going to. I tried to qualify that a little bit because this atoya that I'm totally in love with, which I'm going to talk about next. I Just haven't been using. But now as of the last couple days, I've realized how amazing it is. So. So the right notepads one is great. I think you get them in a pack of six. I believe they sell them in a pack of six, which I've got a little. Little stash of them. And I. I adore them. So if you like jumbo pencils, that's to me, that's the best readily available one out there as far as ordering online. We thought for a while about doing a list of our favorite ones that are available in stores, but then that just turned into a list of one. There's really only one that you can get in just normal stores.
Yeah.
And there's the Atoya, which was given. It was a gift from Caroline after her trip to Japan. The CW pencils trip to Japan. And it is a gorgeous pencil. It's. It's silver. Silver barrel with a black. I think it's dipped. Or is it a cap? It's a cap.
Yeah, it's a cap.
Yeah. It's like. There's a black. A black end cap. It doesn't function as eraser. It kind of looks like that camel pencil.
Skinnier ones that look like this do function as an eraser. But this particular one, I love how your two favorite of these could not be more different in aesthetics.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. One is like 2001 A Space Odyssey. Yeah, Super.
It does look like a spaceship. The Satoya pencil.
Yeah, yeah. It looks like a missile or it's just. It's all silver barrel, round, of course, which we didn't mention that. But for the most part, jumbo pencils also seem to tend to round and triangular. There are a couple. I have one here in front of me hex. But so it writes. I would say the write notepads jumbo writes like a traditional HB somewhere there. The Itoya one that she sent is more like a B or 2B. Really nice dark line. The only problem. And I was talking to Andy about this before we started recording. I hate mentioning this is because being my favorite because I cannot figure out how to find it online. CW pencils doesn't carry them right now. And if there's a. If you Google Itoya jumbo pencil, like one of the first things that comes up is one of the blog posts from CW Pencils where they talk about stumbling upon these in this little shop and saying, like, we found these amazing. These beautiful silver jumbo pencils. And so I looked online a good bit and couldn't find them anywhere. So I am sorry for teasing people, but. Yeah, I'm really sorry, but they're amazing. So if you ever come across them, they're silver, they have a black end cap. But as far as stuff that's readily available, the right notepads, jumbo pencils that come in a six pack. They're killer. Really nice, big supple eraser. Yeah, I dig it. I dig it hard.
And they're for you lefties out there. You can read the writing on the side as you write with it.
Yep.
Yep.
Printed left handed.
Yep.
Or whatever you call that. Perspective. Left handed perspective.
Johnny, what, what are your favorite of the full jumbos?
Well, I'm going to go with the full end of the spectrum and I'm going to go with the first, my first Ticonderoga first because it's sort of the gateway fat pencil. Because you can just go get them anywhere or you can come over to where I live and I'll give you a handful of them because I have a giant box. It's a good pencil with a really big fat eraser. It works well. It's really good for making a short point and writing giant letters. That's what I first started using them for, for like meeting notes when I was in a hurry. Then I'm gonna go the other end of the spectrum and go with my two favorite Faber Castell fat pencils. There's one, I think it's called, officially called the Jumbo Grip. It's the big fat version of the grip 2001 silver with the black dots. Recent ones I've gotten aren't cedar, but most of the ones I've gotten in two packs at Dick Blick stores are cedar. And it's a B grade, so it's not very soft because Faber Castell B is still pretty hard.
That's interesting because the regular 2000 isn't cedar, is it?
No.
Nope. Yeah, interesting.
And there's a little space on there to write your name, which I think is really adorable.
I love those.
But the silver paint sort of repels it. If you don't use. What is that thing? The Pigma Micro Perm. Just like a micron, but the body's gray and they last forever. Whatever you write on them with Sharpie comes off. My other one is Faber Castell Castell 9000 Jumbo, which are really expensive. They're like four bucks a piece. I think list price. But they're a big, really, really fat, really sharp hex pencil with a gigantic core that makes the whole pencil really heavy. But it's nice to have a fat pencil that they have. What do they have? HB, 2B, 4B, 6B. Do they make 8B?
I'm not sure.
I don't know.
But if you get like the hb, I feel like it's a lot smoother and a little softer than the regular Castell 9000HB, which I know a lot of people don't like. But it holds a point for a long time. And it doesn't smear, which is not something you can say of most fat pencils. So it has a special place in my heart. I think I've had the one for like two years. I've never used up the whole thing yet. So, yeah, those are my three, which now I'm noticing. One is brown, one is hex and one is triangular.
Yeah, I did that on purpose. Yeah, that's true. I forgot that the 9000 was a hex as well. I have a 2B sitting here. I wish I could take a picture of the point that the doll puts on that thing because that has such a wide core. It's insane. It almost looks. Is it, would you say scalloped or something? Like if it's not like a straight point, it kind of convex or something concave.
I mix them up.
Whichever concept.
One of those, it's curved.
That's really good looking.
I was to that classroom friendly sharpener puts an insane point on the Fat Castle 9000.
Yeah.
What were you going to say?
I have a question for you. So about the Dixon fat pencil. There are. I feel like there are several pressings of it. Like I've seen some that just say my first time rogue. I've seen some that say beginner. I've seen one that says like beginner pencil. Like what is it all the same thing, but they just keep renaming it over and over again.
I don't know. I've bought the beginner and then my first Ticonderoga and the only difference I can find is that you can get the beginner one without an eraser, but the one with the eraser is completely identical to the my first. So this is kind of weird. It's bizarre. I've seen ones that say my first in like huge crayon writing, but I've never actually seen one in person. Those are really cool looking.
Yeah. Okay. Well, thanks. Yeah, I was just curious because I've. I have several like laying around. I think you, you've been. You very kindly sent my son little care packages of jumbo pencils for Me to stash away for him. And he's. He writes. Actually his favorite right now is the Tri Rex. He loves that thing. So he's writing with that and. But I, I just would look through and I noticed like sometimes they say different things.
I don't understand their marketing at all.
Yeah.
J.R. moon in that they have none.
Oh, no. Ticonderoga. Are you talking about.
Oh, Ticonderoga.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just because they keep changing the name of it, they're probably like, who cares? People are gonna buy it anyways. It's the only one there.
They haven't updated their product page in like two or three years.
We should do a whole episode on pencil websites and how terrible they usually are.
We could have a contest and make
like the worst pencil except for cw.
Yeah.
So I realized before I used the Big Dipper that all of my favorite of the full jumbos are usually pretty triangular. I actually didn't even think about the right notepads as a full jumbo, which I guess it is. So I really, really do like that. I. I don't know how I was measuring it or maybe I thought it was thinner or maybe I was getting it confused with something else or what.
I don't know.
I just didn't even like think about the, the right notepads one. But I like that one a lot. I do like this Big Dipper. I love the look so much. It just looks like an old vintage pencil, but something that's made modern. I also really like after Johnny wrote about it in February of last year, I'm really into this finger fitter pencil.
Oh, the Musgrave thing.
Yeah, it's the Musgrave Finger Fitter. And kind of in true Musgrave fashion, similar to JR Moon. It just has like weird, cool old timey like imprinting on the side. It has this like purple foil stamped thing that says finger fitter. And it's like a semi triangular jumbo pencil. And this is, this is full jumbo, right? Yeah. Yeah, it is.
Yeah.
It's a really big pencil.
Yeah, it's huge. I feel like I could just like club somebody with it. I have done that.
I live in Baltimore.
It's going to be huge.
Huge.
Let's not even go. That's a pretty great pencil. I also like, there's one that Elaine sent me when they first started selling them at Jetpens a couple of years ago, and that's the Koh I Noor Trio graph pencils. I have a couple 4B and 2B trio graphs and I think I mentioned that these really feel like the sharpie of pencils because it has a. It has an extra thick, like, core, like even more than I think most jumbo pencils do. And you know, within 4B, you know, just right. So like dark and thick. It's super cool to look at. It's this like stained wood color with a black cap on the end and this like gold band. Just kind of looks old timey. And it's, It's a really great, really great pencil too. It actually, what's funny is the cheriograph print on the side kind of looks in the same font as the finger fitter font. I don't know if that's on purpose or if it actually is true or not, but it's pretty good. That's just a nice big old, like, if you just want to make big old black marks, that's the one to go with. So, yeah, those I think are my three favorite of the full jumbos. Should we talk about everybody's favorite mini jumbos?
Yeah, absolutely.
Johnny, do you want to start us off with this?
Sure. So I'm going to skip the Laddie and go with my two American maids, the Musgrave, my pal, which I'm not sure, but looks to be a copy of the Old Blue Laddies,
or it
could be vice versa. I mean, it seems like a big coincidence that they're the exact same blue and they're mini jumbo pencils even.
They even write about the same.
Yeah, it's got. The core is like pretty wide. It's sort of soft, but not very smeary. It's a nice smooth writer. You know, the finish is always kind of crappy because Musgrave pencils come in like a sandwich bag with no marking on them. But they're cheap and they're pretty easy to get. You can get them@pencils.com for a couple bucks.
There's actually like a little, like bits of bologna inside.
What does my pencil smell like? Baloney.
A little bit of mustard. You take out the pencils and you shake out the paint chips that have fallen off because they don't pack.
What the hell?
But other than that, you know, it's a nice pencil. My other favorite is the General's Big Bear, which is like the most printed on pencil ever.
I need to get one of these.
Yeah, when you sharpen it, there's like an inch of space and then it says USA Generals Big Bear. There's Bear 909T School Bonded. And then there's A feral. It's just all this gold. It's really cool. The most blinged out pencil that's not actually blinged out. And it looks like Generals use antique ferals because they're sort of all dirty, which I appreciate. They have an eraser one and non eraser one.
Why do we suppose there's such cool, like, imprinting on the barrels of these jumbo pencils? Is it because there's more room to do cool stuff with?
Yeah, maybe the designer was like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna rock this.
Yeah, I'm just gonna, like. We're gonna call this thing nuts. We're gonna call this a big bear. I'm gonna put a bear on the pencil.
Yeah, the bear goes, like, a good
third of the way around the pencil, too.
Yeah.
Sunday life size bear.
These are nice because they're cedar, because I don't think general's does anything that's not cedar. And very smooth. And they don't smear. And the point lasts, like, forever, which you can't say for most fat pencils.
I'd like to try one of those. Love me some generals.
Yeah.
The only downside is they're hard to get. I think Gary used to have them.
CW has them.
Get them at cw. Yeah, I have, like two, and that was one of the things I forgot to buy last week was like, all of the big bears they had.
They're $1.30, which isn't, like, super cheap, but isn't, like a bad price either.
Yeah.
We should mention they last a long time.
We should mention in the show notes. As we're talking about this, we put a link to the Jumbo pencils page at CW Pencils so you can see all the options they have. They've got a lot of really cool ones, including several of the ones that we've talked about so far and the Big Dipper, which we have the special deal on thanks to CW Pencils this week. So as you're listening, if you want to check that out, you can see some really cool options to buy through CW Pencils. Sorry for interrupting, Johnny.
No, no, no, no. Okay. That was pretty much it. You should go get these pencils. I put a link to that specific pencil in the show notes, too.
Cool.
And if you buy a whole ton of them and love them and you say, hey, Johnny pointed me in the direction of this, I'll send him a dozen of them.
That's cool.
No pressure. For example, suggest, Tim, what are your favorite of the. The mini jumbos?
Well, the first One is definitely the Ladee Laddie Tririte, which I've talked about both before. But I. It is kind of funny now that, like, the more I think about this, it's. It's. I hesitate to actually call the Laddie a mini Jumbo, because, like I said, it's on the smaller side. It's just a hair bigger, but it's round. And it's a really nice and comfortable pencil. Has a really wide core and you can sharpen. Put a comically large point on it because of that. Especially if you can. If it's one with a thin lacquer that you can fit into your classroom. Friendly. Not the long point one or the large hole one, but the other one. You can get some really amazing points in the Tri Right as well. It's a really cool pencil. Doesn't. It's not made of cedar. The only thing the Ladee, for the most part, what I've seen is made of cedar. The Tri right. Is not. But they both are really nice writers. They write very similar to one another, and you can get them for pretty cheap. The Tri write especially, actually. I mean, everywhere. I've seen it everywhere from Amazon to officedepot.com, you know, like big websites like that where you can get. I think the running price for a pack of 36 at the Tri Rite is something like 11 bucks.
Wow.
Which is a really good deal. They're really. They're really nice. I have a bunch of them at school. And the Ladee, likewise. It's something like $4 a dozen. You can find those easily online in person. I've never come across any in the wild, which would be awesome.
But they have the teacher supply store. Like, Lakeshore. Is that what it's called?
I need to. We have a teacher supply store here that I never go to because it's pretty, like. It's a lot of, like, elementary school kid stuff. So I don't ever go there. But that'd be worth checking. Yeah.
They usually have this Tri Rex too, sometimes.
Big dippers.
I've seen Big dippers there with the erasers.
Nice. I'm gonna check that out. Here we have a. A to Z store. Here is the name of it. Very creative name.
Where do they come up with these.
Yeah. Gosh. These brilliant teachers.
And you should ask, like, do you guys still have any Z in stock?
Yeah. Really? Jones versus Z. And the other one I'll mention, aside from the Ladee family of pencils, is the Spangle, which we talked about earlier, which is similar. They're very Similar pencils. It's made of cedar. It's on the small side of the mini jumbo, so it's really easy. You don't feel like you have to, like, palm it because it's so fat. It's a really nice. Nice width. It has a firmer point than the ladee, so if the ladee is too soft for you or doesn't hold a point long enough, the spangle might be a good option. I think they run somewhere around four bucks a dozen for those, and you can get them in bulk as well. On pencils.com. i think it's 35. I want to say it's 35 for a pack of, like, 100 and.
Yeah, 39.90 for 144.
Okay.
Yeah. Yeah.
I. I just want to know how many of the. Of these they have sitting around, because it's been like, two or three years more than that. Even, like three years since California Republic because a brand was retired.
Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, they're. They're nice. They're. I think I will get. Try to get more of them before they disappear. There's a nice blue color. It's actually. I would. Andy. I'd call it a Facebook blue. Kind of like a. It's a. Yeah, it's a nice blue that sort of. Not somewhere in between a royal blue and a sky blue somewhere in the middle, which. It's a nice pencil, and I would. I would highly recommend it. I have to mention this is. I'm sorry, this is out of order, but as an honorable mention for the jumbo, I've really enjoyed the Norris jumbo. The triangular Norris. The big triangular Norris.
That's. That's funny, because I had that as one of the ones I really like in my. My mini jumps.
I'm sorry. No, no, no, no.
It's all right. But it's interesting that, like, I thought it was a mini jumbo, and you're thinking it's a full jumbo.
Yeah, I was thinking full jumbo.
Yeah.
Just as I think of it as, like a jumbo with three sides shaved down. You know, that's true.
Yeah.
But you should. Now, that's actually what I'm doing there is just expert podcast transitions. Take it away, Andy.
So I found these. I know I've had them before just because I feel like Johnny's always sending me Nora stencils, which is awesome. But they have one called an Ergo Soft, which is. It's a larger. I feel like the wood is not cedar. I feel like it's different. It's like a paler color, but it has that like signature red tip. And yeah, I have no idea how to tell if this is a jumbo or a mini jumbo, but it's a big, big pencil and it has sort of that. That same rubbery grip to it that the Triconderogas have. I noticed none of us talked about the Triconderogas as being our favorite.
Keep it positive.
Yeah. So I'm a big fan of the Norris school pencil and I'm a big fan of these two. They're just really comfortable to hold and really nice. And they're comically large.
Yeah.
I also also been enjoying the Musgrave Cub pencil. I like the way it looks. It has a little cub on it reminds me of cub Scouts. I have it in blue, but I'm told there are green out there. And it seems like maybe there's a small rivalry going between the blue and the green fans. Dale Edwards prefers the green. It looks like somebody in the Facebook group said they like the green as well. This blue is really pretty, though. It has a nice thick point. I mentioned before, Johnny, you weren't here when I mentioned it, but I stuck that in the classroom friendly sharpener and I put a big gash in it. Were you here when I mentioned that?
Yeah.
Okay.
I heard it.
I heard it one way or the other. Yeah. I have no idea how. Yeah.
So I've been recording for seven hours.
Right. I've been recording since last Tuesday.
What day is it?
I'm going to mention as well the Dixon beginner's pencil. The beginners 308. Pretty sure these aren't made anymore, but I remember these very clearly from my Catholic school days in the 1980s.
Oh, the black ones.
Yeah. I have black and I have dark blue.
Mine were black and they were mean.
I have both of them in front of me. But I remember specifically like we used the blue ones. And I remember because at home I got to use like nice pencils with erasers and stuff. But when I got to school, they made us use these Dixon beginners. And I was like, why don't they have an eraser and they're not finished on the end and blah. I just had a really bad attitude about first grade.
Core isn't centered. Yeah. As being like a six year old. Andy,
like comic book guy from the Simpsons. Only I believe you mean that these.
It's called the ferule
pencil.
Ever. Worst pencil ever. Fattest pencil ever.
See, we got errors from the nun that didn't get the you can't spank kids memo yet.
We all of our nuns, by the time I got to school, like, I'm pretty sure they were definitely not allowed to spank. But sometimes you could tell that they really wanted to.
I think I came in like right on the tail end of whether they could do that because I got spanked once.
My parents can kill anyone. Yeah, Yeah. I. My mom was a left hander going to school in the 60s and everybody spanked and everything. But also she came out at the tail end of them correcting left handers. So she. She was left handed and they made her right. Right handed for a while. But she. Eventually her parents put a stop to it, like to the correction. And so they. She went back to left handed again. But I also have. We didn't talk about these before, but before we go, I wanted to mention I found a bunch in my collection. A bunch of interesting vintage old jumbo pencils. I think one of them is an Australian pencil that I think that Luke may have sent me. Luke Sinclair, who lives in Australia. A thick black made by Columbia pencil. It has big letters, Commonwealth of Australia written on one side. And then it just is. It's called a thick black, which is pretty awesome. I have not.
Yeah, that's cool.
I've not sharpened it yet. I went to. Well, I don't want to because I'm just kind of a hoarder, but that's a neat one. I also have one made by the American Pencil Company out of New York. Can't remember when they closed or when they. They merged into. Right. Eagle was it. And then they merged into Barrel. I think I should double check that. This is called the Childland pencil. It's green.
Childland.
Childland.
It sounds like a creepy movie.
Hello, welcome to Childland.
Spells like children.
So that's a pretty amazing pencil. I also. Do you guys have the. I can't remember if Caroline sent this, but it's a semi hex. Oh, no, it's a full hex mini jumbo from Japan called a geckoso.
Yeah.
Do you have that 8B?
Yeah, I think so.
It has a French horn on it and it's 8B and it's just like super dark. It's like writing with charcoal.
I don't think so. Okay, well, maybe.
Yeah, for sure that's where it came from because I have no idea.
I tried to hunt around and I couldn't. I didn't see it, but I might have it somewhere.
Last thing I'll mention is this pencil that has no brand on it, except it's called a hand huggers. Do you guys know about this? Okay, it's. It's a. It's a triangular pencil. What's cool about it is that the ferrule and the eraser are both triangular as well. And it is not wood. It's like. Like one of those plastic pencils. Like, you know, the kind that are made out of, like, recycled plastic or whatever. Gonna Google this right now. And it's in this, like, kind of crazy colors.
Like.
Oh, they're made by beryl. That's interesting. So it could have. They kind of look like yikes. And they're meant by barrel. So they could very well be the same like. Like team that would have done that. But it's a barrel hand hugger. Jumbo triangular pencils. Artpencilsrare.WordPress.com has it. Just a picture of it, but I'll post a picture of it to the group. So those are just some of the, like, weird, interesting ones I have sitting on my desk right now.
I've got a couple I could mention.
Yeah.
As well. Or one major one which is sent to me by Johnny. But it's definitely worth mentioning because it's super cool. Is the Eberhard Faber Mongol for kids?
Oh, yeah, it's the. Is that the trio?
It's a hex. Yeah, it's a. It's a jumbo. Arguably a mini jumbo. It's a little. It's a little smaller, but it's. I would call it. I would lean towards jumbo. But it's. Yeah, it's made by Ebarhard Faber. It doesn't say made in the States, but it's a Mongol. It just says Mongol in the classic print. And then for kids in lowercase. And then a number two. And it's numbered. Has a nice big fat eraser on the top of it, too. And it has a big. A big version of the bottom black feral with the gold stripe across the middle. Super cool.
I have an Eberhard Faber Mongol trio sitting here in front of me. That's. It's natural wood grain, but has, like a nice clear lacquer on it. So it's really pretty. And that also has the triangular fair rule and triangular racer. And we won't even mention the Triconderoga.
No.
I believe there's a. There's an interesting category of sizes. There's. Were they at Lowe's. Dickson makes these, like, matte black quote unquote finishing pencils. So they have a Fat one that is exactly halfway between the ladee and the regular fat Dixons. And then it has a regularly sized core in it.
It's a mid jumbo.
Yeah, it's like three quarter fatty.
Yeah. So I'm gonna put you all on the spot before maybe we. We head out.
Let's do it.
I just thought of this. If you could jumbo ties, one thin pencil. Which one would you. Jumbo ties.
I like where your head's at. Hopefully
you got your feral on straight.
Boy.
Any ideas?
Could I. Would mini jumbo ties be a. Be an option?
Sure. But you have to explain why.
So I like jumbo pencils. Just they're fun to use for, like, jotting down notes. But many jumbos are preferable. Preferable for me for longer periods of writing or just where I don't. I'm not like in a part of my day where I can just keep sharpening it over and over again.
Yeah.
So. Because they usually are a little. Little harder. But if I could. I mean, I'm going to just skip the obvious Palomino HB reference here, but a Blackwing 211.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what.
Just. Just a black wing. A jumbo blackwing would be cool and I would even. I would even love it. Yeah, like jumbo size fat wing.
Yes.
Charles, the black wouldn't even need the black wing eraser if it just had a large normal eraser that just matched the color scheme.
No, I want to see giant ass black wing arrow.
That would probably look ridiculous.
You can put attachments in it. You can use it for gardening spicing pizza.
Another. I would really love to see a jumbo forest choice. I feel like that would look really good with that.
You stole my choice goofball eraser you cut out.
What did you say?
No.
What? No. Yeah. No, you go ahead.
No, no, you're right. I think that jumbo green feral would just look awesome.
Yeah. And I think we're both on the same page. That or just maybe we both realize the same thing. That there are. As far as I can tell, I have never seen a natural jumbo pencil.
Yeah.
So I don't know why that is. That would be awesome.
So stealing my idea.
Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm just so brave. I'm just.
Johnny, what's your. What's your jumbo ties pencil that you'd like to see?
Well, I was going to just say anything natural, but I'm going to go with Wopex because some bitch would weigh like five pounds. It would Be absolutely impossible to sharpen it.
You need something to put onto like a dremel to sharpen that thing. Yeah, like a katana.
Yeah, that would be like. That's like the champion pencil. Like you carry on a chef's knife and a lot of skill and a chainmail glove.
Sharpen that thing, dude. What about a cedar point?
Yeah, that would be sweet. It smells so good.
So that black. Big black ferrule and eraser. Oh, man.
So I'm going to change my answer point.
Go for it. Should I try to guess what it is before you're going to say it? Just so I can seal it one more time. Yep. You're going to say a test scoring.
No, that would be a dumpster.
It's a piece of crap. Better. It's just make it bigger.
It is. Yeah.
That would be the giant turd.
That would just be like a trash fire of a pencil. No, I. I think. I think a mono tombow. Mono pencil.
Oh, yeah.
It would be like an inch of. An inch of paint.
Yeah.
Yeah. Um, it would be like super lacquered and I would like. It would. I think it would be gorgeous. Um, you could like. I don't know, you could club people with that. Like full heck or full jumbo. Like maybe even bigger. Just something you can just like smash people over the head with.
Yeah.
Yeah. Was it like the Billy Club of pencils?
Yeah, the Billy club.
Is there a. There's an episode title.
The Billy club of pencils. Have a lanyard like a cop.
Those would all be awesome. I feel like jumbos just have such a limited audience with adults that for kids they just sort of make whatever. But that would be. I would just. Man, if we can get a natural. A natural jumbo. The mono sounds awesome too. I think that would be really cool.
The black wood is just thin lacquered. Like it's not really natural since they dye the wood.
Yeah,
but we didn't talk about that one. That's a good jumbo pencil.
Yeah.
Expensive but good.
Should we. Should we wrap it up and save all these poor people in the chat from. From us for the rest of the night?
Yeah. Oh, there was. I'm sorry to cut us now, but there was one more topic I was going to mention.
Yeah.
I just thought was an interesting thing to think about with jumbo pencils. They don't. It's kind of hard to find caps for jumbo pencils.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah. But one really cool thing to mess around with is pen caps. Like using pen caps with them because I've just noticed there are some that fit really well. And my favorite is actually the papermate flare. Like the felt tip pens. Those. The caps from those fit really nicely on a lot of jumbo pencils. Especially the.
On like a full. Full jumbo.
Well, like the. I use a paperman flare cap on my right notepads. Jumbo. Usually it's not big enough. The itoyo one's a little bigger than that, so it doesn't fit on that one. But the right notepads one, it fits really nicely. And also the uniball came out with a new pen. It's called like the air or something like that. It's that pen that doesn't matter what. What angle you're writing at. It writes the same or something like that. But the caps are these like really cool, clear, black, large caps. And those work really nicely, especially even better than the flare on. On a jumbo pencil. I have one here right in front of me, so it looks like it could even. It doesn't have any brand markings on it or anything. So if you have any of those sitting around, it fits beautifully on a. On a right notepads pencil as well.
That's awesome.
Yeah. So something. Just something to mess around with along with it if you're one. If you're wanting to try out some jumbos. Mini jumbos, you can look for sharpeners like we mentioned, the ones that we mentioned earlier. And then for caps, it's going to be harder to find, but I think for the like things. For the ladee, I think I used a sharpie pen cap. Works really nicely on it. Those kind of like the sharpie pens that have the flat top.
Yeah.
The skinny or like the cylindrical ones. Not the ones that are shaped like a capsule, but those fit beautifully on a. On a ladee as well. That's cool. Yeah.
All right. Anything else before we button it up?
Oh, wait.
There's one pencil I forgot to mention, but you can't buy it anywhere easily. So there's a pencil from Generals called the cartooning pencil. It's sort of a mini jumbo pencil that you can find at Artists and Craftsman supply. If you have one of those near you.
That's Andy. That's one of the places that they have in Pittsburgh.
Yeah. They have blue foil on them. That's all you have to know.
I'm not seeing that on the like on the Internet.
Yeah. I can't find it anywhere. I've just found two packs of them before, and Charlotte generally steals them from me. I have like one, it's kind of short, but they have really, really ugly, like, comic sans serif blue foil print on them. And they're kind of a cyclic. And yellow. They're really nice pencils. They write so nicely. Yes. Sort of like bile and blue, but like, it's one of those pencils. It's so ugly. It's really cool. I just take up a picture of it.
All right, cool. Well, I think we did it.
Yeah, we did. Jumbo pencils.
So it was an epic journey.
Yeah, I'll button us up. Johnny, can you tell us where to find you on the Internet when your Internet is functioning?
When my Internet is functioning, you can find me@pencilrevolution.com on Instagram, at Johnnygamber and on Twitter Ensolution.
Cool.
Tim, you can find me on Twitter imwassum and occasionally on Instagram TimothyWassom.
Awesome. I'm Andy Welfle. You can find me@woodclinched.com or on Twitter Wealthly A W E L F I as in Frank Le or oodclinched. If you just want to see pencil stuff. This has been erasable episode 51. You can listen to this episode at erasable us 51 if you want to find us on the web. Otherwise, I guess this is already implicit in what I just said. Our website is Erasable us. You can see us on facebook@facebook.com erasablepodcast on twitter@twitter.com erasablepodcast and the same on Instagram. Instagram.com erasablepodcast come join our Facebook group. It is a lively discussion of a thousand members strong and more. And we are@facebook.com groups erasable if you don't want to use all of Facebook, there is a groups dedicated groups app. Thank you so so much to CW Pencils for sponsoring this episode. Yay. Once again, if you want to support the Erasable podcast and check out some awesome pencils, go to cwpencils.com buy two big dippers and they will throw in a third big dipper for free. As long as you mentioned that you heard about them through the Erasable podcast and that limit is 10 free pencils. So you can order up to 20 big dippers. 10 bucks worth of pencils. Yeah. So thank you very much and we will talk to you next time.
Bye everybody.
Happy to sing.
The intro music for the Erasable podcast is graciously provided by this Mountain, the collaborative folk rock band from Johnson City, Tennessee. You can check out their music@www.thismountainband.com. If I could just count the times
this has happened before.