This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
I'm 100% certain that we, the three of us, definitely hold a world record for the most amount of time on air talking about pencils.
I think you're right.
Like, in the world, in the history of humanity, no one, no one has ever been recorded talking about pencils as much as we have. Unless there's this like crazy guy with like 6 inch long fingernails in his basement who just like records himself talking all the time and doesn't publish it, but he's got like tapes and tapes and tapes of himself talking about pencils.
Hello and welcome to episode 66 of the erasable Podcast. I am on hosting duties tonight. I am Andy Wellflake, and joining me we have Tim Wasem and Johnny Gamber. Hey guys, how's it going? So today we're going to ring in 2017. We're going to just flip the bird to 2016. All of our deaths, all of everything else that has happened that we won't go into.
As John Green would say, let the William Faulkner burn.
So. So we're going to salute the finest pencils, paper and pencil items of the year. And of course, we can't resist mentioning a few of the fails and blunders of 2016 not related to either our democracy or our celebrity. So anyhow, yeah. So let's get started. Tim, what are you consuming and what are you writing with? And on.
I am consuming a glass of Pinot Grigio in ice because, you know, it's not cold enough, of course. It just. I just didn't have time to cool it off. But that's not happening. And I am writing with the Blackwing 530. And I am writing on the Hester and Cook notepad, the. I don't know the official name for it, but the American. The one that says American made up in the corner. The one they scent. Because I love it. So smooth.
Yeah, I've.
It's almost like writing on wrapping paper. Like really nice wrapping paper.
Yeah.
After Christmas. That's my point of reference. But it's just so smooth and especially with the black wing.
It's my.
Quite fantastic.
My one complaint about that notepad is that the writing pad is. That doesn't actually have like sequential numbers.
Yeah. This is reproduced over and over.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I understand that would be a big pain in the butt to like actually do.
That would be a nightmare.
Yeah.
But,
but I. Yeah, that's really cool. Cool. How about you, Johnny?
It's been a super Harry Potterific making that a word holiday. So Charlotte And I saw Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which apparently everybody in the world saw before us. But we were sick and busy. And I finally read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which was the eighth story. And I will not mention my opinion.
Okay.
I feel like Harry Potter read it. You know, it's interesting.
What's the Cursed Child? That's.
It's the play.
It's the script of the play that supposedly might make it to Broadway next. Next year. The year after next year. I would. Yeah. That's not that far.
We have a meetup, and Fantastic Beast is the one that. It's like a. Like a textbook. Like a fake textbook.
Yeah. It was one of the books that she put out. They mentioned it in the original stories, and it was like a fundraiser for reading programs. I think she put out three of the books that they mentioned, and that was one. But this is. No, you know, it's a story with Newt Scamander. It was really, really, really good. Eddie Bradmain, you know, he's amazing all the time.
So.
Yeah, I mean, it was. This was like PG13. So I couldn't take Henry. It was a little too scary. But Charlotte liked it a lot.
Yeah.
Yeah. And I'm writing with Blackwing24, which is black on a field note. Snow Blind, which is white. Because it kind of feels New Year's.
Y. Yeah. Yeah. You got random. The old. I am lately consuming the. I was watching the Crown on Netflix. Have you guys seen this? I think you have, Johnny.
Yes.
Yeah. I keep falling asleep.
We finished it. We loved it.
Yeah. It's so good. It's sort of like. It's like the best parts of Downton Abbey, but, like, applied to, like, real people.
Minus the soap opera.
Minus the soap opera.
Yeah.
And it's also just crazy to think that, like, so many of those people are still alive today, like Queen Elizabeth and, like, Prince Philip. It's the weirdest thing, though, is, like, John Lithgow plays Winston Churchill.
Yeah.
And that's like, a really weird choice. Like, I'm just like, why do they see this, like, six foot four, like, American, like, Shakespearean actor and get him to play, like, this stooped over, elderly, British, grumpy, like, guy? Yeah.
Yeah.
You just wonder, like, did he want to play Winston Churchill? That's my guess.
My. Yeah. My hit. Extreme assumption was that he wanted it very badly.
Yeah. And I can see that. Yeah. I read that they like the. The door on their set for, like, number 10 Downing street, like, his office in his home. They had to, like, widen the door.
So.
Because, like, John Lithgow, like, would just dwarf everything because he's so tall.
Yeah.
And if you notice, he's always standing when other people are sitting or he's always sitting when other people are standing. So you never see, like, how just freaking tall he is anyhow.
Hey, yeah, I forgot to mention that I saw. I just watched Magnificent Seven. Oh, yeah. Any of you seen this?
No.
The new one is fantastic.
Okay.
If you're a Western fan, but I've never seen the original.
Trying to think of who was in the original.
Yule Brenner.
Yeah, the original.
But this one's got Denzel and Ethan Hawke and Chris Pratt and it was great. But I was realizing as I was watching it that I was like, wow, this is a lot like Three Amigos. Oh, my gosh. This is the exact same plot as Three Amigos, which I don't know about the original Magnificent Seven. And maybe Three Amigos was made as like, supposed to be like the old Magnificent Seven, but it was the exact same plot. It was kind of hilarious for me. Seen 3 migos like 150 times in my life. But yeah, this, the, the concept of you got two in. In both stories, you have a group of gunfighters like. Well, one of them, they're fakes and one of them, they're real.
Yeah.
And they go to this little town to like fight off this guy who's trying to take over everything and steal their land. And so they train all these lay people to like shoot and make traps and set all these little things up around the. The city to kind of ambush him. So. But it was a very good movie, so that's cool. I'd highly recommend it if you're a, if you're a Western. Western watcher.
Also waiting for Sherlock. I'm very excited about that.
Season four.
Yeah, I'm. Yeah, the first one will be out. I think I'm gonna try to figure out how to watch it on the plane on my way back to California. I am in Indiana right now, sitting in the cold. I got here. I actually missed. Did I tell you guys I missed my flight?
I was following online with your updates.
So we flew with our cats. And you have to like stand in the special services line when you do that.
And
it was a two and a half hour long line. Like, we didn't anticipate that. It was ridiculous. So, yeah, we missed our flight. We caught a red eye and it was mostly fine. I watched like half a season of Chef's Table, that show on Netflix, because now you can download some TV shows to your device. So that was really great. I hope that I will be able to do that with Sherlock.
We'll see.
And last thing I'll mention that I'm consuming. I went to see the new Star Wars Rogue One. It was pretty good. I know some people who are like, oh, it's not part of the original story. I don't want to see it. It's going to be stupid. And first of all, you're wrong. Like, Darth Vader's in it.
Yeah.
And secondly, like, it was so good. It was, it was really good. I. I think one of the reasons I like Star Trek is because it's very, like, it's this very built out universe and there's like so many details and consistencies and continue like continuums and things that are. That are happening. And this just sort of like, enriches the Star wars universe. Right. So I. Originally, when I heard that they were doing this, I was like, oh, this is just Disney's money grab. Like, that's, that's dumb. But it's. I mean, I still think it is a money grab, but I think like, they, they earned their money because it was really good. Super good.
Yeah, I saw it and I will. 100%. I need to, like, ahead of time. I have to admit that I was sleep deprived and I actually fell asleep for like, for like maybe 15 minutes of it at some point because we went and saw it at like 10:30 at night, which was supp. Mistake. But I liked it overall. I had some trouble because I just had trouble caring about the characters because you had to meet all of these characters for the first time. So it made it a little. A little difficult to track with it. And I thought the character played by Forest Whitaker, he was like. I feel like his only purpose was to sell action figures.
That's true. He's got his. We're trying to figure out what his problem is. My theory is that he has, like, space diabetes. He kept taking his, like, insulin and he had like, robot feet. So too much.
Too much blue juice. I need to see it again.
But
I love that it exists and it was interesting when you see it. And this isn't like, big spoiler, but. Yeah, in the, in the first 15 seconds, there's no scroll.
Yeah. Yeah.
So it kind of sets the tone that it's. It's a whole different thing than it's like, not the episodes, it's not Star
wars, but it's a Star wars story.
Yes.
Yeah, I, I Just really liked. And I think, I mean, it was, you know, kind of the point of it is that there was this big, glaring pot, like, plot hole in the. In episode four. Like, oh, how. Why is it so easy to blow up the Death Star? Like, that's real dumb.
Yeah.
And so that's really stupid. This explains it. Like, you know, it was. This isn't a spoiler, but, like, oh, it was, like, done on purpose and like, it was kind of built in. And here's the subtleties behind that. So. Yeah, that was super good. What did you, if I may ask. Sorry, sorry, Johnny, I don't mean to, like, exclude you from the conversation. What did you think, Tim, about the, like, CGI General Tarkin?
I thought that was amazing. I actually.
Did you notice it?
Yes.
Okay.
Yeah, I definitely did. And it was because as soon as you see him, like, that looks a lot like him. Looks a little off.
Yeah.
But it was pretty impressive, I thought. I didn't.
Yeah.
I. I would have much rather them do that than find some guy who, like, sort of kind of maybe looks like him. So. And then there was, you know, with Leia at the end.
Yeah. Which I. I went to go see it the, like, day after Carrie Fisher died. So. And while I was there. While I was there seeing the movie and I came home is when I learned that. That her mother had died. So that was a little sad.
Yeah.
Yeah. Cool. And I am writing with, like, Tim, I'm writing with a Blackwing 530. We are all using the same core. Nice. And I'm writing actually in a Bob Slate mount Tom that Johnny sent me. It's such a good size. Like, it's a little bit bigger than, like, a field note. So it's definitely thicker than a good size. So we are actually, because we are doing a pretty short, just like, roundup episode, we are going to skip right to the main topic. We're not going to do fresh points today. And then we will kind of get into something a little bit more fleshed out in the new year. So before we kind of get started with our favorites and least favorites of last year of 2016, I just kind of wanted to run down, just recap all the different subscriptions that have come out this year. So Blackwing, for example, has, you know, the first of the year, the volume 24 came out, the Steinbeck edition. That's the all black one with the firmer core. Doesn't it seem weird that that was this year? Like, yeah, it does. Felt like.
Oh, yeah.
God, yeah. Felt like it was, you know, much earlier than that. They're already kind of rare. I know. Volume 24 came out. Then it was volume 56, which is the summer. And that was the white and blue pinstriped edition, the Joe DiMaggio Yankees what have you edition. And that had the pearl core, right?
I think it was 6, 602.
602 core. Oh that's right.
That's right.
Then the volume 344 edition came out. That was the Dorothy Lang kind of like reddish dark room looking one. And that was, that was really great. That. Which core did that have?
602.
That has 602 as well. Okay.
Yep. Wow.
We didn't have any, any MMX's cores, this or pearls.
Yeah, yeah.
And then the 530 came out just a couple months ago and that was the gold Rush edition not even a couple months ago, just like last month. And that one's also the 24 core and has the new branding on it and the new dustless eraser and the beautiful black stripe on the ferrule. So a little later we're going to actually try to stack rank these a little bit and say, figure out which one our favorite ones are. And I think there's some trends too. We kind of informally polled the Facebook group and Twitter just to kind of see what people thought. And I think there's some interesting like clear, clear favorites. So for the subscription, the field note subscriptions, the colors editions, Spring was sweet tooth. You know, the perforated pages with the blank colored sheets of paper. People either loved those or hated those.
Sorry.
That was a great team. Tell us how you feel. There was the byline over the summer which was, you know, the reporter's notepad, which also was pretty, pretty controversial. There's the Lunacy edition which was all black with the cutout moon which I really liked. I think generally most people like them. And then there was Black Ice just last month. That was the perfect bound, kind of like chrome looking cover the inside. So that one was pretty controversial too. Wright notepads, of course, kind of kicked everything off with Lenore. Their black Poe edition. Then came Kindred Spirit, which is my personal favorite. Johnny has some kindred spirit news I think since last we talked.
Oh yeah. So Chris needs you if you've got a blue Notebook to email, helloritepads.com with your mailing address and a picture of your blue notebook or if you're like me, a picture of your two blue notebooks.
Are you maybe the only one, Johnny who has two so far.
And I bought them at the same store, too.
It's freaky.
Nice.
Good karma for shopping local. Yeah.
Is there any sort of incentive to mail Chris? Like, do you get anything special if you.
Yeah, there's some kind of prize or tchotchke that you get if you got a blue notebook, but he won't tell
me what it is because you're gonna get two of them. Right.
I better get two of them. Henry has claimed one of mine already,
so I love you.
Said it's because he gets one.
He literally thinks that everything this blue is his.
Yeah. And I'm like, well, you're three. It's time to start learning how to write your name. So he's sort of leapfrogging. He's like, oh, here is an H. Awesome. So he'll learn how to write his
name in one of those.
Aww.
Very Baltimoreish.
Okay. And then after the Kindred spirit, there was the royal blue, which was the train one missing from this list. You know, everybody has four things that were released, right. Notepads only has three. But we actually may have a little information about. About the fourth mystery notepad. Did you have anything to. Any perspective on that, Johnny?
Well, we all know what it is because we've seen pictures, because we're in the know.
Oh, yeah.
So things we're allowed to share are. Yes, there are pencils. Early January. The paper is not blank, it is not lined, and it is not graph. And these are going to be really. Yeah. These could be the best ones they've done. And I really, really like their notebooks, so. Yeah, that says a lot. I think that's all we can say without giving it all away.
Yeah.
Oh, and the subscriber extra is very awesome.
Yeah.
So super excited about this one.
So we can't wrap it up in our 2016 recap, but we'll just have five of them to talk about in 2017, so that's fine. So, yeah. So, Johnny, tell us, and not even restricted to these. To these subscriptions, what are your favorite pencils of the. Of the last year that came out?
So one pencil that I don't know if CW got them before 2016, but I didn't try them until 2016. Is the cameral natural pencils we've talked about a few times with sort of eraser plug on this directly on the wood. This the greatest pencil. I love it. It's smooth. It's not too dark for how smooth it is. They're fragrant. They're beautiful. The only thing is you know, they're kind of expensive, and they're really hard to get. You can get them at, like, one store.
Yeah.
But, yeah, I mean, you know, it works out. The Lenore pencil because it gave me the idea for my raven tattoo, and it's beautiful. And the Blackwing, Volume 344, which is probably my favorite. Blackwing or maybe tied with 211.
Yeah. What is it about it that you like? Is it the appearance or the quality or both?
I am a sucker for burgundy. Yeah, that's it.
Me too.
It was like. It was my wedding color. I just really like that color.
It was perfect for autumn.
That's cool.
So, yeah.
How about paper?
Paper. I'm gonna go with kindred spirit with a close second to that one being the Lenore for the same reason. Edgar Allen Poe in my tattoo. But the paper in the kindred spirit that they used for the COVID was a little more flexible, and it's already a thick notebook, so, you know, that was a little more pocket friendly, and it wore very nicely. My next one is Write Notepads, Winter edition, because we know what it is, and it's awesome.
Just keep rubbing it down.
And UB Composition books, because I use those for National Novel Writing Month, and they're some of the best composition books ever. And I wound up getting them for, like, a buck on clearance, so that's even better.
Nice. Yeah. Do you have any, like, miscellaneous objects?
Oh, yeah. Brass, pencil, sharpener, keychain, which is, like, one of my favorite possessions in the
whole world, so I need to get one of those.
Yeah.
They have a cw, from what I understand. They come with a hole, and it's cw. They put the ring on there, and the ring is perfect. It's perfect weight. Like, they really get beat to hell on your keys. They look really good. And I've never Gotham Wood cut myself with.
With it.
Sorry. Have you ever? Yeah. That's like, Beyonce's favorite sharpener. Because if you like it, you better put a ring on it.
It's heavy. It would really weigh your hand down.
Yeah. So what about some of your of your least favorite things this time around?
Oh, okay. Yeah. So probably joining everybody and saying, field, no sweet tooth, because how dare you. Hanging up the phone.
Yeah.
I feel like that was the start
of a year where they were just like.
Nobody uses these things anyway. They just collect them. So here, collect this.
You know, Tina. I mean, everybody here follows Tina Koyama. She does some really just amazing little sketches in those. So I think at one point, everybody has Traded with her because she. She loves those. Especially the red ones or the orange ones. What flavor are they?
I don't know.
I don't know what they're supposed to be. Yeah, they're like in between.
Yeah, they're pretty.
They're like really pretty notebooks. They're just not. Not super good for writing in.
Yeah.
Yeah. Which is the main downside, right?
Yeah, they're really nutty by this. And you can't do anything with the damn thing.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I'm gonna have to go with the Black Wings, Volume 56, because I hate the Yankees and I don't give a crap about Joe DiMaggio and I think it's really ugly. So.
Sorry.
Strike one.
Strike two. Strike three, you're out.
And I hope I'm not stealing this from you guys, but that point protector, not so much.
So.
So we actually. This has come out since we recorded last and we were going to talk about it as a fresh point, but I think we can talk about it now.
Yeah.
Do you?
Yeah. You got it. Tim, have you gotten one of these?
Nope. I was planning to and then I stopped planning to until something gets figured out.
Do you just want to go over the conundrum, Johnny? Yes.
So if you were a Black Wings volume subscriber, they included a little card where you got one for free, which was really cool. So they would tack it onto an order or you could just pay like, was like $2.61 shipping. It was like, sweet, awesome. But it doesn't fit on pencils. Plus, like, they make it in black and they make it in silver. Neither of which match most Black wings because most of them have gold ferrule and gold imprint.
Yeah.
So that's confusing. And I know they did a lot of testing to get it to fit onto the pencil snugly, but on most of them, you just can't get them on the pencil at all.
Yeah.
So. And I feel like the production is not very good. Like, my B is off center. It looked like someone had already used it a couple times when I got it. And I think subscribers, we didn't have the choice to get silver or black. I probably would have gotten silver.
Yeah.
But I have that black.
But basically it doesn't do what it's supposed to do.
That's a bummer. Is it? Have you messed with it with. Used it with other pencils that aren't Black Wings? Like, are there some pencils that it does fit really well with?
Yeah, the Black Wings are a little bit, you know, the Black Wings are like a little bit whiter than like
with the Palmino hp if you try it on there.
I haven't tried it on that one, but I've tried it on a couple other hex ones and it does, it does fit a little better. It just, I think, I don't know, I, I know that they have really like tight tolerances. It has to be like less than 0.1 millimeters, like in order to just fit on that. But yeah, the, the decision they made was to go with just a solid piece and have something that only fits up to like not even a quarter inch past where the point ends of the lacquer starts. Whereas something like. Oh, I think Dan Bishop was mentioning in the group, like if they put like an O ring in there, they could very easily, just like, you know, easily put it in without damaging your point or damaging your barrel. I should say.
Like a rubber O ring.
Yeah, like something like a bullet pen from Fischer, but like inside the cap.
So the trouble that people were seeing is that, yeah, it's a very tight fit and then you actually like, you damage the corners of your hex a little bit because you have to sort of like slide them on past it. And some people were actually seeing like seeing the paint just kind of chip too a little bit because, you know, there's a pretty heavy lacquer on those black wings. So. Yeah, they released a blog post a few days later just basically about like, oh, hey, you're not supposed to put this on really up past where the point meets the lacquer. Yeah. And I mean it was a little,
I'm looking at that right now. Yeah, just happened to be.
It was a little bit of like reactive pr, I think because they, they noticed in the group how just like unpopular it was. And I think, I think most of it is like the fact that this thing costs 10 bucks usually. Like obviously the subscribers got it for free, you know, plus shipping. But if they were to sell this individually, they're almost $10. And like those little point protectors from like Daiso and what are they called, Johnny, those Japanese? Oh, I don't even know the ones like the little. Gary sold them for a while and at no Geist and you can buy them at Daiso. Those little like metal point protectors with the slit up then so you can like adjust the width. Yeah, those are nice. Yeah, like those are. You can get six of those for $4, you know, so they're just like a little bit over engineered and just like, I don't know what the right word is like $10 for a single point protector, and I lose those things all the time, so definitely not practical for me. I don't think they really, like, look. They don't match the style of the black wings very much. I think my black wings look much better with those, like, little cheap Japanese point protectors on them rather than this one. Yeah.
I mean, if they made it in gold and put an O ring, I would pay 10 bucks for it. Maybe 15, because then you couldn't lose it and it would be so pretty.
Yeah.
But I don't know what the black one was supposed to match except that one black wing that nobody likes.
It could be the word Blackwing. Yeah. And it's funny. It has the Blackwing, like their little hex with a bee logo that they use on some things that the pencil itself doesn't carry at all. Like, you know, there's no. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's interesting. I actually enjoyed the. The blog post that accompanying it. Like, I'll put a link in show notes, but Alexander Poirier kind of goes through a lot of it. Alexander, I pronounced your name in a very, like, pretentious French way, and I don't know if that's how you pronounce it, if it is awesome, if it's not. I'm sorry, we've never actually talked in person. But one thing he mentioned, he goes. If this project taught me one thing, it's that tolerance variances are real. The diameter of our pencils from flat face to flat face range from 7.15 millimeters on a pencil with very little Lacquer, like the Blackwing 211 up to 7.25 millimeters in a pencil with extensive finishing like the 602.1 millimeters may not sound like much, but that variability is quickly doubled when factoring in plus or negative 0.05 millimeter tolerance required by our metal partner. So they talked a little bit about their partnership that they originally had with John Fontaine from Metal Shop. They were trying to put together, like, a point protector with him, and they were both very open about it. They talked about how they kind of decided to mutually end that project because John is building his brand and they wanted something that they could oversee in the supply chain a little bit more. So I completely understand how hard this project was because it has to be so precise. I just, like, I don't. I don't know. I don't. I don't think they. They got to where they were going to.
Well, here's to hoping that there will be a 2.0 version. That's.
Yeah, that would be really awesome.
Two point guardo.
Bet you they'll do it because they listen.
Yeah.
There was not gonna be a 602 until everybody hated the MMX.
Yeah, that's true.
What I understand. They were like, oh, you know what? Let's do both.
Cool.
Like 20 of them.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Tim, how about you? Let's talk about your 2016. What is your favorite pencil of the year?
My favorite pencil by a long shot, I think is actually the Blackwing 530. Yeah, I, I just. That was one that I was not thinking. Thinking I would like until I saw it in person. Like I, you know, I. Gold. I mean as soon as I hear gold, I'm just whatever, you know. Yeah, no thanks. Same way with pens. Like if a pen has like gold finish on it, it's like I don't. I'm not a CEO or something. It makes me feel like I'm being overly fancy for some reason, which I know is stupid. But when I got it and saw it in person, that it's actually a lot more subtle than that sounds is really pretty. And I love the band on the ferrule. I love the core. It was hard not to pick the Steinbeck edition, but I just find myself picking up the 530 a lot more. So that. That's definitely my favorite wood case pencil that came out. And then in the pencil category, I had to include the Timber Twist as my highlights of the year. Those shipped out this summer. And I just think that was a. Which I've talked about before. And I won't go on about it, but I just think that's an all around home run.
Oh, yeah.
So John killed it. Yeah, John Jay on the Timber Twist. They killed it. So I had to give that. I had to include that. So the 530 timber twist.
Got that.
Yeah.
Should have been on there.
Sorry. Yeah.
What about taking the volumes 56 and putting a red eraser in it?
That was pretty sweet too. But it is Yankees at heart. That one I liked. Fine. I didn't. I used a couple of them. It was a little strange. I don't think I disliked it like Johnny did. I mean, I liked it. Yeah. With the red. The red eraser, which was fun. Using it to score games during the World Series. Cubs colors was fun. But you know the thing with the pinstripes and then like the small print, it just seemed kind of a little wonky. But I'm glad they did a baseball edition. So like I give them big props for that. So overall I liked it, but not, not at the top of my list. So as far as paper goes, my number one, I think is actually the Workplace from Baron Fig. I like that again, kind of like the 530. I liked it a lot than I was expecting to. So I just love the. I love the feel of Baron Fig notebooks. The only downside to me with Baron Fig is just the light color of the. The outside of the confidant. I don't love as it gets beat up. So it was just cool to get one that's all black and to surprise myself. I actually had fun with the. The two different prints on the sides because it was pretty subtle with the dot grid and of course I always love blank. So yeah, had a lot of fun with that. And then my second close behind that was the royal blue from Right Paths. So I, I've been using that. I'm on my second one and need to try to find more of those because those are. I love the color, love navy blue. I like the, the print on the inside of the covers and the, and the ledger lines. It just ticked all the boxes, checked all the boxes in my, in my book with looking at pocket notebooks.
So
yeah, cool.
That's surprising. My favorite. Oh, go ahead.
I was just going to ask the same thing you were going to say.
Oh, my favorite miscellaneous object of the year, which was not a new purchase, but it was something I found that I had gotten as a wedding gift and forgotten about and it got like packed away was we were given a. For our wedding we were given a couple pieces of pottery and they were, I remember getting them and they're kind of unusual, cool looking and we used them for like trays to put change and keys in and stuff and just hadn't thought about it in a long time. And we moved into a new house and so now I've got this little office which I'm in right now. It's a work in progress, but I'm gonna be able to set up my own desk and really for the first time in a room that's not our. Like our old one was like in our living room so now got its own separate room. And I was actually talking with. Texting with Mike Dudek about a new thing that he's making me, which I'm not going to talk about this time, but I'll talk about once. You better talk about this. Yeah, well, maybe I'll talk about a little bit, but it's a I was talking about an idea for a new piece from Dudek, and one of the elements that was discussed was something to put shavings in, like a little for him to drill out, like a big circular hole, and I could put my shavings in. And then I just kind of was thinking that that would be a little clumsy. And then I remembered that I had this dish. So I did some reverse research, and we've had it for years. And there's a few little details I knew about it. And I. I was able to find online that it's from a company called McCarty. I think it's McCarty's Pottery. It's out of Mississippi. And it's a. The piece I have here, we have two. But the one I'm using on my desk is sort of sh. Shaped like a half a clamshell. It has like four little dips in the front side, but then the back of the dish is rounded, and it's maybe 2 inches deep. And it's made of this really cool clay. It's like a teal color, but it's kind of mottled and really funky looking. I'll put it on Instagram. But the cool story behind it is that this company was started because William Faulkner gave them access to a ravine on his property. So all of the clay that they made their poetry or their pottery from came from William Faulkner's property.
Wow.
For years. For a while. It isn't now, but they still use a similar style of clay. And so it looks just like the stuff that was on his property. I was like, hey, that's, you know, that's perfect. And it's. It looks like when I showed you that picture, Andy, you said, is it a ashtray for cigars or something? Because it looks like you could set cigars in. So what it turned into is I have a jar of pencils, and when I sit down to write, when I finished one pencil and moving on to the next one, I set it in the. In the tray, almost like it is a cigar. And then I sharpen them and put them back in the.
Then you light it up and smoke it?
Yep. And then I light all the shavings like incense. So I love it. And so that's on my desk now. And I posted a picture on Instagram of my desk. I don't know if you saw that. I got it all set up. Today I moved this really cool old handmade desk that I found in the garage of the house we're living in. Like, here we go. Got it all set up and I was sitting down to write and the opening like where your legs go is like, no joke, like six inches too short for me. Like, I wasn't even close to fitting under. Fitting under the desk. It was like sitting at a baby desk. So I actually, I posted that picture and then I had to clear it all off and bring in just like a dining room table.
What is this, a desk for ants?
You know, it's like, here we go. Ow.
Damn.
It just didn't work at all. So.
Yeah.
But yeah, I love this thing, this little dish. It's perfect for sharpening things into. And yeah. And what Dudek is working up and he has his own idea in his head for it. But I think the basic idea is it's going to be something like I like to have 12 sharp pencil sharpened when I start writing and then as I dull on my switch to the next one. Kind of like that Steinbeck model. That's what I've been doing lately. And so he's making me with. It's kind of like a divide and there's 12 holes on one side and 12 on the other. So I put the. When I cash one out, I can put it on the other side and just keep switching them and then turn.
Really cool.
Yeah.
And then, and then turn it around and then I'll be able to just start over once I sharpen them.
So. Oh yeah.
And then in the middle, he's going to do a hole that fits a vertical comb, single hole long point sharpener. Because that's been like kind of my. My favorite hand sharpener. So it just kind of slides right in. And he's. He's got some other ideas, but he's. Yeah, so he's working that in. So that's. I'm pretty excited about that. And my biggest bummer, least favorite thing of the year was not the product itself because I actually didn't get to try it. And that's kind of the bummer is the whole Pollux fiasco of, you know, what they. What the price was forced to be by the company and then the fact that they just sort of disappeared. That was a big bummer because I was so excited for that. Like, that would have been in this thing dude X making for me. That would have been sitting in there instead of the single hole. And hopefully someday it will be. But I was just really, really bummed that I didn't get to try one. But also like I didn't want to order one because they were just too expensive for me. So for, for what it was, which is not which, you know, they're available at CW Pencils, which is not them like we've talked about before, they weren't hiking up the price. That was what they were forced to price it at. Based on what Rupert and whatever the hell it's called. Mobius and Rupert. Rupert and Rupert and Rupert. Rupert Siskel and Ebert. Whatever they're called.
The Siskel and Ebert Sharpener. Yeah.
Yeah. Wallace and Gromit company's called.
Yeah.
So that was my main boo hoo of the year that I was hopefully can be rectified next year.
Cool.
So that's me. What about you, Andy?
I think my favorite pencils of the year I was trying to remember and I know it didn't come out this year, but I think I just sort of discovered it this year is the Nataraj Pop. Those were my favorite. My favorite just sort of like discoveries this year and unfortunately now they're no longer available. So I feel like the Nataraj Joys joi's that they're kind of using to replace it at cw. I just, I don't know, I just don't like them quite as much. I think they're maybe just not as well made or the colors aren't just as good. Have you guys used any of the joys?
Yeah, they're not finished very well.
Yeah, yeah, that's what, that's kind of what I thought. But yeah, those were great while lasted. I have some extras that I'm just trying to be careful with.
I haven't tried either of those.
Yeah, I should send you. I should send you one to each so you can just kind of like see, see the differences.
Here's what you're missing. If you send one, I will test it and then lovingly send it back. If it's something you like though, yeah, that's cool. But that would be nice.
I like to share, sharing, sharing. So I do really like the Archers, the Baron Fig Archer pencils. They were introduced this year. I think part of the reason I like them a lot is because I just got to kind of be part a little bit of the evolution of them. Like as they kind of came together from Baron Fig. I certainly didn't like have any direct design input, but I gave them my feedback about like my favorite pencils and I got to see an early prototype and just kind of like play around with it. So I like how it performs and I also like how it just kind of came together. You know, those guys are just so careful with their. With their products and like, their, like what goes into it. I think that this was such a good, like, example of that. And then I think I was trying to think of my favorite Black Wings edition for the year. And I think my favorite is the 344. I like how it writes. Has the 602 core. It's really nice. I do like, burgundy is not one of my favorite colors, but I still really like it. I think it looks cool. I like the concept. It's very photography based, very California based, kind of Bay Area based even. And of course, it's like paying tribute to. To a woman instead of like dead white dudes. It's a dead white, dead white lady. So I think that. I think the 344 was my favorite. Kind of followed up pretty, pretty closely by the 530. I. I feel about it sort of the way Tim was. I wasn't like thrilled with it until I got one in my hands and got to try it out. Like, I just love that black stripe.
Yeah, that's the best part. Yeah. Funny because it's such like an inconsequential little.
I know, I know.
Detail.
It's just such a good detail, though. I. I'm thinking about pulling by putting that on an old Blackwing 602. Like a Palomino Blackwing 602 to mix. Just sort of an early model Blackwing tribute. You did do that. Do that Hackwing.
I like where you're. I like where your head's at. I haven't done. I haven't done any hack winging in a while. We did. We had a hacking craze going on for a while. We did.
I started. I'm gonna have to renew that domain soon. Hackwing club. So. Yeah, that's a really good one. Yeah. So those are kind of my three favorite pencils of the year. Trying to think of my three favorite papers. Papers of the year. I definitely discovered. Well, because it came out this year was the Write Notepads Reporters book. Oh, yeah. I like the Good Call. I like the Black Wing or the Black Wing the byline a lot. But I think. I think that the right Notepads one was much more functional and just such good quality. Like, it's really simple. Really good quality.
I had a brain fart that probably would have been on my list too, if I thought of it.
Yeah.
Because that, like maybe in front of the royal blue. Because that was. Yeah, that's a great notebook. And I use that every single day. Yeah, I use it it stays on my desk at school, like permanently.
Do you do lists in it or what do you do with it?
Yeah, lists. If I'm kind of doing a sketch of the lesson plans for next week, you know, I'll take a page and put Monday through Friday and just kind of jot down what I want so that when I come back to it, I can transfer it over.
Yeah, I, I like it a lot just because it's really like durable, it's thick, it's. It's not as bendy as like the byline slash front page. And when we, when Katie and I were looking for an apartment, we used it just to like record all of our things. So I, I still have all like the different things in the front of it that we looked at. Yeah, it's such a solid guy.
I take it to meetings too. It's a good. Yeah, good meetings notebook.
Yeah.
So, yeah, kudos on that. My favorite field notes is the lunacy one, specifically because it's black and it has the reticle grid. Those are two of my favorite things. The, the cutout moon is really. It's like nice. But that's not like my, my main reason I like it. They just make really good looking black notebooks. Like, I don't know what it is. All of their black notebooks are kind of a win for me. Like ravenswing and pitch black and Night Sky. Night sky is my favorite or maybe second favorite edition. And then Kindred Spirit is really great too. That's the right notepads. Kindred Spirit is my favorite. I. I love that orange. I love the orange insides. It just feels really cheerful and. Nice. Yeah, nice. I have not managed to find a blue one, but someday maybe. I wonder how many. Do we have any idea how many are like still floating out there?
I wonder.
I guess we'll find out soon.
If they're gonna.
People are gonna check in with Chris.
From what I understand, Most of the 25 have been discovered.
That's cool. Yeah, that's awesome.
There's only 25.
Yeah. Yeah.
What? Gosh.
25 out of 750 packs.
Gosh.
I had my head that it was like 100. It's crazy.
Yeah.
Cool. Favorite miscellaneous objects. This is a little bit different. There's something called a grid. It. Have you guys heard of this?
Something from Lord of the Rings.
This is something from Lord of the Rings. It's a. It's 1. One grid to rule them all. No, it's. It's basically like a flat piece of like it's not cardboard, I would say it's like a thin, flat plastic and kind of wrapped around it all are just like dozens and dozens of elastic bands. And they're kind of like arranged in a grid. I'll have a link in show notes. I have one in the episode doc right now. Since you can't get in here to mail, I'll text this to you. It's just like. Just like a thing on which you can strap in cables and sharpeners and pencils and. And dongles for your computer and all sorts of things. So I generally keep a sharper. My masterpiece on there. I generally keep like an eraser tucked in there and a bunch of cables and a pair of headphones. And it just like slides into your bag then. So you can just keep all of your stuff on it. It's a little bit like tactical everyday carry ish things, but, you know, whatever. It's really useful. I found it at Itoya top drawer, which is the like San Francisco like fancy Japanese travel accessories and stationery store. It's pretty nice. They have different sizes, so. Really love that. I was also wondering, I cannot remember, did the masterpiece come out this year?
It's hard to know. 2015. Yeah, I had it in 2015. DC Pen Show. I had it.
I had masterpiece on here. But I'll take it off because it was not. It was not this year.
But it's awesome.
Yeah, it's a great.
It is still awesome.
I do like that long point. I do like it better than the Pollux. I think. Still
that makes me feel better.
Yeah. Yeah. I think the masterpiece, in my opinion is just still the best little handheld long point you can get.
Katie.
Katie doesn't like long points very much. She prefers shorter points. So she does not care for the masterpiece.
What a weirdo.
More for me. Yeah, I'll have to admit our marriage was a little on the rocks,
kind
of kind of hard. Least favorite. Johnny already talked about the point protector. Most of my reasons are for exactly the same. So the other one is I think Johnny and I may throw down a little bit. I think that one of my least favorite things was the Lenore notepad.
I'm out.
Bye. Peace. Not because of how just like gorgeous it was and what a great concept it was because I really love the Lenore pencils. I love the design of the Lenore. I love the way it looks. I like black notebooks. It was just that grid too tight. Too tight. And it's kind of the same reason I don't like the dome paper
because you have small handwriting.
I have. I don't know, I have very, like, medium. I have. My handwriting is such. So in between, like big grids, in that tiny grid that it just doesn't. It just. I don't know, it just confuses me and it doesn't work. So I'm just like, you know when, like when the Apes in 2001 A Space Odyssey are like circling the. The obelisk and they're just like, that's me in this notepad. Or like in Zoolander, when they're trying to use that imax,
you pound it on the top of it.
I just like get frustrated and can't use that notebook. But that's the. Like, I love that the Lenore exists and I love those pencils. And I still have my notebooks, but I just probably won't be using them because I just can't deal with that tight grid.
I want you to make a video of you trying to write in one and then start going.
So, yeah, I hope that you can forgive me, Johnny, for that. For that reason. No, I too have seen this new one and it's going to be amazing.
Oh, man. So stoked.
Definitely painting the way for that one. So, yeah, let me get in here real quick and look at some of the. Some of the poll items. I actually pulled those three. Like, what was everybody's favorites of the field notes and Blackwing and write notepads and let's see here on Twitter. Did you guys know you can do polls on Twitter? Mm, nope. I have been using this like third party app for Twitter for so long. That doesn't do it. I completely didn't realize it.
So which one do you use?
I use Tweetbot.
I started using that like a month ago and I'm done. Like, I don't want to use it anymore. I guess I use the Twitter app for too long.
I've been using Tweetbot for way too long. So when I go back to the Twitter app, it's just too junky because there's all those recommended tweets and all those.
See, I don't miss that. Yeah, I hate that. With Tweetbot, it's so hard to see the previous conversation that a tweet is part of. You have to go into click the settings button and then view history and then see it.
Pro tip, if you tap on a tweet and then swipe to the left, it will show you the conversation.
Sorcery.
What is this wizard?
You hold on it. You hold down on it.
I'LL record a little video for you later.
Okay, thank you. All right, go on. Proceed.
Excuse me. I like it, I think, because it sort of, like, froze Twitter at 2012. Like, it doesn't have all of this other stuff, but at the same time, it doesn't do stuff like polls. Excuse me. So everybody, by far, who voted for their favorite Field Notes release was Lunacy. So we had 38 votes on Twitter. 45% of them liked, like, Lunacy. It looks like the least favorite was Sweet Tooth. Who was it? Who ate it? Is you, Johnny. No, it's you, Tim.
Yeah, it was me.
Byline and Winter and Black Ice kind of came in, like, just about the same. Black Ice, a little bit less than Byline. Let me look at Facebook for that. It looked like. I should be more prepared. Why didn't I prepare? Guys, we have a lot of activity in our group. Okay? So, yeah, Lunacy was by far the most popular on Facebook. We had, like, 30 responses there. Byline was second favorite. Black Ice was third. Spring was fourth. So I think it's kind of along the same lines. It looked like, as far as Blackwing went, Steinbeck volume 24 was by far people's favorite out of 40 out of 39 votes. More than half of those were for the volume 24. 344. Dorothy Lang was the. Was the second most favorite. 21% of people like that the best. And then it was volume 56 for Joe DiMaggio for volume. Excuse me. 18% of people like volume 56 the best, and only 7% liked the gold Rush the best, which is surprising. I think it must be the gold. Yeah. And then Twitter or Facebook was. Our Facebook group was, I think, just about the same. Yeah. Looks like the ordering is. Is the same there. Yeah. Right. Notepads. It looked like. Oh, wow. So 25 votes on Twitter. The Royal Blue and Kindred Spirit were both tied at 40%. And then Lenore was only 20%. So. Yeah. And then I think that Facebook. I think our group is just about the same. Kindred Spirit was.
Oh, wow.
It was actually Kindred Spirit was a lot more than Lenore, but then Royal Blue was less than Lenore, which is interesting. So. No, that one was different. That's interesting. Johnny, did you rig this somehow?
No.
Bribes.
Yeah, basically. And then somebody else in here put Unknown Winter as an option.
I didn't put that as an option.
I'm pretty sure that is Gary. It looks like Gary left that, and he's the sole person who voted on it, so. Yeah. So Free marketing Research for you, Blackwing. Write notepads and field notes free.
Nothing. You know where to send your checks.
Check in the mail.
Make that checkout to Gamber G A
M B E R.
Jr. John Jr.
Yes.
Anything. I tried kind of hard to try to pull together a list of the CW Pencils. Pencils of the month this past year, but I actually didn't have any like any list of that pulled together.
I didn't want to.
I was too lazy to dig for it. So I don't have. Johnny, what do you have? A favorite subscription item for the year from CW Pencils.
I didn't subscribe to that one.
Oh, you didn't? I didn't either.
I forgot about it until it was too late.
Me too. Yeah. You don't have that, do you, Tim?
I do not. I actually don't have any subscriptions. So it's nothing. It's just I don't. I don't subscribe with anything. I, I. The notebooks.
I don't subscribe to that belief.
I don't subscribe to anything. I don't. The notebooks. I don't believe any of you. Crazy people. Nihilists. Yeah, People even. Nothing. Put in my tinfoil hat. Yeah, Nihilist. That must be exhausting. I don't subscribe to any notebooks because I have all of the notebooks. Like I just have too many. And the only one I'm tempted to is maybe the confidant subscription next year and then the Blackwing. But even with Blackwing, I'd rather just wait and find out what it is and then order it. Yeah. Cool.
Anything else before we wrap up?
Happy New Year.
Yeah.
Oh, in pencil news, 2017 is Thoreau's 200th birthday.
July 12th. Yeah.
Oh, nice. That's cool.
And isn't it Also Cal Cedar's 100th anniversary?
Yes, I think so. Yeah. They're doing a. I don't know if it's a secret. I hope it's not secret. They were gonna do a book, so.
Yeah.
That sounds pretty awesome, actually.
That is awesome.
I'd read the crap out of that.
Yeah. Yeah. Cool. So 2017. Hopefully. Hopefully a better year for many reasons.
Doubtful.
Doubtful. I have a feeling that it's going to be some bad years until maybe 2020. Ish.
The Cubs won the World Series this year, so.
Yeah, that was pretty good.
Yeah. Next year being better is going to not going to happen.
There were two babies born of. Of erasable host. 2016.
Oh yeah.
That's not too bad.
Was that before or after the Cubs won the World Series.
I don't remember. Does anybody remember?
Just kidding. My point. My point of reference. Yeah.
Does anybody remember?
It was before.
Yeah. I got to be Johnny's lovely wife this year
with good company.
Yes, definitely. Good company.
Cool.
All right, guys.
Old guy shrugged the company.
Cool.
Well, we'll button this up. That was awkward. Johnny, where can people find you on the Internet?
Hang on while I button this up. And I'm ready. Okay, good.
Oh, my God.
Sorry.
Smooth. I am a podcast host. Where can people find you on the Internet?
Eventually I'll update my website, which is pencilrevolution.com I'm on Instagram and Twitter at. No, I'm sorry. Twitter ensolution and instagramyname.
How about you, Tim?
You can find me on Twitter Imwassum And I'm on Instagram Imothywassom Cool.
And I am Andy Welfle. I am on woodclinched or on Twitter wellfley or on Instagram at the same. This is the Erasable podcast. You can find us at Erasable Us. We're on episode number 66. We're 2/3 of the way to 100. You can find this episode in show notes and more information@erasable US 66. Come join our Facebook group. Facebook.com groups erasable. We're 1400 plus people and we have amazing discussions. One of the best online communities of the Internet. Or come check out our Facebook page. Erasable podcast on Facebook. Erasable podcasts on Twitter and Instagram as well to find us on social media. And yeah, we will be back in 2017 with brand new episodes, lots of fresh new pencil news. Fresh points if you will. Yeah. And everybody have a. Have a good New Year's.
The intro music for the Erasable podcast is graciously provided by this Mountain, a collaborative folk rock band from Johnson City, Tennessee. You can check out their music@www.thismountainband.com.
gaze captures me with wonder. I can taste the days of a long hot summer if I could just count the time this has happened before. Oh, I said.