Scribe

I guess we can just go back in with the uncontrollable laughter for my hilarious jokes.

Holy.

Very good. How are you doing?

Hey, how's it going?

Sure.

So consuming wise, I'm boring. I'm drinking seltzer water.

Me too.

So

And media wise, I treated myself to a Nintendo Switch. So I've been playing the new Zelda game.

I've seen some Twitch broadcast of that. It looks really cool.

Yeah, no, it's good so far. I don't know how I feel yet, but I'm enjoying it.

How is the Nintendo Switch to like to use?

I thought it would be awkward and it is a little bit, you know, because when you attach the two little analog controllers, you know, they show like a picture of people sitting down, holding them, like at their sides. But like, who controls a video game like that? Like, so you find yourself like, kind of like, I don't know if you played video games, you know, when Nintendo was around, but moving your arms as you jump or try to move in the game, it's kind of like a weird, weird thing.

Yeah.

And as far as the portability of it, I prefer that only because of the. It's 720p, which I grumble at Nintendo for that, but. So the games actually look really good on the, you know, handheld screen as opposed to on your tv. They look great on the tv, just, you know, obviously better on a smaller screen. So I'm hoping it's not a gimmick, you know, it's definitely worth it if you are a Nintendo fan.

Yeah.

And then for my writing implementation, Johnny actually got me to purchase the Bic 4 in one pen pencil combo I was at.

I. I had to go to Target today after class Before I went into work and I wandered down the stationary aisle and there it was. I didn't even look at the price. I don't know how much it was, but actually used it today while working with students. And even though I don't really like pen for paper editing, it was so convenient to switch back and forth between the red pen and then the pencil. So that. That might be my new, you know, editor.

Yeah, they're nice. I don't, you know, like, obviously I'm going to switch out the lead that comes with it. It's kind of squeaky, and I didn't really like the feel of it, but it's definitely worth getting. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I used to try to push all of the colors down at the same time.

Oh, yeah?

Just get it. Get it jammed. It was kind of fun.

Yeah. So I was. I was doing that today and. But no, it's. It's. It's really. It's really fun to use. So, yeah, that's it for me.

Cool.

Wow.

What am I doing? So I have been reading. I mentioned a little bit in the group. There's a book. There's an author, Paul Auster, who I'm a big fan of. He wrote the New York trilogy. He wrote a few different books, and I think one of my favorites is a book called Oracle Knight. It's about a guy who. He's a writer. He's trying to, like, you know, write. He has sort of this for him. Yeah, good. Good for him.

He has the story within a story that's really interesting. And sometimes it even goes three levels deep. Like, there's a. Like there's a character, and he's a writer writing the story. And in that story, the character. The character is an editor who's reading this novel. So it goes. It's kind of like Inception a little bit. But one of the things I really love about it is one of the main plot devices is this notebook that he gets. And he is just like, instantly, he's in the stationery shop and he's instantly attracted to this Portuguese blue notebook. And there's some covers where. Where they show you what they think. The notebook is so super great. I'm going to read you a quick quote from it. There was also a stack of notebooks from Germany and another one from Portugal. He's in the stationery shop. The Portuguese notebooks were especially attractive to me. And with their hardcovers, quadrille lines and stitched in signatures of sturdy, unblottable paper. I knew I was going to buy one the moment I picked it up and held it in my hands. There was nothing fancy or ostentatious about it. It was a practical piece of equipment, stolid, homely, serviceable, not at all like the kind of blank book you'd think of offering someone as a gift. But I liked the fact that it was cloth bound. And I also like the shape, nine and a quarter by seven and a quarter inches, which made it slightly shorter and wider than most notebooks. I can't explain why it should have been so, but I found these dimensions deeply satisfying. And when I held the notebook in my hands for the first time, I felt something akin to physical pleasure, a rush of sudden, incomprehensible well being. And so the first time I read this, I was just like, wow, this is exactly the way I feel about notebooks.

Right?

Who knows? Who knows?

Yeah, yeah, right. What I love too is he talks about how he really loves the dimensions and it's slightly shorter and slightly wider than a regular notebook, which is one of the reasons I really like the Baron Fig Confidant. They're like the main now one of three sizes. But there is a blog that tried to figure out what notebook it was that he was using and they actually tracked down like from the 80s, some Portuguese notebook manufacturer. It's no longer in business. It's called the Firmo F I R M O. I don't know how to say that in Portuguese, but they think that that's probably about it. So it's fascinating. The book's really good. It's only sort of tangentially about a notebook, but it's really good.

It's enough. Yeah, Paul Oster, I think, is one of our people. I don't know if he listens to the show. I may, I would hope that he would, but he, he has another book about his typewriter. That's really great. Yeah, he's a. He's a stationary tool geek. And I am writing. Yeah, I am writing on that notebook. That notepad from Hester and Cook that they have with the little like fake sequential numbers in the corner. Thanks, Courtney. And then I'm also writing. Writing. Get ready for a scandal. I'm writing with a pen. I'm writing with the pentel. Stylo, which is the fountain pen. It's. It's not a fountain pen. It's a. It's a plastic. It's like a plastic fountain pen, I guess.

craft design and technology fountain pen?

It's the. So Pentel makes that. And this is their own kind of like in house brand of that. So it's really good. It's like fun to use. I've been using it all day just for the hell of it. I'm going to talk a little bit. I get, I think in freshpoints about it, but Elaine from Jetpens came up to the city and hung out with us and we had brunch and then we went to Mido, so I bought it there.

Yeah, they're fun. I'll send you one next time I go to Mido. Thank you.

So that is me, Johnny. What is your. What is your tools of the trade?

That the Nick Cage movie?

What's. What's the weather outside right now in San Francisco? 65.

Oh God.

No, I mean to. I need to.

We.

Yeah.

I feel like at this point Bob Dylan's just like, just. It'll just be rambling.

Really?

Do you know the newscaster, Scott Simon? Tim.

He's an edition on. On npr.

He. He just released. I think today he might have announced it. He wrote a book about the Cubs.

Yeah. I'll find a link and put it in show notes.

All right. I don't have much. I'm really excited about Caroline's book being released in the U.S. she said end of the month, I think first week in April, so that's soon.

It should. It for a little while was. Yeah. The release date on Amazon for a little while was. Kept changing, so hopefully they settled on something.

Yeah, when I talked to them last, she said around the end of the month.

Okay, cool.

So, yeah, I also inquired about a book release party, and she said she was thinking about that, so that'd be pretty cool if that happened.

Yeah.

And another thing from cw, which is the freshest of my fresh points, is the new editor pencil that C.W. and Caran D' Ache collaborated on.

It's. It's kind of really what I've always been looking for. As someone who edits student papers, I work in a writing center at a community college, so I'm constantly Editing papers. And I really like the caran d'. Ache. I think it's the 999, the red and blue. But I don't really use the blue that much. So it turns out where I'm just left with a blue pencil because I use up all the red. So this is actually kind of a little perfect because we have log sheets that we have to use, which I use pencil for, but now I can just use the pencil end.

Yeah, it's. It's such a great idea because it like, you know, I feel like the blue is for something that is like. It's for like mimeographs or like photo photocopiers.

Like non. Non photo blue. So we don't have a whole lot of that anymore. So I feel like the, the graphite and the red just like, is a perfect compromise between like kind of old and new. And it looks so good.

I mean the, the only time I use the blue is if I get a student who I can tell is already a little upset about their writing. So I. I don't want to be so harsh with the red, so I'll use the blue end. But. But really there's no. There's no use for it. So I like that it's. It's pencil. I wish it was a little bit softer of a core. Like it says HB number two, but I wish it was a 2B. But that's just me.

How does the red side write?

It's very. If it's the same core as the 999, it's soft but not waxy, if that makes sense. It's very vibrant red. Like usually. Usually I have to sharpen every page. So if I edit like a double spaced paper, every page that I edit I have to sharpen on average. So it is kind of soft, but I do like how vibrant it is.

Nice. Yeah, it looks really good.

I'm excited to see like house. More house brand CW pencils, pencil stuff like, you know, besides just like bags and gifts and buttons and things like that.

Yeah, no, that's really cool. I didn't expect that at all.

Yeah. Cool.

And then I wish I had a fresh point about the Blackwing limited edition,

but I don't have wish too.

Yeah. Do you.

How did you. How do you know that, Johnny?

Okay.

Yeah, okay. Maybe I just.

Like, I don't know if it's my anticipation or are they late in releasing this edition? Like I feel like it should have been done already.

Yeah.

Do you have any insight info on that, Johnny?

Do you want to share with the class?

We have to get you more. More dayquil. And then you'll. Then you'll talk.

All right, I have a few of them. One is just a status update for all of you who have ordered a lapel pen. It is. It has been ordered. I'll have plenty more to sell in case you didn't get your. Get your name in, so don't worry about that. And yeah, they should be in by. In two weeks. Ish. So if we do that, then I just need to package them up and get them up to you. So thank you very much. If you still want to order a lapel pin, go to Erasable US shop. And we will also have stickers back in pretty soon. So.

Yeah, they look really good. Like the mocs that I've seen. Another thing. So this is actually a pen, freshpoint. So I don't know why it's so penny in here today, but are you guys familiar with Skillcraft Pension? Have we talked about this before?

Yeah, so. So it's a. A brand of pens that are made for the federal government and the. And the military. They also have a whole line of other things. They're made apparently in a factory in the US by blind people. Like they're assembled. They're manufactured and assembled by. By blind people. So a Friend, a coworker of mine had a Skillcraft pencil and she sharpened it and it was just, it just looked awful. She was like, what's, why am I doing this wrong? And I realized that the lead was just super like misaligned. Like, like not centered in there. So. So the pencil. We were talking about the pencil that led to talking about the ballpoints and we. I finally just started looking it up and apparently it meets 16 pages of military specifications. The pen does, including a requirement to write one linear mile and be able to write in extreme hot or cold temperatures. So here are some other interesting bits of trivia about like things that it has to write. So it's popular with Navy pilots because it measures 150 nautical miles from end to end on flight maps, which is cool. You can use it to measure on flight maps. The metal tip is exactly the regulation length. Female service members are allowed to grow their nails. The pen. Apparently the pen is made to fit into any military uniform pocket without being seen. Some military branches train troops to use the bottom portion of the barrel as an emergency tracheonomy tube. And, and also military members have said that the bottom of the barrel is also the exact length of a two minute fuse. So that's, that's really interesting. I am still. Tiger pens. The blog wrote about this and I'm still trying to actually like make sure this isn't fake news but apparent apparently. I didn't realize this that Skillcraft. That Skillcraft makes a gel ink pen.

Yeah. I have never seen one of these and I would be excited about it because I just have like the kind of crappy ballpoints that they have and it's not, it's not a good.

This is why military spending is going up. Johnny.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. I'll have to verify it and post about it. But yeah, that was fun. That was just today. I do want to mention Les Harper in our group. She has a series of notebooks. They're no brand, branded. She's been making them to fund the purchase of a Corner Rounder, which she actually has bought. But she has a bunch of packs in the store, like in her Etsy shop, which we'll have a link in show notes too. Yeah, they're really cute. They're dot grid. They have really beautiful plain covers. They come in sharp corners. But I would assume now that she has a Corner Rounder, she would do them in rounded corners as well. But yeah, they look beautiful. I still need to order my set. Have you guys. Johnny, you got your set, right?

And do you. You ordered a set?

I will. I'll be getting two now because Les is also making neon, which is, as we all know, my thing.

So, yeah, I'll be getting two sets. I got the rainbow set and then the neon.

Yeah.

Which. What's the 90s Nostalgia Edition, Johnny?

Yeah.

Nice.

So, yeah, link in show notes to her Etsy shop. They're pretty great. They are. They are cheaper than field notes. They're cheaper than write notepads. Baron fig in cost, but I don't know about quality.

I'm sure she has a bone folder

Yeah.

Cool. That is the no brand notebooks. I do also want to mention there's a blog that I only sort of recently came to just be aware of. It's. I was saying inkpothesis, but it's actually inkpothesis because it's like hypothesis, if you've seen that. So it's March, and if you like basketball, you're probably watching a lot of college basketball. I'm not a huge basketball fan, but my wife is, so there's always basketball in the house.

Yeah, no Hoosiers. They went to the nit, but then they lost in the first round, so that's sad. So inkpothesis has a pen, pencil bracket. There's two divisions that are pencils, There are two divisions that are pens. I don't know what's going to happen when they finally play each other because they're like comparing apples and oranges. Like you can't compare a pencil to a pen. But Jacqueline from Hypothesis has that up there. So you should go vote. I'll have a link in show notes to her blog. So here's something weird that I bought at. So I went to. I can't remember if I mentioned this after we started recording or before, but Elaine from Jetpens and I and Katie, my wife went to MITO the other day and I found this really weird notebook called. It's a standard issue notebook. It's made by a company called Design Works Inc. And it's not inc, it's ink. It took me until I said it out loud to understand what that was. But it's. It's a Nashville based company.

Well, Franklin, Tennessee, which is right outside of Nashville. And what's really weird about them about this notebook is that it. How do I describe it? It looks like a Japanese rendition of like an like Americana like tool and die based notebook. So it's an American company making a Japanese interpretation of an American notebook. That's probably not actually the case. It just. That's what it reminds me of. Has hardcovers, like those really thick cardboard stock. It has really specialized pages with like a date selector at the top and a place to put your subject line. And there's. It's very like tightly ruled. It's really weird. It has a bunch of conversion charts in it. And the coolest thing about it is that it has a little. Let me pull this out of here. It has, it has a little plastic ruler, like 3 inch long ruler and it has a bunch of little like shape stencils in it for bullet journaling. So you can use this to like make an X or a check mark or an arrow or a star, a heart or anything. Yeah, it's very strange. I was intrigued right away. Kind of like Paul Auster in his Portuguese notebooks. I saw it, I was like, I really have to buy that because it's very odd time zones in it. It's really weird. So Lincoln show notes the standard issue notebook number three is what it's called.

Yeah, yeah, no, it's really cool looking.

Do you have one D?

No. I'm looking at their webpage and now I'm gonna spend money. But

it has an elastic strap on the end of it presumably. So it's kind of like the Blackwing slate notebook in that the, the hard covers are not connected to each other. There's just a really thick like binding in the middle and there's this really interesting like big wide elastic strap that goes around the spine and you can just like tuck a pen just right in there or A pencil. So, yeah, it's really cool looking. We'll see how it goes. I don't know, the paper doesn't seem like it's great quality, but whatever. Speaking of new book. Well, actually, I think that Tim's going to talk a little bit about this later. No, no, no, you do totally should do this. You know more about it than I do. I haven't used it. The big news is. So I'll just, I'll just tell. I'll just say the big news and then Johnny and Tim will get into like the different sizes. But the big Baron fig news is that the confidant now comes in three different sizes, which is really cool. They have their regular size, their flagship size. They have plus and they have, they have a small one. So the really big news for us for our pencil podcast is that they're at long last, their quarterly Archer edition came out.

Yay. It's called, it's called Snakes and Ladders. It is very pretty. It is Snakes and ladders. It's red, has a little snake on it and a little ladder on it. And it's about sort of like the rises and falls of the creative process. Yeah. It's just really beautiful. It's allegedly, it's allegedly the same graphite grade as, as their old Archer. And actually Joey has said, I think in the Baron Fig fanatics group that it is. However, a lot of people see, like, seem to think that it's different. It's like a little bit softer and there could be some variations in the, the batch. So.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Obnoxiously long.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Johnny, you had some, some weirdness with yours, right?

Yeah.

I wonder if. Because it was a much smaller batch than their original archers, I would assume. I don't actually know that. I would think that. I wonder if there's maybe just some like weird quality control issues as they figure out like as they navigate like the shadowy world of sourcing a pencil.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Yeah.

I thought they looked kind of Valentine's Day.

Yeah, right in. Right in a fire spotter with it.

I have a real quick observation. If you go to their. Their homepage, is anyone else bothered by how those pencils are sharpened?

They have.

Oh, Lord. Yeah, they just used like, like a plastic comb that they found or like one of those. What are they called? The mapeds that they're target them. Is that how you say?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I get it. Makes your point.

But those little ones, I've noticed that they're very like. They don't lay flat like the other ones do quite as well.

I mean, I think it changed after they got all the feedback that it was that was fraying because they.

Yeah. There's like a second iteration, I guess, of it from like the original Kickstarter variety.

Does your colleges all have, like, the guy who stands outside and hands out like little Bibles?

Thankfully, no.

So I went to.

You already had little Bibles.

I went to a public university full of heathens. And there was like in. In the Bible belt in Indiana. So there. There was a, like, guy from some church who would just like stand on, like on the campus and hand out little, like New Testament Bibles. They're just about this size and like, you know, besides being a Bible that was handed to me with kind of against my will, I. It was a really, like, satisfying, like, thing to hold in my hand and a really good size. This is kind of that size. Feels really good in my hand.

I love cloth covered notebooks, books, even the inside.

That's so much better.

Stationary cowboy.

So is Chris and Draplin gonna do something together? That would be amazing.

They need to do a special line together. Like, because Draplin can do field notes, he doesn't have to. It's like, yeah, whatever the hell he wants to do. That would be amazing.

So are you gonna go to the lecture?

If he has any rare editions, like, for sale in the shop, would you pick me up some.

Oh, yeah, I need a field notes patch. Definitely.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yes, that would be amazing.

But we wouldn't, because it's Aaron grappling erase. I'll put an explicit tag on that. I don't care.

Challenge accepted.

That's a terrible name.

Yeah, they just redid their aisles so everything's nice and neat. At least at my Target usually it's a disaster.

Yeah, pretty much.

Seven by. Oh shoot, I had it right here. Seven by ten maybe.

Yeah.

It's just so big that I, I really.

It felt to me when you say Hogwarts, that just reminded me. It does feel like you're writing in like a. Just a really big, substantial, important book. Yeah, like I think. Yeah, I think just so there's something about that size that just makes it feel really important.

like you should be wearing the quill or something.

Yeah.

How many lines do you take up when you write?

I like the. I think it is like just too big for me to be like something I carry around. And really I like the flagship size because it's just like just really nice. Just carry around in my hand kind of along with my computer, along with an iPad or something like that. So I.

Yeah. The way I use it. I don't have much of a use case for that really large one. But I appreciate that exists because if I was like, you know, trying to map something really big out, I would. It would be really useful. It's more pages too, right? It's 208 pages. Yeah. And yeah, for me, I write. I write so slowly in them because I just like fill up a page with information that like, I would never use that one up. Like it would be disgusting and falling apart by the time that I would even get around to like.

I think actually mine. Let me look

It's a charcoal colored one, which is a really attractive color. And I have a lined one. They sent me a lined one. But yeah, it's. It's really pretty. It's a just I. Anything that's fabric round I really like. And they did a really just good job with that. So. Yeah, I like that a lot. I'd love to see that in just some other. Some other colors too.

Yeah.

you know, use those words around this. These parts.

I think so, yeah.

I love this.

It reminds me of those posters or pictures you see, that's like, you know, some spices or some grains or something like that.

Yeah.

No, I was saying.

Sorry.

Yeah, it's a key. I think it's a key to what? That.

Those are cool for sure.

Sorry, D. We don't have any time to talk about. About.

Yeah.

All right, so the Weekly Pencil is obviously a blog about pencils. I started by using one pencil a week and then writing about that pencil I used for that week. It's kind of evolved a bit into reviews of other things, but I still stick to that minimalistic sticking with a pencil until it's not sharpenable anymore. So I was actually inspired to start a blog about pencils by Johnny's blog.

Yay, Johnny.

I came across.

Yeah, Like, I came across it years ago and I actually, I'm still looking for the posts, but I had blogged about pencils before on WordPress. I don't know where it is. I'll find it, but. So that kind of inspired me. And then when I became a member of the Erasable Group, my Facebook feed was full of pencils all the time. So it just kind of went hand in hand, as it happens. Yeah. Like, I felt that there were, you know, blogs out there about stationery and pencils and everything, but there just weren't enough. Like, there were things. Like what I was doing was something that I wanted to read myself. I wanted people to spend time with the pencil because you can review a product, you know, you can use something, write a full page with it, and then talk about it, but until you use that pencil entirely or as much as possible, you're not going to really have that good idea of how that pencil performs.

So I don't have a workflow when I'm not in school. So over the summer I tend to be a little bit more organized. But because I'm a full time student and I also work, it's really kind of hard to sit down and completely map out what it is I'm going to do in detail. I kind of go with an idea and then follow through with that idea. Like last week I did the Musgrave pencil, you know, review of several different ones. I kind of just did it as I went, you know what I mean? Like I didn't have anything planned out so I don't draft in pencil at all. And I use WordPress. It's just easiest for me. It's just kind of point click, you know, real simple. And right now I'm using my cell phone to take pictures, but they look really good. Yeah, that's actually gonna change. That's my biggest thing is learning a little bit when it comes to staging photos and just, just making them look good. I know that I'm big on content. Like I won't just go to a blog and look at pictures and be done with it. Like I read what it says, but there are some people that are drawn to imagery and I kind of want to be really good at both, so. But yeah, no, I just use my. I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 and that's it.

Yeah, I, yeah, it's, it's. Nowadays I feel like, you know, most good smartphones will take like pictures for the blog just, just as well as like maybe not like really fancy DSLRs but just like most probably and shoot cameras.

So dm, I'm interested to know what your favorite thing about, about your pencil blogging has been so far. Like, you know, and like it's. I don't know if it's planning editorial or like, just like taking part in the community or what, but interested to know about that.

I, I have a couple favorites. I think being a part of the community is good. It's always fun when you find your little group of people that don't look at you strangely when you say that you love pencils. Which actually happens often for me because as a college student people tend to notice that I'm using different pencils or I'm using an interesting sharpener and like they see, you know, I have a setup every class. I, you know, have everything laid out and you know, people just ask about it and when you tell them I blog about Pencils, usually they laugh or, you know, say, is that a thing? So I really like the community. I like, you know, being involved with other people that, that get it, so to speak. But on the other hand, I do like that whole aspect of being a blogger that talks about pencils. I like having people to talk to that don't know about pencils. Like, just the other day someone was using like a black Ticonderoga and they asked me what my favorite pencil was, which is a bad question. I could go on forever about it, but so I had a, I had a Blackwing 602 on me and I said, you know, this, these are, this is one of my favorites. And, and she was like, oh, is this, Is there really a difference? So I said, right with it. And within like a minute she was like, yeah, I get it now. So it's, it's really like talking to people about, about it and it's a conversation starter.

I feel like if I had a thesis for my blog or just sort of like my interest in pencil blogging in general, it would be. It's amazing how much better a good pencil is than a crappy pencil. Like. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

if like high end pencil retailers, like, invested in giving everybody a, like a good pencil just to like, try out. I feel like they would just convert so many people. Yeah.

Yes, absolutely.

I tag the entries, I think with WordPress. I don't have that, like visible, like, you know how you can make like different things visible on the sidebar? I should do that. But no, I, I do.

Yeah.

Or summer?

Well, that was easy. When I, when I saw that question in the show notes, I immediately knew which one it was. The post I did, it was in August of last year. I did a review of or a comparison between the Nataraj neon and the casemate neon.

And it was before I really used the casemate pencils at all. But because they look, I mean, they are at the same pencil at the end of the day, it's the same thing. But you know, I, I was really surprised how similar and how good these, you know, Walmart pencils were. I mean, I didn't expect much and now it's, it's, you know, I prefer the casemates actually over the Nataraj sometimes. Nataraj neons. I have a few. Some write differently than other Neons. I don't, I don't get what that's about. But the casemates, I mean, for what they cost, they're consistent. In fact, I bought a gross a couple weeks ago and I'm worried that they're going to change where they get their pencils from for next school year. So I embarrassed.

They pull a Ticonderoga gross.

So I have two gross of the Casemate neons. But that's okay because that only cost me $24. So.

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, I'm just worried that like next year they're going to go. Because there are neon casemate neons that are not hexagonal that are made in the Philippines and they're horrible. They're the worst pencil I've used.

Sounds like a mongol problem.

Yeah. Yes. I really, I really like the, the comparison I did. Like, I went really in depth, like the more like I originally was just going to write with both pencils for a bit and kind of see but just every little aspect of each pencil, like as I went along with it was, was so similar, but yet different. Like I think actually on that post I had sharpened both and the casemate pencils. The paint from the pencil actually separates from the shaving where the Nataraj doesn't do that.

Huh.

Which made me think that perhaps, I mean, these are Nataraj pencils. I mean, I would bet a lot on the fact that they are, but I think they're seconds or maybe not as many production steps have been, you know, incorporated into the casemate. So it was very interesting. Like, I found all these little interesting things about both, you know, the casemates, while I love them, you know, you can tell the quality is not the same aesthetically. Like, you know, the paint's a little chipped and up by the ferrule. It's kind of, you know, gnarly. It looks like they like put too much lacquer on the pencil and then shoved it into the ferrule. So it's kind of like, you know, pushed up a bit. But other than that, you know, I just. It surprised me that a. What is it, you know, 8 cent pencil won me over like that.

Yeah.

Well, I have two because I mean, it actually exists as in has actually existed in the world or actually exists as in available to get still either

So, okay, so I have both. So actually exists in the world that I'm able to obtain is probably the original Blackwing. I just, I can't justify spending the money on a single pencil like that. But I do collect Everhard Faber pencils, so that would kind of just add to that collection. But as far as pencils that have been made that I have yet to see again, Eberhard Faber made this pencil called the Elite. It's a standard school pencil, but it comes in four different colors, like a, like a yellow, green, blue, and red.

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I like, I collect only Everhart Favor school pencils. I don't collect like they're drawing pencils or anything. And I really like the stuff from when their logo was just that star and like the diamond. So that's probably my grail. Grail pencil because even the erasers match the pencil.

So yeah, so those are my two

Yes.

Yeah.

530.

So d. This is, this is a question you. You asked me in your. When you sent me interview questions for your blog. Which I guess is a spoiler for maybe an upcoming feature. But I'd be interested to know. So what is, what is your ideal deal? Steel pencil that does not already exist. So like if you could just sort of like make one, just conjure one up from out of your head, what would it be like? And then I'll. I'll tell you mine if you want to know. A spoiler.

Alright, so I'll start at the eraser end. So because I, I griped about this in my last post about Musgrave. Their erasers are horrible.

They're not worth even attempting to use. And like, I mean at this point I really don't use the eraser end of a pencil that often. But it'd be great if the, the Hinodiwashi erasers that, that CW sells in her shop. That kind of eraser on the end of a pencil would be great. And then for the actual barrel of the pencil, I mean I think everyone would probably agree that I really do love the 211. So it would be something that already exists but it would be comprised of that. And then for core, you know, I mean I do like the 24. I do a lot of writing and note taking in pencil and I found that the 24 is kind of like at that happy, happy medium between dark enough for me to like it but not so dark that it smudges or ghosts or anything like that. Like it's an all around just kind of perfect kind of darkness for me.

Yeah. So yeah mine would, mine, mine would have. Would be smooth like a Palomino 602. But it would have the point retention of the 24. And then it would be magically lightweight like an archer, like a Baron fig archer. But yet it would still be made of FSC certified California incense cedar.

Exactly. I mean you can kind of do that. Black wing.

No, I was just gonna add for my pencil. I forgot about the feral. I'm really like I've seen it very rarely but a ferrule that's metallic but colored so like a really cool metallic blue or a purple or you know. So my pencil ideally would have you know, come in a dozen so it'd be like two of each of the rainbow colors. I mean it would be fitting perfect. But yeah, I just, I wish companies I guess it's not cost effective, but like to have that, that feral with the, with the metallic color would be cool.

So for the future, I'm kind of gonna stick to what I've been doing, but I. Andy kind of spoiled it a little bit. I want to talk to the members of the community. I don't know, I have this idea that, that when people would, you know, look at me funny when I would say, yeah, I blog about, about Pennsylvania pencils. And they were kind of like, what? Like there's people that do that, you know, I think it'd be cool to feature members of our community and, and kind of ask them kind of the questions that you're asking me right now. How'd you get into pencils? What's your dream pencil? That kind of stuff, you know, so, so that's one thing that I'm going to be doing in addition to what I already do. And yeah, I mean, I was thinking earlier in the year to branch out and just review other stationary things. But I think for my lifestyle of being a student and being a student that's not 18, I'm spread thin already. So I'm gonna stick to pencils unless something totally phenomenal comes out and then I have to talk about it. But I've been actually working through, through the pencils that I own because there's many that I own that I have never talked about. So the, the Musgrave, you know, roundup, I just took every Musgrave that was available to be purchased. Because that's another thing. If I talk about a pencil, I want people to be able to buy that pencil. I don't want to, you know, you know, talk all about this great pencil and then you can't buy it. You know what I mean? Like, oh, and so this is.

Yeah, exactly. And I actually do love the Van Dyke. But, you know, so it's like I want people to be able to purchase them. So I usually use CW pencils since she has the biggest catalog, you know, and that's one thing I didn't mention yet. I should have, you know, before. Like, I really don't. Everything that I do for my blog, I don't really get free things. I think the only free thing I got to review two things was the classroom friendly sharpener and a tom bin bag, which I don't know how that happened, but I went with it, so. But no, I. So I buy everything myself. So that's another thing too, is cost. You know, again, I don't want to review the original Blackwing 602 until people to go acquire it. And then it's 35 to $60 for one pencil. So like right now, every man's blog. Yeah, exactly. And right now I'm working on. I kind of posted a spoiler a couple days ago. I'm going through the entire general pencil line right now. So I'm spending the week writing with those and then gonna talk about those. The only other thing that I might do, this is kind of the opposite of what I just said, but I think it'd be cool just to talk about, is go through some of the vintage pencils that I have just to kind of talk about them because I'm probably never going to use them until they're finished because I collect them and I want them. But, you know, sharpening them up and using them a little bit, it'd be really cool to see how they feel. But not, you know, not any in depth reviewing like. Like I do with the current stuff.

Yes. So I wasn't gonna do this because I don't use mechanical pencils often, but I. I see a lot of my classmates that do and they actually, after they know that I talk about pencils and blog about them, they ask me like, you know, what about mechanical pencils? What lead should I use? You know, I never really thought of it, you know, so I decided to. I went to Jetpens. It was like two in the morning and I was a little delirious and I bought every offering they had of, you know, graphite. And the times that I do use mechanical pencils is usually sometimes at school. Like, you know, I'll have to take an exam and sharpening is not conducive to the classroom setting. So I'll use a mechanical just because it's easier and I Was having trouble with using. I was using that Pentel crap that comes with, you know, the cheap Pentel pencils. And it was very squeaky. Like, it was so squeaky that people were looking at me like, so that was an issue. And that kind of sparked my idea. This was months ago. This was last semester that I thought about this, and I was like, man, I really gotta, like, order some good, good, you know, lead. And I like the look of mechanical pencils. I own a lot of them. I just. They're not as charming as the wooden pencils. So I went through. I used the 0.5 millimeter just because, like, that's kind of the standard. That's what I prefer. And that offered the most. The biggest range of leads that I could order. And I did HB for the same type of reason. So, yeah, so I went through all of them. It was really hard, actually. Some I had to write and write and write with them to find differences because some performed so similarly that it really was hard to make that particular one stand out. Like the tombow. Like, the Tombow leads, they pretty much felt the same, you know, so it was really kind of hard to find those things. So it took a while. And then there were some crap ones that stood out from the beginning,

know, like, maybe it was the price, but, like, the Lammy lead that I reviewed.

Oh, yeah.

Where it was like $4.30 for a dozen lead. And it came in this, like, horribly ugly case. And just everything about it was horrible.

Yeah.

And it. The. The lead was really hard, and it wrote light. Like, it did not write, like, an hb. And, you know, so. So as far as, like, things that stood out, that was on the one end of. Of the spectrum of bad. But my favorite would probably be the. The Tombow mono graph lead or the pilot neox graphite. Both were super smooth, but didn't sacrifice point retention to the point of it being frustrating. And I use. It depends what I'm doing, But if I'm taking an exam where I have to write essays, I use the Unia Kuru toga pencil with the automatic rotation of the. The lead so I don't have to keep rotating the pencil in my hand.

Yeah, those are cool.

Yeah. So, yeah, so both of those. The Tombow monograph and the pilot neox graph fight were perfect as far as, like, point retention darkness. They did not squeak, which was nice.

What's the squeakiness factor from 1 to 10?

Yeah, it was. It was. It was bad. I think only one of the Ones I reviewed squeaked. And I didn't review the Pentel. And I kind of thought I should have to give like, a. Like a. Like a baseline Horrible. But, you know, I. I did a good band name.

Yeah, Baseline Horrible. But baseline spelled a B A S,

So, yeah, so it was kind of this just like, big, big undertaking. And I spent many days just writing with different. And it was kind of a pain because I was using the same pencil on the same paper because I wanted some consistency. I mean, it's really kind of hard to have complete consistency just because it's so subjective. But switching out the leads, like, I have to empty the pencil completely and just put one lead in there and then make sure that when I was done writing with that lead, I took it out and replaced it. And so it was. It was a little crazy trying to. To orchestrate that because I did most of the. The writing at work during my downtime, so my desk was full of pencil lead.

It was really. It was a really interesting review to me just because, like, I don't read a lot of mechanical pencil reviews. And then I just sort of don't think about how part of a mechanical pencil is the graphite. Like, I just think about, like, the actual mechanism, the barrel, and like, the clickiness. But, like. Yeah. Like, the core is still formulated like graphite in a wooden pencil. And it's like. Can be way different from one to another. So it's. I don't think a lot about mechanical pencils, but that was really interesting because it made me just. Yeah. Realize that a mechanical pencil, as terrible as they are, is also still a pencil.

Yeah. And I think what was really. What was really cool and unexpected is the variety in the actual case that the. The leads came in. You know, because you think it's just like. You know, I go back to the Pentel, but it's the standard, you know, square little thing, and the top comes off. And I mean, some of these were really elaborately designed, like the Zebra delguard. It actually, a mechanical pencil was released by Zebra as well with the same name. It kind of has this little mechanism where when you push down the thing on the side, a little trapdoor opens and pushes out one lead and that's it. So it's like. It's really kind of cool how, you know, the products are designed themselves.

Yeah. Yeah. There was a. Bruce Emman from Think On Paper Company showed me this really cool delguard that I think may have just come out in the United States, but if you press down on it, Too hard. So you're in danger of, like, breaking the lead. The thing, like the. The point that holds the lead just kind of like falls down over it and protects it. It's amazing.

Yes, that's. That's a pencil. I actually saw it when I was in New York over in January, and I didn't buy it just because it was like, 17.

So expensive.

Yeah, so.

Yeah.

But, yeah, no, so. So I really enjoyed doing that. It was kind of like, obviously the opposite of what I do, and now I just have a ton of pencil lead that I'll probably never go through.

Yeah. So something I just kind of thought of is, you know, everybody has that one post they just never managed to get to, like, they never managed to put it together. For me, it's a comprehensive post about index cards. Just comparing some of my favorites and what I can do with them. Do you have that thing that's like a quarter of the way drafted in your. In your drafts folder that's been there for a while. Or do you have a. Do you have a white whale post?

Let me look in my draft pile. Because it. WordPress kind of like reminds you that you. You have things you have not finished. So every time you log in, it's kind of like, hey, I have this post. It's not so much about pencils. It was titled Community. And I was going to talk about the pencil community again to kind of bring to light, you know, because a lot of people may come across this blog. I got one email from, like, a teacher, like, I was looking for school pencils or something, you know, and then they start reading the blog and they're like, what is this, you know, what is all this, like, you know, obsession with. With pencils and stuff? So writing a post about the community, it's almost like. Like that. That very controversial post that I think several of us wrote similar posts about. Like, it's not just pencils.

I'm still getting comments on that one. So it's like that. Like, I wanted to talk about the community, not controversially, but just talk about. It's. It's. It is pencils, but it's kind of more than that. It's people coming together and this small little, like, niche hobby, and it's so vast, like, it's limitless to me. I mean, I haven't reached the end. I haven't reached, like, the pinnacle of pencil dom, so to speak. So, yeah, so that. That's one post that's kind of just sat there and I think it's just sat there. Not because I don't want to do it, just because I get so many pencils. Because I try to. Whenever CW brings in new stuff, I like to try the new stuff, and then I inevitably want to write about that new stuff. Because you don't want to be late to the game when you review something new. Because that's kind of an obligation you have as a blogger. Like, you don't want to, you know, like, I'm not going to do a pencil review of the Blackwing 24 right now. Like, that would not be relevant anymore. So you got to kind of stay on top of things. So I think that's why that fell to the wayside. But. But maybe I should resurrect that.

Yeah. Or I'm telling you.

Tim, you should just really hop on board this tweet thread that's train that people are doing the tweet.

Yeah. Just have Like a hundred tweets in a row threaded together.

Johnny, do you have that, do you have that white whale post?

Make sure you use the word. I'm halfway done a lot for SEO. Cool.

Yeah. Tim, do you want to. Do you want to read some of the questions from the audience?

I'd have to say board gaming is my second biggest hobby. It almost became the pencil hobby. Like it almost overtook the pencil hobby. I mean, when I first started blogging, I actually was a blogger for a website that talked about like video games and stuff. But I was their board game reviewer. I would review board games. So I have over 100 board games. My wife hates it, but she can deal. I've been, you know, we had to, to rent a larger apartment so I could have my room for board games. So. And I never play them. I mean, I'm a solo board gamer. I'm a forever alone board gamer. It's hard in my area to kind of find people with matching schedules. And my wife doesn't play, so I buy board games that I can play by myself, which is actually kind of a very Zen like thing to do. So. And I'm also a video gamer, as evidenced by my. What I'm currently consuming. I don't have much time for it like I used to, but you know, that's. Those are kind of my two things. So games, I guess in general are my two hobbies.

Can I use pencils? I'm just interested to know, will you share why your wife doesn't like board games?

So I have a really good answer for this. So I don't know if anyone else is a board gamer that's listening or Anything but my favorite board game. My favorite type of board game are workers placement games. So like, the game Agricola, for example, is my favorite board game. So you basically, you know, the concept of the game is it's, it's not your typical roll, dice move kind of thing. You have to feed your family, you have to feed your animals on your farm. There's a lot of decision making and a lot of thinking and it's very slow moving and she hates that.

So, so I just asked because I am sort of in the same boat. Like, I, I also don't really care for board games and I, I'm always embarrassed to tell people that because, like, like, what's wrong with you? Like, why don't you like board games? And I would just say, like, I don't like to work to have fun. And.

Yeah, and I mean, I, I tried to get her to play Dungeons and Dragons, which was really bad. I mean, she, bless her heart, she went with it, but she, you know, laughed about, you know, I'm like, okay, so you can do anything in the world you want to do right now. And like, it was just like, it just didn't click. You know what I mean? Like, she didn't get it, you know,

Yeah.

The thing, the thing that, that, that really drew my wife in, and this might help you, Andy, is is games with very simple rules. Not that you're simple at all.

It can be overwhelming.

You will understand So I like the ones. Sorry, Go.

No, I was gonna say Ticket to Ride is a pretty mainstream game.

And also Pandemic, which is a pretty cool game. You're basically trying to eradicate diseases before the entire world dies. That was my wife's first board game that she played to completion.

Yeah.

So, yeah. So those kind of things.

I like the kind where it's a little bit more.

I don't know what the right word is. Like, you. You use your creativity to try to, like, win over the one who's judging. So, like, I like Balderdash a little bit. The one where you basically try to come up. Is that the one where you try to come up with a fake definition for words. Balderdash?

I think.

I think so. Yeah, that one. And then, like, you know, your standard, like cards against humanity. Slash, apples. You know, apples and oranges. What? Yeah, I can't remember the name of any of these.

Yeah, Apples to apples. Yeah, apples to apples. And like, cards against humanity, like, all that stuff. So I like those kind of games. It's. Yeah, just mostly, like, when there's a lot of arbitrary rules that I don't just, like, quite understand the logic to. Or we have to, like, spend a lot of time reading the manual, things like that.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

Well, Pollux number one. That's my favorite sharpener of all time. And those Hinodawashi erasers that Caroline sells.

So those are my two.

All right, so favorite old Nintendo game that wasn't specific, or NES or SNES or. So I'm gonna go with Super Nintendo, Super Mario rpg. I forget the exact title.

I didn't know there was one.

Yes, the Curse of the Seven Stars or something like that. It was actually made by Squaresoft, which is now Square Enix. They make the Final Fantasy games. So it was a really in depth rpg. But you played as Mario. It was really cool and deep. So that's probably one of my favorites of all time.

Yeah, so I have, I would love to give away my casemate Neons. And there's, I mean I have enough of them to do that, but I feel like some people would bulk up the idea that this is a pencil you can buy at Walmart. It kind of has that, you know, connotation to it. Like what do you mean you're into pencils and you're going to give me a pencil from Walmart? You know, like, so I carry around, I carry around a bunch of general pencils. I really like the Pacific. They're cheap enough to give away. So when somebody asks for a pencil because believe it or not, I don't know if it's the school I go to, but a lot of my classmates use pencil. Not wood pencil always, but mechanical and wood. I see more than I did when I was at my previous college. So I'll give them the pencil to use and then just say oh, you can keep it, you know, to kind of plant that seed. And occasionally I'll plant pencils in the library at my school we have a huge like old Harry Potter esque library. I go to Mount Holyoke so it's very old. So there's all these little nooks and crannies that you can hide things and put things and there's pencil cups everywhere. So all of their dump pencils that are not bad but pencils I don't like, like the Archer for example, I put some of those in a pencil cup or you know, and even some casements just to kind of help them out because they, they have those horrible universal brand pencils. I think you can get them from like W.B. mason or something. So just having cheap enough pencils to where it's cost effective for you to give them away but good enough for them to possibly fall in love with them.

Cool.

So blog is theweeklypencil.com Instagram which I haven't been posting much lately because I, I gave up my smartphone for the semester. But Instagram is the same thing, the weekly pencil and then Twitter. I have a Twitter but I, I don't use it. It just automatically posts Twitter when I post a blog post, but same thing. The Weekly Pencil. I tried to keep it like, you know, all the same. So the Weekly Pencil everywhere.

I'm@woodclinch.com and then I am on Twitter as Wellfleet A W E L F

Boom.