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Transcript
Your fake news. Erasable. Your fake news.
Hello, and welcome to episode 78 of the erasable podcast. This is Tim Wasem, and I'm joined by two of my favorite guys in the whole world, Andy Welfle and Johnny Gamber. Tonight we are going to be going over a lot of cool stuff that's been happening in the stationary world. And we are also going to be updating our top five pencil lists and introducing some new top lists of different categories which we're pretty, pretty excited about. But Andy, Johnny, how are you guys doing?
Pretty good.
Fantastic.
How's it going with you?
Good. So much for three take Tim.
Yeah. One take Tim.
One take 10B.
One take two TimB.
One take 10. That's what they call me a name.
I think we should just keep adding number nicknames to your to use. So pretty soon it's just going to be like, outrageous until people start, like,
people start coming up with theories about what the word or what the numbers stand for. Like it's some kind of code to crack. Then I go missing and they're like, maybe that'll lead us to him.
Illuminati, Tim. Yeah, let's just get all Dan brown on you.
10B. One take Illuminati, Tim.
The stone cutters.
The stone cutters.
Yeah.
Who holds back the electric car? Who made Steve Gutenberg a star.
I completely don't get this reference.
Oh, this is a Simpsons episode. One of the best.
Okay.
Oh, man. It's where they basically find out out about the Simpsons version of the Illuminati and Grandpa Simpson's in it and Homer gets grandfathered into the. To the club.
It's a really, really good episode.
Yeah. They find this, like, the birthmark on his is basically on his butt cheek. Like, he has a birthmark on his butt cheek. That means that he's the chosen one. So he, he becomes the, the head of the. The stone cutters. It's fantastic. I might watch that tonight when we're done. All right, well, I'm really excited about, uh, all the things we're talking about today. I think it's gonna be fun to update those lists. That's like a, a favorite thing for people to do in general about, you know, listing your favorite things. And then stationary podcasts and blogs love to do it too, and we are no exception. So I can't wait for that.
But can we do it very like, like Buzzfeed style and be like, you won't believe number four.
Number four will shock you. Number four will leave you questioning life itself. Stay Tuned, folks. Yeah. Okay, well, let's start out with Tools of the Trade. And Andy, why don't you get us started?
Sure. I am consuming some media Katie and I have kind of stalled at for a Handmaid's Tale. Like, it's just gotten so heavy and so dark. Like we just can't like, have to take a little break. So we started watching Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown. Have you guys ever watched this? Great.
That's a great show.
I. I'm a big Anthony Bourdain fan and I, I just think he's like, just like the grumpy uncle of, of the food world. And we watched all of Layover and that's really great. I think I've talked about that here before, but parts of Known is a lot more. A lot more travel than it is food related, I think.
And he goes pre. Gets pretty heavy into the culture.
Yeah. And he, he goes to some crazy places. Um, I, Yeah, I'm. I'm. I'm a big fan so far. Some of them are crazy and some of them are like la, you know. But I found places in all of these. I found things in all of these places that I want to eat.
So any, any episode of his shows where he goes to like Thailand or.
Yeah.
Philippines. Places like that. I mean, when he's like really in his element are just awesome because he always gets these cool writers to talk to and they eat the spiciest food on the planet and he's like in heaven.
Yeah. Yeah, he went to. Oh, shoot. Where is it that. That Burroughs went? It was. Or spent a lot of time in crap. Morocco. Yeah, he was in City of Morocco and he just met up with these just like insane. Just like old British rich, just like expats who just like seem like they're out of a like 1950s mystery. Like I keep expecting them to be like evil because they're like a. Like an Indiana Jones villain. So. Yeah, so we've been. Been watching that and I'm just still slogging through my novel that I talked about last time that I don't really like, but I decided not to give it up.
Yeah, that's noble of you.
Yeah. And I'm writing with a sparkly green gel pen and a hello Kitty notebook From the late 80s as I have written here now. That was put here by Johnny. It wasn't me have no idea.
I was put here by the President
of the United States writing my tremendous notebook.
You're writing bigly instead, gel man. Bigly.
The best.
I assume he just uses a dull crane because, like, nobody trusts him with sharp objects.
Well, he had a sharp one, but he's just going to let it fail.
That's going to be on. Yeah, that's going to be on like Fox News tomorrow.
Yeah.
Liberal podcast claims that president writes in crayon.
Meanwhile, he doesn't use crayon. He uses finger paints. Come on. Age appropriate.
You're fake news. Erasable. You're fake news. Failing Erasable podcast says hashtag.
That's our episode title. Hashtag. Failing Erasable podcast.
Maybe he'll block us on Twitter.
Oh, that would be an honor.
Dream come true.
Have we just given up all pretenses of not being a political following?
As long as we don't belabor the point and just move on. Just focus on what we do. We're allowed to have opinions, so.
And honestly, I'm writing with a Nottoraj marble pencil, which is one of the most beautiful pencils. There's actually a marbling workshop happening at work next week that I'm going to miss because I'm going to be out of town, but I would love to, like, learn how to marble things. So writing with a natty marble that has a white eraser cap on the end of it that I bought from CW Pencils. And I'm writing in my field notes Campfire notebook. Nice. Yeah. How about you, Johnny?
I am behind and just started Orange is the New Black for the weekend. The new season. We watched season four because I forgot everything that happened.
Yeah.
Did you guys watch it yet?
Yes. I finished the new season. It's so good.
So much of it's grossing me out. Or they watch stuff on the walls like, oh, God, I feel like my kids have been there.
They're just like. They had a food fight and all that food is just left over.
And. Yeah, that's not even from Food Fight.
Oh, really?
Never mind. Oh, wait. On the show it is, I think.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think my kids. Oh, no, that's not chocolate. No. Moving on. So I finished that big new throw bio. Henry David Throw at Life by Lara Wallace. I'm sorry, how do you pronounce her name? Desal Walls. Yeah, it's the first big comprehensive one since, I think, Harding. So, you know, that's landmark. I should be like, throw. It's a super nice read. Although, like, maybe this is because I'm not a historian, but there are times where I'm assuming that she's going along in linear time, but instead, she's sort of skipping ahead two years Skipping back two years to talk about John Brown or something like that. And I keep having to look at what year it is.
What year is it?
Like, wait, he's. Wait, where's John Brown? Then later on, oh, there's John Brown. But I guess if you keep track of that, maybe it's just my brain, like I say, not being a historian, that got caught up in that. But if you like Thoreau, it's a super awesome book. It's on Amazon now, I think.
Did you learn anything that you didn't already know?
Yeah, a bunch of things. There were several instances where he was furiously writing about something, such as with John Brown, where he would keep a pencil under his pillow so that he could always write, which was pretty cool. And the extra detail that I know he wrote in his journaling pen, because I bugged the people during the project a couple years ago, and they finally emailed me back after I emailed them like 10 times. Like, no, we didn't use pencils. But he would use pencils in the field and come home and elaborate in his journal in ink. So it's sad that the guy who made pencils didn't always use them, but that's okay. Little did he know that ink is deteriorating his notebooks. There's a thing at the Morgan Library about his journal right now where they have some of the pencils on display that I hope I can make it to before it closes up.
That's really cool.
Yeah, very exciting. All of the big bicentennial stuff was in Concord last week, of course, for Mr. Thoreau's birthday.
So. Yeah.
And I am writing with a West coast pencil, the volumes 73 of Blackwing and an east coast notebook. The Write notepads, Chesapeake. How about you, Tim?
I am, I think last time. Last time we talked, I was reading the Robert Galbraith novel.
Yeah.
The Drawing a Blank, the second one, whatever it was called, and the Silkworm. That's what it was.
Yeah.
I was reading the Silkworm, and I did decide to go on, just read the next one. So right now I'm reading Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith, slash, J.K. rowling. And so far, it's really good. It's also. Yeah, this one's just definitely darker than the other ones. And I am enjoying it so far. And it's. It's. I think it's hitting kind of a sweet spot with the third book in the series where the two characters, Robin and Strike, are really becoming familiar, I guess, and getting used to them. And so some of the subtleties of who they are and what their motives are and things are coming out. So I really. I can't recommend the series enough if you like mysteries and just good writing, because it really is good writing.
Does J.K. rowling's like, like, usual style come out a lot in these or does it. Does it have a completely different style?
So it's been a while since I've read Harry Potter. But how would you describe her usual style?
I don't know. I. And I. I think it kind of changes and evolves, like, as the series goes on. But she definitely, like, ends her chapters with like a big cliffhanger to make you want to go on to the next. You know, things like that.
Oh, yeah, yeah, she definitely does that. Yeah, so there's definitely that. And the writing, she likes to. It basically sticks in third person limited most of the time where you're focused on one character, but she likes to jump out and then, like, dive into the thoughts of a new character. Yeah, now and then. Which is. So it's kind of like third person omniscient, but just every once in a while, which is kind of cool. I like it a lot. So, yeah, read that series. It's the Cormoran Strike series. And I just got the audiobook through the Overdrive app, like the library app of Norse mythology by Neil Gaiman. I'm about to start it, so I'm. I haven't even started it, but I just thought I'd mention it because it's. I'm super excited. I've been on the wait list for the audiobook on. For the. For the library for months since it came out, basically. So that. That will be my. That's what I will be listening to tomorrow while I sweat profusely and sand our deck down to get ready to. To stain it.
Post pictures.
What?
Post pictures. I want to see you just sweating profusely with, like, sawdust stuck all over.
Yeah.
Yeah. I love Neil Gaiman. This is so worth it.
You should post a picture with just sawdust all over you and just say that you had, like, a particularly intense pencil sharpening session.
Yeah, yeah. I just sharpened 6,000 pencils.
This is what happens for all of your school district. Yeah. What a service.
I just sharpened every pencil I will need for the rest of my life, so I probably could do that too. That's the sad thing. I wonder. I wonder if I sharpened every pencil that I had right now, if I would ever have to sharpen another pencil for the rest of my life.
Oh, man. I Wouldn't. It's terrible.
Yeah.
Lots of minor wo. Pecs. So, you know, super.
Right? So you'll never be able to write with them anyway, so they'll just stay sharp forever.
Yeah. You know, I was gonna come help you with your deck.
I was gonna drive 13 hours to help you with your deck. But, you know, fu.
Nevermind.
I mean, I really like standing decks and I'm really good at it, but, you know, it's a gift.
It's my spiritual gift. What color is your parachute? Mine is the color of a nicely stained deck. I don't know if you get the
reference, but I think we're witnessing the end of the erasable podcast, guys.
So Norse mythology. That's where we started. So I'm going to start listening to that tomorrow. And Jane and I were looking for a new show to fill the West Wing gap in our life. Like the West Wing shaped hole in our life, because we've watched that four times and we just needed something else and needed to watch a show about government that didn't make us want to be affiliated with a different government. And so we started watching Madam Secretary, which is. Either you watch this.
I haven't. I seen previews.
But yeah, I think it's worth it. It's like a. It does have a kind of a West Wing feel. A lot of the kind of idealism and sticking to, like which. Whether this is realistic or not, just doing the right thing and seeing people who are in power like, coming up with creative solutions to things, but they're also pretty flawed characters. So it's similar to West Wing in that sense, but it's a little more networky. That makes sense. You know, it's a little more kind of overly dramatic. There's a couple sort of like romantic lines through. Anyways, it doesn't matter. We're really enjoying it. We're actually, like, really hooked. We're about at the end of the first season, so I would. I would recommend that to everybody. It's the head speechwriter for the Secretary of State. Because the. The show follows the Secretary of State in a. I guess a Democratic presidency. It never actually says but. But the head speechwriter is the guy from Super Troopers.
Huh?
Have you seen Super Troopers?
It's been a long time, but yeah,
okay, but you remember the guy who licks the glass and says the snozberries taste like snozberries when they. When they make him eat all the mushrooms when they're getting pulled over by the police or whatever, and he's like, in the back of the squad car flipping out because he ate all these mushrooms. So that guy is the head speechwriter. So I can't really take him seriously when he's on the screen because I just. I. I just imagine him. Yeah. Quoting Willy Wonka in the back of a squad car. But, yeah, it's a good show. And I am writing with which this is maybe literally the only pencil I've written with since we've talked Last is the Blackwing 73. I think it's probably the only pencil I've used since they showed up and since Andy. You sent me two. And I had to order a whole nother dozen because I just. I just love them. So I'm using that and I'm writing in a Walden book, as Andy has. Yes. Has. Has deemed them. Yeah. The. The Walden books.
So I worked there in college.
At Walden Books.
Yeah. On my interview, I asked the manager, like, is this store named after the book? And she's like, I don't know. Let's look it up. And we looked it up in the employee handbook, and it was.
That's awesome.
There's even a picture of the cabin.
Hmm.
Nice.
Do they encourage you to be just, like, super grumpy and, like, judge, like, stupid people who come in?
No, we had to sell those damn frequent buyer cards. But this was back when people would show up at the mall and, like, look for a book and we didn't have it. They would order it and come back in two weeks when we got it and pay us full price for it instead of ordering it online. Because I was in college a long time ago.
The golden age.
I loved Walden Books.
Yeah, me too.
I still have my name tag somewhere.
That's where my parents would just, like, leave me there. They wipe where they're shopping at the mall, and I would just sit, like, and just flip through stuff for hours.
When I worked there, it was owned by Borders, so we had a 33% employee discount. Oh, nice. Like the fat. The last couple months I worked there, I spent my entire paycheck every time. It was great.
I love Walden Books. But as soon as Fort Wayne got aboarders, I just, like, dumped Walden Books so fast because Borders had a cafe and you could just like, sit around and. Yeah, changed my life.
We had a Borders, a Barnes and Noble, a Brentano's, an independent bookstore, and a Walden Books and, like, a five block radius. And now they're all gone. The BNN just closed, like, last month. Sad face. That's the suburbs. That's what happens.
Yeah. Bummer, but. All right, well, on that uplifting note, let's move on to fresh points. And, Andy, why don't you get us started?
Sure. Well, my first fresh point. If. If nobody minds, I'm going to do a shameless plug.
We.
So me and Will Fengy, who is a friend of the show, decided to bring Dot Grid back. We. We stopped for a while just for, you know, we got busy and we got other stuff to do, but Will decided that he would go and start Facebook posting from the Dot Grid account, saying that we're thinking of making another episode like another episode. And that was news to me. I had no. I held his feet to the fire and said, okay, if we're going to do this, we need to actually do it. We nailed down a date, we changed the logo. We just kind of committed to at least a monthly program. So, yeah, we're back. Grid XYZ episode 16 is up, which is just sort of catching people up and talking about what apps and what analog items we've been using lately. So go check it out. Speaking of podcasts, our friends at Baron Fig have another launch, as they do, I feel like, every week. But this time, this time it is not a physical product. It is a podcast itself. It is called. So this is where I'm confused. So it. If you go to Baron Fig's website, there's a little menu item called Eureka. Click Eureka. It brings up a splash page. It says Eureka. It says radio for thinkers. And then below it says, it's Thinker Talk, episode zero, introducing Eureka. So I don't know if it's called Thinker Talk or if it's called Eureka.
Thinker Talk would be cute.
Yeah.
And I do like.
I think it's Eureka.
Yeah, Eureka does sound like a Baron Fig thing that they named. Like, you know, they. It's always kind of one word product names that are named after some. Well, usually like a noble title, which Eureka is not.
But
I like Eureka a lot. I think it's a good name. They have episode zero up. I think next week is coming episode one, so stay tuned.
Do we know someone who's in episode one?
I don't know. I don't know.
Do you?
I heard a rumor that there's gonna be someone on there whom I know well and like very much.
I probably know this person too, but I have a feeling that this person has been sworn to secrecy, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
You got me. It was me.
So me. So Eureka is up. Episode 0. Just go check that out. Also, in trying to think of like a good segue here, but I cannot. I cannot think of it. Anyhow, we are now taking pre orders from for Plumbago issue two. It is.
Yay.
It's going to be really great. We have lots of, lots of good content in there. 36 pages of stuff. We're going to do a really fancy cover this time. We're not doing any inside color pages, so we can sacrifice. Make some room in the budget for just a really great cover. So, yeah, go over to Erasable US Plumbago, place your pre order. If you pre order, it helps give us the funding to upfront make a print run, have some money for a print run and better sort of estimate the number of issues we want to print. We should have plenty to sell copies afterwards. But I'm running into all sorts of interesting conundrums. Like I really want to corner around the edges of it and how do I do that? So I think I'm actually going to just buy a Corner Rounder because it would cost three times as much to have like, you know, a print shop do it. So I guess I'll just have a Corner Rounder. So it's gonna be really good.
You make your own notebooks? Yeah.
If you, if you missed out on, on issue one, there will be a download code on the back that you can go to to download copy of issue one. So, yeah, two. Two zines in one. So that is.
I feel like we should, we should pause and point out that Andy's been busting his butt on this for like, months.
You know, it's, it's, it's fun. It reminds me a lot in, in college, I was the editor of the student newspaper for a couple semesters and I would basically just sort of like get swallowed up by InDesign, the Layout app that I would use to do it. And it's kind of like how people talk about playing video games in like blinking and suddenly it's eight hours later. I feel like I'm like that, but with. With page layout apps. So I've been just like laying out and tweaking and laying out and tweaking and I. It's, it's fun. It's like. I mean, it is a lot of work, but I think it's kind of like meditative. It's very relaxing and like very satisfying as people nowadays, as the kids say, I love just like taking a bunch of text and a bunch of pictures and making like a little layout out of it. So I enjoy that work. It's fun. So I hope, I hope you all enjoy reading it because we're gonna have a crapload of copies. And the last thing I wanted to mention is I had a. I think. Did we talk about my green pens conundrum on this show?
Yeah. With the Uniball.
Yeah, yeah, we have. So, you know, Mike Hagan and I and a couple other people in the group and you guys have just been talking back and forth about this for a long time. So I finally was like, you know what? I'm just going to do a hashtag asktpa, askthepanaddict. You know, Brad and Mike do this segment on their show where people tweet them questions and hashtag asktpa. And so they do a little question and answer thing. So I had a pretty involved question. So I basically just wrote it in a note on my phone and took a screen cap and tweeted it at them. So basically what I said was, hey, guys, a pen question for you. I know, right? Maybe 10 years ago, I was obsessed with the Uni Ball Vision Rollerball in Evergreen. It was a deep, vibrant green and was included in a box dozens with blue, black and red pens of the same model. Since then, I can't find Evergreen but just regular green. It's crap compared to Evergreen. It's thinner and bluer. Amazon claims to sell Evergreen, but when my friend and yours, Mike Hagen, bought a box that was just regular green. Do you know the story on this? Any idea where I can buy evergreen Uni Ball Visions nowadays? I'll take my question off the air. So I asked him that. And on the last episode, which by the time this episode releases, it will be his second to last episode, number 265, he. He responded he didn't have a good answer for what happened to that green ink. Just because Uniball is not known for being like super transparent upfront about that. But essentially we think it's no longer made. You know, Mike Hagen bought a box dozen of evergreen Uniball Visions and it was just regular green, even though it said Evergreen on the listing. But what he suggests and I have not yet purchased, I need to, is a zebra Sarasa green pen, is a gel ink pen. But it is supposed to be sort of that same deep, deep green. And I also want to get a hold of one of those green inkjoy pens because I know that you'll be shocked, but I have never used an inkjoy pen.
Gel pens are where it's at.
Yeah, Jetpens is sold out of them. I can buy, like. I don't even think I can buy the, like, big sets. Jetpens has none of them.
So do you have an Office Depot near you?
I think there's an Office Depot around. I'll go check there.
They have open stock.
Oh, good.
Okay. I think all the colors but brown, orange, and yellow.
Okay.
Not that I was there this morning looking at them.
I'll go check those out. Yeah. And there's two different greens.
Yeah.
Let me know if you don't go.
There's a viridian green and there's a regular green.
Let me know if you don't. If you don't go soon, I'm sure I'll go soon.
Okay.
I'll pick them up.
Good to know. Cool.
Yeah, we. I have one like.
It's like beer.
Seriously. Two minutes from my house, so I can pick some up for you as well.
We have this weird combined Office Max, Office Depot situation. And at this point, they're like that idea. Virtually identical stores. Yeah. But it's exactly the same thing, only some of them are called Office Depot and some are called Office Max. Yeah.
Cool idea of a Max. Better. Yeah.
Office Max, that is. Those are my. Those are my fresh points. How about you, Johnny?
Well, yesterday in the mail, I received a really lovely package from one of my listeners, Judy, who. She had a question about Roald Dahl and what yellow pencils he used, I think a couple weeks ago on Instagram. So I mentioned that he used Ticonderogas. So she found a picture of Roald Dahl. It's like a close up with his hand up, and he's holding a medium, like old Ticonderoga. So she found those exact models, and he always used six. So she sent me six of them. And the picture in the mail, which was, like, super awesome package. And I was having a really crappy day, so it was extra double awesome. So thanks, Judy. And if you like World Dahl, I have to figure out where the picture is. We can post it online, but it's definitely worth looking at. And unless you live under a rock, if you're listening to this podcast, you probably know that, right? NotePads and company put out a Thoreau dedicated edition last week called the Walden that sold out, like, an hour and a half of all 500 of their copies. Did you guys get yours?
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've got a few.
I mean, I'm bragging because I got mine in person, because I'm awesome, but, yeah, if nobody saw them, they're like a really beautiful, like a gray craft. And on the back they say 200th birthday edition with Thoreau's signature and a really nice. Just a copper stamp. And on the front is the picture that Thoreau's sister drew of his cabin and just the word Walden. And they're blank because thorough be moaned that he couldn't find books that weren't lined for ledgers. And, you know, Wright notepads. Lines are ledgers. So they did blank, which is pretty good.
Yeah, they weren't.
Plus he didn't have die grids back then.
Yeah, yeah.
They were on sale for a whole, what, 35 minutes? Yeah.
Yeah. Chris was sure they'd sell. And they sold all 500 packs really quickly.
Super quick.
Almost 500 packs.
Yeah, it was like, insanely fast. Yeah.
Yeah. I don't know if this is a testament to Thoreau or to write notepads growing to where notebook nuts want to have them all, but, yeah, they're. So I talked to Chris today on the phone, and they're definitely gone. So if you're thinking about shaking them down for some, they're all gone. I think they don't even have any, which kind of makes me want to give them one of my packs, but I'm not going to
should.
My sign is named after Thurro.
So, yeah, you should definitely just bribe heavily some members of the group because, yeah, that's where they all exist right now. Yeah.
Also from write notepads, this is like a soft release. They didn't say anything about it in social media, but they have a new pencil out that is black, glossy with white trim and available by the dozen on their website. I just ordered a set. Their shipping went down because apparently they started weighing stuff more accurately. So These are only five bucks to ship. They're $11.99 for the pencils.
They're really pretty.
Yeah.
I'm stoked. So, yeah, I saw some in person. They're really glossy and really sharp. Hex from Musgrave. They're very pretty. The only other back or back to school fresh point that I have is that the back to school stuff is rolling out, and this is a very exciting time. I feel like we should offer back to school section updates until, you know, Labor Day or something. Like, who's got what? Cool stuff.
Yeah.
So have you guys come across anything super awesome in your, you know, reconnaissance missions?
I don't know about you. My target is devoid of back to school stuff right now. I don't know if school starts later in California or what, but I have none of the cool things.
Yeah, yeah, ours is the same. Ours is super boring. There's nothing. I mean it's the same stuff they've had previous years.
The two that I go to are stocked. They have like so much cool stuff from UB or ubi, however you pronounce that. They have like a banana theme going on this year. They have banana pencils and sharpeners and erasers and.
But do they have hammocks?
No, but they do have backpacks this
year, which is interesting. Okay. Yeah.
They didn't do that before and I don't know, they even make pens besides those gel pens.
I don't know.
I don't think so. They have a whole new line of nice composition books. I got my kids some sharpeners. They came in a two pack. One is an ice cream cone, one is a cupcake and I think they double as erasers. And what else do we see? That was really cool. There were some like ice cream cone pens, some 10 color pens, a lot of neat stuff.
I really want these pouches they have in the dollar bins of some. That looks like loose leaf paper.
Yeah. There's another one with like Alphabet. That's pretty cool looking.
Yeah, I'm hoping I'm going back back to Indiana next week and I'm going to try hitting up a target there to see if they have them.
They have a liner in them too. They're actually really nice little pencil cases.
Yeah.
Yeah. That's exciting. I was hoping that the USA Gold fat pencils that are out would show up in stores, but I haven't seen them near me, which is a shame. I actually haven't seen a lot of fat pencils at all. I was sort of hoping they would take over from Ticonderoga like oh. Instead of, you know, no longer American made pencil made of this mysterious wood. Here's an American cedar pencil. And they usually undercut Ticonderoga in prices, but not in Baltimore. So I've heard that other Walmarts in other parts of the country have them in two packs. One of our listeners was kind enough to send me one and they're really, really nice. They're made by Moon. They're sort of like the Tri Rex but the short sides aren't straight, they're round. So it's really a triangular pencil instead of just an oddly shaped six sided pencil. And the finishes are nice. The eraser is nice, the core is nice. They smell good.
How much they cost?
That I don't know, $75.
USA gold stuff's. Usually not very expensive.
Yeah, that's true.
They've all got big boxes of them for like six bucks. That would last a normal kid the entire year. My kids. Yeah. So that's all I've got. Mr. Tim, how about you?
Well, the first thing I was gonna bring up was the new limited edition confidant from Baron. Figures. The raspberry honey, which.
Damn.
I think we didn't.
Oh, it's so weird. Yeah. Sorry.
Didn't. Do we. Did we hint at it last time or did we talk about it? I can't remember.
I don't.
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
Okay, so it is. Yeah, it was. I think it was like a couple days later maybe, but. So they came out with their new limited edition confidant. It is a. I guess you would describe it as a. It's like an or red. Orange or something cover. Yeah. Sound right.
They've called it both maroon. Maroon and like honey or not honey berry something or other.
Yeah. I definitely wouldn't say maroon because it's. It's. It's brighter than that, especially when you get in person. But it's beautiful. A beautiful red color.
Like love that color.
If for the. For the. The sad dark moments in my life where I'm using a fountain pen and I can't help it. I would love to have that color as an ink.
Oh yeah.
But it's a beautiful notebook. It comes with dot grid inside and the COVID is embossed with, you know, maybe 75 bees.
Like little Mike Hagen counted them.
Did he?
What is it? I don't remember the number, but.
Okay. Wondering how close I got.
I was trying to look this up.
One of my. One of my very favorite things is that on their. Their product page for it. One of the feature callouts that they do. It's like lays opens flat dot grid pages. Debossed bees is one of the features.
New band name called it Debossed Bees.
78 bees. Oh no, there are 90. 95 bees on the front.
How many?
95 on the front. But there are 78 in the story.
Okay. I did pretty good. Yeah. So have either of you read the story yet?
Yeah.
No, I have not.
I haven't yet. I'm plan to tomorrow. What is. Andy, what did you think about it?
It's really like. I don't know. It's really weird. I think but in a.
Like stories usually are.
Yeah, it kind of. It's definitely like a story that's written by a designer and I don't quite know how to, like, articulate that with not sounding, like, snobby, because it's awesome. I love it a lot. I work with a lot of designers, and whenever.
Jeff Gavea.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Whenever. Whenever they write, it's always really creative and interesting and like, like, captured well, but it's just, like, worded very strangely. And this kind of, like, is that same way, like. Like raspberry honey. The way that they spell it in the story is one word for, like, no particular reason. It. Yeah. I'm not trying to be like a. Like an English, like, prescriptivist here. Theater. Yeah. But it's. It's a very creative story. The Journal has, like, a fun little tie in into the story. It's. I won't give anything away, but it's about, like, a. A guy who works at, like, a honey factory, and he's fired for having. Having too creative and ideas. He wants to have, like, flavored honey instead of honey. Flavored honey. So this is his journey to get. To get to. Spoiler alert. Raspberry honey. And the notebook plays a little bit of a part in the story. So I'm. It's. It's way different than their other themes in just, like, a really strange, quirky way, but, like, in a delightfully quirky way. Like, I. I'm a big fan. I. I do wish that the bee. The debossed bees, maybe there was just, like, one of them, and maybe it was debossed in gold or something like that, like, centered really nicely, but that would sort of be the typical Baron fig way. And this is sort of just like a big, chaotic, like, swarm of bees on the front of this notebook. And I think it fits the theme a lot more because.
Yeah, that.
That designer is very, like, you know, his illustration style is just not, like, neat and structured like that. It's very quirky and very, like, whimsical.
Yeah, we talked about that, like, right when they came out. Just that idea of simplifying it would be. Yeah, would be better. And I said that. I was like. I think, like, maybe, like, one larger be in the middle would have been cool. But then the farther I've gotten from it and the more I've looked at the notebook itself, the more I disagree with myself. Yeah. No, in that statement. I think it's. I think it's great. I think it looks fantastic. And that red color is so good in that. You talked about the story, and I haven't read it, but I'm planning on reading it. And regardless, I just think that is such a cool thing to do. Yeah, you know, it's such a cool idea. It takes me back to the drive into the gap that Field Notes did. The novella that they put out with Day Game Edition, which I loved. That little book. I really loved it. And I think that's just a cool idea. And it's also just amazing that it was able to be the designer. They didn't have to force it to be the designer. And this writer, who also had to come in, the designer, was comfortable to do that. And I'm really excited to read it.
And like you said, that color is. When I think about the color of raspberry, if somebody took raspberry juice and mixed it to honey like this, that color is exactly the way I would think it was.
Yeah, it's perfect. Perfect. It's perfect.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's like a. It's like a red mixed with a coppery color or something. I don't know. It's.
It's.
It's hard to describe, but it's a beautiful color, and I can't wait to use it.
Yeah.
Really can't wait. I'm the confidant I'm in the middle of right now is the workplay number two. And so when I get done with that, this is definitely going to be my next. Next one in the rotation.
Do you write on both sides of your workplace, too? Or do you. Do you just.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's. It's really turned into. I just. I think I, at first was hesitant about it. I mean, I remember saying that I liked it a lot, but just that I've always been kind of a curmudgeon about dot grid in general, but I think. I think I've gotten past that. I can just use it and kind of disregard it in a way where I can just write wherever I want. And I. It doesn't bug me as much as it used to. For some reason, certain ones that have darker dots do sort of bug me, but most don't these days. And so I. I can't wait to use the. Use the raspberry honey. Yeah. And as we. We talk about the raspberry honey, I have to talk about one of my favorite hack wings of all time that I saw in our Facebook group by Jaclyn. In our Facebook group, this was. And this, like, opened up a whole new world of hack wings, you know, in honor of the new Plumbago magazine. But she created a. A hack wing that was meant to match a notebook, you know, like creating a hackwing in order to pair it with something else. And so she made a. Which I think it ended up being called something like the Honeywing or something like that. But the, the Raspberry Honey edition which was a Blackwing 344 with a 602 Feral and a brown eraser from a 211.
Yeah.
All mixed together and then placed and she, she set it on top of the Raspberry Honey notebook and it looks perfect. Oh gosh. I love it. I just saw that it like made me so happy. It's like it was there meant to be together. It's one of those things where all the different shades of, of that reddish maroonish color like all mixed together in just a really cool way. And the brown. Way to go, Jaclyn. That was awesome. So I just had to. Had to point that out and I'll. I'll. I'll try to put a. A link to that in the show notes. So.
Yeah.
So people can see that.
So much creativity in our group. Like I just can never emphasize that enough.
It's crazy. It's crazy.
Yeah.
People are awesome and. Yeah. So next I was. I think it's been a while since I, since I was on this, this hunt but I was trying to find a good blue red pencil like a double sided pencil and I knew Harry Marks was, was looking for that too and we had talked to him about that and I was led to something by Father Kyle in our group.
He.
He had pointed me to the Postal by Venus and. Did you ever see these? I don't know if I can't remember if I tagged you when these came up.
I don't know. I don't think so.
A while back I was talking about trying to find a good editing pencil and I was looking for a double sided red and blue pencil. I know. I think we talked to Harry Marks about this as well. But I was led by Father Kyle and our group to apply pencil called the Postal by Venus. It's the model 104. Have either of you seen this pencil before?
I'm not sure. I don't think so.
Yeah.
Okay. Well you're going to be getting some in the mail soon so I'm going to share. But it is, it holds a really good point on both the blue and the red side. That's a really killer pencil and I wouldn't have found it without him recommending it because I had been spoiled by the current Karen d' Ache blue red pencil. It's really nice but it's like five they're like $5 a piece, you know, and I really like those, but I just couldn't justify getting a bunch of them. But these on ebay you're able to find. I mean, for 10 bucks you can get 24 of them or something like that. It's a really good deal. So again, it's called the Postal by Venus. And I'm going to get on ebay and order another 24 before everybody hears it and then goes on. Orders them out from under me.
I'll wait to release them until you've placed an order.
Yeah, they're. They're fantastic. So if you're looking for a good red blue editing pencil, if you're a writer or your editor, work in design or something and would like that, this is about the best option I've. I've found better than the generals options that are out there. And then the Caran d' Ache is, I think better, but it's just so much more expensive that it's not sustainable. So check out the Postal made by Venus. And lastly, this will be very quick. I love the Blackwing 73. I can't say. I can't say that enough. Like I've really had a good time. I've been using it constantly. I got. I ordered a whole nother dozen after that last episode and I've been using it all the time and it's been really fun. It's just like. I think it might be right up at, you know, I think we talked about this last time, this last time too, but up at number one or number two in my. My favorite limited editions by. By Blackwing. So just another big props to them. I think they really nailed it.
Seems like this one's got pretty universal acclaim. Yeah.
Yeah.
Especially after the last one was kind of a stinker. No offense.
Yeah, I, Yeah, I totally agree. And I think they just nailed it. It's so. It's so great. The textured on the, you know, on the barrel. And then to go back to the MMX core, it was a hit. So it's been. It's been really fun. So I'm really enjoying that. So I just wanted to give them another shout out.
Are you mostly writing with this or do you think you. And do you feel like you're sharpening more or are you using it for other things?
All I do is write. I don't really draw or anything like that. So I'm only writing and I. It's fun. It's. It's so smooth that I don't sharpen that much because I actually kind of don't mind when it gets dull and I'm like writing a big line. But, you know, when I'm using a fountain pen or something like that, I tend to use a bold line anyways. And I like that. So I like to sharpen it in a. My bullet sharpener or in a classroom friendly. And just write it down to the end, you know, Write it down for a while. Yeah. So I've. I've been digging that. Which I know isn't everybody's. Everybody's thing to do, but that's. That's what's been working for me. So I haven't been sharpening a lot, kind of on purpose. I just haven't been worrying about it. Yeah. So I've had one stuffed into my hat over my ear for the last two weeks, so it's awesome.
Do you have one of those fancy hats with the pencil holder?
No.
Is that from the Duluth Trading Company?
I mean, that hat.
Yeah.
I didn't even know that existed.
Yeah,
I did not even know this existed.
But I'm gonna put this on my birthday list for later in the summer.
The Duluth Trading Company. And we should get it. You should get it in like olive. And then put the field notes patch on it.
Oh, snap. Does it come with pencils? That's what we wanted it.
Yes, with pencil sleeve. Duluth.
Son of a fire hose. I was playing in the other day. I keep getting sunburns on my nose. I've got a big nose. This could help.
This could change everything.
What's unfortunate about it is the Duluth logo is also on it, but the middle is open. You can put your own patch on there.
Well, what do you guys say we jump into our top lists?
Yeah.
And roll. Give some updates. We're gonna talk about pencils. We're gonna talk about paper notebooks, and then the kind of miscellaneous category of sharpeners and erasers and things like that. So let's. Let's start with the pencils. Let's give the update. Tell us what's changed from your list as it appears on the. On the website before we. Before we update it and then give us a little justification. So, Andy, why don't you give us. Why don't you get us started? Yeah.
So my top five pencils, the way it. The list really hasn't changed since I started making it, but I think I'm going to change it up a little bit this time. I really try to weigh as do you know, all of us try to weigh like you Know what have I been using a lot lately because it's like new and timely and relevant. And what do I use a lot that I just fall back to because it's like a. Like a solid performer. And I used to skew very much toward, you know, what do I just usually fall back on? What's the most. What's the old reliables? And number one, I had my. My precious Golden Bear, the blue one, of course. So, you know, just because it's the best, best pencil quality for the price, in my opinion, $3 a dozen or actually less than that. And just like, way, way better than a Ticonderoga. Have my Blackwing 602 on there. Just because it's, you know, one of the best quality pencils just on the market. Very solid performer. It's. That is. That is a hard one to usurp. I had a Mitsubishi Hiuni 2B, which is very, very good quality. Gorgeous lacquer. It's beautiful looking. I had a Musgrave test score in 100 because. Screw you guys. It's my Vulpex. It's my. Hey, hey, hey, hey. It's my. My contrarian pencil because it's super weird. Although, you know what, like the sharpness of the hexes now nowadays, you know, so many of the right notepads pencils have that same sharp hex. So maybe everybody's just building up their calluses and they'll be able to use a test scoring 100 soon. So that's on there.
Hey, Andy, have you to go back to Reese to go back to the Golden Bears? Have you ordered any of the new ones with the soft edges?
I have not lately. I have some of the soft edges.
Probably a huge stash. You do?
Yeah, I do have a huge stash. Yes. We talked about that a few episodes back. Somebody wrote into the show just like asking about the difference there, and we confirmed it with Palomino. So they have changed the hexes on it. So making the hexes softer is, like, only improves the writing experience with that, I think. And still, like, very much like that blue with the red stripe and the orange erasers. To me, still the best. The best one. I love that color of blue. It's kind of the same color of blue as, like, the base. No, I guess the base of the Tahoe pencil is a little darker than that. Forget I said anything. And also had this Statler, the Norris school pencil on here. Just because it is, like, a really good performer. I think it looks great if I talk to my European friends. You know, it's kind of no big deal. They're just like, that pencil is everywhere. Like it's no big deal. Whereas here in America, that's like pretty unusual to see just because there's so many different colors and it's kind of like randomly placed and with the crappy like baby poop colored Office Depot Depot pencils that you can get here. Like that school pencils. A work of art. So that was my previous list and I think that my top two are still going to stay at the top. I'll admit I haven't used a golden bear for a while just because I've been trying out so many pencils. But there's always one in my pencil case. There's always one in my, my cup at work. I still really like it.
It's.
It's what I still point to people when I tell them that, you know, this is. You can get into pencils and it's still a cheap hobby. I still do regularly use a Palomino Blackwing 602. I have one camera, but I called it like a hashtag vintage wing, hashtag old wing. I basically took the 530 feral and I stuck it on top of a 602 to make it look like the old style 602s from like the 30s and 40s. The ones that are expensive and beautiful.
I wouldn't use one of those too.
Yeah, I love that, love that pencil. So yeah, that is still number one, number two on my list. I kind of have to put number three as a. As I call it the Natty Pop, the natural pop pencil, which, okay, I'll admit is now branded as Apsara pencils. But Natty Pop sounds like some sort of like a weird cheap beer. So call it that. I've been using those a lot more just because I have refreshed my selection since the curio sent me that gigantic box of Indian pencils. So do love the Neti Pop. It's a solid performer, but it's also, it's really just aesthetic reasons. I just love those colors. I love the feeling. I think they're made pretty well compared to a lot of. A lot of pencils at that price. Cost $1.50 for 10 of them.
That's.
You can't beat that. This is maybe just a temporary addition. I've been editing a lot, mostly copy editing, like plumbago stuff and copy editing some stuff at work. But I've been using my CW pencils editor pencil a lot. I think I like how, you know, instead of A blue end, it has a graphite end and then it has that red end. Yeah, I'm big fan of that pencil. I look forward to using one of the, the postal pencils just to kind of like gauge the differences because I don't think I've used. I think I've only ever used one other of those kind of like double edged pencils. And for the life of me I'm drawing a blank. I can't remember which one that is. It's the other one that they sell. Do you guys remember?
I don't.
Yeah, Musgrave one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Musgrave one. Yeah. So yeah, that, that the editor pencil from CW Pencils is great. Like that one a lot. And I have in the notes a big selection of question marks for my, my fifth position ones here. And I honestly don't know what that is except to say that I. If I were to just pick one to put there, I think it's going to be the Tombow recycled pencil in B. I have just like a naked wood tombow that Katie really likes. I think, I think Katie really is a big fan of the naked wood pencils and she loves this one. Just has it sitting around. So it is the Tombow. You know they stopped saying the cureto. No, not curato. It used to have a different name. It's now it's just called Tombow. It says recycled pencil on the side. You can buy them both in just like a naked end or with an eraser on the end of it. I prefer it with the eraser on the end of it. It has a really nice ferrule and a black eraser on it. So I'll put a link to that in show notes. So I've been using that one a lot just because sometimes you just want a naked wood pencil. And that's my favorite of them. I think I like it better a little bit than even the cedar point.
Mm.
You can kind of see the. Because it's a recycled pencil. You can, you can see the, the ridges on there for when they fit the ends together. Kind of glued them on and I think that looks really cool. Yeah. So those are my, those are my top five right right now. Golden Bear, the 602. Natty Pop, the editor and a Tombow recycled pencil. Johnny, how about yours?
So the ones on the website are two back because I was supposed to update them when we talked about them on November and I never got around to it. So I can't remember what I talked about last time. But I know there's always something with a Blackwing MMX score on my list. So this time it's Blackwing 73, obviously. And also on there, there's always something with a 602 core. So the Blackwing 344 is always on there because I noticed that it's getting short and dull and I must be using it a lot. When I was traveling a few weeks ago, I found myself using this Faber Castell Grip Sparkle pencil. Have you guys seen these? They have Ms. CW now, I think.
So it's the Grip 2001s, but a different colors with like diamonds in them.
Yeah. Instead of being raised, they're stamped into the pencil so that they're a lot smoother. But also it sort of defeats the purpose of being grippy because it's not. But they're really pretty. There's a really nice blue one. So when I was traveling, I was using a Moleskine Voyager. And Moleskins are very friendly to a harder pencil. And Faber Castell hard pencils are still nice and smooth. And they had a brown one that was like a perfect match. So I put that on my list because I used it a lot recently. And if you're looking for, I mean, it's like a German B, so it's like a regular F maybe, but it's really smooth for how hard it is. And like I say, CW has them in, I think, a few different colors. They're not too expensive. And also there's a pencil that I've only seen at CW called the General Scribe. It's green and round and looks like vintage pencil, but it's not. Have you guys used one of those before?
No, I haven't.
I think I have one, but I haven't used it.
Yeah, they're sort of hard and scratchy, but I really like them. They're really nice cedar. It's a nice round. Like they're a little fatter, like the general's goddess. In fact, it might be the same core. I should look at that. But anyway, it's. It's beautiful. It's a really nice green. Made me think of Mr. Hagen. The end is naked, so you can do whatever you want with it. They're super nice. And I'm rounding out my top five with the Staedtler Wopex, because Typewriter Bell you. I don't think it was on there last time, but, you know, it's a good pencil. It writes on, like, the crappiest, toothiest piece of junk paper that you've ever seen. Which is probably what it's designed for. And, you know, I know everybody hates on it, but of all extruded pencils, it's the only one that you can actually write with that has an eraser that works. It doesn't bend. And you can just go to Staples and buy some.
It's the only pencil that you can sharpen with a lighter.
No,
I'm gonna try that now.
So I have to.
It doesn't smear. It's really good.
I can't remember if I've asked this before, but you said the only extruded pencil that. Are there other extruded pencils?
Yeah, those Bic Extra funds. And the Bic ecolutions are extruded.
The extra funds, yeah.
They're just more wood than plastic.
Same method.
Yeah. My kids like those extra funds, but, you know, they're pretty to look at, but they're frustrating. They bend, but the wopex will not bend. The son of a. Could rob a store. Sorry. I mod at one of mine. I put a little perpendicular stub on it so it looks like a nightstick. And I keep hippies in line with mine.
Move along.
Move along.
Long hair. Yeah. Yeah. Those are like. I'm surprised by what they are. I've been, like, sort of not very loyal to pencils lately. I got a really cool pencil box that's made of metal for father's day. So it's just kind of sitting on the dining room, and I walk by and grab one. So my top five will change, like Friday. But that's what it is right now. How about you, Tim?
I can guess what your first one is, Tim.
What is it?
Foil wrapped?
Wrong hello Kitty pencil.
Well, except that I have it sitting right here in front of me in the show notes. I still would have guessed it, I think. Which, of course, is the Palomino hp.
Yeah. Yeah. Number one. Yeah, for sure. That's. I don't know what could knock that out of my. My number one spot. I just. I use it more than anything else. And I have. I do, and I love them.
Willpix.
If. No, if Blackwing made a natural pencil with a silver ferrule and a pink eraser and the extra firm core, that would make the Palomino useless. And I'm betting they're gonna do that. They're gonna do that because if they were smart, they liked money. That's what they'll do.
Yeah, they do. So I hope they do. Hope they're listening to you.
I'll start a GoFundMe. For poor Tim, because he'll be spending all of his. His money. His family won't be able to eat.
Oh, gosh. Yeah, Totally would be easy.
Look, if they do that, I will
send you all of my other pencils that have been replaced by the new pencils that Johnny just described. Kids would be like sitting around with a steak knife, you know, chopping a Ticonderoga renew in half and gnawing on it. Be teething on erasers and things. But yeah, definitely number one, the Palomino HP. Duh. Still have the Blackwing 602. Like Andy. I mean, I use it all the time. I use it all the time, and I can't take it off the list. The other ones have changed. The next three. The general's test scoring. 580. I've been using that a lot lately.
And that is a good pencil.
Yeah, it's a fantastic pencil. And I've been using my. My hackwing version with a silver feral and a red eraser with it. So that's a. It's really cool again, and I've really been enjoying that. And I mean, I really feel like as far as the core and how it feels, it's. It's just a few shades under the Blackwing 602. Like, as far as softness and how much it holds a point, it's a really fantastic pencil. But the next one would be a Tombow 2558B pencil.
Which one is that?
That's the. It's the yellow with the purple feral. No, that's the 95 something. That's. That's the. It is. I don't have one right in front of me, but I'm pretty sure it has a silver feral. But they're. They're only like 8 bucks. They're pretty affordable pencil and 8 bucks for a dozen.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, yeah. They're only eight bucks for the feral and then nine bucks for the pencil. And. But I'm noticing it so far that all of my first four pencils are very, very similar to one another. So I think I'm finding a sweet spot of what I prefer. There's a little bit of a. Yeah, there's the. The link. That's for the hb. So there's. There's be as well. But. But the bees are fantastic.
Are they debossed bees?
Duboss bees. Band name. Called it. Like Andy Dwyer, Parks and Rec.
Tim Wasem and the debossed bees.
Tim wasum's debossed bees.
10B Tim. And the debossed bees.
Tim Bead Tim and the D Boss Bees. It's almost like a tongue twister. And last thing on my list is the Write Notepads jumbo pencil because I've been using that a good bit recently too because I actually put two of them. I've got a big stash of them. I've got a couple dozen and I've. I put a couple of them in my toolbox and we've been doing a bunch of projects around the house and so I've been using them a lot for that kind of thing. So those are fantastic. So I can't. They're. They're cedar, they're white with red writing and I just love them. So yeah, that's my list. So why don't we move on to paper notebooks.
Yeah.
Andy, get us started.
Johnny, I'm confused. How many? Okay. We're trying to think of three of these, right?
Oh, I meant to put one to three. I'm sorry.
Oh, it's all right.
You know what? I might have meant to put three to five.
Yeah. So my. It's kind of hard to think of like a top pocket notebook because my strategy is basically just when I run out whatever, like the next whatever the newest like quarterly release is, I try to start using that unless it's like something that's way unusable for me. So generally that's been a Write notepads notebook like I was still using. I just finished my Telegraph probably like two weeks ago and I go through them so slow. And the campfire, field nose campfire is what came out since then. And so I am using that now. But typically if I were to just sort of pick, I think that right now, right Notepads is the one that I'd go with because they're just so durable. They're so good looking. And I mentioned on the most recent Dot Grid episode we kind of talked about like, what is our. Like do we have a digital recommendation and an analog recommendation and. Right. Notepads is my, my analog recommendation. Just because they, they have this feeling. It's, it's so very usable, but it's. Yet somehow it's still like ornate and beautiful. So they, he just like finds that balance. So typically, typically my pocket notebook for this list would be a Write notepads. Even though right now I'm using a field notes. Um, and as far as a bigger size, like an A5 size, I'm gonna at this point really have to go with a Baron fig confidant. I just think it's just Perfect. I love the size, how it's a little bit wider and, and like more squat than a typical A5 notebook. I love the fabric cover. I like just the styling and the look of it. I like the dot grade. I really. I think the Confidant is like the best A5 notebook you can get right now.
I should just hop in and say that my list is just totally pointless after what you just said because I totally agree with everything you just said.
I'm sorry.
No, no, that's perfect. I totally agree. Write notebooks, notepads. Makes my favorite pocket notebook. It's what I've been using most of the time all summer. And, and then the. The Baron Fig confidant is just perfect. I use the blank pages, but just the shape of it and anything I want to use it for, it just works.
So I'll admit that I'm. I'm more excited about the quarterly. Thank you. I have to admit I'm way more excited about the quarterly Confidant releases than I am about the Archer releases that they do. Just because it's. Yeah.
I think the, the quarterly. Quarterly releases of the Confidant are just a close second behind the Black Wings. I mean, I'm really excited when those are coming out.
Yeah. So.
So they're my. One of my favorite things out there right now.
I will admit that the next A5 size notebook I'm going to buy is. It's called CO. It's. It's a brand called Colo K O L O. And that is made by the company that owns that stationary store in San Francisco called Italia, Top drawer. So it's weirdly like a secondary brand to itoya, but it's like the parent company of the US Stores. So they recently opened a new store in San Francisco, a second one in the Mission District, which is a lot closer to me than the Union street store. And they have a big display of these Colo notebooks. And they are fabric bound, but they're very kind of moleskinny. They have like a, like a band and a. And like a bookmark. But they have really beautiful colors. There's this like light blue that I think I'm gonna pick up and it's lined. It's not dot grid, but whatever. So we'll see. I don't know. Maybe that will usurp the Confidant. I doubt it. So those are the two notebooks that I'm probably using with the most regularity. Like, as far as usage and size goes, I don't really use any of the, like, really big ones. So, yeah, I really can't. Can't talk a lot about that. How about you, Johnny?
So for pocket notebooks, obviously, I usually go for write notepads. If I want something a little smaller, I'll go for field notes. But no offense to field notes write. Notepads have way better paper, so that's not really a hard choice. And I kept myself to three, so I had to cut off moleskins because I'm with you guys on adding the A5 size baron fake confidants, but with the caveat that the latest ones that came out are so damn pretty, I haven't written them yet because they're gorgeous. And the new one is like, so autumn. No, I'm saving it for September.
Oh, that's a good call that.
With some of those 344s. Like, ooh, wonderful.
How fast do you guys go through a confidant?
Depends what I'm using it for. Like a month or two.
I would say two months.
Yeah.
You guys write.
I do. One once in two weeks. But that was. That was a special two weeks.
You guys go through those so much faster than I do. Like, sometimes it takes me four or five months.
Well, you. You have really small handwriting.
I do? Yeah. And I.
And I. I am. I have like, big loopy cursive handwriting and I just kind of. I mean, there's. Sometimes I'm like, really on a roll. If I'm writing something in one of those that I'll. I might only get like a dozen lines in, you know? Yeah, I'm just kind of like. And there's Moving on.
So there's our intro.
Moving on, moving on.
So that's. That's what? That's. I think we all have, like, the same list.
Yeah, that's kind of cool. That doesn't usually happen.
Good job, Baron. Fig and write notepads. That's pretty solid.
Yeah. They both have really damn good paper.
Yeah. And they do interesting things and unexpected things. So that's really cool that we all agreed on that because it's not that we disagree, but we usually have, like, our differing tastes and. Yeah, like, you can see it in the pencils, and then you get to the notebooks and we're all right on the same page. I'm sorry, I did not mean to make that pun.
Pun. That.
Yeah.
Johnny. What if they made a woolpex notebook?
It would be heavy because it'd be made of stone.
The stone paper notebook.
Stone mochas. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, it cost me $20 to send a dozen Wopex to the UK because they're so heavy. Those notebooks would be, like, unshippable. You'd have to. Let's like, go with a wheelbarrow and pick them up yourself. Like walking on high. Where are you going, boy? Get my Wolfex notebooks. You have to sail to Germany on a boat. They couldn't put them on a plane.
I like this idea to hire a captain to take you to make a
short story about this for some notebooks.
Well, why don't we. Why don't we wrap up our. Our best of slash favorite lists with talking about the miscellaneous category, which is just anything in the sharpener, eraser, or I don't know what else could go in here. Sharpener, erasers, pencil caps, anything like that that you'd. That you're just really fond of that you would put in your top one to three things. So, Andy, get started.
Yeah, well, if you would have asked me this probably end of last year, I would have been like, oh, man, my Pollux. Like, I would never go anywhere without my Pollux. And that has since changed because I'm just kind of tired of how finicky it is. Like, I love the, like, concave point, but I'm just. It's so finicky. Like, if the pencil isn't right or if, like, you don't hold it right or whatever, it just, like, breaks it off. So I have to go back to the masterpiece. It's still my very favorite handheld sharpener that I've ever used in my life. Big fan of that. I don't want to. I don't want to spoil Johnny's list, but I just bought one of those brass bullet key ring sharpeners. So I'm excited. I'm excited to try that out. So, yeah, the masterpiece. And I don't use a desktop sharpener except for the Classroom Friendly, using my. Apparently what's called the wealthy method, which is wrapping a post it note around the barrel so the teeth don't, like, dig into your pencil.
I really need a sticker out of
this to our glossary.
Yeah, I really need to, like, document this somewhere because I think I've only ever really talked about it on the show and in the group. I need to make, like, a video or something. Maybe TJ can help me with that. So, yeah, I. Classroom friendly sharpener best point. I love that one. So I have one at work and I have one at home. And as far as a handheld eraser goes, I think. I think the one that I could recommend the most is still the Black Pearl made by Paper Mate. That's the one that's like a little bit more. Oh, I don't know what to call it. It's like, it's flatter and it's more ergonomic. I love holding it. I love just rubbing my fingers on it like a worry stone. It's my fidget eraser. It's a. It's a good one. It doesn't get. Doesn't look dirty because it's already sort of like a graphite color. And they're available everywhere. They're really nice. So that one, and then also just because it's so darn pretty and it works really well too, is the. The Magic Eraser by Koh I Noor.
I've talked about.
Yeah, I've talked about this a lot of times. It's just so beautiful. And it's kind of hard to find, but it's getting easier, I think, now that CW Pencil sells them. And still I maintain, like, if we can ever put, like, our name, like our logo, the erasable podcast logo, on some sort of a stationary item, my dream would have it be magic erasers. Just, like, stamp those and then just, like, hand them out. Wouldn't that be awesome?
That would be awesome.
Figure out how to do that. If you just, like, take a sander to it, you can get off the Koh I Noor logo pretty easily. So maybe if we could do that and then silkscreen our own logo on. I don't know.
Seems totally legal.
Yeah, seems legal and easy. Easy to do, not messy at all. Screen printing in the racer. So if anybody out there at Koh I Noor listens to this show. Help us out. Help a podcast out.
Yeah, please.
So I think those are the two erasers that I use the most. I really don't use handheld erasers that much. I always have one in my bag. Oh, you know what I would add? I will add the little pebble erasers to it, which is kind of the same as the magic erasers. Same sort of swirly pattern, but it's just really tiny and really gritty. And they're super portable and easy to carry around. So, yeah, I'd add that to list. I almost always have one of those in my bag.
Yeah.
How about you, Johnny?
I'm with you on the Help me. The breath, the brass bullet keychain. That's like my favorite thing. Where did I get mine? I got mine, like over a year ago. It looks awesome. It's like, not Even brass anymore. It's brown. It's super sweet. Also my Edgar Allan Poe pencil case, which is from that brand out of print. They call it the PO QA dot because it's PO heads. And either the Staedtler plastic eraser or the one I like better is Faber Castell, but it's a little harder to find just because they work really well on everything.
Let me rewind to the bullet pencil real quick. So you've had it on your key ring. Do you generally put your keys in your pocket?
Usually my car key situation sticks out of my pocket or is in my pocket and the keys and the brass thing are dangling around.
Okay. Okay, cool. I'm just trying to figure out if that blade's gonna catch on anything. Like, I know it's kind of inset, but.
But still, no, I've never cut it on anything.
Okay.
Plus, if you drop it a lot, it starts looking kind of badass. Pebble tossed.
I guess it's hard to knock it out of alignment. I just wish that I could get like a key ring sharpener, but that's a slightly longer point.
Yeah, this. Well, the good thing about this one is it'll sharpen anything that fits, no matter what. So you're always covered. You're always covered.
That's cool.
It's like that one time, you know, when you have that you never have to carry a pencil sharpener. So when you have a fat pencil in your pocket and you go out with that, you're like, oh, crap. Just like rub it on the sidewalk. Sharpen it.
Yeah.
The first thing on my list for this category is going to be something that you've all mentioned before, which is the brass bullet keychain sharpener. Because, you know, we've all mentioned it. It's awesome. It's really handy. And I mean, I know I've talked about it before, but it's something that's. It's super practical and it's way less messy than it sounds. So if you don't have one, you should go to CW Pencils and get one. Because it is. It's really. Yeah, it really comes in handy. And you just. You sharpen into something, you know, a cup or trash can or whatever, and just blow on it, blow off the graphite, and then you're good.
Tim, I asked Johnny this question, but do you. Do you keep yours on your keychain in your pocket?
Yeah, I do.
Have you ever caught anything on your. On the blade in there?
Nope.
Okay. Get really paranoid. I just bought one and Just put it on my keys. So I need to like, just do a leap of faith and try it out.
That's never once happened. And I mean, I've never had it like in my pocket with my iPhone or anything, because the brass. Yeah, just the knurled outside. Not want to do that, but I've never had a problem. I love it. It's one of my favorite things. And the only other thing I have for my list for this category is I don't really use sharpeners or, I mean, erasers, like handheld erasers. I don't remember the last time I've actually used one, even though about five minutes ago while Andy was talking, I ordered a six pack of black pearl round erasers. Because I just. I've never had one. I never bought one. So there's a good deal on Amazon. So I. But the only thing I, I have to. I have to add are the Dudek pencil stands or pencil slash pen stands that he makes is one of my favorite things ever. So he makes custom pieces and he makes pieces that hold pencils and pens or just pencils or whatever you want. And they're super cool. They're really classy looking. I'll have it. I'll have mine for the rest of my life. I cherish the things that he makes. And he. He does really good work and he's really fun to work with and he's always open to new things, like new ideas and so big shout out to Mike Dudek and his, his, his. Is it. Is it mahogany? No, it's not mahogany. What is it?
Walnut.
I was drawing a big blank there. Yes, he's always done walnuts, so they're. They're beautiful and they're totally. They're worth every penny. So go check those out.
Yeah.
Anybody have anything they want to add to the. To their lists or any thoughts you have here at the end?
I like how, you know, our pencils are. Are pretty. Pretty diverse. But, like, I do just still love, like, how. Just how similar our notebooks are. And I guess. I guess it's. I guess it's good we're not a notebook podcast.
Yeah, you should be talking about those three notebooks all the time. Confidant, field notes. Write notepads. All right, see you next week, folks.
Yeah, no, I don't have anything to add to that. I would be interested though, when we post this episode up. I'll ask in our Facebook group other people's top five lists. But if you are a listener and you don't use Facebook comment On the episode about what your top five list is.
Yes, please do.
So Tim will give the URL for it later. But yeah, just come on by and make a comment and we'll, we'll attach it, see if there's any interesting trends.
Yeah, yeah. So if you want to comment on this episode and give us your top five, go to erasepoll us78. That's where you'll find the show notes for today's episode. You can also find us on Facebook. Our Facebook group is facebook.comgroups erasable and our Facebook page where you can get updates about new episodes, new products and new campaigns. We're doing that would be facebook.com erasablepodcast we are on Twitter raceablepodcast and we are on Instagram erasablepodcast. I am Tim Wasem, one of the co hosts of the show. And you can find me on Twitter imwassum and you can find me on Instagram TimothyWassum. Andy, where can we find you on the Internet?
I do have to say really quick that every time I can't remember what you're like, I want to go look at one of your Instagram pictures. I have to think of your sign off in my head. Remember, like, okay, Tim Wasem on Twitter. Instagram is Tim Wasem.
I have Tim Wasem on Instagram too. But like it's just one of those weird things where my. My account that was affiliated with the writing arsenal. I changed. I wanted to change that. Oh yeah, Writing arsenal to something personal. Yeah. And Tim Wasem was taken by me. I had to change it to something, something else. So that's why it's different.
Cool. So anyhow, I am. My blog is woodclinched.com. you can also find other things I've written at Andy Coffee. You can find me both on Instagram and face. No, the other one. Twitter. As a wealthy one of those. I don't know. Johnny, how about you?
I am on the Twitters ensolution, on Instagram at my name with no punctuation and on the Internet I am@pencilrevolution.com which turns one dozen years old this week, I think.
Woohoo.
Yay.
Awesome. All right, well, thanks for listening to this episode, episode 78 of the erasable podcast and for listening to that awkward pause there. Hope you've enjoyed the episode and we will be back soon with episode 79.
Peace out.
The intro music for the Erasable podcast is graciously provided by this Mountain, a collaborative folk rock band from Johnson City, Tennessee. You can check out their music at www.thismountainband.com. come. If I could just count the time
this has happened before.