This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Hello, this is Tuffer Surovik, and before the podcast starts, I would like to read to you a part of my short story, Crashing Bird. It is found in Plumbago, issue three, which is out now for you to buy with money, which you should do. He heard a pencil had six miles in it, so the few he had might not last them. There were less than a dozen left and he had hundreds of miles to go. His heart put him on this journey, but it seemed like the bastard pushed him through the gate and didn't wave goodbye. The window seat cost more money than he should have spent, but this all started by him trying to get the things he wanted, so he paid the extra money. Matthew pulled his lap belt tight enough to show off his inexperience. Flying waited to be scared. I am not a bird. I am an animal without wings. I do not understand what is happening. Flying is not in my bones. He repeated the mantra over again. It calmed him and brought him peace. But he whispered it to himself so loudly that the person next to him was annoyed before they even left the tarmac and in fact, even after they took off. She put on headphones before the attendant said she could, and Matthew took the notebook he bought for the trip out of its cellophane and a half dozen pencils from his jacket. Matthew knew his name and the date, so that part was written easily. He didn't know which city he was over, so he just wrote air, which made him feel fancy. He turned to the second blank page and the tip of his pencil hovered over the paper. Then he rested it on the paper. Matthew adjusted himself in his seat and rested the graphite against the paper again.
I wish I could high five you right now. That's even better than a high five. Hello and welcome to episode nine. Zero of the Erasable Podcast. We're happy, finally healthy, and glad to be back from a long break due to all these winter maladies that have been going around. Tonight we're talking about contemporary replacements for vintage and limited edition stationery items. I'm Tim Wasem hosting tonight and I'm joined by my irreplaceable contemporary cohorts, Andy Welfle and Johnny Gamber.
Hello, Tim.
Hey guys.
How you feeling?
I'm feeling much better. I should. I should say my family is feeling much better. I had the lightest case of all the junk, all of them. So yeah, I got, I got, got it better. But yeah, we're on the mend. The barfing is gone. We're just got some lingering coughs, but it's you know, know, almost. It was almost 80 degrees outside today, so can't complain. That was, that was good for the. Good for the lungs to get out and be out outside for the first time in two months.
He steps into the sun, squinting.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it burns. Yeah, yeah. How about you, Johnny? How are you guys doing?
Yeah, we're, we're on the. On the mend. And it's. It's warm here, too, but it's cooling off for tomorrow, which is good because too much too quickly. It was in the 80s today.
Oh, man, that's shock to the system.
It's been chilly here in San Francisco. It's been like, you know, down in the upper 30s at night, and it was like 40 most of the time here today. That's crazy.
Well, isn't that, like, super cold?
That's really cold for here. Yeah, but I don't know.
Global cooling weather.
Weather, man.
Say, watch it. Going to start talking about climate change. We're going to get political on here.
Oh, yeah. We've never, never done that.
It's not.
None of us are interested in.
It's true.
Because the place that has the perfect climate happens to be 30 degrees.
All right, well, that's not science.
I definitely want more of Johnny, like, just interjecting with his mouth harp.
That. That's not science. Don't talk polit. That could be like our, like, hold up sign. Like, oh, no, no, no, wait. No, you're going too far. Going too far. That's. That's crazy talk, you know?
So glad you have this mouth harp.
Yes.
I got this gift shop at Fort McHenry. Of course, I lose it for three years at a time and then I find it like, ooh, mouth harp.
Here it is. And we're back. Well, I think we're all excited to talk about this. I think this is something that a lot of people think about. But I hope that this topic can be a sort of anecdote to always looking for something newer and better and waiting for something else and demanding something new. Because a lot of the time we have these items that we get that are limited editions or they're older and they've been, you know, gone for a while. And if you look around, there's such a wide variety of options out there, wider than a lot of people realize, that there are some pretty decent analogs. Yeah. No pun intended. For, for these tools. So that'll. That'll be fun to talk about. But before we do that, let's get into our tools of the trade. And Johnny, can you start us out?
Sure. So are we gonna do the consuming section? Because mine's a very big list.
Yours is very big.
Awesome. So did you guys watch Altered Carbon on Netflix yet?
Not yet.
Never heard of it.
So good.
Altered Carbon.
Yeah.
Okay.
I read the book that it's based on, and it was really good. Like, a long time ago.
It was very violent.
What's the book that it's based on?
Yeah.
Is it called Altered Carbon?
Yeah, it's called Altered Carbon. Was it. Is it Philip K. Dick? Is that who wrote it? I will look it up. Yeah, that is.
Yes.
No, it's by Richard K. Morgan. But it's very. It's very Philip K. Dickish.
Say. Yeah, the right middle initial.
Yeah, Right. Part of it is, like, set in San Francisco, right? Or.
Yeah, they call it Bay City.
Bay City, Yeah.
Yeah. People live on the bridge.
Yeah.
Pretty crazy. It was. I enjoyed it. We, like, binged the crap out of that thing.
There's a lot of boobs.
Isn't there a weekend? There's a lot of nudity and a lot of violence. And there's a hotel that manifests itself as Edgar Allan Poe, which is pretty awesome.
Wow.
Poe has a shotgun, which he uses liberally,
as one would. Yeah. Growl. And Poe.
Yeah.
Yeah. There's another Netflix special called Dirty Money. It was, I don't remember, six part documentary series. The first one was about Volkswagen. We watched that right before we got sick. And the last one was about our president, but not about him as a politician, about him as a confidence man. It's called the Confidence Man. But so while I was watching Altered Carbon, I read the Plot Against America and Handmaid's Tale, which are both sort of, you know, dystopian dark novels.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
I mean, the Plot Against America was super good, but, like, kind of horrifying. And, you know when you're reading Philip Roth. Yeah. You're like, this could freaking happen.
I didn't finish that. I need to read that. I started that at some point and then I didn't. Hadn't finished.
It was really a page turner. I was like, my God, this is a really good book. And also, like, I'm gonna go in the bathroom and just hide.
Yeah. Yep.
And then I finally finished our guide around and reading Moonglow by Michael Chabon, which was so good.
That is so good. I loved that book.
That was, like, easily his best book since Cavalier and Clay. Maybe better than Cavalier and Clay.
I don't know.
I have to read Kevlar and Clay,
again, I'm pretty partial to. To the Yiddish Policeman's Union.
That's a good one.
That was. That was so good. And I actually haven't read Telegraph Avenue. That's the only novel of his I haven't read yet. And I. I know I need to, especially with the jazz connection.
Yeah.
I used a telegraph pencil in my book while I was reading it, and Frankie got the joke. Like, look at this.
Nice.
Telegraph Avenue was good. I liked it. A lot of people didn't like it, but I don't know. You know, I would read his grocery lists.
Yeah, for sure.
Big Chabon fan.
He's amazing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I got to meet him. Did I tell you the story already? No.
What? No, I got to.
I got to meet him in. I went to Michigan. It was called the Festival of Faith and Writing when I was in college. And he was the keynote speaker one of the nights. It was him and Jan Martel, the Life of PI author, were the keynote speakers. And they did a signing. And so I got to talk to him for a second, and then he did a signing. And the way that he signed was amazing because I handed him a copy of Maps and Legends. And while we were talking, all of a sudden he looked around and. And he. And we were inside, really, in a convention center kind of thing, or it was at a college, but we were in this big. What do you call it? Amphitheater. And he looks over in one direction and just, like, focuses in. Away from me and then draws an arrow that way and makes a compass and says north, the direction that he was facing, and then signed his name under it. I just thought that was fantastic. I hope it was just total bs. That was just, like, one of his shticks. He's like, I'm going to pretend like I can find north at all times. And at Calvin College in Michigan.
I know. I know people who just regularly see him, like, at a restaurant in Berkeley or just like, him, and I yell it and they're like 3 million kids. Just, like, randomly. Yeah.
Yeah. He's my hero. I love that guy.
Yeah. Cool. Yeah.
So my only follow up is that if you're a fan at all of music, you should check out the new Wombats album, Beautiful people will ruin your life, if nothing else, for the title. And the first song is called Cheetah Tongue, which is pretty cool. So I am writing with a Faber Castell Castell 9000NB, which is almost Steinbeck length in an insights notebook, which features the New York skyline from the 1920s from the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film. It's actually a really nice book, sort of Moleskine's Tale book.
Nice. How about you, Andy?
Hi. What have I been consuming lately? Been watching a lot of the Olympics just because it's on and it's always really interesting. Tim, I see you've been watching the Olympics.
Yes.
What do you think about that new Big sky event? Have you watched any of that?
I haven't seen that yet.
It's a new snowboarding jump where you basically.
Oh. Oh, yeah. It's like the one big jump.
Yeah, just one big jump.
I saw some of the women's one, like, very briefly. I was cleaning and just kind of saw it in the corner of my eye.
Yeah. Yeah. It was just. Oh, man. Just terrifying looking. I can't even imagine. But something about the Winter Olympics I like better than the Summer Olympics. I just like, everything's a little totally.
With you.
Crazier. And like. Yeah. Just watching like the. All of the, like luge slash skeleton slash bobsled sports are just terrifying. Like. Oh, God.
Just playing the snowboard half pipe.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Especially the men's snowboard half pipe.
Is.
They get so much air. Is. It's one of the few things I watch on TV that's I can literally call breathtaking. When I watch. Oh, my gosh. They go so high and they spin so many times. Like, I just can't believe that it even is humanly possible. And Chloe Kim and. And Shaun White and I mean, it's just.
Yeah. Did you watch that poor guy break his neck?
He broke his neck.
Swiss skier Joe Gisler. He. Yeah, he was doing the half pipe and he just fell and. And broke his neck. Like, he's like, he'll. He'll be fine. Like, he's. He'll on just like he's recovering fracture. Yeah.
Oh, man.
He fractured a vertebrae. Yeah.
But I'm totally with you about the Winter Olympics, though. I think they are far more interesting. And like, if I. When I watch the Summer Olympics, I get to a point where I'm like, if I see another swimming event, I am going to scream. Because it's like there's a million of them. Like, get so sick of it. But yeah, I'm with you about the skeleton and the deluge and all that. It's insanity.
I also love watching curling, but only because I think it's insane looking. And I just love. Just like, who made this up? Who thought this was a sport?
Rock sliding?
Yeah, it's fun. I like it so I'm watching the Olympics and we just finished a new Netflix series, Somebody Feed Phil. And I can't remember if I've talked about. I'll have what Phil's having, which was on pbs. Have I mentioned this before?
I don't think so.
Phil Rosenthal, who is the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond and a writer for many other sitcoms over the years, is also like a big foodie and travels around the world and eats interesting foods and talks to people. He's kind of like a, like a PG rated Anthony Bourdain. And he, he. Yeah, he was on, on PBS for a season for. With a show called Somebody. I'll have what Phil's having. And now he is on Netflix. They picked it up and the show is called Somebody Feed Phil. And he, yeah, he go Bangkok and he goes to. Oh man, where else? Goes to Vietnam, he goes to New Orleans, he goes to Lisbon, Portugal. And he just like eats food and talks to people and it's pretty great. So, yeah, I like him. I think he's super strange, but he has, he's kind of bug eyes. He's just like, like a New York Jewish dad. Yeah. So, yeah, doing that. And then I am writing in which I'll talk about later, a baron fig metamorphosis confidant, which I just started not too long ago. And I'm using a pencil called a smart value pencil. Smart value is one word. It is a Japanese 2B pencil that looks very much like a, like a camel HB that I got from John Morris, which I'll also talk a little bit about. How about you, Tim?
Yeah, I've been watching the Olympics too. I think my favorite event so far, which is something that would just like wasn't on my radar, is the snowboard slope style event.
Oh yeah.
If you guys watch that, I just think that's maybe the coolest thing out there. I love watching that. And the half pipe is cool. And I think I get. There are certain events where I was talking about swimming that gets like annoying to me sometimes. I mean, it's still exciting, but after a while I'm just like, all right, give me something else. Because they show, they show it so much on the.
Go away Michael Phelps.
They don't show the other stuff. And then right now I feel like it's the, the downhill skiing, which is, yeah, can be really exciting, but there's just so much of it and, and it all comes down like you look at the number one through number 15 on the top list are within like a second and A half of each other. Yeah, Just kind of. It's kind of crazy, but yeah, I really like this. That slope style is really cool. I've been listening to. I just discovered a guitar player last week. His name is Julian Lodge and he is. I think he's in Los Angeles now, but he's a four. He was a child prodigy guitar player. He started playing when he was like 5 or something. And then by the time he was 13, he was performing on the Grammys and he had played with Santana on stage and all this crazy stuff.
Oh, wow.
But what's really cool is that as his career went on again, he went from playing blues to a pretty young age, transitioning into jazz, and learned from a lot of really huge names in jazz guitar. And so now he's himself a pretty huge name in jazz guitar. And jazz is even too specific for him, I think, because he has these solo acoustic albums. He has one called World's Fair, that the way he described it is just him on acoustic guitar. And he wanted to sound like times when you're at a music store and you just hear a guy in the back playing an acoustic guitar and you just want to sit there and listen to it all day or just let it go on in the background because it's just, you know, good technical playing, but not overly snooty over the top. It's really cool album. But the one I've been listening to the most is his newest one, which is called Modern Lore, which is a trio album. So it's him and upright bass and a drummer, and he plays it all on a Telecaster. So it has a really cool sound, kind of almost, which is mostly a country guitar played in country music. But he's playing some pretty amazing jazz on it. So I would recommend it to anybody. Any of his stuff. He also did a partnership with or an album with Nels Klein from Wilco, the guitar player from Wilco. And he did one with Chris Eldridge, guitar player who, if you've heard of the Punch Brothers, that, you know, what's. What's the guy's name who does the Prairie Home Companion or whatever it's called now.
Stuart. No, not him. Yeah, I know who you're talking about. That guy Thiely.
Chris Thiele.
Yeah, that's it.
Yeah. And Chris Thaley's band. So anyways, anything with Julian Lodge, It's La G E is his last name is really amazing and I would. I would recommend it. Highly good YouTube videos, too. Look up the Live in Los Angeles music video. The Live in Los Angeles video. They recorded like three songs live in this studio, this like round studio with like the audience all around them. And did. I think it was four songs, but really, really cool.
I'll.
I'll pick one. I'll link to one of them in the show notes for you to see. Cool. And as far as reading, I finished a couple books. I finished that Jack Reacher book and finished some books I was reading for school and I started reading Unbelievable by Katie Tour, or Tur. I don't remember how you pronounce it, but she covered the Trump campaign for, I believe it was NBC. So she had been the correspondent in Paris or something. And they were like, yeah, we need somebody to cover Trump. Can you come back and do it for us? And said, sure. But then she ended up spending 500 days on the campaign trail with him. Oh, yeah, I think she was on. Wait, wait, don't tell me. Recently I feel like she was one of the guests. But it's her. It's basically a memoir of what it was like for her to cover the Trump campaign. She was the one who famously was called out by Trump, like one of the first reporters to get called out by name, where he was calling her little Katie and saying she wasn't very nice to him. And then she had to get some Secret Service escorts into these things because of. Into these, you know, insane rallies that he was putting on. So it's. It's really good, really eye opening, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit right now. It was the Kindle deal the other day, which is a nice surprise because I'd been wanting to read it.
Yeah.
And I am writing with a natural Muji 2B that Andy, you sent the other day that I got from you on your birthday.
Yeah. I can't believe how fast that got to you. I sent that out on Saturday. Yeah.
Yeah. It's pretty amazing. I love it. I've already sharpened up two. I've got one at school and I'm using one here. These are pretty great.
Yeah. And that's something that I. Super fragrant. Yeah. I forgot to put in my show notes, but I'll just mention it here real quick, is that this is fairly new. Like the. The wooden pencils from Muji have not been available in the US Traditionally, at least. At least not in the Bay Area and not in New York. I don't know about the rest, but they had them in London, they have them in Japan, Korea. But only recently somebody posted a picture of, like, these pencils at Emoji So I went there the other day and sure enough, there they were. So I'm very excited these have made it to the U.S. do we have
any idea who makes them? Like, do they make them themselves?
I don't know who makes them. I've been trying to figure it out because Muji usually just like, white labels other products. I know Brad Dowdy says that I can't remember who makes one of their pens, but he. He's like, pretty sure that, like, one of their pens is made by this other company that just took their name off of it because Muji is Japanese for no brand. So I can't figure out who makes it, but I think that we should think about that, see if we can figure it out.
Yeah. So I like it a lot. So thanks. Thanks, Andy, for sending that.
Yeah, thank you.
Enjoying. So I'm always excited to get a new natural naked pencil.
Yeah. $2.50 a dozen.
What? A dozen?
Really?
Or however many you got in that
price or half dozen.
Half dozen. Yeah.
That's amazing. Yeah, that's awesome. Do they come in different denominations?
They have. They have HB and 2B. And that's it.
Okay.
Yeah.
The 2B is really nice.
Yeah.
Like, I'm sharpening it using the long point crest or the. Sorry, the. The fat pencil classroom friendly sharpener. So it puts kind of a medium point on it. It's really nice.
Nice.
But I'm writing with that on a Baron Fig strategist note card.
Nice.
That. That is me. So let's get into fresh points and we'll. Let's go. Go to Andy this time. Andy, why don't you start us out?
Sure. Well, one thing I wanted to mention is, you know, it's been a little while since you've recorded, but one thing that has happened since then is that our good friend of the show, TJ Cosgrove has started his own podcast. He and Stuart Lennon, who runs what used to be called pocketnotebooks.co.uk and is now called Nero's Notes, named after his dog, they have started a podcast called 1857. He actually explains in one, I believe, the fourth episode why it's called that. So check it out. And they just talk about generally the same kind of stuff we talk about, but kind of more broadly focused on just analog. The latest episode as of this recording was episode four, which is about burnout. And they talked a lot about burnout from jobs. They talked about time management. And they do eventually kind of tie it into, like, using something analog. Timekeepers, diaries, Things like that. But, yeah, it's very good. It's great to have a podcast kind of in our little unofficial family across the pond. So not just my Curly sitting over there recording alone. Yeah. And it's great to hear kind of like what TJ's been up to. So check that out. I'll have a link in show notes. Have you guys listened to the 1857 yet?
I've listened to the first one so far, yeah.
Yep. It's pretty good. Yeah, they. I think they're. They're kind of getting the hang of their pacing and, like, what they're. What they're talking about. But they are quite serious when recording. I think they've been releasing once a week, which. Which is a pace I cannot handle, so. Good job, guys. I also want to mention. I. I just want. I just want to say, have you guys used the Leuchtturm pen loops? Do you guys buy those? Use those for anything?
I've never used them.
Yeah, they're really great. I didn't realize it until not that long ago. They come in a bunch of different colors. So I opened a Baron Fig Metamorphosis Confidant that I had, the pink one, and it's so pretty. And the accent colors in that are sort of like a royal blue, like dark blue, but not navy. And I actually came to this conclusion around the same time. Somebody in our group posted a picture of it. But the royal blue Leuchtturm pen loop is almost the same blue as, like, the inside cover and the. The bookmark for the confidant. So I picked one up. I think they're like $5 on Amazon, and stuck that in here, and it just looks like it was built in with this notebook. So I love it. I always put it on the inside back cover, maybe about a third of the way down from the top. So I don't put it quite in the middle. I like to keep it up there because I sort of naturally know which way is which way is up that way. And also it's just easiest for carrying around a pencil. But, yeah, I love. I took a picture, as per Johnny's instructions, of my confidant with the pen loop, and I took a picture of that blue Blackwing 73 in it and a. And a Futura JR Moon Futura pencil.
Oh, nice.
Just because both of those, like, the future is pink like the notebook, and the 73 is blue like the accent. So, yeah, it looks gorgeous.
I need to pick up one of those. Those look great.
Yeah, they. Yeah, actually well, actually, the Metamorphosis is out of stock now.
I meant the pen loop.
Oh, the pen loops. Yeah.
I have no, I have a metaphor Metamorphosis. I was actually just pulled that out the other day. I'm gonna. Yeah, I think that's next in the, in the lineup for me.
Yeah, I. You can get. I had a kind of a lime green Leuchtturm pen loop for my three legged juggler, which, because that was the accent color like, of the bookmark. And there's even. This is really. If you're, if you're using a lot of key. Sorry.
They're not reusable, are they?
No, they're not.
Okay.
The pen loops aren't. I guess you could like peel it out and then take off the sticky part and reapply a sticky part.
They just use glue or something.
Yeah, but they're, they're pretty tight if you use like a pen that's thicker than just a, like a regular pencil diameter. But it's perfect for a standard size pencil.
Cool.
And what's really, what's really interesting is if you have a lock, a Baron fig lock, which is the newest dark green confidant, that accent color is gold and there is a gold Leuchtturn pen loop.
So.
Yeah, so there is a pen loop
for every, for every effort, for every occasion.
Yeah.
I'm gonna put one on my like, jacket.
Yeah.
Stick it, stick it to your arm.
Side of my. On my lapel. Yeah. Yeah. Just like.
Gunter just had a post on Lexicalagher about Paper World where they have like 17 or 19 colors of pencils now to match all of their notebooks.
Oh, wow.
And he said they're made in Portugal, which points the finger to you know who.
Yeah, that's interesting. I, I really like Leuchtturm. I wish that they had some fabric covered notebooks because I would buy like, I'm just so into fabric covered notebooks now. I would totally buy a Leuchtturm if it had a fabric cover. They're really good quality.
I just got out the. I haven't talked about it in a long time, but I got that master notebook from them.
Yeah. Yep.
The. Just like the massive one and used it for a while and just of course, didn't fill it up. It would take forever.
Yeah.
But I pulled it out at school the other day and started using it for a, for a writing project I was working on. And they are such nice products. Good, good paper.
I think you should, like, look at
your kids constructed as Anything.
Yeah, you should pull it out when some kid is behaving badly and, like, look at them pointedly and then, like, write down in your giant notebook.
I'm not even kidding. I did that today. I have a group of students that's driving me nuts in one of my classes, and I, like, I'm not even gonna get into the details, but I made this whole system of, like, how to try to get them to shape up and get some stuff done, you know, And I told them, like, I'm gonna be taking notes in class. And that thing was sitting on my. My document camera cart that I've got in my room because I had been. I had set it there, and in the middle of class, they just, like, wouldn't stop talking. And so I just stepped back, opened up that massive notebook. That's. That's really funny that you said that, because I just, like, wrote and started, and I looked up for a second, and then I wrote, and then I looked up for a second, and then eventually everybody started shushing each other and they stopped talking. I totally did that today.
That's amazing.
That's amazing.
Great mind.
So I mentioned a little bit those Futura pencils. For some reason, I don't know why, I became a little bit obsessed with some of the older ones. You know, CW pencils coordinated with Musgrave to make, like, a new relaunch of the future of pencils. And, you know, back in the day, it was Richard Best, and then eventually JR Moon making. Making those pencils. And I don't know why, I went on kind of an ebay binge, and I bought a bunch of the old ones with a pink stripe and one of the slightly older ones with the solid, like, purple feral.
Oh, nice.
I'm looking for the ones somebody in our group posted. I'll see if I could find it. Really great picture of the, like, the oldest, at least that I found. Futura pencil with, like, a plastic feral. I'm gonna look it up right now. Futura pencil. Dang it. This is. This makes for riveting podcasting.
Johnny, hit the mouth harp.
Natalie Tabor.
We need some filler.
She posted drop.
Drop a beat. She.
She. Every time we start talking, just
Andy going,
Drop a sweet rhyme.
She posted her seven different future pencils, including the newest one. But, yeah, I. A little bit of obsessed with future pencils. They write pretty well, but they're just so interesting to look at, like. Like a pink pencil. And they're not. It doesn't seem like they're particularly, like, geared toward Women like somebody didn't make like it's a pencil for her. It's just really pink, which is awesome.
So Charlotte's like super into those pencils.
Yeah, yeah, I like them a lot. Haven't really sat down to write with them yet. I've just been like collecting them and looking at them. So my last fresh point then is. I think I mentioned it before, but I got my Hobonichi five year journal in and I've been using it and it's. It's a little rough going when you're filling it in for the first time because you don't have that ritual of like looking to see what you wrote last year. But I've been writing in it. I've discovered that the. That like grid that they use in there is super small and tight. I think I actually need to write up, like, take up two squares with, with my writing. And also the Tomoe river paper drives me nuts a little bit. When I carry it around in my bag, the edges kind of get bent up. It's kind of like carrying around a Bible, like, you know, I remember carrying around like a. Like a. What's the Catholic version of the Bible called? Well, that version of the Bible, the
Fireside edition, the red one, I think so.
With the really, really thin pages.
Yeah, yeah. Have that one.
Yeah. And the corner like bends up.
It reminds me of carrying around the, like the Norton Anthology in college. Yeah, had to do that too.
Yeah. And. Yeah. And so I think it's gorgeous and I really like it, but I think I need to get a little cover for it because I need to protect the sides of the paper a little bit.
I have a. I've been carrying around my Seven Seas Rider again. I hadn't been using it for a while and it's. It came with a sort of. I had. I ordered a like plastic slip case for it. And that does help a whole lot because it just adds, you know, maybe an eighth of an inch of buffer at the. On. On either side so that the paper, the. The pages aren't rubbing against everything in your bag.
That's a good idea.
And so that doesn't, that doesn't give me any problems anymore. But. But yeah, at first it was constantly folding in on itself and all that.
So I really like it. We'll see how I feel like later this year about it. I'm trying really hard and I could probably use some advice from people who journal more than I do. I tend to, just by default, especially when I have that limited space, just sort of like recap my day instead of like, you know what I'm thinking about or kind of like what's going on in the world partially because I have such a space constraint. Like I can't really elaborate on a lot of that. Um, but how, how do you guys kind of like keep from just talking about and maybe you do just recap your day? Um, I don't know. But like I kind of want to use it. Like what kind of mental state am I in or what am I thinking about on this day in this year?
If, for that. If you get one of those daily diaries from Moleskine, those work pretty well for that, but they don't have a five year version.
Yeah.
So you sort of lose that advantage. Yeah, I guess you could do it. You could get the big one and just like draw a line and use it for like three years.
Yeah. Well, I really like, I like, I mostly just wanted to try like I was thought this hobonichi was really gorgeous and wanted to try it. But yeah, I do kind of like the idea of having multi years there. It's almost like time hop or Facebook's on this day or something. But analog and I think that's a neat thing.
Paper blanks makes a 10 year journal now pretty awesome. But also daunting.
Yeah. Today I got a smartphone with journaling. The question about journaling. I definitely feel hyper aware when I sit down to journal and I realize how many sentences start with the first person personal pronoun. So he's like, I, I this, I this, I this, I this.
Absolutely.
Gosh, that's so annoying. And so I do have days where I sit down and I don't really. I don't want to limit myself too much, but I do have days where I just sit down and I say almost as like an act of empathy where I sit down and I say I'm just going to write about other people. Not like a gossipy way, but I'm just going to write about others. Like I'm going to write about whether it's an observation or whether it's somebody that I'm thinking about or concerned about or somebody that has like had an effect on me. So it's still about my own experience and stuff, but it just keeps me from. Because yeah, I always. My problem is I always end up just kind of bitching about whatever's going on in my life. Like a little too much to the point where I'm like, this is not healthy. My life is pretty good. I don't have to Complain this much, this isn't unnecessary, but that's a good,
that's a good tactic. Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's it for me for freshpoint. How about you, Johnny?
For my first freshpoint, when Charles Bertheimer was on, I think last time, he talked about a project they were doing with the University of the Pacific where they were going to put out journals called the John Muir Observer Journal, where there's some excerpts from John Muir's famous journals and then a blank book for you to fill in. So I picked up one and they sounded really cool. And they're released under the Forest Choice brand. But when I got it in hand, it feels more like a Blackwing product because they upped the paper. It's got 100 gram paper and the book is like heavy. It's like really beefy. But it has the sort of brown craft cover that you expect from the Forest Choice line. Did you guys see this at all?
I, I've seen it. I haven't picked it up yet.
Yeah, I don't have one.
It's sort of like a, A five Moleskine style book. But the paper is like amazing. It's really, really nice. And one of the cool touches is at the back there's an index and on the opposing page there's one of John Muir's indexes or indices.
Yeah.
And it's not like overdone. It's not like this is a John Muir book. Like write your own John Muir book. Like so they inspired.
So is his, Is his stuff sort of like spaced throughout or is it.
No, it's just a little bit at the beginning and then the end pages. So it's pretty cool. I wasn't, you know, this is, I guess this would be a thing to really, really overdo it and just, you know, be a John Muir book that you could also write in. But it's well done. I feel like I don't want it to be in the Forest Choice line because, I don't know, it's a little more expensive and a little nicer than first choice stuff is.
Yeah.
You know, those pencils are like three bucks for a dozen. These are these 22 bucks, which is not terrible, but that's more like Black Wing price.
But.
And they're, they're really, really nice. I'm really, really happy with it.
I do have to point out that the title or like the name of them, the John Muir Observer Journal, like makes me think of the rural juror on 30 Rock. Because it's just 30 Rock, the R because it's just kind of. This is kind of a mouthful. It's like kind of trip over.
That's hilarious.
Just a humorous quip.
Chad Murr, Observer Journal.
Just a humorous little quip there. I think the name of it's fine. I'm not criticizing, but it just made me think of the Rger.
Yeah.
I asked Charles if they knew anything about what John Muir used to write with because, I mean, obviously he didn't use fountain pens traipsing around, you know, jumping the fence with a bag of bread and some tea. But. So he's gonna look into it. From the folks who have. I think it says papers are at the University of the. Of the Pacific. So we'll report back on.
Man, I definitely think they should have called it the. The John Muranol.
I wish I could high five Urano. That's what. That's even better than a high five.
Oh, man, I was buzzing my tooth on that one. So in other notebook news, there's the new vanguards from Baron Fake called the Portals Edition. Did you guys see these? Did you have them?
Yeah, I saw them.
I didn't get them though. Same here.
Yeah, these are like candy colored and with blank paper. They're really, really nice. I feel like I don't want to say this without sound like I'm bashing Baron Fig. When they had the limited edition pocket ones they used to call the Apprentice. I feel like the quality control was not always what you'd want, but like lately it's like spot on. The spines are all, you know, perfectly sewn and everything, which I noticed has been for a while. I just never really picked up on it until recently.
Yeah.
But they're like super nice book books. They're super cute, like ultra adorable. My kids were like, can I have one? Okay.
Are these pocket sized?
No, these are the flagship size.
Okay. Yeah.
I wish they would bring back the Apprentice.
Yeah.
Little tiny ones. Those were so cute.
Yeah.
That Seer was like one of my favorite limited edition pocket notebooks ever.
That was a good one.
Yeah. And one more fresh point about notebooks. Field notes has come out with a bunch of new stuff.
So many new stuff.
Yeah. So Andy, you got the Alphabet soup books too?
I did.
Right. There is a big rush to get them from who had them.
It was Mondo. Mondo Landlan field notes. And I feel like. Oh, burlesque.
Yeah, burlesque. DVC didn't have them, but they're the other letter in the Alphabet.
Yeah. I think I misunderstood originally, like what they were Made out of. I thought they were dead prints because they're dead prints too, but they're actually more like the two rivers in that they are, like, layered. Like, designs from each of these places are kind of layered on top of each other. And then there's just that big blue foil stamp of field notes on it, which I just think makes it look amazing.
Yep. What do they call it? Totally turquoise.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. That's awesome. And the grid inside is really nice
looking, too, and I appreciate that. Yeah. They didn't. They didn't just make them blank like the other dead prints that they did a couple years ago. They just, like. There's a grid in. Grid in there. So I bought a. Bought a couple of those. I'll add them to my giant, giant stash, and I'll never get. That'll never get through.
But the inheritance for your.
Yeah, some of them. Landlan. Sold out within minutes, didn't they?
They did, but then it was like a glitch. They had more.
Oh, good. Okay.
I bought mine from Landland. They came pretty quickly.
Mm. Yeah.
And then field notes had those.
Cool.
Like a second edition of their Valentine's Day pencils. So I bought a pack of the county fair in the. The Washington, D.C. edition that I didn't need because I really wanted one of those pencils. And then last Wednesday, they had a this is Wednesday sale, where you got a two pack of notebooks called the Heartbeat, which matched those pencils. And you got the pencil. So, you know that was two orders I bought to get something else.
Yeah.
In, like, the space of a week. But now I have, like, a big pile of new field notes, so that's cool. Did you guys get the Heartbeat books?
I had filled my cart like I was ready to do it, and then I backed out.
Oh, my God. There's.
I know. I really want to. My practical brain took over. I was like, no, stop. You don't need it. I kind of regret it. I kind of. I feel like I missed out, but I. It's all right. I got so many notebooks.
Yeah, same here.
Custom practical applications.
Oh, cool.
For love. Including number nine recipe, which I thought was pretty awesome. And what was another good. Really good one? 1 Corinthians correction. That was pretty sweet.
Yeah.
Yeah. And they also have. Which I don't have in hand, the signature notebooks, which we were talking about earlier. They're basically blank. Oh, my God. What was it called? The dime novel.
Dime novels. Unbranded dime novels.
Yeah. They're the same form feature. And then they have blank and then lined and am I right they made the paper less yellow?
I think so.
A little brighter.
Yeah.
Excellent. Yes. Those look super nice. I'm gonna get some of those. They're 15 bucks for a two pack, but they're like, what, 77 pages. That's not. Not a bad deal. And moving away from notebooks back to pencils like we talked about. So our friend Dave Tubman in the UK sent really, really cool vintage UK pencils like a month ago, including the Staedtler Countryside, which is the most adorable little pencil that looks super Irish for this time of year. It's natural with a green, green stamp and a cute little font that says Countryside. I'm really obsessed with this pencil. He sent us each two. And I almost didn't send you guys each two. I almost kept them. I'm a horrible person and I really like them. I was like, no, I don't want
to be a jerk. Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about.
Yeah, there's some. There was some really, really cool Staedtler pencils in there. I was really, really happy to get that cool package. Thanks a lot, Dave. But Dave is such a serious collection. Oh, go ahead.
That. I was just going to point out that I forget the name of it because it's upstairs because I was using it earlier. But the natural pencil that came with. What was that one called? The Staedtler Crud. I'm sorry, this is bad. Podcast.
Countryside.
Countryside. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that one was. I like that one a lot. And there's. There were two of those in there. And I enjoyed that quite a bit. And so I actually put it. We have a. Like a white dish on our. The island, like a little, like rolling island in our kitchen. And we just set kind of like random things in there. And I went up there and realized that three pencils had accumulated in there. Four. Sorry, four pencils had accumulated in there. The Muji 2B from Andy. The Staedtler countryside. A like, 4 inch long Blackwing 211. And then one of those round natural pencils, Johnny, that you sent me like, three years ago.
Oh.
Which I, like, was obsessed with. So I had four, like, beautiful natural pencils that had all collected themselves at that one point in my house. And that made me very happy. The only four Petzls there.
It's like a nudist colony.
Exactly. Yeah. Right in the middle of the kitchen. The best place for a nudist colony I really like.
Also, he sent that barrel turquoise pencil with the, like the white cap on the end.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah. That one is really cool too. Yeah. Thank you, Dave.
Thank you, Dave.
Yeah, it was super awesome. And I only have one more fresh point and that is that there's the Baltimore pen show coming up.
Yeah.
Before we record next. And I went.
You're gonna go protest, right?
No, I'm gonna go hang out with a flask.
Hey, Brad.
Daddy in 2015. But this year it's in. It's actually in Baltimore. Not at, you know, near the airport at some dumpy hotel. So that'd be pretty cool.
Yeah.
I think Brad's going, I think I'm gonna tie him up and hold him over the harbor until he agrees they're not use pens anymore. He's got like a foot on me. He could totally kick my ass.
Oh yeah. He'll smile the whole time.
A lot of sharp extra fine fountain pens there too. Things are dangerous.
Yeah. If. If folks are heading down, we'll probably talk about it in the Facebook group. Do like a meetup or something. Some sort of meetup.
Well said.
I am nothing if not articul.
That's why you have the mouth harp to emphasize your points.
Moving on. How about you, Tim? What are your fresh points?
I've just got a few. The first one I'm going to start. Actually the first two I've got are both related to my brother in law who has become a very loyal pencil disciple. That's an overstatement. He's on his own here. He has gotten to the point where he is. Sometimes he's texting me and he seems more interested in the stuff than I am because he's got or like more. More enthusiastic in the moment. Like I'm like trying to keep up with him. It's pretty awesome.
He's just new to it.
Yeah. He's like. He gets it. He definitely gets it. And so he sent. He'll send me these texts all the time about like a pencil that he's found. I guess the principal at the school that he teaches at is also like a pencil nut. And. And he, he actually like reached out and was saying the principal at our school loves the tricondera. Or the. Is that what they were called? The black ones? The triconderoga? Was that what it is? Yeah, he loves those but like he also knows that they're sort of crappy, but he thinks they're great. And so like we threw, you know, we talked about it and then got him the laddie. The tri. Laddies. Or whatever to replace them. And he.
Oh, those are nice.
Those even more so. Anyways, so two, two things came out of him. So he's a poet and, and he sent me this, which I want to start with, which is a quote from the Paris Review interview with Rebecca west and just wanted to share this. It is. My memory is certainly in my hands. I can remember things only if I have a pencil and can write. And I think a lot of us would agree with that quote. So wanted to mention, I'm not writing
it down to remember it exactly. I'm writing it down to remember it.
Yeah, that's exactly what it made me think of. But I love it. I can remember things only if I have a pencil and can write because that is maybe the truest statement that I could make too. I never remember anything. Even if I can write it down on a random scrap of paper and then set it on fire, I'm still more likely to remember it than just trying to say, okay, I can't forget to do that. I could write down a scrap of paper and then never look at that scrap of paper again. It's just how my brain works. But the other thing related to my brother in law is that he sent me a message and he said, hey, I found this pencil. And I've been doing research and he was sending me these YouTube video links that he had found that I'm sure people would recognize. But these just these videos of trying to find the best pencil. He's like, I found this one. It was in my school. I have no idea where it came from, but it's a Staehtler Norica, a black Shae Ler Norica. And I love it. It's perfect. And he was talking about like sharpening and how he actually, he usually likes a super fine point because he writes really small. But with this pencil he's actually found that he likes to just let it go like all the way down to the bottom, almost like a. And just rotate it and write with it and not worry about sharpening. And I think he's totally right. There are some pencils that are just perfect for that. I think jumbo pencils kind of fall in that category. And the reason he said that is because it, it has a little bit of a wider core in the middle. I think he was exactly right. But so he said, I went to Staples to buy some more. I got them and they were total crap, which they were just awful. He's like, why are they so different? This is so frustrating. And I, you know, did some research, and he did some research. And of course, we found out that in 2014, they stopped making them the same way where they. They weren't made with the. Which we. I think we've talked about this before, but they weren't made with the cedar anymore, and they just. The quality went way down. So. Wow. I just wanted to brag on our community because he was like, he, He. He's pretty. He uses pencils a lot, but he uses them for note taking. And so a box of pen or, you know, two dozen pencils would last him forever. And he's. He just told me basically this was his grail pencil. Like that. He just loved it so much of all. And I had given him tons of pencils that he's been trying. It's his palomino HP for me, you know, and he loves it so much. And so I. He said, I wish I could find some 2014. And I said, start a timer. So we're going to try to figure this out for you. And I went to our Facebook group, and it took me 22 minutes to have made a trade to secure him a 36 pack of the 2014 State Learn Orcas.
No, that's awesome.
And also, like, beyond that, like, even some more people offered it, and I was like, I guarantee you people out there have them. And so he actually came in this weekend for a funeral. Actually, Jane's, My wife's grandfather passed away this past week, and he came in for the funeral and was able to cheer him up with a box of pencils that he was thrilled to see because it was like a lifetime supply for him. So the group is amazing. The hive minds. I have to give a big props to Randy and Dee D. Harper in the. In the group because they were super helpful and they were able to help me get plenty of them to give to him to keep him stocked, to keep his teacher desk stocked at his school in Georgia. So big props to that.
That's awesome.
That was just a fun, fun story. Just, like, where we were able to find a solution really quickly. The only other thing I was gonna mention is that, Andy, you tipped me off to a super amazing and exciting tweet from Line Weaver at CW Pencils. And she said, okay, baseball people, what's your favorite scoring pencil? Working on a sampler pack for the baseball nerds among us. And there's nothing I would have. You know, there's. There's almost no tweet that I've liked more than that in the recent weeks
because I'm they know their audience.
I'm so, so pumped up about baseball. It's just like insane. Like it's a sickness. I can't, it couldn't come soon enough. And I just got to thinking about it that I think it's really cool idea to work on the sampler pack. And a few things that came up that I thought about like right off the top of my head. I ran through a bunch of pencils that I would recommend for it and I said the Tombow 2558B Blackwing MMX Nataraj Platinum Extra Dark. The the 2B one. The Black and Black and Silver Striped General's test scoring 580 Mitsubishi 9852 EW. And then of course the Palomino HB. But the reason I just got to thinking about it because scoring baseball for a baseball fan, like if you're a baseball fan who scores a game and I even do it from home sometimes, which is super nerdy, but I love it. It makes you feel really close to the action, like you're really not missing a beat in the game and that choosing a pencil isn't a practical thing with that activity in my opinion. It's not about what's going to hold the point for the longest. You know, like baseball is not that kind of game. Baseball is a, is a game that is a slow burn. Right? It's not the action packed football game that like you get eight seconds of crazy action and then five minutes of sitting and doing nothing. Baseball is like always moving forward little by little. And so it's all about the slow progress. And so I think that with choosing a pencil it's more about the feel. Like you're choosing a pencil that has a good feel to it and a good kind of vibe around it, you know, that you'd want to hang out with for a long time because the game's a long. It's your three hours that you're watching this game and keeping track of score. And so you have to think about something that's got like a little bit of a softer lead, but also that you're going to really like have a good feel on the paper with it the entire time. And you're not going to have to sharpen it every five minutes, even if that means that it gets a little smudgy. That's okay. But it's just about kind of sticking with it. And that was just really fun to make that list and I hope they, they make this happen. The sampler pack for Baseball nerds. Because I think that is a fantastic idea. Yeah, Caroline. So please, please do that. And I also.
Do you see what I just tweeted? No, no, I said we move. I moved to call this the Tim Watkins.
No, no, no, no. The Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series champions sampler would be perfectly acceptable. But Tim Wasem, that's fine. That's sketchy enough. But the other recommendation which also brings up something I was just going to point out to everybody is that we talk about pocket notebooks a lot. And I recommended to Caroline that they carry these notebooks by a company called EFIS League, which is. EFIS is this baseball term for when a pitcher who's throwing 90 miles an hour suddenly throws a 50 mile an hour curve ball that's just like a cartrid cartoon curveball that curves and it's super slow. It's called an EFIS pitch, but it's called EFIS League. And they make scorecards for baseball, but they have refined scorecards and kind of minimized them. And you can actually buy them in a. It's kind of like a dime novel sized notebook that you can put in your back.
It's a really good size.
Perfect. And they're, they're super cool. I love those things. So I, if you ever, if you haven't seen those or if you're a baseball fan, you should definitely look up ethis league. They even, they've partnered with some other cool companies to make hats like with Ebbets Field flannels and really cool shirts. But their, their score books are really cool and they also make these kind of semi pocket sized ones that are, I mean, you don't want to miss out on if you're a baseball fan. So look those up with EFIS League score books. But. All right, well, that's all I got. So let's get on to the main topic. Let's talk about contemporary replacements for the irreplaceable things in the stationary community.
Yeah, I think, yeah, we had a couple different, different tracks that we were just kind of discussing and I even posted it in the Facebook group and got some other interesting requests. But I'm wondering one of you, Tim, I think you were the one who kind of originally came up with the idea. And were you thinking, you were thinking more about like replacements for limited editions like America the Beautiful or Night sky or like field notes or Blackwing 2 11's or something?
That's mostly what I was thinking of is like kind of an anecdote to always Waiting for the next thing to come out.
Yeah.
So that it's, you know, that you can take it easy and not always be anticipating and hoping that something comes out that's going to like fill your desires. That if you've seen something that you. Chances are you can find something else that is in the same ballpark that you'll enjoy and doesn't have to always be this constantly wanting something new, new, new, new, new all the time.
Yeah. And. And so I, so I heard that and I kind of like took that to a slightly different level in that like, you know, what are some contemporary placements to like some like old fashioned since discontinued things.
I think it's good too.
Yeah. So like I was thinking about like the everhard favor, no blot, copying pencil, some things like that. And, and we got some really good ideas from the group as well, which we'll kind of read through a little bit too. But yeah, I'm. I'm totally interested in talking about like. Yeah, some, some limited edition stuff that's made to be very finite that we can't get. Like, I think the example that you brought forth was America the Beautiful. And that one, that one's interesting because there's like a couple different things going on there. Like there's the, you know, the COVID design, which is kind of that old fashioned full color halftone like overlay that they have, and something like that, you know, is kind of kind of replicated in the campfire edition that they did
this fall, but which is also, which
is also limited edition. So that's still available at the moment, I think in the field note store. I should probably actually check that. I'm not sure it is.
I actually was just there.
Sure. But that's weird because, like. Yeah. What's like, how do you replace that with a thing that is kind of currently being made? I don't think if that's the kind of thing you're looking for, that style.
It's not there, by the way. Oh, the camp's gone. Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah. So they're still, I'm sure they're still around, but yeah. So I mean with, with America the Beautiful, if we're going to start there, I mean, you're looking for a notebook that has a sturdier paper that's also on the smoother side, right?
Yeah. And it's, it's thick and it's smooth and it's kind of creamy and it has that really wonderful like double line underneath the header.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Which is. Nobody's gonna do that you're not gonna see that anywhere else. I mean.
Yeah.
In my head, as I started to think about that, as I recommended it, there were two possibilities. And Johnny, you've mentioned one of them when we were talking before the recorded. But the two possibilities that come in my head are actually both perfect bound, which is not what America the Beautiful is. But the two that come into my head are the right. Notepads, lined pocket notebook. I think is. Is pretty close. It's. I don't think it's as smooth or it has its own kind of personality to it, but it has the kind of feel of the. Even the paper colors on that. That side of the spectrum, I think. But the other possibility that came into mind, which definitely color wise doesn't match up because it's so bright, but the paper is so heavy and so smooth, is the Blackwing clutch. I think. Yeah, I think that the Blackwing clutch is a good replacement that if you love America the Beautiful, as far as using it, not just collecting it and I don't know framing it or whatever people do with it. But is the, The Blackwing clutch, if you get that line. Yeah, it's. It's a different format, but it. It opens flat, which is great.
But the clutch. The lines are sideways.
Is it really?
Yeah, the lines are.
Oh, you know, I actually didn't.
They really want you to use it sideways.
I actually didn't know that because I only. All the. I have two sets of clutches and they're all either blank or doc grid. So I didn't. I had missed that or had ejected that from my, My memory.
But yeah, I actually use them that way. I like. I like the stretch. Yeah.
I don't. I don't really have anything against it. I think I would. I would use it. Use as well. But paper. So. So maybe not as far as the. The line side of it because. But. But the paper quality, I think it's a good.
And there's some. There's some. Some really good clairefontaine notebooks that have that like nice thick supple paper as well.
Like it's a little bit.
Maybe a little bit smoother. But yeah, they have a few. And not even just Rhodia. Like, Rhodia is pretty specifically, like very smooth, but there. I'll have to look it up. But I think there are a few clairefontaine paper options that might match that thickness. Yeah.
Yeah. Any other notebooks you guys think of like that,
I.
You would long for, you know, the.
My. My two favorite editions are America the Beautiful and Night sky, as are, I think many others too. And you know, they did kind of replicate the night sky with, with a reticle grid on a few other notebooks, but it's again, limited edition notebooks.
Yeah, they did. I mean, they do have the Pitch Black. Yeah, right. Which came out which. Do they still sell that? They do, yeah. Yeah, they do. So I mean it's not the, not the exact same thing, but at least people who are new to this, who might be listening and, and they find out about these old editions that they're trying to hunt down, they might not know it's there. Probably do. But it's worth mentioning the Pitch Black is a, is at least a cousin of the, of the Night sky.
Yeah, I think that the, the Blackwing 211 is one that we've all sort of talked about or thought of for something like this. And they did, they pulled the field notes over there at Blackwing because they had a really beautiful natural wood, extra firm pencil. And then they only sold it to subscribers.
So. Speaking of this pencil, can you guys back me up on this?
Yes.
I swear it's softer than the usual extra firm. It's softer than the 24 and the
530, the 100th anniversary edition.
Yeah, I swear it feels almost exactly like a 211. Just a little harder.
Yeah, I think it's definitely harder. I don't, I haven't, I haven't had that feeling. And I've used two of them. Yeah, I've used up two of them. And I think it's. I think, I think it is harder or softer than the 24 for some reason, but not, not by a whole lot. Maybe 25% softer or something.
Yeah.
But I think for the Blackwing 211, and this is a pencil that I mentioned earlier when I was talking about the baseball scoring. And I think a pretty decent substitute, which is also a Japanese made natural pencil is the Mitsubishi 9852EW, which I've.
Oh yeah, that's a nice.
I think that's a good option. Like if you're trying to substitute. It's probably a little harder than the 211, but it's got a good feel. As far as good natural feel is a really good eraser on it. So I think that pencil, I mean, I'm a huge fan of it anyways, but when I, if I were to ever run out of two 11s, I think that would be my next step. That would be the next thing that I would Use. As far as A is a good super high quality Japanese natural pencil because I think it is harder than. Or I mean softer than an HP what it's labeled as.
Yeah, these new Muji pencils, I think if you hack winged them would give a good 211 replacement.
That's true. That's. Yeah.
They're like really smooth.
And I would. I'd be interested in. Andy. I mean I like this one enough that I'm probably gonna have to employ you to.
I'm happy to get you.
Send you some. Some phones to. Because I want to try the HBS too because I think the. Yeah, I'd be interested because the. The 2B even seems a little softer that I wonder if the HP would. Would. Would feel even. Even.
Darn. I have to go back to Muji.
So sorry to burden you with that. Yeah, but that's the. Yeah, that's a. That's a good call. But I still think. I mean the 9852, the environmental like recycled one is a good.
Yeah.
Is a good analog for that.
That's a good. It's a good one.
And I think the. As far as other pencils, maybe in the next one we could talk about would be the. The USA made yellow pencils. Such as. I mean, I mean of course we all think of the USA made Ticonderogas. And I mean I also think of Mongols. Right? Yeah, the Mongols that were pretty huge and pretty ubiquitous that are now gone or made elsewhere and made much more cheaply than they used to. And it has. It's just such a specific aesthetic that people understandably would want to have something that fills that. That void. And I think it's kind of implied that with this whole discussion. We're talking about like practical daily usability. We're not talking about collecting. We're talking about things that function in the way that these older or irreplaceable limited editions or old pencils would.
Things that just sort of like
perform
like something or just sort of like have the same general like ethos that.
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And so like USA Gold. I think Johnny, you mentioned that in the. In the document we've got here is a. Is a clear first choice, like a first place to stop. But it doesn't feel the same to me because USA Gold is the. The paint like the lacquer on them is thinner and it feels generally cheaper. I love them and I use them all the time, but it doesn't have the same feel as when you're. When you pick up an old Ticonderoga that just has, like, a heft to it. You know, it's. It's. It's good, thick paint job on it and those old. Same thing with the old. With the old Mongols. So I don't. I don't know where to go from there. What do you guys think? Besides that.
Yeah. Yeah, that's a good call because. Yeah. One thing about the old, like, USA made tech on drug is.
Yeah.
Where that they're just so noticeably heavier than, like, their modern counterparts. So I don't know, like, maybe. Maybe like a general semi hex.
Yeah.
Like, it's. It has some heft. It's not. I feel like it's not quite as dark, but it. It has the heft. It has the brightness of the yellow paint. I think it's, like, pretty thick too. And it has kind of a cool, unusual ferru.
Like a.
Like a model.
Yeah, that's a good call.
And so maybe like a. Yeah, semi
hex is a good one. I was just gonna say. And I just haven't used one of those in a while, and it's had forgotten about it. But with. With Generals, they have that whole line of yellow pencils that we talked about when we did our yellow pencil episode. But a lot of them are on the cheaper side, like, more on the USA Gold side or maybe even less than the USA Gold.
Yeah.
The problem with the Generals is they're not so ubiquitous. You can't just, like, roll out the target and get some.
Yeah, well.
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
I feel like Generals, like, I really love them as a company. I love their pencils, but their quality control and their yellow pencils is just really bad.
Yeah.
And it's been bad for, like, a long time.
Super inconsistent. Yeah.
Must be, like, dark in that room or something. Get some Compact fluorescence or LEDs in there or something. Because it's been like, at least since the Blackwing MMX came out. When I bought my first semi hexes that I noticed the yellow pencils are just not up to their usual snuff for a Generals product. Yeah, they seem really tactful.
Yeah.
Yeah, they definitely seem on the inconsistent side for whatever reason, as far as the coloring and the paint jobs. And we talked about that when we. It was really early on, but I remember talking about the semi hex itself, even, and how sometimes you'll get one and the paint just, like, runs up the feral up the side and.
Yeah, I've had a lot where the wood runs up the feral.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've had some of those too.
It's like they just jammed it on too hard or something.
Yeah. Like, were you mad at your pencils that day?
Yeah. So I think the, the kind of. And this might. Maybe this would be a controversial discussion, but with the original Black Wings, if you've used the original Blackwing 602. Is the Blackwing 602 the best analog for that one? Is that the best stand in for the original Blackwing?
I feel like it's been painstakingly discussed so much in the group, but I personally think so. I think they do a really good job of replicating the, the feel of it. And honestly, like, I think I like the new Blackwing 602 better. The Palomino Blackwing 602. I think the, the wood is a little less. What am I trying to say? Like splintery.
Yeah. Yeah, it's less. Yeah. It doesn't have that, like it doesn't fracture as easy. And I. Yeah, I mean, I definitely agree with you. And that was one of the first posts that I put on my defunct, long, long, long defunct blog.
Oh, I missed that blog.
Yeah. Do you remember the writing arsenal?
I do.
That's how we all met.
Yeah, for sure. That was one of my first like, I guess like more widely read posts that then I just stopped doing it. But just that, that hot take that the, that the new one was actually better than the old one. I enjoyed it because I had. That was before. That was like long enough ago that I was able to get two Blackwing 602s for I think $35. Like the original ones, like the, the Eberhard favor ones that I was able to find them for $35. Now I don't think you get two for that. That cheap even close to it. But I remember being so pumped up about those coming in the mail and then sharpening one and being like, okay, this is cool and all, but that was. That wasn't as like life changing as I was expecting it to be. Yeah. After, after having used the Palomino ones.
Yeah. So there are a couple, couple really old pencils that I, I think share kind of a common set of characteristics. The Blythesdale calculator and the IBM Electrographic. They're both, they're both round pencils. They both have like pretty dark writing and pretty good point retention. And both of them are long gone. The Blythesdale being like gone for much longer and fetching like 50 to 75 dollars on eBay for pencil which is crazy. But I'm really interested to know if. Actually, I don't have an answer to this. If either of you have come across a really good kind of like replacement for that. Something that's. That's round, like a good steno pencil.
Oh.
But dark. Dark. And good point retention too.
So Generals made the IBM pencils. So they're. I didn't know that pencil is. Yeah, they have the same core, but it's not round. Yeah, but it's semi X sort of round.
Yeah.
You could sand it.
Round pencils are so hard to come by, which is. It's kind of a lost little branch of the. Of the pencil world. You don't see a lot of really good quality round pencils. I don't know why.
I don't know why.
So I've been thinking about. I don't know if this is true, but I've been thinking about the. The Apsara steno pencils. I think that both de wrote a review of it in the Weekly Pencil and I want to say that maybe Mike Hagen did too, but it's a. It's a round steno pencil in hb. That and being the steno, it's supposed to be round and it's supposed to be like. Have good point retention, but I don't know how dark it is.
So actually they're nice. They're not anywhere near as dark as the calculator or the electrographic.
Yeah.
But the point lasts a lot longer.
Okay. Yeah. So maybe they're not a. Yeah. Adequate substitute.
But the general's layout is dark and round and got that like the electric graphic is just like a little wider than a regular round pencil, but it's not smooth, sort of like chalky because it has extra carbon.
Interesting. Yeah.
Does.
Does pencils.com still sell the round HBs? Do you remember what those are? The, the.
The Imagine or whatever?
Yeah, yeah. I think that was what it's called. Do they still make those?
I don't know.
They had round ones.
They did. It was the ones that were like, there it is.
Yeah, yeah. So they. They do still sell some. So that might be a good replacement for those. The Palomino Imagine series, they come in a 10 pack and they're like 13.
You can get them in rainbow.
Yeah, there's like a.
You can get them in executive set, which feels very 90s.
Yeah. Yeah. Which is like black, silver, white, gold.
These in my life.
Yeah. I. I can't believe I haven't tried them yet, but they're.
Oh, are you sure these are. These are round. I have one of the gray ones. It's definitely hex. They look like they're hexes in the picture.
Really?
I suck on the raining on your parade.
Do they? Oh, bummer.
Yeah, these are hex.
They are. Okay.
Yeah. Well that's even like they're pretty though.
Yeah.
That's just pointless then because. Why would you want that? I guess I never ordered them, but I had them. It just stuck in my head that they were around for some reason.
I think I thought they were around too, so.
Yeah, I forgot these exist. They're so pretty.
Yeah. They don't talk about them very much.
Okay.
Everything sucks.
The world is a cold, dreary place.
That's why we're doing this episode.
Yeah. So if anybody has a suggestion for a, for a good round, round pencil to replace those, then we'd be definitely eager to. Eager to hear it.
Yeah. And of course, Johnny, I think you put this on here. The old Eberhard Faber Janus sharpener that made that really razor sharp concave point like the Pollux is of course a good kind of modern day replacement for it. So yeah, I think that's a. That's kind of a no brainer. But it's. Yeah. It's also not that much cheaper than if you were to buy a Janus from.
At least it's easier to get the blades for it though, once you have.
True, that's true for sure. Do you mean go through some of the things from the Facebook group or the Facebook post?
Yeah, well, one we didn't talk about the Noblet. Do you want to say like, oh, that's true. So maybe the no blot and then you can go through those.
Yeah. So the two that I found and it seems like Johnny, you found a couple others. Koh I noor makes a indelible copying pencil. They're blue. It's their 5160E and I'll have a link in show notes. There's $17 for what I believe is a dozen of them. They make one. There is also the Viarco 272s that they sell at CW Pencils. That was part of their, their vintage collection when they came out with a bunch of pencils that were similar to old ones they had in like the mid-1900s. And I don't know if those are limited edition that doesn't seem like they're going away, like they're still selling them. So I'm hoping they'll stick around. And those are more of Like a violet than a blue. And Johnny, you had a couple too, right?
Yeah. Generals makes one apparently. I thought it was a vintage pencil when they had it at cw, but it's still in production but they don't have it at CW anymore.
Okay.
So yeah, there goes that. And there's a company called Veritas I think you can get them at. Oh, it's that woodworking company. You can google them. They make a line of pencils. They're made in the UK I think, but they make indelible pencils there. Like a violet ink.
These are pretty. That's cool. Yeah, they're made in the usa. It says.
Oh cool, that's even better. Oh, Lee Valley. That's the.
Yeah, Lee Valley.
Oh yeah, those are made in the usa. There are other. I guess their graphite pencils are made in the uk, which I've never tried. Do you remember Pencil Things? Made one.
Yeah.
Comic Sans on it.
Oh God. I, you know I love Don Bell, the proprietor. I loved like writing for him but whenever he would come out with like a classic like like a Pencil Things branded set, it would be in Comic Sans. I'm just like, dude. Yeah, but it's so funny. Yeah, it's so casual. That Verides company also makes a red one too, it looks like according to Amazon.
So do you know anything with Pencil Things? The website's still up and they have them listed.
The website's 75. The website's still up. The new owners after they took over for the guy who kind of like such as it is, launched my pencil writing career. So Don sold it to some people who really just wanted to do like bulk sales and Amazon sales and weren't really interested in like having like a blog aspect of it. So yeah, as far as I know they're just still holding steady. I don't really know anything about them. I think their website hasn't been updated with like new products for like 10 years. Yeah, there's also apparently a company called Sola who makes something called a wet dry carpenter indelible pencil.
Oh, I have one of those from Dr. Hans.
Okay, I'm just looking on.
They're like three feet long and like a size of your thumb. They're awesome.
Yeah. And then of course Derwent makes an Inktense pencil which is also that same water soluble ink. So yeah, those are just some options. I have no idea. Like I don't know enough about them to know if they are like which ones are most similar to the Noblets. I don't Know if you have any insight into that. But.
So none of them are though? No. Blots were kind of hard at the end because they used to have like different grades of them. And then at the end they just had the one that was like pretty hard. But I mean they all do the same thing. Yeah, yeah, they actually work better than the notebots. You had to press pretty hard to get the ink to activate or even get onto the paper, which was kind of disappointing.
Yeah. So yeah, some other. Some people from the group. Logan was talking about those peel off eraser sticks. Like the. They look like a grease pencil almost and you peel off the. The edges. He says you can't find those anymore. And actually there's some on Amazon. Prismacolor makes a peel off magic rub eraser that does that same thing. They are not cheap. They're. This can't be right. This says they're $36 for one
sucker.
I don't know about that. I'll do some searching and see if we can find some that are not $36. But that seems. That seems like a lot. Carol and the group had a really great picture that she posted of an old newsroom that she used to work at in what looks to be the 70s. And they have a paste pot sitting on the desk. And so I like sort of know about paste pots from reading about it, but I don't know a single thing about like what kind of paste it was. You would use them for like paste ups, like literal like you know, you would typeset paste ups and like mocks of the page and run that through like a. Like a photo printer. Do you guys. We may be too young. Do you have any insights into a paste pot?
I always had ones that were rubber cement in high school and that's. Yeah, we had those around.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. Like I remember I had like a jar of rubber cement with a brush on it that my mom had that was really, really good at pasting things. And if you gave it a good sniff you could like get a little lightheaded too.
That makes. Thinking about these though, makes me think of the Eberhard Faber pencils that had the like brush that was attached to the end of it, which I think was it. Was it like a. Oh yeah. Did it have an eraser on the bottom, like an eraser pencil?
Yeah, there was an eraser on it and you would use that to like kind of erase just finely from something Basil.
I just like the Faber Castell still makes them.
Oh cool. Yeah, I just. But I would like to challenge people to. I would like to see somebody do a hack wing with one of those on the end of a. On a black. Like, where you can like, get the rubber cement thing and like, detach or like, clip off the brush and attach it to the end so that when you erase, you have a little brush on the end of it. I don't know.
Brushwing.
Brush wing.
Yeah. That's awesome.
You use it for shaving.
Shave wing.
So. Yeah, the shave wing. So as far as paste pots go, like, I don't quite know the purpose of them beyond just like, brushing on paste from a pot. And if that's the case, like, a jar of rubber smash should do you. Yeah, yeah. So a few things, like, I guess there's some distinctions here. A few people posted pictures of just like, old tech and old office supplies that, you know, other things have sort of replaced since then. John and the group misses Rulers with calculators kind of built into them. And they were really cool. I actually have one that was my grandfather's, but we don't really need that now. We have, like, calculators in our phones and spreadsheets and things that calculate automatically. So, like. Like, I guess not like anachronisms aren't exactly what we're. We're looking for, but things that just kind of have the same feeling. Right. Like. Yeah, I don't know. I. Yeah, it's a. It's an interesting topic to think about and one that I feel like I haven't thought about fully. Do you guys have any more ideas for things that, like, you know, aren't available anymore, Whether it be a limited edition or like an old. An old thing that is no longer, like, no longer made.
Those are the major ones that, I mean, I can think of. Of course, there. You can really get into the weeds with the notebooks.
Yeah.
As far as, you know, saying, well, all of these field notes notebooks. Every edition of field notes that you'd want to be able to replace. So it really only makes sense to. To focus in on certain ones. Yeah, but, yeah, I mean, those are. Those are the main ones. And the reason I pointed out America the Beautiful is that it is a singular edition. There isn't much else like it. So a lot of the editions that come out are kind of can. I mean, frankly, I mean, I would say, as somebody who's not a collector of field notes that I think if you're talking about usability, there are a lot of the special editions that could be replaced. By the craft notebooks and you'd be just fine. Right? I mean, yeah, you get the. The line, whatever the. The grid is that you like. And just don't forget that those are still out there and those are still really awesome notebooks. I still get those now and then that. I mean, maybe it won't have as sexy of a cover as the. The one that you're trying to replace, but as far as usability, it's going to be perfect. It's gonna. It's gonna make you proud, so it's gonna make you very happy. So I think don't. Don't forget about that.
Yeah. Cool.
Yeah.
On that note. Yeah, send us. Send us, if you have them, something that you use that kind of fills the same need or the same niche as something that you can't get anymore. I think we'd all love to know that.
Yeah. If you've gone through this gauntlet and have figured something out where you're like, you know what? This fills the needle that we have been missing out from something else. Yeah. Exactly what Andy said. It'd be great to hear from you. So thank you for listening to episode 90 of the erasable Podcast. I am Tim Wasem. You can find me on Twitter timwassom. You can find me on Instagram at timothywassom. The show notes for this episode will be@erasable us90. You can like us on Facebook at facebook.com erasablepodcast. You can also join our awesome Facebook group at facebook.com group erasable Andy. Where can people find you on the Internet?
I am on Twitter at Awelfley A W E L F L E and on Instagram at the same. Or you can find my blog@woodclinch.com how about you, Johnny?
My blog is pencil revolution.com. i'm on Twitter ensolution and I'm on Instagram at my whole name.
Hey, I didn't mention that. You can follow Erasable Podcast itself on Twitter Raceable Podcast and on Instagram Raceable Podcast. Once again, the show notes for today's episode for this episode will be at erasable us90. Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you at episode 91. Yes. The intro music for the Erasable Podcast is graciously provided by this Mountain, a collaborative folk rock band from Johnson City, Tennessee. You can check out their music@www.thismountainband.com.
I can taste the days below half
summer if I could just count the
time that this has happened before.