This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Welcome to the Erasable Podcast.
Welcome to episode 157 of the erasable Podcast. I'm Andy Welfle on hosting duties today, and I'm joined on this fine Monday evening by Tim and Johnny. Hey, guys.
Hey.
Happy Valentine's Day. Yeah, it was yesterday, technically, but, you know.
Yeah, yeah, whatever.
I love you guys. Happy to talk to you guys.
Oh, this is, you know. You know how Galentine's Day is the day before Valentine's Day? This is.
I can't think of a good Valentine's Day that doesn't.
Yeah, Roentine's Day. That's the day after Valentine's Day.
Palantine's Day I just invented.
There we go.
It's the day after wherein people complain about things they didn't get for Valentine's Day, and we eat the chocolate that we stole because we were mad that we didn't get presents.
There you go.
So we try to stay somewhat positive on this podcast, talking about, you know, stuff we like. But tonight, we're going to talk about what we almost like. So this is a. A topic that Tim brought up, and it was such a good idea. So maybe you've had the experience of a pencil that tick most of the boxes for you but fall short somewhere. Um, something that you really think you should love, but you don't. So maybe it's the wood. Is the feral just scratchy enough or too scratchy? Or maybe the paint color that gets in the way of, like, truly loving a pencil? So we're going to get to that and kind of talk through some of our thoughts here. But before we do that, let's. Let's talk through the tools of the trade. Tim, what are you. What are you consuming?
Yeah, so my first two go together pretty closely, but the last few, like, I guess, like, once SNL has come back since Trump was ejected from power, have been really good. I was a little worried, like, I was a little worried that it was going to be, like, what do we talk about now? Kind of thing, you know? But it has not happened that way at all. And I have just really been enjoying it. And, like, this last episode with Regina King was by far the best that they've had, like, this season. It was so. She was amazing. I mean, so I've. We've just been really enjoying watching snl and last week. I mean, John Krasinski did a really good job. And.
Yeah.
And I was.
I was really impressed. That one before the super bowl was the first cold open that I've seen in a long Time that wasn't about politics, which. Yeah, I was, like, kind of thrown by that.
Yeah, yeah, they got it. They got to start adjusting, you know, like, now that there's so much, like, less crazy to deal with than the.
Yeah, yeah.
Now we can just deal with all of the gigantic problems destroying our country and our planet.
Yeah, there you go. Yeah, we're not gonna do sort of the standard problems that have been, like, eroding our culture, but solutions. So they. Yeah, so that was good. And, like, a couple weeks ago, Phoebe Bridgers was on, who I'm, like, a really big fan of, and there's this huge controversy around her, which I think was pretty sexist. I don't know why that was, like, such a big deal like, that she smashed her guitar. I don't know if you.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Everybody.
So he's complaining about that.
She's like. She's like 4 foot 2. I mean, she's like this, like, tiny, little petite, you know? I mean, she's playing this guitar, and she. She writes incredible songs, and she has this one song that ends with her just basically screaming, right? So. And it's. It makes perfect sense, you know, when you're. When you're listening to. Listening to the album. So she's like. I think it's called I. I know the End. Is that the name of the song she played?
I think so.
I think so. She plays. So I know the end. And, like, she gets to the end of the song, and it becomes this, like, sort of, like, primal screen kind of, like scream like John Lennon kind of thing. And I think what happened is, like, they shorten the song to fit snl, but she got to the end of it after she's screening, and she takes her, like, B.C. rich, which, if you're not a guitar person, you know what I'm talking about. But it's like a hilarious guitar. And she takes it and just starts smashing it on the. What do you call those? The monitors. And people, like, were like, oh, that was a little extra. But it's like, all. All that tells me is that you weren't listening to the words of the song, you know, Like. And also, she's, like, small and so, like, sorry, she wasn't, like, 6 foot 5. Jimi Hendrix smashing a guitar on the stage or whatever, you know, like, so I don't know. She did. I thought she did a good job, but Nathaniel Rateliff, which is the second thing on my. My consuming, who I've talked about before on this podcast, he did an incredible job this Last week he was really.
So the first song wasn't the Night Sweats, right? That was him.
That was from his solo album.
Yeah. Okay. And then the second one was because as soon as they announced Nathaniel Raitliff, I told Katie, I was like, oh, this is a guy Tim likes. So let's give him a look at.
He's so good. He's so awesome. And so I thought he did a really excellent job. And he's one of those artists where it's like, I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad you're getting this platform, which Phoebe Bridgers is the same way. I mean, both of them, it's like they're not necessarily in the center of the spotlight of pop music. So it was really cool to see both of them. But Nathaniel Raf is close to my heart. I think he's, he's kind of like one of my spirit animal animals or I mean, musicians.
Yeah, spirit musicians.
Spirit musicians, Yeah. I love him. He's kind of like his sort of like barrel chested indie rocker who sounds like he could sing like Otis Redding songs, you know?
Yeah. And I feel like the Night Sweats are a very, very apt. Because he was, he was sweating a little bit up there.
Yeah, man. Yeah, he's, he's, he's a good sweaty white boy there. I mean, he's, he was getting going and I love when he gets his shimmy going. He's like sliding around on those like pointy toed shoes that he's got and he starts dancing. Love it. And as far as reading, the main thing I've been reading, which is new to me and I'm extremely excited about, is a book by George Saunders, who I know I've talked about before, but he has a new book called A Swim in a Pond in the Rain in which four Russians give master class. Give a master class on writing, reading and life. And it is incredible. It is so good. So basically like George Saunders has been teaching at Syracuse for a long time and he's always taught this course to his writing students that is on the Russian Masters of the short story. And so this book is basically that class. And so he, he splits it up. I'm about halfway through it right now, but he like reads the short story page by page and literally like common. There's like commentary and like questions based on every page of the short story, which is invaluable for somebody who wants to write short stories, but also somebody who just wants to be a good reader. You know, it's really, really fascinating. So. And George Saunders is so funny, so hearing him do this as well is even. Even better. So I can't recommend this. This book enough. I mean, George Saunders is a genius, and this book is just really fun. And I just, like, personally really was excited about it because the Russian short story writers, I know I'm supposed to, like, know a lot about them and be into them, but I've had trouble over the years in Chekhov. I've had my moments where read a story that kind of blew me away, but it's just, like, I needed an avenue into it, so. And George Saunders definitely gives that. So. Excellent book. George Saunders is the best. And so this is. This is a really cool, cool offering from him. It's like getting to sit in, like, audit one of his classes at Syracuse.
So, yeah, same here. I've never read the Brothers Karamazov, but I know that I should, but that probably won't.
That book is the reason why I married my wife.
Really?
Yeah.
What?
Yeah. So when I was in high school, I tried to read that book twice and was like, couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. And then I found out about this new translation by Peviar and Volanovsky. Who are these, like, husband, wife duo that are now translating, like, all the Russian stuff? And they're amazing. I was like, fine, I'll try it one more time. And I was reading that new translation of Brothers Karamazov and was totally, like, soaked up into it. And I went to the coffee shop at our college, and this was maybe, like, the second week of school or something, and I didn't know anybody, and I was just, like, reading it by myself in a booth in this little coffee shop. And Jane, who's now my wife, who had just started at the grad school, she's four years older than me, walked up, and she's like, what do you think of that book? Like, kind of, like, caught me off guard. She was like. She's like, you're reading the brother's caramel. I was like, what do you think of that book? And I was like, oh, my God. Who is this person?
Like, what do you think of this book?
Yeah. Yeah. And so I was like, so that that book was the. The Spark, and, like, got to know each other, like, a little bit that day. And then, you know, five. Five years or four years later, we got married.
So I think you need a Dostoevsky tattoo.
That's true. That is very true. Yeah.
Get, like, a Pocket watch and reference.
Right on your.
On my inner thigh. Yeah. My chest. Yeah, you're like right on the middle of my belly, like where that pocket would be on a three piece suit. And like.
Yeah, but not life size, like softball size,
like Flavor Flav pocket watch. Kind of like.
Yes.
Well, we got that sorted out.
Yeah, there we go. I'm glad we got that decided. So next time I see you guys in dc, we'll. In Baltimore, we'll take care of that. Yeah, yeah.
Oh, boy.
So, yeah, that's me. And so as far as writing on, I am using one of my all time favorite pencils, the Blackwing 4, the Mars Edition. And I am using, thanks to our friend Mary Collis, I am writing in a green notebook of the Field Notes Day Game edition. She sent me these and was like, I'm not going to use these. I'm giving, giving these to you because I know you are just a baseball nut and you will use these and you won't sell them. I was like, that is amazing. I wrote her a letter back to thank her and I just have to say a big thanks to Mary. So I just busted that open yesterday. Spring training starts in two days for the baseball season and I am incredibly excited. So this seemed like a perfect transition from my National Parks notebook that I just finished up.
Awesome.
Mary's great.
Yes, she is. She's amazing. So how about you, Johnny?
So we've been watching a lot of TV because the weather's been really crappy and we just binged the second two seasons of the Sinner. Did you guys ever see that show?
Oh, man.
So it's. What do they call it? It's an anthology series with Bill Pullman where like, someone who's someone commits sort of an atrocious crime. And it's not someone you would expect to have done it, but
at least
in the first one, like the first episode you see her do it, it's not like you're not sure that's who it was. So it's really, really, really interesting. It's really dark by the end. They started using a lot of F bombs, which made me giggle. But it's like pretty violent. So, yeah, it's. I think there are three seasons and they just put the last, the third one, on Netflix. They're short episodes and short seasons. I've binged like half one at a night before. We also watched Miss Scarlet and the Duke. That's a new masterpiece show. Did you guys catch that?
Is it, Is it like Bridgerton?
No, it's like, grittier. It has the actress who played Arthur Shelby's wife from Peaky Blinders. She's the lead. And the duke is played by the guy who played the brother from Jamestown, whose name I can't remember. But it's really, really good. It's funny. And it has Kevin Doyle as her dad, who's already dead, but it's his ghost, so it's pretty funny. And I just read a book that was, like, one of the best nonfiction books I've read since the last time I read something really good by Mark Kurlansky called Mudlarking. I think the US Title is Mudlark, but when I got it for Christmas, the person who gave it to me was very, very insistent that I get the British version for some reason. But it's about this lady who goes mudlarking on the river in London and around London and talks about the things she finds, sort of the people she meets. But there's all this, like, really, really interesting history of stuff and, like, meditations on normal objects. And there's an Instagram account that goes along with the book, so you can actually see the pictures of stuff she's talking about. So cool. I didn't know that there are Roman ruins all over London. And, like, there was a chapter where there's a typeface called Doves that people are trying to recreate because one of the printers, like, threw them on the river. Like, it's. It was really, really, really, really cool. It's one of those books you sort of, like, ration out. I'm like, okay, okay. I can't read too much more tonight because the book will be over. So definitely check it out. I think it's out. I know the US Version's out. I don't know if the US paperback is out, but it was, like, you know, came out in England. A year later, it came out here. So there's a link right in the show notes.
Anything where they're looking for, you know, dead typefaces is good with me.
And then they. Someone recreated the typeface. So as she's talking about it, she's like, yeah. And if you notice the title of the book and the top of all the pages, that's the typeface. Like, oh, that's so cool. And she talks about her friend Johnny, who has, like, a little journal that he draws in for his mudlocking finds. And then she's like, yeah, the end pages are from, you know, his notebooks. That's so cool that you did that. But, yeah, definitely check it out. She also has an Instagram account that's. That came out before the book and is updated all the time now with, like, so much cool stuff. And I am writing in a write notepads engineering book, which is. Which we'll talk about later. Just such a nice book with a Faber Castell Velvet Number 3557, number 2.5, which is just heaven. It smells good, too. How about you, Andy?
I feel like lately I've been consuming a lot of. A lot of news. A lot of msnbc, watched a lot of the impeachment hearings and just kind of like, yeah, check that out. I feel like I know so much.
How did those turn out?
Yeah, they went real great.
They went unexpectedly.
Everything's. Everything's great. Everything's really great. Justice has been. Has been. Has been brought. So been watching a lot of that. Been watching. We watched. We watched the first two episodes of this show on HBO called the Flight Attendant, and it has Kelly Cuoco, who played Penny in Big Bang Theory, express a kind of like, wider range of acting, actually a good actor as a flight attendant who wakes up in a strange hotel room laying next to somebody who has been murdered. And she doesn't remember anything about it. And she's going through her life trying to figure it out. And it's just kind of everything that happens then. So it's, it's like, it's very anxiety dozing. It's very high energy. It's. But it's, it's. It's pretty good. I was reading a book of short stories that Frank Herbert wrote before he wrote Dune. Apparently he wrote Dune pretty kind of, kind of later in his writing career, and it was by far the kind of biggest hit. He just kind of stumbled across it. He wrote all these other short stories that aren't. Just aren't very good. And I mean, I don't think Dune is that amazing either. But I know I've had arguments with people in our, in our group about how. How amazing Dune is, but I've been reading that just to try to understand a little bit more about Frank Herbert and his work, because I want to give Dune a shot. Because, you know, the. Is it a movie or is a TV show that's coming out?
TV show, I think.
Yeah, yeah, that's right. TV show that's coming out. So I want to watch that. And also I have been listening to a lot of Phoebe Bridgers after that SNL performance. I really wasn't super familiar with her before. I think it's. I think it's interesting when you were talking about how everybody was just, like, giving her crap for, you know, hitting that guitar. I think everybody, like, first heard that song Kyoto that she sings. That's just very, like. It's kind of quiet and it just kind of, like, goes along and it's like, happy. She's just this. Yeah. Happy pot. And she's popping. She's just very small and blonde, and people are expecting that. And then she goes into that one, and it's just like everybody was clutching their pearls about it.
For sure. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah. But I. I was listening. Yeah, I really liked oh, the Better Oblivion Community center, the band that she was in before.
So that's with Connor Oberst from Bright Eyes.
Yeah. Oh, really?
Yeah, that's who she's in that one with. So that's. That's really good.
Yeah. So I've been. Been listening to. Been diving on. On the. This is Phoebe Bridgers playlist on Spotify. Yeah.
Have you seen her website? Yeah, there's a lot of F word in there. Yeah, sure is.
Well, there's her Twitter. Her Twitter name is. Is like, Phoebe Bridgers.
Yeah. What's her website? Yeah, her Instagram is at. Fake nudes.
That's funny.
Yeah, she. She got a. I don't know if you guys saw this, but she got targeted by David Crosby on Twitter, who is, like, calling her out for, like, breaking a guitar on stage. And her. And she just. She just retweeted his thing and you're gonna have to typewriter about this. Sorry. But she's. She retweeted his comment about, like, that's unnecessary, whatever, and just wrote all lowercase little bit. Oh, God. And she does. There's another one, too. She was just like, no, that's. I'm not gonna stand for this. But yeah, she's. She's a incredible songwriter. She's very good.
Yeah. Cool. And I haven't been writing after the recording on the homework podcast, which I will talk more about in freshpoints, I broke out the. A general cedar point. So I've been.
Oh, nice.
Yeah, Just been. Been using that all weekend, which is really nice. Just smells so good. And it writes so good.
Just.
Just a real good pencil. All right, let's jump into freshpoints. Tim, I know you have the. You have the. The spicy one.
Spicy. You mean the expensive fresh.
Yes, yes, that's right.
That's right.
The pricey. Pricey one. Not spicy as my kids used to say. That's Pisces. That's too pisy. So, yeah, so Blackwing has had a kind of a string of collaboration efforts with. I mean, there's the Bob Dylan one that came out. There was the,
the Third Man Records
and Third Man Records, that's the one I was thinking of. Yeah. And then when the. The Hardest Job in the World and that book came out, John Dickerson, they, they worked with. Worked with him there to make those pencils. So, yeah, kind of like have got a thing going and they just came out with a new one collaborating with Tribe 7, which according to my understanding, with the help of you guys. But I mean, it's just basically they make very expensive camera lenses.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Is that fair?
I think I don't know much about camera lenses, but they seem like very fancy camera lenses. Like I'm going to shoot a movie and like I'm gonna use one of these camera lenses. Those filmography nerds. Correct me if you're wrong. If I'm wrong, but correct me if
you're wrong because you probably correct me if you're wrong. There's a episode title. So if, if we're like coming up with a scale, like a 0 to 10 scale on these collaboration pencils, as far as looks go, like the Bob Dylan one's pretty low. Yeah, right. That one's just like a little bit of a want. We talked about that last time. Like the, the quote on it was like that sounds like you would be on like a Hallmark card. Like, why is that the Bob Dylan quote? You pick or whatever. Now this one looks pretty great, right? Looks pretty cool. Love the black on black on black with the, with the gold print and then the, and then it has the different. I don't know the language of the focal.
Focal length, focal range.
Yeah, the range, whatever. Like, yeah. So 27, 37, 47, 57, 77, 107. 137 millimeter. So that's cool. I like that that's going up the back side of it. And then also even they've got this like geometric symbol which I guess is the. Maybe like the logo for Tribe that like if you put the pencils together, it recreates that logo. All good. It's great. Looks really great. Also another amazing benefit which like, historically in our like nerdy little corner of the Internet, this is the first custom pencil they've done with anyone else that has something other than a balanced core.
Yeah.
So it's got a soft core, which is like the MMX core, which is really cool and also like really tempting
the implications for what else they could do in the Future. I think I really maybe why they
charge what they charge.
Which. Which brings Tim to his next point.
So. So apparently the reason they've all been balanced is if you switch to something else, it adds $12 to the price of a dozen pencils. A dollar per pencil, which seems. Seems wrong. Now, I don't know who sets the price. I mean, I don't know if you guys have thoughts on this, but like, I don't. I don't know who sets the price for this. I mean, we're buying it on it's blackwing602.com but this is.
This is what I think is happening. So I think that Tribe 7 is coming out with a new lens that's in pre order called the blackwing. And I think this is me completely speculating. I think that that has nothing to do with the pencil. Kind of like how there's a new Cadillac who is clinging. Bottles. Bottles. No, I just heard a clink.
No, not me. I was cheersing myself. No, that was bottles. Yeah, I don't know. So I heard it too, though. I don't know what that was.
Yeah, so the. So there's this thing called the Blackwing seven, which I think is a. A new lens that's coming out. It seems like they're releasing it. Tribe 7 commissioned this to go with that. Somehow I think they're the ones setting the price. One thing, one thing of the design. I don't think you mentioned him. That's really cool. That still isn't worth $12, you know, is the. Did you notice how there's like a gradient of. Of gold in the middle of the pencil? Like it looks like a. Like a. Like a lens flare of reflection or something. Yeah. It took me a really, a really long time to realize that this wasn't like the camera angle like the camera.
My first thought when I saw the. The picture of it was just that. That was like the, the flash of the camera. I was like, you know, great photography,
guys, but it's really well designed. They did. They definitely did not like phone this design in.
No, no, no.
Yeah.
Not like the Bob Dylan one was definitely phoned in. It was just like, pick a color. Blue. Blue is done.
Pick a.
Like which blue?
I don't know. Blue.
Blue. Just blue.
Pick a good blue.
Yeah.
So yeah, there's definitely a lot of like. I totally agree. There's. There's some. Some thought that went into this one.
So can I ask a serious question that I don't mean with hate? And I put it in the Facebook group today. But I think people thought I was being a jerk and that that thread went nuts for other reasons, so I took it down. But I don't think a promo pencil is necessarily a free pencil. What's the difference between a collaboration and a promo pencil? I'm bringing this up because this is one of those brands that most of us probably never heard of. So it's like Blackwing is promoting this brand and possibly vice versa if camera folks don't know what black wings are. So, like, are these just expensive promo pencils that they're calling collabs?
I think that's what they are. I think, you know, tribe probably either bought a huge quantity or paid a lot of money or not.
If they're that expensive. Maybe it was a small quantity, you know, like, maybe they. Maybe they weren't like, willing to buy like a huge batch of them.
Yeah, I think it's kind of like, you know, how Blackwing or not Blackwing field notes, you know, will stamp whatever logo on the back of a craft brown up to a certain quantity, and past that, they will, like, start doing, like, other choices, like put stuff on the COVID or do different ruling. I feel like that that's the kind of tier that Blackwing's doing.
Yeah. And this is going to sound really, really, really critical. There are so effing many collabs that they just kind of don't mean anything anymore.
Like, I don't think they're supposed to mean anything to us because, you know, these are. These are for type 7 people. These aren't collector.
Yeah. When the, when the first ones came out, we're like, oh, my God, look, that's so pretty. They did a red one or they did a gold one. Now it's like every week there's a new black wing out and half of them are not very nice looking.
I think. I think that's it, though. I mean, it's like it's starting to reach out. They don't. And this is not like, to demean anything, but it's like they don't care about us. I mean, it's like, yeah, they're worried about the people who are like, showing up at that certain hotel or going to that museum and they just like stumble across it and be like,
I'm sure when, when Field notes worked with Starbucks on that Roastery edition, like, they apparently told the Roastery, they're like, there's going to be a certain number of people who are going to automatically buy these. Right. They're going to. When they Find out about it. They're going to come into the store, they're going to call you. I'm sure that that's Blackwing, too. They're like, hey, there are some people who are just going to buy these editions no matter what. And. But. But the rest of it, I'd be willing to bet that this is more, you know, for the. For the tribe people.
Yeah. There are just so many of things getting so diluted.
So many. Yeah.
And the quality control is getting pretty crappy. Like, I finally opened up my. What the hell were those. Those things that came out where you could get one to whatever number, white pencil, mine.
Oh, the Black Friday one.
Yeah. The feral was not actually attached, and they stamped it wrong. It was like, oh, you know what? This took two months to come, so the hell with it. But maybe mine's extra collectible because it is. They stamped, like, consecutive sites. How do the hell do you mess that up?
It's like those postage stamps where they stamp the plane upside down. That's worth so much money.
Yeah. But those are pretty.
Yeah. That we learned about when we went to the USPS Museum.
I would love to go there again.
We'll be able to go to. And 10 is the postmaster General.
Yeah. Yeah.
I'll let you in for free. I'll waive the fee.
I mean, I know the answer to all of these questions could just be capitalism, but, you know, the Palomino arguably made the black wing possible, and now it's gone. And then, you know, people who use black wings and pencil nuts and artists made Blackwing and all the different black wings possible, and now, like, they're really phoning it in the volumes, and obviously their. Their attention is elsewhere. So that's kind of like. Okay, that's. That's what's up. All right.
Yeah.
I don't know what to say after that.
Capitalism.
Yeah. Feeling a little bit of bile, maybe. This is their spring edition would be amazing.
Yeah. I don't.
Yeah, yeah.
I remember two years ago, the arc of these things. Yeah.
Two years ago, I was like, man, they've put out so many good editions in a row. Like, how long can this go on? And then after 10, like, they've all been.
It's. It's almost the same progression as, like, Moleskine. Right. I mean, which is like, you can't totally. I don't. At least I personally don't, like, blame them for. Because it's like, these are pencils. If you're.
Yeah. If you're.
If your target is like, a Boutique pencil crowd. Then it's like this is going to be a short lived kind of run you've got going here. So you've got to like spread out a little bit. So I mean, so I get it. But I agree though that like, and it's also, I kind of appreciate it because it's like this is making it easier to not buy black wings now because I'm not going to buy every one because there's a new one all the time. So it's like I can actually just like jump at the ones that really, you know, appeal to me or whatever.
So yeah, I had everything and I think in the last year, probably now I don't have half of them. That's fine, whatever. I wish they would start attaching their ferals correctly. That would make me happy.
There's still that one, that Monkler brand Moncler that's still, you know, riding the waves out there somewhere that nobody knows where they are or how to get a hold of them. Except that one person who got one for Valentine's Day in the group.
I was about to have a trade for one and then Covid hit and the person in Korea and I were like, I don't know if we should do this. Yeah, I'm sorry I hijacked your fresh point.
No, that was good. That's good. So that's. Yeah, that's the Blackwing Tribe 7 collaboration. And then the only other thing which is very cool, new development from Write Notepads, which is their new engineer notebook. I didn't find out about these until very recently and they look amazing. So Johnny, like, I mean, do you have one of these in hand?
I'm holding it right now.
Oh, I love it. Seven by seven. Right? Like it's like square, which I love that shape. That's. If I was gonna ever write a book that was published or make a notebook, like I would want that square shape. So I really love that.
And they rounded all four corners, which is unnecessary but so delightful.
Yeah, I love the dark color of the, of the brown, the brown cover, like the, that like mottled sort of COVID Yeah, it's.
What do they call it?
Oil board. Oh yeah.
It's got a feel to it, but it also has a smell to. Smells like pickles, but not in a bad way. It smells really good.
Nothing can smell like pickles in a bad way. I'm just going to throw that out there.
If they made a dill scented pencil out of incense cedar, this is what it smells like.
Pickle.
Your pencil yeah. And I thought it was interesting that they mentioned in the product description that the paper was different and that it might not work well with fountain pens. Like, did. Did you just say that?
Usually they're aimed at engineers. Right. So, I mean, engineers aren't messing around with fountain pens.
But.
Yeah.
I mean, for the record, I put some fountain pens in there, and it wasn't bad. It was okay. But I'm using a pretty hard pencil in here, and it's delicious. It's great.
Yeah. I love. I love the. The print. The graph. It's kind of like the. Sort of a cousin to the dome paper.
Yeah. Just think of that.
Yeah. Which. So it's like lines plus graph, so you can kind of. It gives you some freedom to go kind of however you want. So.
Yeah. My printer has a weird setting that makes this exact graph paper. I don't know what it's called. It's called graph paper number one, but I think it's engineering graph. Sort of like the. Oh, God, what was that? Field notes that came out with the yellow cover. That was so cool.
Utility. Yeah. Yeah.
But on a way bigger scale, obviously. And apparently they're a limited edition, so I guess go get them.
Yeah. And I might need to track one down because that's. I love that shape. For real. Like, the square notebooks are like my.
And something I really like, they packed it oddly. Like, it came with this huge piece of really thick cardstock to protect it. I've never seen anyone do that before, so I don't know. It smells like a labor of love or it feels like a labor of love, which makes it extra delightful. And I wish I'd bought more, and I might.
Smells like a labor of love.
Yeah.
Is that kind of like tagline for good? Tagline for our product? Smells like labor.
Yeah. I want to know the story about what factory that is from the front. Have to pick their brains about that.
We'll have to have a. Have them back on sometime.
It's been a while since we had. For sure.
Yeah. So that's. That's. That's all I've got. So, Johnny, how about you?
So we should give a shout out to Miss Carrie's Pencil club from Jimisy School. So I don't want to, like, divulge anyone's personal information. A friend of mine who I was. I worked with when we were in AmeriCorps. She was in Community Art Corps when I was in Vista. She works in community art and would be a good podcast guest. And she was talking to a Class. And they were teasing their teacher about how much her teacher liked. The teacher liked pencils. And she was like, oh, man, my friend is such a pencil nut. He co hosts a podcast. And they were like, what? And they listened to Erasable. So then they had the first meeting of their pencil club, and Charlotte and I joined them on Google Meet and chatted with teachers and the kids and had a very, very good time. So it's nice to see so many kids, like, so excited about pencils.
Yeah.
What were they? What about pencils was exciting to them?
I don't know. I wish. I wish I knew, like, you and they.
I mean, are they into the new Blackwing collabs with, you know, with Tribe 7? Or was it like this one? This one is. Has colors.
You know, they talk about, like, the vopex and the Musgrave stuff. Black wings, like, everything. And Charlotte joined by special requests. And we were talking about fountain pens a little bit. So we don't have a recording to share because there's not a recording. But the sound bite at the beginning of the episode is the pencil club from Jemisi School.
So. Yay.
My next fresh point is I finally got issue 14 of mazine out with red cover. And, like, man, I bought so much red paper, we would have to use it for disposable because it's pretty, but my God, I overdid it.
How many may ask how many copies you put out or you. Oh, I just privileged information.
No, no, I do a hundred. And then anything after that, I feel like I have to do something different. Like with this one, I think I won't do color inside. On the last one, I used paper instead of cardstock. And that blue after a hundred. And yeah, I don't. I mean, the new ones have not been going very far past 100, so that's good for the planet, I guess. But the topic of this one was pencil obituaries because I was having one of those, like, anxious mornings. So it was just like clipping words out of the New Yorker for zines. And one of them was obituaries. Like, wow, that'd be a cool title for our topic for a zine. And then I never used the clip art, but the issue was about, like, dead pencils. Pencils, they don't make anymore, but not in the, like, oh, it sucks that there's no more no blot. But, like, hey, the no blot was a cool pencil. Tried to stay a little positive. I mean, it's positive for me. So, I mean, I don't Want to hijack the episode because it could be its own episode, but that could totally be an episode. Yeah. You guys have any dead pencils that you, you know, you like to use even though you can't get more?
I think the, like, first one that pops into my head is the IBM Electrographic.
Yeah, that's a good one.
Is a dead pencil that, like, I just absolutely adore.
Think of that one. I think I'm going to have to do another one because I didn't do that many.
Yeah, I like a. Yikes.
Oh, that would be good. All right.
Yeah.
Maybe this could even be a disposable issue or something. It was hard to, like, cut them off. I had a big list. I was going to do the Janus sharpener.
Oh, yeah.
But I don't, I don't have one, so I couldn't get a picture. It's like. That's a good reason to cut that one.
I, I have one that is, it is lovely, but doesn't really work. I'll send that to you.
Oh, yes. If you get like a, like a very dramatic photo. Awesome. And. Yeah, that's it. How about you, Andy?
What is going on here? Biggest thing that I think is really cool is something that Ana Reinert put out last weekend. And so, so Anna is a designer and her husband runs a letterpress shop, Skylab Letterpress. And so the unstoppable duo of the two of them together, they can sometimes produce really cool stuff like this. Anna ran across a bunch of vintage typewriter stock not too long ago. It's. It's. It's called S Leek Clear Erase. It's a white cardstock. It's 25 cotton cockle finish. Don't know what that means, but she says it's really, really good for fountain pen. I think it's decent for pencil. And she designed this really gorgeous cover and she and Bob, her husband, turned it into five and a half by and a half writing paper. And they're selling it on their website for like 8 bucks pad. And it's really nice. It just feels and looks like. I mean, because it is, right? It's vintage paper. But they put the. But they put a rule on it and they put it in this pad together so it feels like a brand new vintage product. Right? Like just something you just pulled out of a time machine. And I bought a couple of them. I bought one that, that's red, has a red cover and it has a red top ruling and bottom ruling. And then I bought a blue one which is which is the same blue cover, blue ruling. And it's nice. It's not lined, but because people like me cannot write in a straight line if they don't have lines. It comes with one of those, like, big, thick cardstocks that you put behind it. Oh, nice to give you a line. So I really appreciate that. So it is just gorgeous. She ran out of her first batch in, like, four hours. I think Brad tweeted about it, and she did, too. She has a really good reach. But, yeah, it's really lovely. I would. Anybody who's writing letters, I recommend you pick up some of this. I've been writing a couple letters and putting. I have this rubber stamp that looks like an old line etching of a pencil, just a really short pencil. And I've been stamping that on the top to make it almost look like a. You'd like some stationary. So I would say it's better with pen than it is with pencil, but it's still really good with, like, a really dark pencil. Yeah. So definitely recommend that. Great job on that. Anna and Bob, thank you for. For making this. And I'll have a link in show notes, of course. And the last thing I'll mention is just something that we did last week that was really, really fun. Was that last week when we were in the Homework podcast? Yeah. Yeah.
Time means nothing anymore.
So.
Yeah, that was last week, though.
Yeah. So our. Our friend of the show, Harry Marks, you all remember him, he has a podcast. It's been going on for a while, but he's a new ish host with a guy named Dave Colo, called the Homework podcast. And they usually talk about, you know, home, like, work setups at home. So they're doing this new thing, which I hope they make it an annual thing or even. Even more than that, called the pencil draft. And so Harry picked out 12 pencils and Dave picked out 12 pencils, and they had us on the show, and basically we drafted our favorite pencils to build the ultimate pencil dream team. So, um, I'll let you all listen to the podcast and read their show notes to see what our drafts were. But it was really. It was really fun. What did you guys think about that?
So much.
And a really good time.
Yeah, yeah, I would.
I would be. I would love to do that again with, like, another batch of pencils, you know, like.
Yeah, yeah, it was funny because we'll see. Fun, Dave. Yeah, Dave had some really good pencils, but he also had some that he just sort of, like, picked out. Like, he had A Staples brand pencil and an Amazon Basics pencil. And my favorite was the it has Christmas trees on it pencil. And we, we basically just took turns and picked our favorite pencils and explained why and built the, Built the dream team. And I think all of our lists kind of had our favorites on there, but there were some, some unexpected ones, like the cedar point that I, that I picked out for my list that I wasn't really expecting to pick. But it's just such a good pencil. Yeah, we also. Yeah, go ahead, Johnny.
When I first read, read the email, I'm like, what are we doing a draft? But it was a really, really good conceit to just go through a list of pencils and talk about them all.
Yeah.
Which was great.
I feel like, I feel like Tim is the Advanced Sports person, so he, he knew a drafting strategy.
I want to put that on my resume. Advanced Sports Person.
Advanced Sports Person.
That's my, my new title strategy.
I think you need a, I think you need like an ebbetts field hat that says Advanced Sports Person. Yes.
Asp. Yeah,
you know what, that would be a really good podcast title or zine title or blog title or something.
Advanced Sports Person.
Yeah, that would be a good zine title. Yeah, there's a, There used to be a podcast from. I think his name is John Mo, who does the like the hilarious World of Depression podcast or whatever, but he had one that was called not Slam Dunk, Home Dunk or something like that, but it was like, it was like it was supposed to be like an NPR sports show is what he did. It was great, but. And it was, it was really good, but then it just disappeared for a while. So I feel like ASP would, would fill that void.
The spiritual ancestor predecessor. So yeah, go check out the homework podcast. It's been a, it's been a minute since you've heard, heard this show. I think we're three weeks, we're one week behind our usual cadence. But yeah, homework is very good. All right, let's jump into the main topic. And as a reminder, this is all the pencils that we, you know, that we really wanted to love. Right. Like it's, it seems like on paper, haha. It's supposed to be one that just, you know, is really great for us, but in practice, maybe there's something wrong with it. How do we want to do this? Do we want to kind of like. Johnny, you're really good at kind of like setting this stuff up. Should we take turn. I am, yeah. Should we take turns or should we just kind of go down our list, I think maybe.
Go down our list.
Yes.
We don't have any overlap, so.
Yeah, just one. You know, I'll talk.
Yeah. Tim, do you want to start us off with some of your pencils that you just didn't love?
Yeah, I'll get on some lists first.
Sorry, a ding list. What?
A ding list.
Sorry.
Yeah, you should probably have students listen to this.
A dingle. Ding. A list.
Yeah. So my first one, actually, I'll say that, like, pretty much everything on my list in true coordination with the topic Strike. Really breaks my heart that I don't love it. You know? Like, I really. I really wish I. Look, the first one is the. The Bugle for Musgrave. So I've got several versions of the Bugle. I've got the original. I've got the CW pencils. Iterations that they've got out. It's a round pencil, which I love a round pencil. But it's like.
Looks cool.
It looks great. It looks great. Yeah. A really good imprint. But it. I need a. At least a little bit of weight to a pencil. And that pencil is so light that it's like I'm holding a feather. So, like, I just don't enjoy. And so, like, a lighter pencil tends to be a little scratchier feel for me, you know, like, because it's just. There's nothing kind of like softening the scratch of the pencil. And I've just. I've tried over the years and I've bought them multiple times. And I know, Johnny, you're a big fan of the Bugle. Yeah, but I just can't do it.
I just.
So I wonder if, you know, everything from Musgrave. Christ, like, what, seven or eight years ago was all cedar, and since then it's changed. I wonder if it was a little heavier when it was incense cedar.
Oh, maybe. I mean, mine's definitely not incense cedar. It's not cedar at all.
I would love to find something like that, if they exist.
Yeah, that would be. That would be great. I mean, that would be a. Be kind of a dream pencil because. Yeah, I like the. I like the core. I think it's kind of hard to tell when it's so. Like, I'm thrown off so much by the barrel. But I wanted to love it so badly and just didn't.
Here's a question. Have you ever stuck a paper mate arrowhead on the back of it?
No.
So I have, like, 100 of them right here. And literally, I would be very happy to send You. A bunch of them. Plus, they're just, they're really good erasers. They're like the pink Johnny's just looking
for excuse to clean up his desk.
Got to get rid of these erasers.
No, they're, they're, they're awesome. They last forever. They don't rip off your pencil the way that they did when we were growing up.
Yeah, it'd be worth a shot. So I'd take some. Yeah, for sure. So on the same topic, I'm going to kind of jump ahead on my list, but another Musgrave pencil that I really, really, really want to like is the. Is the harvest.
The regular harvest.
Well, see, so I don't have the harvest one or whatever it's called. Like, so I have. Go ahead.
There's the number one and there's the harvest pro, which is totally different.
So I have the pro.
Okay. But you don't have the regular.
No.
I will say it is a very beautiful pencil. It's a very well made pencil. But I have, and I've talked about this before, but I just have a thing with the full hex PE pencils. Oh.
Can't do anything about that.
And I, I didn't want to get like, you know, a flaming bag of dog poop on my doorstep, so I didn't put the Tennessee Red on this list.
Yeah. Because.
Because I know that's like the darling of the pencil world, and it is my, I think maybe the best looking pencil in the world right now. And I, and I still use it sometimes, but a full hex pencil, I just don't find it comfortable to use. And it's, it's. It's one of those, like, really like, silly, picky things to say as a, as a pencil person. But it's just the way it goes.
Corners are sharp. Yeah.
I don't think that's that picky. That's pretty in your face if, if it bothers you.
Yeah.
I mean, when, when you consider that my favorite pencils are round, I mean, it's like the, the polar opposite. Besides maybe like a, A fully like, pointy triangular pencil, which would be like a nightmare for me. Yeah. So. Yeah. So that's the, those two. Two Musgraves, which I think is just coincidental. It's mostly just my issue being with the lightness of the bugle and then the full hex of the, of the harvest. My next one really breaks my heart because I think of anything on this list. I mean, this is one that, like, I. Is on paper, the, The Most common pun used in this, this podcast on paper is the. Is the pencil that would be perfect for me, which is the Viking rollout hb, which is like the semi jumbo, fully natural pencil with that really cool looking black cap on the end of it.
Oh, that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I like on it should be my favorite pencil, like by so many other reasons. Like, it looks great, it feels great, it's a perfect size. I just like, it's really attractive looking, but the core just like messes me up. It's just a little too hard for me and I just like don't enjoy using it. I've got one at work and I try to use it all the time and then I end up just kind of pitching it because I think too much about how like, it's almost like I'm like writing with it and work and I'm just like, this thing could be so great. You could be so great.
What's wrong?
You know, because I just don't. I don't know, I just don't enjoy it. And, and maybe this is an issue with just Viking pencils in general because that school pencil that we've talked about before, and I might have claimed to like before because I think it's like, looks amazing. It's another one that I have like half dozen of, but I just don't use them. Like, they just, they just don't appeal to me. Like the feel mostly they look incredible, but I just don't use them.
Looks so good. Yeah.
Have you used the. So there's the Rolo xl and then they're the other Rolos that are like different graded drawing pencils. And then they have like color coded caps on the end. Have you tried those?
Nope, never tried those. The only three Viking pencils I've tried is the Rolo, the xl, the big one, the Element, which I do like that, that one's one that I do use occasionally that John Patterson, my friend from membership days, gave me. And then the, the school pencil is just like one that I don't use. But those are the only three that I've actually had in hand. Okay.
Yeah, those are nice. I think the pencil store used to have them. I don't know if she has them anymore.
Yeah, they're all extremely well made, like beautifully made, like really consistent and attractive. But next one I'll say is just the entire. And this might actually be like a really close comparison to the Vikings, but just like the Faber Castell 9000 series. Yeah, I can't do it. I Can't. I've tried the jumbos, I've tried the normal ones. I've tried the 4B and I've. Oops, I hit my microphone talking with my hands here. I've tried the 4B and the 6B and the 2B and the. I just like tried everything and it might also speak to just like pencils without erasers just throw me off. Just weight wise. There are some that I like a lot but the Faber Castell pencils, almost all of them. It's actually, oddly enough the one that Johnny, you said is the one you're using today. That velvet which I think you sent me is actually like my favorite Faber Castell pencil. I like the velvet a lot.
Oh, those were. What did they call it back then? Faber Castell usa Because there's no hyphen.
Yeah.
So I love this pencil. But those 350, they look incredible again. They look so sexy. But it's a really good looking pencil. But man, I just can't do it.
I think I, I think I know what you mean. Like they're the only ones who can make like a 4B feel scratchy, right?
Oh, I was gonna say the opposite. That only the Germans can make a, you know, 2h feel pretty smooth.
Maybe they just have the, the scale mixed up. It's the other side of the world from Japan.
So
alternate facts, we'll just call it that. Yeah, fake news, some alternate facts there. And then my last one on my list which is going to like horrify some people.
Get ready to clutch your pearls, everybody.
And this one, this is one that's much less dramatic than the other ones. The other, all the other pencils, like I deem them, for a lack of a better phrase, like unusable. Like I will never, I'll never just use them. Even this one I will use. But as much as, but I feel like my appreciation for it doesn't match up to people's love for it. Which is the Blackwing 211, which I've like gushed over in the past. Blackwing 211, tribute to John Muir. Amazing looking pencil. The first natural black wing. We were all super excited about it. You know, sort of pencil that is made in a vacuum to appeal to us or whatever. But there's something about it and it could be like a subconscious, like this is how much it cost. And so I don't want to use it thing in the back of my head. But I just hardly ever want to keep using a Blackwing 211. It's almost. It feels a little skinnier. There's something about it that, like, when I. When I'm writing with it, I end up putting it away. Now I'm. I am a cheap, cheap person in a lot of ways. And so maybe it's like, in the back of my head, I'm like. I write, you know, quick brown fox jumped over or whatever. I write that. Write the sentence. I'm like, okay, that was 25 cents. And then I go on. I don't know. I don't know if that's it. But the 211 is one of the. As far as, like, the volumes editions, one that is universally, like, adored, but I sort of, like, actively don't use it. And I have maybe a dozen and a half of them, which. I don't know if I've talked about that in a while, but I have a. I think it's kind of hilarious. It makes myself laugh that I have a. I have a full, unused dozen Blackwing 211s, but I threw away all the brown erasers and replaced them with pink, like, a long time ago,
which
is good, because it makes me, like, not want to sell them. I think they look better that way. But I just have a full, like, unused dozen Blackwing 211s that I'm like. I think I might have sharpened the first one that I've just been using. But they're beautiful, and they're good pencils. Maybe I'm just. Maybe the block. The personal block is just that they're so rare. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, that's. That's a. That's. That's my list. So that's Johnny.
Oh, man. So mine involves pencils that I used to like. So these aren't, like, super universal. So number one is the Staedtler Norica, which I used to love. And then I heard so much about them and different years being different, then I got tired of hearing of them. And, like, now every time I see it, I'm like, too much drama. I don't know what year this is. I'm not using this damn pencil. But, like, it's a great pencil. It's, you know, writes nicely. It's got a nice finish. I wish it was cedar, which is what I usually think. But, yeah, it's ultimately a disappointment.
Is it basswood?
I don't even know.
Yeah, it's hard to tell.
I haven't picked one up in a long time. And then they've had other versions that have come out. I think Les had some that were. Were they pastel or metallic? I think they were metallic. They were so pretty. Okay, I might have to get those. Try again. But I think for the second one, I'm going to have to go with the golden bear.
I'm sorry. How dare you. No, it's all right.
Because whenever I see it, I don't like the imprint on the new one. Like, I don't like the font they use for usa and I see the old one in my head.
But they had the California Republic stationers one.
Yeah, that one was so pretty.
It was.
And then I think I have a couple of the blue ones around somewhere. Every once in a while I use one and be like, damn, this was a nice looking pencil.
Yeah.
But also like anything with a balanced core from Blackwing, I really want to love and I'll like use one. Like when volume one came out, I was into it then, like after I used a couple, I'm like, no, I can't use this thing. It sucks.
It's also like, is. It's so interesting because that's still the one that's the most. Like, if you were to just take all of the Palomino black wings in the world and like average them out, I bet that they're. I bet that the most of them are the balance core ones. Yeah, that's not even the balance core anymore. Like, I feel like the 602 is the most usable balance within there.
Yeah, I think you're totally 100% right.
Yeah.
My balanced opinion.
Very balanced.
Yeah.
It.
It doesn't stay sharp. It's not that dark. It smears like crazy. I've grown to like loath heaven. Plus, I don't like the pearl. I think it's ugly. Yeah, I used to like it a lot, but I was. Charlotte was into it and I could. I was always finding pearls all over the place and I gave her all mine, so. So maybe I subconsciously just don't, don't like anymore.
That's one that I sort of like bashed on for a while. And then in recent years, like in the last year, I've grown to kind of enjoy. I really think that like as far as hardnesses, between the sort of softer, harder and the like medium ones, it's just like all seasons for me. It's like there's a season where like pearl just feels great or a soft pencil feels great and there's sometimes where I like. So I don't know. But like I was. I was surprised to ever enjoy the. The pearl or. Or a pearl Core, which really, I should say like pearl core, because usually when I want to use the. The balance core, it's like that Jackie Robinson pencil is the one that I most often use.
Oh.
Which I love.
I mean, I don't know if I'm allowed to make a joke about OCD if I have ocd. But black, gray, and white, and the one in the middle is white. That it has always, like, bugged me to no end. Like, it would have made a lot more sense when they did it if instead of making a third core between the two, if they just made a harder core. But I feel like darkness wise, it's so close to the mmx, but it's not as usable because the mmx, you can turn it and find another corner and like really wear that thing down before you have to sharpen it. Yeah, yeah. That. This is sad. So my next one is a pencil that every once in a while I pick up and I just, like, loathe it to no end. And that's the Tombow 2558.
What is that?
It's that yellow one that has a really pretty purple.
Yeah, yeah.
But the pencil is too wide for the feral. The imprint is mushed down. People talk about how you can't sharpen it. Like, what the hell do I want to use a pencil I can't sharpen for if there's no good use for it?
I've never experienced that part of it. Are you talking is like, because they have an HB and a B. The B is one of my favorites. I love that one.
I've tried the HB and the B and like, they write nicely, but I just don't like that pencil. Like, it's sort of visceral. I actually got rid of all mine. Every time I find one, I'm like, hey, who wants a Tombow?
Fling it off your your porch.
It's like Mardi Gras.
All the fine people in Roland park are like, let's call Batster. We keep finding some cool Japanese pencils. But I was going to say this when we were talking about that. The Black Wing. A lot of times I'll find a pencil that I love and I look for a use for it. Like, there are uses for the Wopex. Sorry. And even like, really hard Faber Castell pencils that I love.
Like digging out hair from your drain.
Like, if there's a political dissident that you don't like, you can poison them slowly with it.
Jesus Christ. I need to laugh for a little while.
Hold on. Sorry.
Oh, man, this got dark.
It sure did.
Unlike a Wopex. No, but with the Tombow, like, I've looked for a reason to like it. It's not the way it feels. Just, it's ugly. And it looks like they. They designed the imprint and the feral around a different size wood and then changed the size of the wood and just doesn't fit.
Yeah, I mean, I. I totally see that. Yeah.
Yeah. And my last one I'm putting on here because I swear to God, they changed it. And that's the field notes pencil. Because the first ones that I got back in 2010, they were really nice. They were a little scratchy, but they weren't. They weren't, you know, they weren't writing with a fork. They made a mark. They were pleasantly scratchy. And now, like, they don't write very well at all. Or at least none of the ones I've gotten recently write very well. They're way too hard. But that pencil is like perfect in every way. Besides that, it's round, it's cedar, it's made in America. It's really pretty. But I used up all my old
ones because how do you tell the difference between. Between them?
I just had the new ones and the old ones. Oh, the old ones were short because I use them a lot. Yeah, but if you sharpen them, you can really feel the difference. It's like, I don't know, a Faber Castell HB versus like a Ticonderoga. Like, oh, that doesn't feel the same. So I imagine whoever makes them switch the lead at some point. But, you know, they're not. They're not super expensive, but they're not cheap. I wish they could put a softer lead in there. They'd be like, just freaking amazing. But yeah, those are my five that I think aren't that controversial. How about you, Andy?
Hmm.
I think the biggest one that immediately came to mind when I thought about this topic was the. The Grip 2001 by Faber Castell. I think you're familiar with this one. I, I love the idea of it. I think it looks really cool. I, I like the triangular nature of it and I, I like the look of the dots. But just the, the whole feel of the thing is just. Just not right to me. Like, I feel like it's too light.
That's so funny because that, that could be on my list, but it would be the exact opposite. Like, I love the feel of it.
Like, feels so right.
The reason why I like the Blackwing 4, like, I love it. Pencil with Texture. But like. Yeah. Anyways, it's the opposite.
So the. The. The dots are too. Too grippy, I guess. Not a big fan of that. And. And they. They melt really easily. Like, if you leave it in a hot car in the summer, like, it just melts.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was talking to somebody about this recently. I wasted a pile of pencils that were some of my favorites because they got melted to some Faber Castells.
Yep.
Totally. Totally.
They've redone it since then so they don't melt anymore, but.
Oh, really?
My God, you're not kidding. Like, it didn't even have to be a hot car. Like, in storage, they would just stick to each other.
Just like breathe on. Just breathe on it. And it melts.
Yeah. The new ones, the dots look less black. They almost look clear. And they won't anymore.
Okay, interesting.
They're sharper. If you don't, like.
Gotta sand them down. Gotta file those things.
Like I said. I do. I do agree with you. That's one that, like, has always been kind of underwhelming for me. Except. Except for the jumbo ones. I love the jumbo ones. For whatever reason, I like the big ones.
Yeah. But the. The wood is too light and the. The core is too scratchy. Is. Is kind of like how I. Yeah, the. The. How I would take that further so that. Yeah. The Grip 2001s by Faber Castell. The. Okay. Are you guys familiar with the Camlin supreme hd? It's Indian pencil. It is. Out of all of those Indian pencils, is probably the most gorgeous. I love the way it looks. It is. It's red, white and blue. It's just like a bright blue barrel. It has a white stripe and a blue and a red cap. It looks really good with that. That notebook. That witch term that I have with the red dots. Oh, good.
Good pair.
But it just. Oh, no, it's just not. Doesn't feel good. It's. It's. It's a little. It's a little thick. Just a little bit thicker than usual, which is fine. But the core is just like. It's really light without being really strong.
Usually the Indians are crazy.
The. Which pencils.
Usually Indian pencils. Their cores are just like. You know, you could stab somebody, but they're still pretty dark.
Yeah. Like the nice and dark pencils. Like, that's such a. That's such a thing. So check it out. There's a. There's a interview on or a review on leadfast of the Camelin supreme hds. And I bet that you've come across one of these before because they look just gorgeous, but they just don't feel good at all. Another one, which I think is probably my most controversial choice is I'm just underwhelmed by all the Mongols. Like, every Mongol pencil, really. The old ones, the new one. The next three on my list are ones that I was really into when I was first getting into pencils. Kind of like. I kind of like you, Tim and Johnny. I think, like, especially Tim. Yeah. You had a lot that you were really into and then you kind of like, grew out of.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah. I feel that way about the Mongols.
Like, I. Oh, I always associate you with liking them for some reason.
I. I love the way they look. I love the copper barrel. Like ferals. The stripe on it. I have. The erasers are crappy. I have broken minion eraser from the Mongols. Like, not. Not even just the. The old old ones. The new ones too. Like some of the. Those ones I got in in Peru that they still make that are just made in. I don't even know what they're made anyhow. I haven't really used one since. Since then. Still love the way they look. The colors are gorgeous. I would totally have a, you know, buy a new Mongol, like a new old Mongol for the colors that they came in, but yeah. Don't feel that great.
The imprint of the early ones from Eberhard Faber, where Eberhard Faber were, was these, like, huge letters that were. Those were so damn pretty.
Yeah. Love the way they look. So that's one. Another one that I was really into when I first got into pencils and was my. I think my recommendation in our. In our Yellow Pencils episode is that the semi hex. The general semi hex. And I think I've just sort of like, kind of fallen out with it. Like, it just is. It's a very blah writer. Like, it. It feels nice. It looks. Looks nice, but I just don't care for the way it writes. Yeah.
I was gonna say it's.
But yeah.
Good box, good design. Like, I like the history of it.
I would say the opposite, that it's boring looking. But they write like a million bucks, especially the number ones.
I mean, compared to, you know, your Office Depot pencil, they write great. But. Yeah. And the last one, which, you know, I. I really like triangular pencils, but yet I have two triangular pencils on this list. This last one is a big one there. I love the idea of it. It was the Rhodia pencil. And have you. You both have tried this, right?
Yeah, they. They changed them at some point because they sucked, and they remade them. They were darker, but they weren't really any better.
Yeah, I. So this one is interesting because one thing I really love about the Rhodia is that just orange cover that it has. Like, it's just. The design is really great. It's bright orange color. Excuse me. Cover. The Rhodia pencils, like, the orange and the black, I just don't think work together. Just looks like a Halloween pencil.
It does.
And they. You know, the wood. Yeah. If you're not familiar with this pencil, it has a dyed black wood, which I think always kind of affects the quality of the sharpening. It's very. It feels like it's, you know, it was wet and then just sort of like, you know, pulp together. But it's just, like. It's a fine writer. It's not great. It's not bad. It just looks like a pencil I should get in, you know, for trick or treating. But it doesn't cost. It's not the price of those pencils. For sure. It's not. It's not a cheap pencil.
Yeah. When was it Pencil Things? That was the first one I tried. It was a weird combination of crumbly and also scratchy and too light. Yeah, they nailed it.
Yeah.
Good job. Like, 10 years ago, they remade them, and they were, like, pretty nice. They wrote really well, but there was something about the paint they used that constantly picked up graphite dirt, and they came in that little plastic.
Yeah, you're right.
They were always a little grimy, like. Yeah, it's three bucks.
I have a couple. That's really, really dirty. Yeah. So, yeah, I just tried to. Tried to love it, but just couldn't. Couldn't do it. Yeah. I'd be interested to hear from the listeners. Maybe I'll start a thread in the group. If anybody wants to comment on this episode and, you know, on the website, like, please feel free. I want to know the ones that you. That you think that you should love, but you don't. And why Love to kind of like, you know, hear what people are thinking out there. All right. Should we. Should we wrap up?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. This is. It's been a lot of fun. Sometimes it's good just to complain. Like, I know we try to keep things positive, but, you know, sometimes you. You don't. You don't want to be positive. You just. You just want to go off on a pencil. Right. So I agree. Tim, where can people find you on the Internet?
You can find me on Twitter timwassom and on Instagram @timothywassom.
Cool. Johnny, how about you?
You can find me@pencilrevolution.com and on social media at Pensolution. And if you want to send money and exchange for zines, you can find me@etsy.com shop pencil revolution.
Viva Revolution. I am Andy. I am at awealthly on Twitter and Instagram and you can find my website at Andy, wtf? And collectively we are the Erasable podcast. You can find our website at Erasable Us. For show notes and for recording of this episode, you can go to erasable US157. We have a Patreon. If you go to erasable US Patreon, you can find ways to support us and get a little extra fun things along the way. If you support us at the $10 level, no spoilers, you probably by March 1st want to be signed up for that because we have some things, interesting things coming that I'm sure. We'll talk about the next episode and we'll kind of, you know, thank our $10 a month supporters here in a minute. But before we do that, engage with us on in our Facebook group, facebook.comgroups erasable. Great place on the Internet. It's moderated pretty heavily. We tried to keep it like going really well. Just a really nice group of people. And you can find us on social media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @erasablepodcast. So I want to thank our ten dollar a month Patreon patrons at the producer level. They keep us going, they pay that, they keep the lights on here, keep the hosting fees going. So thank you so much to all of them. And those people are the Diana Oakley, Andre Torres, Kyle, Paul Moorhead, Andrew Squish, Judy Molnar, ali, Sara Jamelia, O.A. pryor, K.P. james Dominguez, Millie Blackwell, Hunter McCain, Bob Ostwald, Michael Diallosa, Jacqueline Myers, Tana Feliz, Ann Sipe, Joe Krase, Measure Twice, Michael Hagen, Chris Metzkus, John Banon, Random Thinks, Jason Deal, Dave McDonald, Mary Collis, Alex Jonathan Brown, Kathleen Rogers, Bobby Lutzinger, Fourth Letter, Kelton Wiens, Hans Noodleman, Terry Beth, Jane Newton, Stuart Lennon, Dave Tubman and Chris Jones. Thank you all so much and we will see you next next time.
Do you like our podcast?
Most people like our podcast, but if you like our podcast, David will turn it off.