This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
I was on mute and I was trying to talk like to like I was filling in those gaps, but you guys didn't hear me. So
I was being a real good podcaster. If only I wasn't on mute.
Hello and welcome to episode 213 of erasable, the world's number two podcast about pencils, pencil accessories, pencil paraphernalia, accoutrements and pencil adjacent topics. Along with my co hosts, Andy Welfle and Johnny Gamber. I am Tim Wasem, coming to you from East Tennessee in the good old usa. Hey, Johnny. Hey, Andy. An American. And that takes me back. I remember going. I was, I would like tell. I told my son this story the other day that I was at WrestleMania in Chicago like when I was a kid at this point. And it was, it was the, it was. I remember specifically because we saw the first Undertaker versus Undertaker, I believe, match. I'm talking about this. Like, I actually have even paid attention to it a little bit in the last 20 years or so. But. But also, you know, this guy comes out and I can't remember his name, but like I remember that chant like USA, USA. And I remember like being 8 or 9 or whatever I was and thinking, why are they chanting usa? They're both American. But it was like one of the guys had like a red, white and blue, you know, leotard on or whatever you call it for wrestling. So you just took me on a journey.
Most America story.
Yeah. When you said we started chanting usa, it sort of. I had my ratatouille moment and like zoomed back to that. That time at WrestleMania,
did you also have a rat controlling your movements?
I don't know, honestly. I mean, it's true.
You can't know. Really.
Yeah, you can't know. I mean.
Yeah, it was a weird decade.
It was a weird decade. How are you guys doing? It's good to talk to you.
Yeah, good to talk to you. It's been a little bit.
Feeling very optimistic about everything in the world and yeah, United States, my move, another country.
I want whatever you're taking if you feel optimistic.
Well, it's a whole handful of stuff. Handful of stuff. Two naps a day and a lot of coffee
title right there.
And sort of unrestrained retail therapy sometimes. Quite a few new beds lately.
New pens, new button makers.
Yeah, yeah, that was a business expense.
There you go. Yeah, that's. Put that on your taxes. All right.
Well, we.
So in the past we have talked about our favorite American made pencils, but a lot's changed since then. That's Probably a pretty early topic for us, but mostly thanks to the delugers, our friends at Musgrave, and all the, you know, new things that they have coming out. There's a lot more going on in American pencils these days, and so we thought we would set aside this week to talk about our country via pencils. So we're going to talk about some of our favorite pencils, paper, notebooks, accessories, or whatever that are domestically produced here by local or semi. Local companies. So, yeah, I'm excited to talk about this. This I'm excited to talk about. I should say emphasize it that way.
The United States has a history of going to France and winning everything, so hopefully the Olympics will be the same as two world wars.
Well, that's the thing, isn't the Olympics.
Fewer casualties?
That's the thing. That is a thing. Yeah. I'm super stoked on this Olympics.
When does.
When are opening ceremonies, Johnny?
I think. Okay, I think it's the 25th Christmas present,
so. So, yeah, so. But before we get into the. These domestic products here, some of our favorites that are made relatively nearby. Let's do some fresh points. And, Johnny, you want to start us out?
Sure. I was in Boston two weeks ago for very hot days and then very rainy days, so we spent a lot of time in our hotel. But I did make time, of course, to go to bobsleigh, which is like, every time I go there, a little more awesome than it was before, even though they largely have the same stuff. Maybe. I don't know, I'm better at going in there, not buying a lot of stuff I don't need, which is good. Kept it under 100 bucks. But I did talk to someone that worked there because they were on the John Dickerson podcast wavelgazing on the last episode. I was pretty sure it was her, but she said I was only the third person that mentioned it, which I find hard to believe. So maybe people are.
I think it's kind of a. Kind of a niche podcast, right?
Like, that's like through the roof. It'd be like three people, man. Podcast hasn't been out that long.
I thought she'd be like, oh, my God, another one.
But another one.
A nice chat about stuff, which is cool.
That's cool.
And I also went to Muji, which you have to go to, and they redesigned their caps pens. Like, the cap is shaped a little differently now, and they've added 0.7 in a couple of the colors. So they, you know, they're always 0.38 and 0.5, which aren't actually that different for them, but they're, you know, gushy gel pens, which I've never seen from Boogie. And I found bookbinding gear there. They have, I guess, like a knockoff olfa knife, but they also have like a half size knockoff alpha knife and this cute little holder for spare blades that'll also hold when you break them off. But they're behind the counter after I spent like 45 minutes looking for them. But those are cool. They also have a ruler there that has like a steel wire embedded inside so you can use it to cut against even though it's plastic, so you can see through it and not destroy it. And it was like six bucks or something. So if you're crafty, like, go dig around a muji. There's some neat stuff there. They also had. They call them a Japanese pocket notebook. They were like $1.90 full of this really, really thin, crispy paper that actually took fountain pens and pencils really nicely. So they had a diary, which I picked up for Henry that's like half an inch thick, but it's page for every day of the year. I think that was it.
Tomorrow river paper. Or was it some other kind of.
No, it was definitely more opaque than that. But yeah, like, every time I go there, I find something else cool. And last time they were having some supply chain issues. They were out of a lot of stuff. But, you know, you still find cool stuff. They. They have some neat new highlighters. One was called, like, dusty cyan or something like. Like, that is. That's a color I want to have.
So.
Yeah, well, I. I reckon. I reckon dusty cyan is here.
Oh, my God.
Most high maintenance mountain mountain man there is. That was a high maintenance cowboy there is.
He's gonna make you about highlighter ink. Gonna bleed like highlighter ink on cheap ass paper boy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Insulting the paper as part of it. That's funny.
Yeah.
You went from around here, are you?
Yep. My I. A total aside. I was helping my dad do something recently, and he had this paper. I'm like, where did you buy this? I don't even know. It was like the shittiest printer paper I've ever felt my life. Like the minuscule amounts of sweat on my hands were disintegrating it as I put it into my scanner.
The cheapest Amazon basics printer paper.
Oh, it's. It's pulpy. It was almost like newsprint, but it came in a ream. You showed me the package, like, oh,
it's recycled yeah, you can't use it if you're sweating. You can't use it if it's humid, you can't use it if sneezed.
It'll dissolve underwater.
Will dissolve.
And the outside air.
We didn't need it. My. My dad took a digital document, signed it, printed it out, and then asked me to scan it so he could email it. Like, oh, yeah, we don't have to do that. So, I mean, I did it anyway, but okay. For the future.
Okay, Boomer.
Yeah. But, yeah, that's all I got. How about you, Mr. Andy?
A couple things. One, I, you know, I'm typically, you know, a humble man, but I have decided that I'm going to take all. All potential credit that I might be owed and due for predicting the Blackwing 746.
Hey. So. Yes.
Yeah, that one. I think some of it was just because I knew some useless facts until now about the Golden Gate Bridge. But, yes, that came true. I have some in my hand and they feel really, really nice. I. I think they went with that, like, soft touch coating on it, which is nice over some of the, you know, like, patterned ones. Yeah. And as we were talking earlier, some of mine, there's like, just no glue in the ferrule and they just slide right off. So, Johnny, yours was coming out. Coming in a little. Little wrong, right?
Yeah, I think so.
They're not supposed to do that, right?
I don't think so. I have two.
It wasn't like, part of the story feature. Not a bug.
Yeah, yeah,
yeah. I've had that Third Eye Blind song stuck in my head since these came and. Yeah, more. Oh, the jumper. But more than one person I've talked to were like, why did they name it after the height of the bridge where people kill themselves? Like, I don't think that's the height which people jump.
I think that's the spire at the height of, like, how tall the tallest spire is.
Yeah.
I don't think you can get up there.
Yeah.
But I would. It would give me pause.
Yeah, it's. It's extremely windy walking across the Golden Gate Bridge. So, you know, if you were up there, you would just get blown right off.
Yes.
These look so good.
Were we talking about pencils?
Yes.
I don't know. Wait, this is a pencil shaft.
So I get. I feel like they made the erasers first.
Yeah.
And then match the paint to the eraser. Because no one's ever matched something that well.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I mean, unless it's like, black. But yeah, they're like exactly same color.
Comparing my Blackwing 746 to one of the many Golden Gate Bridge dead prince field notes that I have. Like that orange is just like straight on, so it's like matches. It matches what field notes is using really well, which is I'm sure like pantone color match to.
To the bridge.
I wonder what that is.
Yeah, it's good that they what is nailed it as like being semi local. Yeah, it's like. Yeah, it's like they should know it. They should get it right. It's like if field notes did one about like the color of like the Chicago river when they dye it green on St. Patrick's Day or something. Oh, yeah. Yep.
In the Inner harbor and that inexplicable brown that it turns in the summer.
So that was. Yeah, that was a fun surprise. I think one of my favorites, favorite editions in a while. So, yeah, I bought an extra box and I got those pocket notebooks with the bridge on it too.
Oh, how are the notebooks?
Oh, they're fine. They're still, you know, the Blackwing memo books are. They're. I don't know. They're fine. They're about. They're a little bit wider than like, like a field notes. So I. I enjoy their size.
They.
They actually remind me a little bit of like a slightly bigger Baron fig. Whatever the little ones are called. Vanguards.
No.
Yeah, Vanguards. Okay.
I can't. Yeah. Baron fake does such a good job on their dimensions.
Yeah.
Yeah. So second fresh point was I was in Seattle a couple weeks ago, like right before or right right after we recorded last time, I took a trip to the Pacific Northwest and I was in Vancouver and I was in Victoria, bc, and I went to Seattle for a few days and I mainly went, you know, I was in the area, so I wanted to like, see some friends and also go into the Microsoft office, which is just like insanely huge. It's very. Reminds me of the Facebook days. It's like really, really big campus. But one of the things I did when I was there was I met just Tina Koyama, friend of the show Tina. And I was like, hey, do you want to get a beer? And she's like, hey, do you want to have a pencil meetup? So we did and it was really fun. I met. I've seen, I've met Tina before a few years ago, pre pandemic. And I met Alicera, our friend Alicera, who hand drew our logo. He came in person along. He brought Ernest Theodore, like the mascot
of the whole Thing.
So, yeah, gotta. Got a picture. Ernest Theodore is very big and very sweet and very drooly.
Excellent.
Yeah, yeah, very sweet. And so he was there. Ann Seipe was there, who has been a just long time erasable listener and patron and also admin of our erasable group on Facebook. So she and her daughter came, and she lives, like, in somewhere in, like, Eastern Washington. So she kind of traveled a distance to come. Come to the hangout. But yeah, it was. It was really fun. One. One really fun thing Alicera brought. He just, like, had a giant bag, and he just, like, whipped out an El Casco and just like, plopped it right down there in the table.
As one does.
As one does. Everybody's like, oh. So we, yeah, just like, really
just
started playing with sharpening pencils in the El Casco, and Anne opened her big, like, case of old Blackwing editions, and then there was a Blackwing 24 in there, the, you know, the Steinbeck ones. And so I was like, oh, may I sharpen one of those in the El Casco? So, yeah, so I'm. That's sitting here on my desk. I made sure not to use it so I can keep that. That point pristine. But it was a very nice experience. So you guys missed the, like, if,
like, if somebody walked by while you were doing that, I was just thinking about, like, you know, you put the El Casco down. Like, all these people at this table were just like, whoa. Like, what it would look like from the outside. Like, think about that from, like, hobby. It's like you put a guitar in the middle of the table, and everybody's like, oh, my gosh. Or you put a fountain pen. Like, it would just look so funny.
No matter what it is, some guy's just like, what are you guys going on about? That's just the guitar.
Yeah, that's like the. When people ask me about, like, what is your podcast about? And we get into that whole conversation, like I've said before, I'll end up saying, you know, no matter what you're into, you can go way further than you could possibly imagine. Like, there'll be something to talk about every day. It's like, that could be how I explain it. Be like, yep. Like, really about pencils? Like, just imagine your favorite thing in the world, and you're at a table surrounded by 10 people who also love that favorite thing, and you put something in the middle, and all of you are excited. It's like, that's. That's why we talk about this stuff. Like, that's what we're going for.
Yeah.
So finding that community kind of among, you know, just. I'm. I'm not in Seattle very often, and, you know, it's not super far, but it's out of town just to find, like, just a little group of people who really love the thing you love. That's really. That's really cool to do. So that's. That's the big advantage of this podcast and this community was just being. Being able to find those people in real life. Yeah. So that is it for me.
I mean, that's sweet and all, but tell us more about the El Casco. Whatever.
Whatever.
The El Casco.
I mean, I will. I will just say that Viewing Port in the top is really cool and fun. Like, we've Have. Have we all seen an El Casco in person? I'm trying to think of. They were at the Baltimore pen show.
I saw it from, like, several feet away.
Okay.
Yeah, I was afraid to touch it.
Yeah, yeah, it's a. It has a little tiny viewing port, maybe a little bit bigger than a quarter at the top, so you can kind of see where your pencil is in the, like, while it's being sharpened. So I think that's a useful thing.
Yeah. Yeah. Really cool.
Tim, how about you?
Well, the. The first thing would be about how me and my favorite songwriter, our Venn diagrams keep overlapping more and more and more, and I think it's time that we just officially become best friends.
Yeah, I know.
I know you're listening, Jason.
Yeah. And John Dickerson, you're in this, too. We've got way too much overlap for us not to be. And I know you know Jason, so maybe you can introduce us. I don't know. Interviewed him on CBS Sunday Morning, so. Yes. So Jason Isbull just came out or what? However you want to say it. He had teamed up with Field Notes to make a set of notebooks for. To, like, sell on tour as, like, a special piece of merch that you could buy at the shows. And now they're selling them on the Field Notes website as well, and they are pretty fantastic. And he is, I mean, my favorite songwriter in the world. I love all of his albums. I'm a super fan. I interacted with him in a situation I don't think I talked about on the podcast, and I'm still not going to because I don't want. I got to meet him, and he's awesome. Like, he's a really great guy. So anyways, this was just, like, one of those moments where this happened. I heard about it from Andy first and then I immediately got like five other text messages from people that weren't even all like, pencil people. Like, they were just like, I know you like this shit and I know you like Jason Ispel. And somehow I just found out about this. So, yeah, I bought a couple of them. I'm excited.
Did you get them yet?
Oh, yeah, yeah. They came in the other day. So I'm actually, I haven't even started one yet because I'm finishing up the. Whatever that one is that I was talking about last time. The. I'm looking at a different one now to find the name. The Heartland Edition. So I'm finishing up one of those and then I'm gonna. Going to break into them. But they're really cool.
Yeah, they look amazing.
And when I open them, actually, Jane was like sitting with me and she actually. No, it was even before I ordered them. I just showed it her on the phone, which when I show her this kind of stuff, she's like, yes, sure, show me the thing that you like that I don't really think about that much, you know. But even with this one, I showed it to her, she's like, that's cool. I don't think I've ever seen field notes use, like, handwriting on the COVID I was like, excellent point. I don't know if I've seen that either. But, like, that is the. Probably my favorite one, which is one of the editions has just a. It's kind of like an overlaid. Yeah, it's like. It's like a page from a notebook, but like with two or three other pages from other. From the notebook, like overlaid on top of each other. So, like, they're different inks and they're right on top of each other. So I think it like overlaps. But yeah, definitely. As a fan, it's like every word on there, you're like, I know what song that's about. I know that's from. I know that's from. And then they had one which was the band on stage in kind of a Blue Tone kind of thing, which looks really cool when you open all of them. When you open up the whole book, the COVID extends across the back. Like, it connects. It also wraps around until you see the whole stage, you see the whole or like a good spread of the notebook. And then the last one is of his hand with like his ring that he's always worn on his finger and he's playing a guitar and it's like a close up on his hand. Which from being a super fan, I know that that is his gold topless or sorry, not gold top. His sunburst Les Paul. It's called Red Eye, which is like one of the more. More valuable instruments in the country. Like, it's a super valuable Les Paul. It was owned by one of the members of Leonard Skynyrd.
Oh, wow.
Like a. So it's a super famous guitar. It has this red dot on it because it sat. The story is that it's called Red Eye because it sat in the window of the store so long that the burst faded everywhere but where the sticker was hanging. And so the red eye in the middle of it is the. Where the. It had faded while it was sitting. Sitting in the window in Alabama or wherever it was. But yeah, I'm super excited about these. They're lined, which I haven't used in like quite a while. But yeah, just a really cool collaboration, especially with Wilco. And they actually. Jason Isbel actually played at Solid Sound Festival, Wilco's festival that they throw every. It's like every other year in Massachusetts this past weekend. So they're definitely have that overlap as well. They both have their own.
Take all of your field notes and just have everybody sign.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. The other thing I was going to mention was curious and I apologize if we've talked about it, but I Surely we haven't for a while. Have you ever seen this book? It's called Quintessence the Quality of Having It.
No.
So this book came out, as far as I can tell, in like 2001. It's out of print, but it is a book where this guy. And I'm trying to remember where I heard about it. Like I. Part of me thought it might have been John Dickerson's podcast, but it was something where I heard it referenced, not related to Pencils, but it was a book put together by this. There's two authors listed, Owen Edwards and Betty Kornfield. I don't. Kornfeld. One of them might have been the editor or something. I don't know. But. But the book is just this designer who takes all these categories and just picks like, what's the quintessent? This, you know, and like. So the book is called the Quality of Having It Quintessence the Quality of Having It. So it's like having that X factor or whatever. I was like, I saw it for some other reason. It might have been. I think it was actually like a guitar or something. Wait, did. Is this. Did this book come up when we were talking about the. The like 33 and a third series and the. The pencil book. Okay.
It's come up sometime. I remember the title.
Okay. But anyways, so I. I had saw it for some other reason. I was like, I bet the pencil's in there, you know? And so I look it up. Sure enough, it's like one of the hundred that they picked. And they also picked fountain pen, like Penny, like the. The ultimate pen. I think I sent these to you guys, like, when I first found out about it, but I thought it was super cool. I'd like to get a copy of the book, but it's one of those that the used copies are really.
You can get on Amazon for $290.
Yeah, like, I don't. Yeah, that's. I'm looking at that too. And it's like. I don't know if that's because it's Amazon and not many people are selling it there or if this is like one of those books that people who are in the design world will sort of like, want to collect, but it just does one page, which, like, with one picture. And it's got the sort of quintessential item. And so for the pencil. And maybe we can post this, like, screen. This is out of print. We can put this screenshot in the show notes or something. But the pencil was the Faber Mongol number two pencil. And they write this little essay about it. And for every one of these essays on all these different topics, it's really well written, but it's really concise. So I don't know, it's a. It's a fun little read. The Mongol has been the pencil since the time of the California gold rush. This one sentence that I just picked out of there, so it's cool. And then for the fountain pen, they said the Mont Blanc Diplomat. So, Johnny, do you have one of those?
A Mont Blanc Diplomat?
Yeah, that's what it said. That's what that was the book.
No, I do not know.
Are they very expensive?
The Mont Block meister struck number 149. So I guess that's.
I've.
I've seen it called the 149. Maybe. Is this just the Diplomat name?
Oh, they're talking about that on the. In the Wes Anderson commercial for the.
That is not a cheap pen. Yeah, very boring.
Yeah, but I mean, it is a boring choice. This is. It was 2000, 2001, but 1999, somewhere around there.
Came out 100 years ago.
100 years ago.
I feel like they're like a Lot of really good pens that would have beaten it if they'd written it later.
Yeah. Or if it wouldn't have picked like the one that was like on their
desk or something like Alami 2000, although I guess that would have been out in 2001.
Everything about it is significant, from its howitzer shell heft description. It's howitzer shell heft. To its blackness. From the six pointed trademark snow cap left off pen sold in Arab countries because of its resemblance to the Star of David, to the 14 karat gold nib engraved with the number 4810, the height in meters of Mon Block. Man, did you guys get chills.
I did. I. I mean, I learned something new. I didn't realize that they didn't have the snow peak in the.
Yeah, that is. That was kind of a fun fact.
Yeah.
Yeah. But anyways, the book was super interesting and you can actually, you can find it. I found it on archive.org on their like library. Yeah. And so you can find it there and check it out for like two hours or something to flip around. It's not very long, but it's. It's a cool little book. Cool. All right, well, let's get. You guys want to get in the main topic? Yeah. Usa. Usa. Sorry. Time traveled again. All right, so while there are so many iconic pencils like the Ticonderogas, the Black Wing, the Mongol that are no longer made in America, there are still a few companies chugging along and producing quality pencils in these states. So we thought about going over a few of these companies and just kind of given. And you know, maybe you haven't been listening to the podcast for, you know, all the way back at the beginning or you haven't heard about these, all talked in the same sort of episode. But there are really only a handful of companies that in the states that still manufacture pencils in the states. And so we're gonna talk about these together. And first, the one to. To bring up and for me is one that I have like, it's. I was going to say I have like the least amount of experience with, but I think I have the least amount of experience with them actually branded as JR Moon. They do a lot of white labeling stuff and I'm sure I've seen tons of that. Yeah. So they make stuff for a lot of other labels like the USA Gold, which you can buy at Target. Caroline Weaver got them to bring back the Futura for her shop a few years ago. Really cool pencil. So semi three sided cedar dream in A vivid pink. So Moon also produces a few variants of the Tri Rex, which we've talked about before in our conversations about triangular pencils. And those are ones that still float around with my kids all over the house. So. But it was, you know, so they had that pencil out designed to promote proper pencil grip. And you can also find their pencils a lot at teacher supply stores. So I guess they sell them on a. On a discount to certain markets. So. Yeah, I wasn't familiar that J.R. moon existed before we started this podcast as opposed to the other two.
Yeah, I, I knew about the Futuras. Wait, I can't remember. Are the original. Original Futuras JR Moon 2?
I don't remember if they're Moon or Richard. Yeah, I think like some of their own umbrella.
Yeah, but yeah, I was familiar with those, but I. Yeah, I definitely didn't just. I think I had some Tri Rexes but never thought too much about it. But yeah, it was surprising me too that they're still around.
Yeah. I mean Tribexes are ugly, but really cool pencils.
Yeah.
They feel nice in your hand.
Nice wood.
Yeah.
Yeah. I was trying to look up the name of the koala in the movie Sing.
Huh?
Sure. Yeah. Because his name. Hang on, I'm gonna, I'm gonna find this reminded me like somewhere I see, oh, his name is Buster Moon. So every time I see JR Moon from now, I think of the koala played by like somebody surprising like Matthew McConaughey or something. But yeah, Buster Moon. For some reason I thought he had like an initial for his first name too, but Buster J. Moon. Where? Buster J. Maybe that was it. Where are they located?
I want to say somewhere in Tennessee, but that just could be an assumption factory.
I'm gonna look that up. Lewisburg, Tennessee.
Okay. Yeah.
Okay.
Not too far from Pencil City.
Yeah. So I wonder what it is about like, you know, J.R. moon not sort of having the same. It's like how does Junior Moon get by when at least generals and you know, Musgrave. You'll get recognized or you'll see them sort of out there. They're a little more like known. Is it just because they're so white label?
I don't know. Those USA Gold pencils are everywhere.
Yeah.
Like whenever I see a pencil on the ground at my kids school, it's one of those.
Yeah, I guess that. Yeah, they're just. They stay under the radar. Like they, they probably aren't like they realize they. This is just easy money because they don't need to like market and sell their own products if they're just making them all for Walmart.
That's true. And it's all the same color. They're probably like, you know, massively bigger than some of the other companies because they're just like, no, no, no. We sold out long ago.
I don't think they have a website. Moon Pencil company.
Yeah, they used to have a website for Help Me the USA Golds. It was like, right dudes. I think they're right dudes. Crazy art.
Right dude.
Yeah.
So they're really out there.
If there are any like aspiring duggers out there in the world, J.R. moon. Moon products is ready for a brand
refresh and they need your help.
Cool logo and a website. So. So get on that. Start. Start cold calling and tell them every school sent you.
Yeah. And get back to Cedar. They, you know, like everyone else. They stopped making cedar pencils.
Yeah.
See sad face.
More like wrong dudes.
Although they switched to board dudes because they were concentrating on like whiteboard stuff. Yes. Like, it would be really interesting to like research that because you're the dudes brand again.
They really need some marketing help.
Somebody out there can do this. I believe in you.
You can do this.
Well, should we talk about General Pencil?
Yeah, I was just going to share one. One other thing that I discovered. I didn't know this until like today was just that. So the founder's name was James R. Moon and he was a high school teacher, which is super interesting. So he was a high school teacher, became a principal and was even in the. He was a Tennessee state senator for a little while and owned the company until 98.
I was gonna say in all her spare time and as all. All his extra money as a high school. As a teacher, he started the company.
Oh, sure. This is a teacher in the 1960s, so I'm guessing his life wasn't too terribly stressful.
Okay, got it.
He was probably smoking while teaching. Know he's like. Exactly.
With the students.
Yeah, yeah, smoking like bum and smokes to students and. Yeah. Anyways, I just. Yeah. Interesting. Oh, and it does say in this. Including its iconic Futura line of pencils with the TRX shape. So they did have some. They. They were associated with. With Futura before. Maybe they pulled the name and like made a new kind of pencil with that, you know, using that original name. Yeah, yeah.
That's fun.
Owned by Mega Brands, which sounds very appropriate.
Is Mega Brands a Walmart company?
I think they're bigger than Walmart. Oh, they're. They're trans National Trans. Box.
Yeah.
Big selling stuff in space. Yep.
Yep. That's why mirror smells like cedar. The mirror's gone. Forget I said that. Yeah, it's s. I just made myself sound really old.
Yeah, well, didn't. Didn't have to try too hard. So. Speaking of old, the General Pencil Company is just another fun, just cool American pencil brand. It is founded in 1860 when Edward Weizenborn helped found the first pencil factor in the USA in Hudson County, New Jersey. So they started later the General Pencil Company. And interestingly, the headquarters is now in Redwood City, California, which is not too far from San Francisco. It's just maybe 20 miles down the. Down the coast on the way to San Jose. And the very brief time that I worked@pencils.com I actually met Katie Weizenborn, who is the something, something, granddaughter and owner of General Pencil, at least as of, like, a couple years ago. She and me and Charles Barelsheimer had breakfast. That was really cool. They. They're based in Redwood City, but they produce their pencils in New Jersey, just. Just outside of New York. They concentrate, I think, mostly on, like, art pencils. They also have some really great ones, like the Semi Hex, which is one of the first kind of like, reappreciation of yellow pencils that I had. The goddess, the Kimberly Badger, things like that. They also make one of. One of the ones that are just in my top top 10, the Cedar Point, which is just such a pleasure to hold. We've talked about it so much on here. Um, they also. Speaking of the Cedar Point, they listened to their customers because after they discontinued the Cedar Point, number one, we're pretty sure. I don't.
I don't.
Guys.
We don't think we have it proven right, but we're pretty sure that outcry from our community got them to change their minds.
I mean, it would be very surprising if they were coincidences.
Yeah.
Because it happened.
Not the massive majority out there. The people just flooded in from. I mean, from our listenership.
They get like three calls maybe, and then they're just like, hey, holy crap.
The phone rings. The phone rings at General Pencil Company. They're like. They all get jumped. Like, I didn't even know we still had a phone.
We got faxes, paid the phone bill.
We got like three faxes today.
Jeez, we're working overtime, boys.
So anyhow, they may or may not. I think we should claim it as a win. They brought back the number one after. After our outcry. So it is slightly, slightly ever so soft. Softer version of their naked cedar pencil. So that's one of those pencils we've talked about where, like, it's so kind of naked that if you, you know, hold it for too long, you're kind of like putting a little patina on the wood with your hand oils. Like it's. Yeah, yeah, it's a good.
Mine smell like coffee.
Yeah.
Just not joking.
I sell them, so. Soaking it all in. So what? Anybody have any other kind of favorite generals besides ones we mentioned?
I mean, I'll talk about them more later, but I love the test. Scoring 580.
Yeah.
And the. The layout pencil, which is like magic.
Yeah,
the layout pencil was one of my. Oh, good.
Oh, no, please do. Please go ahead.
I'd say the layout pencil was one of my early, like, gateway pencils or whatever. It was like, one of those first that, like, was like the next little jump over from, like, the stuff I was finding in stores. And I was like, oh, this is interesting. I think I saw it at, like, a. I don't know, Hobby lobby or Michael's kind of place. I was like, I'll try that out. Oh, this is cool. It was, like, kind of a different experience. That was a big one for me. I love that one. I know a lot of people really love the news, too. What's it called? The news?
Yeah. Oh, no, the news is the.
That's Musgrave.
That's Musgrave.
Oh, that's Musgrave. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That is a cool pencil, though.
Yeah, that is an awesome.
Yeah, I completely. So I went to the must the general pencil website, which, by the way, is very good. They must have redone it lately. This feels very much like the Musgrave website. I completely forgot about the big bear. The jumbo pencil.
Oh, yeah. It's like a semi jumbo.
Yeah,
yeah. And it has that. This really cute little bear just on the front of it. So
weirdly used one of those, like, today, a big one that Johnny. One that Johnny sent to us because we've got, like, all those, like, he would send all these, like, jumbo pencils for the kids, and they're all, like, still up, like, roving around our living room and stuff. And so I was. Today. I forgot about that.
I didn't realize. Apparently you can get them on their website and you can get them with an eraser, without an eraser. I've never seen one with an eraser.
Oh, those are, like. They look so good. A really fancy kind of, like, long, feral.
Oh, man, I might have to Wonder
I'll take some up around here somewhere. A kid's pencil cup.
Anywho. Yeah, that's my general pencil story.
Yeah. So I think nobody listens to their customers more than Musgrave, especially lately. So if you know what a $10 pencil looks like, then you've seen the gen. The Musgrave Cedar Point. Cedar Point. Oh my God. Single Barrel 106, which is named in honor of episode 106 in which we got to interview Mr. Henry Hulen for a long time, but still felt like not long enough. Could have been like all day. Oh, yeah, yeah. Musgrave goes Back to what, 1917? Yeah, pretty sure it's 1917. And yeah, they're still where they have always been producing stuff in the same. Same factory that's family owned by the same family. So like they're. They just really do some cool stuff and just.
They so want to go explore their basement with a flashlight.
That's how they found those old slats for the single barrel. I'm like, imagine like, wait, you found a bunch of burlap bags full of slats? Like, that is cool. So awesome. But they do a lot of Nicholas Cage.
We're making a movie. Yeah.
I'm gonna go find pencils. Good impression. But yeah, they. If you go to a teacher store and you find like, you know, excited first grader or birthday, all these like ballistic looking pencils, they're probably made by Musgrave. And then they have their own line which are really, really good pencils. And they've sort of been expanding on those a little lately. And correct me if I'm wrong, they're the only mass produced pencil made of red cedar. Currently. The Tennessee Red.
Yeah.
Oh, definitely mass produced.
Yeah. And they. I know they'll do tenant. They'll do red cedar for some like larger custom orders. Like how large? I said they did some for a summer camp once and they looked so good. And they also do the. They have that carpenter pencil, the Sidekick. That's red cedar.
Oh, I didn't realize. I forgot that that was red cedar.
And that one's laser etched, so it smells like cedar campfire. It's so good. But yeah. Do you guys have ones that stand out for you?
I mean, I'm always a test scoring 100 kind of. Kind of girly. I love that. Just like weird thin silver varnish and it's just really dark and holds its point really well considering.
Yeah. They have the. A couple new versions of the Bugle. They. I think Musgrave has started carrying the Ones that CW pencils had that are half black and half whitish in honor of those cookies. And I don't understand where the party edition came from that has like the vermilion foil stamping, but I love it. That's a really good pencil.
Yeah.
So, yeah, do you want to. Sorry, this is a bad segue.
Oh, sorry. I was on mute and I was trying to talk like, to like I was filling in those gaps, but you guys didn't hear me. Yeah. So
I was being a real good podcaster. If only I wasn't on you shocked I had mentioned.
I was like, yeah, I'll talk about later with the Tennessee round and the. And the songwriter. And you guys were like, crickets. I was like, okay, I guess those aren't as popular as I thought they were.
Nope.
Jeez, guys, you didn't tell me that sooner. But yeah, more about those later. So why don't we do a quick, like, rundown. Let's talk about our. Our five favorite American made pencils with at least one from the brands above and, you know, just a little, little bit about them. I'll go first and then we'll go kind of like one at a time through each of us. So me, Andy, Johnny. So the first one I wanted to bring up, which, you know, still exists, but I don't think they make these. Well, I know they don't make these in the States, but the Laddie was the first one I wanted to bring up from Ticonderoga. So which is the kind of like, what do they call? Mini jumbo whatever from ladies. It's not a full on jumbo, it's kind of a smaller one. It was my good size ultimate favorite at the early days of these podcasts. I loved it. I love that it had like sort of a wider width. Sort of felt like a pen in a way. And it was round, which was like my first discovery into like, oh, gosh, I love round pencils. So that is my, my hard number one for me, which I know, like, they eventually weren't made here, they were made elsewhere. But like, I've got some of the older ones and even the older ones I really love before they had ferals on them. Those cool blue ones. Like them more now than I did the last time I talked about on the podcast because my appreciation for harder pencils has, like, grown over time and
they, the older ones are the same color scheme as the big Bear and the same. Yeah, probably not an accident. I don't know who came first. It could have been like some Weird school regulation.
It must be muddy.
Breaking news. Breaking news 75 years after the fact. It's like, so what's the real story? Why did you pick the same color? Yeah, I love that one. Andy, what about you?
I think, you know, the American made golden Bear. I mean, it's. It's made at Musgrave, but using, I think, black wings or whatever you want to call them, Kelseyders kind of formula for it. So definitely, like the. The American blade Golden bears kind of the best.
Sorry. I'm gonna go with Musgrave Tennessee Red first, of course, because it takes all the boxes. It's natural. It's American made. It's delicious. It has a nice dark core. It's not stupidly expensive or hard to get, and I have, like, a lot of them. Probably should get more
for my number two. I'm just going to, like, piggyback on you. That my. The second one I was gonna say was the Tennessee round, so. Which I mentioned earlier. So I like the round take. Nice transition from the Laddie, but, you know, very similar pencil, but a really cool one that I still love and I use all the time.
Yeah, I forgot. I don't know how I forgot about the Tennessee round, but that's a good one. I think my second one is also a Musgrave pencil. It's the test scoring 100, as I mentioned earlier. Just a. It's a weirdo. And it was one of the kind of, like, early pencils that I really noticed its performance compared to others. So nice and dark and. And smooth while still being, like, you know, holding this point pretty well. So that's me.
I'm gonna go with General's Test scoring. 580.
The other Test scorer.
Yeah, I. I want to like the Musgrave one better, but the Generals with pink eraser and the black paint, and I feel like the core is a little less smeary, and it's still cedar, which puts it up.
But.
Yeah, that's a really good pencil.
Yeah.
OG Team.
I'm gonna go with another Ticonderoga, which, actually, I'm putting this on the list, but I don't know that this was ever made in the States, now that I'm thinking about it, because we're having that, like, now. So this might be disqualified, but the. The Ticonderoga, which I think it was called the Renew at one point, and then eventually it was just called the, like, tennis Ticonderoga. Recycled wood.
That sucks. Yeah, those were. Those only came out, like, less than 10 years ago. I Think the enviro stuff's been around for a long time, but that one's not cedar.
Yeah, that's very new. That one's disqualified. Let me pick another one. Hang on, give me a second.
Yeah, well, it's made of red cedar, so. Or incense cedar. It probably came from the U.S. it's some point.
Came from the U.S. came from.
That's not what we're talking about here, Johnny.
Sorry.
I'll. I'll swap that one out and I'll put the. The cedar point number one. Okay. Like the cedar point one is my number three. We already talked about that one. But that. Well, I'm gonna admit defeat and disqualify myself in that round.
Well, you. You stole my number three, which is the cedar point. That. That's a really good.
Oh, sorry. No, no, it's a scrolled. I didn't. I didn't have ears in view in the document. Sorry.
It is just fine.
Go on.
You know, you feel how you feel.
It's. Yeah.
Just a pleasure to hold. It looks nice. It is. It's just. You feel like you can buy it one of those places where just like the very like hipster camping store where they have like really expensive tin coffee mugs and like designer like stoves or whatever, and then there's just like, you know, some cedar points there in a box.
So
that's good.
That's a good point.
Yeah.
Love me a cedar point. Johnny. How about you?
I'm gonna go with the Futura. The. I mean, the older ones had that print where the F went over one side of the pencil, which I don't know if people do that anymore on a non round pencil, but they were so pretty. And the version that came out at CW was super nice. It was my oldest kid's favorite pencil for a long time. So we have a lot of them around, but they were just like, I don't know, cool, under the radar, like, well, I can't believe how good this pencil is. Pencil.
Yeah.
Tim, how about your number four?
So I need a little help here because actually I'm doubting myself. But the next one that I picked up was the CW pencils. Baseball scoring, which was that made by J.R. moon.
Yeah, that was Generals.
That was Generals. Okay. Could remember, but that. Yeah, so that. That's my. My next one. So I love that. Sticking with, you know, my round pencils that I love. I like American round pencils. I guess now that I look further down my list. More on that later. But I just loved it. I mean, there's the baseball connection, of course, for me. So there's like, sort of the personal, like. Oh, it's like somebody made something, like, had me in mind. I was like, I would always have loved to have this. So there's that. But also the round pencil. I like the white color. You know, the color scheme, it was just really awesome. The packaging was cool, even, you know, when. When those first came out, really cool. Cool box that they put them in. So.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's my next one.
That is a good one.
Yeah.
Except that that foil just, like, melts. Yeah. It comes off in your fingers. My number four, I think. I don't know. Yeah, I think my number four is the German Futura. Like the CWA pencils one. It is a little bit more, like, carefully crafted. And the one thing that it doesn't have compared to the old ones is that little pink stripe on the feral. Oh, yeah, that's.
That.
That was a nice touch.
I get we don't. We don't stripe our ferals much anymore, but, yeah, that's a good pencil. It was always, like, a touch light for me, but if I wanted something that I can just write and write and write and not have to worry about sharpening and, like. That's a good one.
Oh, good call.
So speaking about the sharpen, I'm going to go with the General's layout, which is like, some kind of sorcery. It's dark, but it doesn't smear, and the point lasts forever. So, I mean, I'm assuming there's something else in the graphite, like some sort of, like, other carbon, because it's not very shiny and it's not, like, dark gray. It's black.
Yeah.
And they're round and cedar, and they have that really cool kind of gaudy imprint that also comes off on your hands. But, yeah, they're really good. You can get them, like, everywhere arts art supply stores for, like, a couple bucks.
Those are with American, you know, American pencils. And these colors do run.
I'm telling myself it's some kind of, like, environmental regulation. Like when I had a 2004 Mazda and the paint just, like, flew off when you drove it because of some regulation they hadn't worked out yet, but I bet that's not it. It's probably cheaper. Usa.
Tim, what is your number five?
Yeah, so my last one, another round pencil is the Musgrave songwriter that. But the Musgrave tribute to Dolly Parton. So, yeah, I mean, I love that one. I got to be, like, in the. You know hear about it a little bit beforehand. It was just so exciting. I was really excited about that. So that would be my. My last choice, the songwriter.
That's a really good one.
How about you?
I. I had to get the single barrel 106 on this list somewhere just because it's. That's connection to us. And I wouldn't say it's a great pencil to actually write with like that.
Oh, really? I love writing with those.
Really? Okay.
Yeah, they. I know that Mr. Hewland said he was really picky about the core, but it like doesn't smear. It's nice and dark, but not silly.
I guess the writing's fine. It's really just like the sharpening and all that old wood. That is what I'm not a huge fan of, but I have a couple just in my little pen cup and it's a fun one to show people and be like, oh, this 106. This is because of us. And people roll their eyes and like, okay, yeah, sure.
You know what? I'll prove it.
That's me.
So I'm going to jump on the Musgrave train again. And I can't pick between the harvest number one and the harvest Pro because the harvest number one is basically perfect. But the harvest pro is cedar. So if they had a baby and there was a harvest Pro number one that had that stripe on the feral. Speaking of striped ferals, that would be possibly my favorite Musgrave pencil besides the Tennessee Red.
Nice. Nice choice. Cool. Well, so what are some other, like. So aside from pencils, other domestic highlights in this realm. So this could be notebooks, accessories, whatever that are made in the US that give you some sort of. Yeah. Special feeling. So I would. I'll throw it over you. Andy, why don't you go first?
I mean, the ones that just kind of come to mind for me are, you know, my. Two of my favorite notebook companies field notes and write notepads. Like, I. I mean, I haven't seen much from. From the right notepads folks lately. But, you know, it's a. It's a place where we like, you know, we know the people who work there, we know the owners. We have been to their factory before. We have partied in the right notepads.
Oh, yes. Until the very wee hours. Yeah, very, very we hours and was playing.
It was karaoke playing the guitar for us.
So.
Yeah.
Right.
Notepads is just a great company and. And brand and their notebooks are very good quality. And also field notes. Like they field notes is a much, much larger company but they're still very committed to like making things in the US And I just love how they can find all of these different binderies and presses and places around the US that can do what they need to have done to their notebooks. Um, like the story that accompanied the. What's the edition that had the gold, the gilted edge.
Oh, oh, crap.
Yeah, that one.
Yeah.
New Year's one.
It was like December 2014 or something.
Was it ambition?
Ambition, yeah, yeah, yeah. The story about how they'd like track them down was really interesting and yeah, I love, I love the stories that kind of come behind the sourcing list that Field Notes has.
Well, I mean I would definitely echo those two companies and they're, you know, they're both very approachable, the people that work there. Yeah, like. Sure, we'll tell you what, what this is and why we picked it. I appreciate that. But I also have to shout to NotCo, even though they don't exist anymore.
Well, they're. I think that rickshaw is making not co stuff now.
Yeah.
Kind of coupled off based on his
design, which I guess that's another good kind of American.
Yeah.
You know, some of their stuff may not be sourced in the US but they make it all in the us Yeah.
I got a few of them like at the end when they were sort of going out of business. But they take a beat and I love them. And what's that one that holds two pens, the Tallulah? It's like purple, pink and light blue.
Oh yeah, it's.
I gave mine up to someone who I was trying to turn on the fountain pens and I sort of regret it. Don't sort of regret it. Normally take it back.
Definitely.
Yeah. But if I can add another one. South, the company that owns Southworth and Nina Paper, who they come up a lot in older versions of Field Notes and they've used Astro Brights for stuff.
But Asteroid is great.
Yeah, they're one of my big go to brands for bookbinding stuff for. I really like Classic Crest and their capital Bond for making small books. And they make that really cool parchment that's not, you know, animal skin, it's paper. But it looks so good and it's really, really nice to work with. It's delicious for fountain pens and. Yeah. And you know, you can find that the Southworth stuff pretty much anywhere.
Yeah.
I mean it's not cheap but you know, if you make a books out of it, it is. It's your birth. Yeah. Your stock is Free.
Nice. Yeah, I, I think if I had to add something to the list then I forgive me, but it's going to be pen related. But one that like immediately came to mind is Keras Customs pens, which I yeah. Used to be like really into and used to really like and then stopped using them as much. And then I just rediscovered because I found my bolt pen which is like their bolt action aluminum pen that I used, I used to love and just kind of had forgotten about it just because I have too much of this crap all over the place. But like I was just like, oh yeah. And I, you know, put a cartridge in it and I love that pen. So Paris Customs is another one of my like early favorites there. I remember when they came out with their first fountain pen. I think now they're even working. It was all metal, but now I think they're working in like acrylics and stuff as well.
I mean if we're, if we're gonna bring pen brands into this, I think that shown design is also just a really fantastic American company doing really cool stuff. Like manufacturing his own nib was just like pretty mind blowing and just.
Yeah.
The story behind that. So another good. Much different kind of vibe than Keras Customs. But still, still really fun.
Well, yeah, another. If we're, we're talking pens, one last one that like it came to mind that I. I'm pretty sure is still manufactured in the States, but is the Fisher space pen, which I mean ballpoint. That's a little close.
Oh yeah.
But like the Fisher, you know, like making the Fisher space pens here, that's like a sort of other sort of non pencil favorite. Yeah, they were. Those companies still use mine.
They'd go out of business before they moved out of the U.S. yeah.
I don't know anything about, about Fisher.
So they just do the space bends because they, but they're constantly making them better. Like whenever I get one I'm like, wow, this is way inkier. This is way smoother
facility or something.
That would be cool. I think it's in, it's in Nevada.
Yeah.
So not that far to have a non erasable meet up there. There's Nothing less.
Area 51.
Yeah. Did it go up to space or did it come from space?
Well, the casing is. Goes to space. What's in it is from space. I see magical ink. Thixotropic.
Cool. Well, that's.
I don't know.
There's still some good American companies out there, guys.
Yeah. And I mean there are a couple I forgot about like all those other notebook companies. Dapper Notes Story Supply company Word.
Yeah.
And are those lucky books made here?
I thought those were overseas. Okay.
I don't know anything about them except they look really cool.
Yeah. And sorry, I was. I was muted again, but rickshaw. I was gonna say, like we mentioned them earlier, but like, I mean, of course those are made here and put, you know, made here in the States and it's a good company. Makes some good bags and pencil rolls and stuff like that.
Yeah, I forgot they do that.
Oh, I think Jeff Ben sells them.
That's the sound of my. My bank account squeaking.
It's leaking.
Yeah, it's a. Shh. Forget he said that.
All right, well, we want to button it up. Or do we have any other kind of US Companies? We want to make sure we mention
we'll record again before the Olympics, but yeah, go you at Go Team usa. Like, I'm. I'm like a stupid little.
It's like, what kind of stationary are they going to have at the Olympics that we don't know?
Oh, I don't know.
You're gonna see somebody with a black wing on them at some point.
Ah, it's gotta be. There's gotta be. All right, well, if you're going to the Olympics and have a black wing on you, let us know so we
can send us a picture take.
Yes. First. Yeah, save us a ticket. Plane ticket. I mean, to Paris. Alrighty. So, yeah, thank you for listening and we are support our show through our patrons on Patreon. So these are some of our producer level patrons. So they share with us at the $10 a month rate, which is John Schroeder, Ellen Mack Tucker, Nathan Rabeck, Dana Morris, Liz Rotundo, Melissa Miller, Angie Aaron Bollinger, Ida Umphurs, David Johnson, Phil Munson, Valerie Drew, Tom Keakley, Andre Torres, Paul Moorhead, William Modlin, John Capilouti, Stephen Franccalli, Aaron Willard, Millie Blackwell, Michael d', Alosa, Tonaflies and Sipe, Michael Hagan, Chris Metzkus, Mary Collis, Kathleen Rogers, Hans Noodleman and John Wood. So thank you so much to our patrons. So if you want to find out more about our Patreon, you can go to Erasable Us Patreon and find some more information about it there. You can also follow us on, on all the socials, we're on Facebook, we're on Instagram, Raceable Podcast and all those places. So thank you for listening to episode 213 of the erasable podcast and we will talk to you soon.
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