Scribe

It's like, I imagine Johnny walking into a pencil store or like a stationery store like Ron Swanson in that episode where he goes into Home Depot and the guy's like, can I help you? And he's like, I know more than you.

Hello and welcome to The Erasable Podcast. This is episode 242 and I'm Tim Wasem on head hosting duties. Tonight is a or today, whatever time of day it is for you. It is the next installment of our Pencil Primer series, which we're kind of going back and explaining some things in case you've come along later in the process. And we're gonna talk about a little bit of the history and what's behind the different parts of the pencil. Today we're gonna talk about the other side, the eraser, the ferrule, things like that. But first I wanna introduce my two Prime Pencil pals, Andy and Johnny.

Good call.

So how are you doing, you guys? Pretty good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, it is like this whole week has been Miserably hot here. Like it's just, it feels like fall is never gonna come. I know it will eventually. I have faith, but it's, it's been like 90 degrees every single day. Or like air conditioning is like, what's going on?

No, we're starting to get some rain the next few days.

But not nothing like crazy. Yeah. Nothing, nothing too weird.

What part of North Carolina is it in?

Yeah, I thought you're gonna say that they didn't— they don't need FEMA, they just need a strong president. I mean, to stop the flooding.

Um, cool. Well, today, like I was saying, we're doing the third part of our Pencil Primer series, but before that, we're gonna run through some Tools of the Trade and Fresh Points. So Andy, you wanna start us on Tools of the Trade? Yeah.

I've heard it's good. I have not listened to it yet.

Yeah. So that's an episode title right there.

I didn't know about those either until it was like on a, it was some, I don't know, we were watching something on the TV and they did like a segment about her and it was like the life of Dolly Parton, like a little 10-minute segment. And I was like, wait a second. Yeah. I didn't know that existed. So I didn't know about that either.

Oh, cool.

Like, I don't want to cross her. So it's only like, it's gonna be like a week and you're gonna be like, well, I'm on episode 9 of Ken Burns' Country Music. I'm almost done with it.

I've watched 15 hours of country music documentaries.

Yeah. Bristol, Bristol, Tennessee, right down the road.

That's where, that's where they recorded. Like I've been to the place where they recorded.

It was like the, that's what they call the birthplace of country music. Cuz there was like some little studio that recorded a bunch of these people like really early on that got interesting.

He would just walk out of the woods, everyone smiling, just, "Oh, hey, hey, he just does that." Anyhow.

So that's cool.

Okay, so I've never heard of The Gentlemen.

It's wild.

You just made that up.

I want to try that one.

Nice.

Yeah, yeah.

Wink wink wink.

Yeah, so I have been consuming a book. And so I've read a lot of Beatles books over the years. Like, I've read and listened to, like, I don't know, 10 of them or something like that. Uh, and I just got a new one that came out pretty recently, and I think it's my favorite, at least, like, for me. It's like, I've read the individual biographies, and I've read books just kind of like about the Beatles in kind of general, but it's a new one that came out that's specifically, it mentions all of them, but it's called— it's about John and Paul, and it's called John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs. And so the organization of the book is every chapter is a song. So it's like, he uses like what was happening in writing that song and why. So maybe I really am liking it so much because of the songwriting aspect, because they're talking about like what makes this song really amazing, but also like what was going on around this song and when did they write it, where they, you know. And it's really, really good. I'm only maybe 10 chapters in so far. Like, it was— they're just really cool insights in it. I like about She Loves You, which was one of their first big hits, and the way they described it is like, oh well, this song technically is like two guys, friends, bumping into each other on the side of the road and having a conversation about their— one of their girlfriends in a way that at the time would have seemed like a feminine conversation to be like talking, because guys didn't go around, you know, giving each other advice. So I'm like, oh no, she loves you, she really loves you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, promise.

Yeah, she loves you. So, so that was like a cool insight I'd never thought about. They're like, that's one thing about the song that was really unusual because it was like, that wasn't the kind of conversations that guys had. So, and that was interesting. And then also just talked about even the chords, like it starts on the minor, starts on a minor chord and then shifts over like things that they like were explaining why that song, like if you go back and listen to it, why it sort of like hits you like a waterfall, like it's sort of like or like an avalanche, like it's like coming and then, and then it like goes into the song. So it's a great book. I'd recommend it to any Beatles fan and definitely if you have any interest in like songwriting, cuz they get into not like super gritty details. It's still like anyone could read it.

But, but yeah, so that's been really good. I went to see the Oasis reunion documentary in theaters cuz it came to Johnson City. I have no idea why. For like 4 days, I was the only person in the theater and I had the best time. It was so great.

Yeah, it is. It was awesome. And the documentary was amazing. It was so good. It was really like uplifting because it's all like about— a lot of it is about the people who went to these shows who've been waiting for 15 years to hear them again. And so it's, you know, it's not like rehashing all the like beefs between the brothers. It's actually like really positive. It was so good. So highly recommend that to anybody. But it was funny because they only had two showtimes, and for one of the showtimes was like, I couldn't go because it was just the wrong time of day. And I was like, I'll go to this one, but it's, oh, that's weird, it says it has— that's— but I found it really funny because I was like, oh, that's hilarious, because it says it has like automatic subtitles for it. And I was like, that's so funny because they speak English, you know. And then I went and I was like, Thank God I went to this one because I couldn't understand what they were saying. It's like their thick, you know, Manchester accents.

I would've been like, wait, what's going on?

Because they're talking so fast. It's one thing when they're being interviewed and like talking straight to the camera, but when they're talking to each other, you're like, what's, what is happening right now? So I'm really glad I chose that one. I thought it was so funny that that even existed. In the first place. So that was great. I also started watch— or I didn't start watching, I started watching and finished watching Tires. Have you guys watched Tires?

The Shane Gillis show on Netflix.

If you, if you're a Shane Gillis fan, like, but it's, it's a standup comedian. He's the guy who is like, he kind of rubs people the wrong way. He was on SNL and then was kicked off SNL because he said something on his podcast or that guy.

But the show is really funny. It's pretty irreverent, but—

That's Nate Bargatze.

Okay. No, they're very different vibes.

But he's, he's just kind of like big, you know, he's— I like him a lot. I think, I think his comedy's really funny. Sometimes he says things and you're like, oh geez.

I'll just skip that. But the show is about him and his cousin, the character, his character, and then his cousin who are, taking over his cousin's dad's tire shop. There's like 3 seasons, really short, but it's very good. I watched all 3 seasons in like a week, just like blew through them.

Yeah.

But his like goofball cousin keeps like messing with him and doesn't take anything seriously. But it's also like, there is like a, you know, behind it there's kind of like a, A lot of like good messages about like friends caring for each other and like, what does it mean to like, you know, take over a family business? And, but it's set up like The Office or something where there is like a, an overarching storyline, but every episode kind of stands as its own little story. So it's not like an episodic, like, oh, you gotta see what happens next. There's a little bit of that, but you can kind of jump in anywhere. But it was fun.

It's a good show. And writing, I have resurrected— I think this was the first Pilot Metropolitan that I ever got, this guy right here. And it was the one that I had put— when I had to— you used to have to buy the Plumix and like take the medium stub nib off, or the italic nib, and then slide it in. And I just— I haven't stopped using it since I reinked it up. It's just such a fantastic pen. I love this thing so much. And I think this is my favorite ink now that I'm still using. So it's in the green ink family, but this Aurora Borealis.

This one is so good. You can see it's like a sort of a turquoise-ish, like a dark turquoise.

I love writing with a medium metallic nib. It's the best.

Yeah, they're my people. But it's just been a— it's been a joy. Because I have nicer pens and I even got that Nuvolur, whatever, Narwhal pen recently, which I, I like a lot, but I find myself picking this up more often lately. Those are the two that I have inked up and using right now. I actually think I need to switch the nib on the Narwhal back to the medium one because I, I got a fine nib and a medium nib and I think the fine nib's just like not doing it for me. So I'm gonna switch that back.

Yeah, I need to, because I haven't used the medium with like the ink that I'm using now. So I think I'll switch back, see how it is. Cool. So how about Fresh Points, Andy?

Cool.

Damn. Yeah.

I have one, two things. One really quick thing. It was just a cool interaction I had. It was actually over YouTube. Uh, there's, I follow a lot of YouTube channels of guitar players, obviously, like And there's, there's a lot of session guitar players in Nashville, and I was watching one. There's this guy, his name's Justin Nostrander, and he's played on everything. He's played on like a million different records. And in his video, he was talking about— he decided to do a video about like what he takes with him to every single session. And I was watching, and he didn't mention anything specifically, but he was going through all, like, going through all the stuff. And then he said, also, I always take a pencil. He like held one up, and I kind of recognized that it looked like a Tombow or something. And he said something about how he's like, I've actually become like kind of obsessed with pencils. And so I really, you know, and this is—

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so, because he said, you know, they have to write out charts all the time and make notes on their charts and redo things or whatever. And so I sent him a message, and I just, just to say, hey, I love the video, this is interesting, I actually do this podcast, and You know, happy to like share some pencils with you if you want anything. And he responded and, and he said like, oh no, he did mention specifically the pencil cuz the pencil that he was holding was the, yeah, that's right. It was the Blackwing Volumes 33 1/3. He's like, cuz he likes the grip, grippiness of it. And of course the theme is, the theme fits. So anyways, I had this like cool interaction and he was telling, yeah, oh, I love Tombow 2558s. And I said, you should try the Mitsubishi 9850. And then he responded and told me that like actually a, a lot of session musicians are becoming mild pencil nerds, which I just thought was like really fascinating.

I could try it. He seems like busy. I mean, he's playing on like, you know, Luke Combs records and, you know, all these like big country stars. Like he's kind of like in high, high demand, but also he's a session musician, so he's probably got time on his hands.

But I'd love to because he's a really cool guy. I love his channel. Yeah.

Yeah. And they do it about it, but yeah, they do it where like they have to write out like a chart. Like they write out like, oh, this song is one, like the chords, like 1, 2, 4, 5, you know, whatever. They chart out the chords so that if they change keys, they don't have to change anything on the paper, but they can like sort of make notes and stuff.

And the other thing I was gonna bring up is that, uh, Blackwing came out with another Fender collaboration. Uh, so they did the Stratocaster Pencil and Notebook. I don't know when that was, a year ago, something like that. And they just came out with one for the Telecaster, which is like my I mean, that's my, I love Telecasters. And so they came out with a new notebook and pencil dedicated Telecaster specifically.

No, I love questions about guitars. Nobody asks me questions about guitars in my house.

Um, no, ask me now. Yeah, but it's a collaboration with the Telecaster, specifically the butterscotch colored original Telecaster, which I just couldn't help but feel like they I'm sure this is a Fender decision, so I'm not blaming Blackwing, but they don't— people don't call them butterscotch blonde Telecasters. They call them Blackguards, which is like their like nicknames, which would have been such— that would have been a perfect name to, uh, to incorporate into the Blackwing collab. You know, Blackguard Blackwing. But they're pretty cool. I ordered some like the day they announced them. They still haven't gotten here. They get here tomorrow, I think.

It's taken a long time, but, uh, and there's a notebook that has like a butterscotch silhouette of the guitar on the front with black around the borders. And then on the backside, it's all the butterscotch color. So I'm really excited for that to come in. But it's, it's a butterscotch blonde barrel with a black ferrule and a yellow eraser. And I'm, I'm pretty excited for that to come out. I'll be here tomorrow. So I'll tell you guys.

That was a Stratocaster as well.

It was, that was specifically Bob Dylan's Stratocaster when he went electric, like the one he played at the Newport Folk Festival. That was what it was dedicated to. So then they came out with another Sunburst Stratocaster pencil, but whatever.

No, 2 technically, cuz they're the, the 2, the collabs, like the official collabs, it was a Stratocaster and a Telecaster. And then the one way back, the first volume was a Stratocaster as well. Okay.

Yeah. Or just a different approach. Cuz I think they technically both are like about the sort of sunburst look, like where it's like fades from black to brown to yellow. Uh, but the first one was about like a specific guitar cuz it was about Bob Dylan. So, and so technically only two different guitars.

Oh, shape, briefly. So Stratocaster is the one that has like the two horns that come up on either side.

Well, like, and then the Telecaster is the one that has kind of like a rounded hump and then on the other side has a horn. And then, so that's the shape difference. And then they have different pickups, like wildly different pickups. So, uh, Stratocaster, think of like the sounds of Pink Floyd or something, be kind of smooth and not as like harsh. And a Telecaster is like country music, like it has that real twangy sound. And that's the best way I can describe it briefly. It's like kind of like that country twang sound with a Telecaster. And then a Strat can be like Hendrix, that sort of big Hendrix sound, or like the big Pink Floyd sound.

They should totally. I, I, if they do one more, it will 100% be a P-Bass. Oh, 'cause that was like a big deal. P-Bass is like they invented the electric bass and then no one has improved on it since.

That would be awesome.

That would be so funny if it was like an extra inch and a half. Long. It would be so weird to write with that thing.

So that's, that's what I've got for those Fresh Points. I'm looking forward to getting those tomorrow. I'll send you guys some, some footage. So, so yeah. So let's get into our main topic. So we're going to be talking about, uh, this is part 3 of our 3. That's this many fingers. Part 3 of our Pencil Primer. And yeah, Johnny, you want to get us, get us started?

Like a little Mark Rober video.

We can just, like, do a bunch of experiments. Will it erase?

It's like a, it's like an old David Letterman bit where they would do, uh, will it float? You remember that?

Oh, gross.

Yeah.

So yeah.

And then so Edward Nairns is the name that Johnny has in here, which is, I don't think I knew the name, but yeah, eventually we're moving into the use of rubber erasers, which was like in the late 1700s. And there's a guy, you might have heard of him, his name is Goodyear.

Yeah, from the blimp and the tires came up with the concept of vulcanization. So they were able to create rubber erasers, I guess like faster and like much more like efficiently where they could make it from materials as opposed to in sort of raw form.

Yeah.

Now, like, my, I remember growing up, my mom did architectural renderings and she would always have those, like, putty erasers. Ah, so fun. So are those, yeah, those are so fun. But are those still, that, I mean, that's vulcanized rubber, but it's just, like, combined with something to make it squishy like that. Do you know? Or is it, like, less vulcanized?

Okay. So it might be synthetic.

So I think raw milk.

Great.

Cool.

Go for it.

True.

like a code word where you walk up, you say ferrule and they're like, the, the Talking about pencils. Ferrules sent me.

Yes.

I just realized that we could have called our podcast The Ferrule Animals.

We, I'm gonna start a band called the Ferrule Animals. Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Um, it's a long time ago.

And there's also, um, and back in the old days when there was actually a reason for making things crappier, now they're just like, let's just make it crappier. We'll make more money off of it.

Like posting a pen. Like, some pens you just like really— yeah, it's just like a totally different experience if you post the cap on the back of it or if you, if you write with it.

Oh, even the Sharpie?

I find it really satisfying with these, like the The eraser, the Uni-ball erasers, cuz they, they go pretty deep down on the pen. Yeah. I like those.

see you at Amazon.

Like if you go and buy pencils that are made in Germany. In the UK, India, Japanese pencils, like famously don't, most of them don't have, have erasers on. So like, I mean, I'm a big fan of, we're, we're big fans of the Tombow Mono series and things like that. And of course Faber-Castell pencils will often not have a, do Faber, do they make a pencil with a, I'm sure they do make one with a ferrule on it, but I just like everyone I've ever owned has been, yeah, just a solid pencil or has like a cap on the end of it. And, um, they usually skip it, I guess, because of having a, they'd rather not have a terrible eraser on the back of a pencil. They'd rather have a separate eraser that is like a higher quality. All right. So they, they also, one thing you'll see when you shop at like a Japanese stationery store or something is that, yeah, the pencils won't often have erasers on the end, but they'll have a wide variety of awesome erasers that do different things or have different qualities. Um, I was thinking about those. Is it Tombow? The Tombow eraser? The like sort of iconic, like rectangular one that has the little sleeves?

Those are the best. I mean, I find those all over my house. Yeah. My daughter uses those all the time, even with pencils that have erasers. She does a lot of art. So yeah, also they last forever. They do. They last forever. So yeah. So some of them, you know, they'll, they'll be capped. They'll have some options, but I've discovered that most of my favorite erasers on pencils are from some of these brands. So it's like, if they're gonna put an eraser on it, it's gonna be a nice one.

These are my favorite eraser pencils. The 9850EW that I mentioned earlier. But I love, yeah, you can see that. That's my favorite eraser that comes with a pencil. It's not like, uh, you know, some of the, if you can get a vintage Ticonderoga or something that has a working eraser. Those are pretty fantastic too.

Yeah, that's nice.

Yeah, it is amazing with those, those brands like in Japan and Germany and things like that. They don't often leave it just empty on the end. Like they're going to use those caps and yeah, it's just like a sign of how much attention to detail there are. And especially in those two markets, we get the bright red that's on like, uh, Staedtler Noris.

Yeah. Noris. Like the bright red one. Like those look, I mean, it just looks amazing.

Interesting, that is cool.

Oh, that's cool.

That's cool.

Pencil from the, uh, Hemingway Museum that instead of eraser at the end of it has a cat.

Double barrel pencil.

Yeah. It just has like a painted cat, like a sort of Florida, very Key West like stylized cat.

Wooden cat on the end of it.

And I might even find it. I even have extras that I might even wanted to send you. So I'll, I'll update out. It's, I have to find my, uh, You know, as everybody has big plastic tub full of pencils in the garage.

So yeah, they're gonna say, oh, if you left it in a moist environment, would it just start sprouting out of the pencil? I guess you're using it, you live in Florida and it's all humid.

I still save it for, uh, actually I was thinking about pencil shavings, using 'em for starting fires. Like I'll use 'em as like kindling in the fires cuz it smells like super awesome. Like when I make 'em in my fire pit and we bought this magnetic thing that holds dryer lint, like the, when, when you're doing laundry, it just like sticks up. It's like against our air conditioning duct that is right next to it. But I was like, I should get another one of those for pencil shavings cuz it's, it's this big, it would be awesome. I could like put it on this filing cabinet right here and you just stick it on and it's like a little magnetic cap that pops open. Like it just Drop my shavings in there.

Oh yeah.

Yeah. Oh, now it has an eraser on it too.

That's over.

Uh, maybe it makes—

Mungos are great. So yeah, that's a Hall of Famer.

That's, I was just looking at one of those behind me.

I really like the— is it the 2558 that has the ferrule that's kind of like tinted purple?

I like that one. I dig that.

I don't know.

That's not the recycled one.

This is, well, the recycled or the one that's made from like slats, like, uh, where they like use extra slats to make the EW. That one's, it's, yeah, I guess it is sort of that color. Yeah. This is that the same?

Yeah. I think it is the same. It just doesn't, it just looks, you can kind of see it there, but it looks darker on this one cuz of the black eraser, but it, I like it with the pink eraser cuz it kind of makes it, the contrast stands out more.

It's cool looking.

But you know, the one we, we didn't talk about, I, I don't know other examples of it. What's that? Is it like the Kraft Technologies Is that the brand?

The white eraser that's like— yeah. So like, how is that attached? Is that just like glue? Do they do that? They just glue it straight on or is there, does it insert into it at all?

Oh, inside of the eraser.

That makes more sense. Yeah. Cause that one's, those, those look awesome.

I'm like, dude, thanks for the information.

It's like, I mean, Johnny walking into a pencil store or like a stationery store, like Ron Swanson in that episode where he goes into Home Depot and the guy's like, can I help you? And he's like, I know more than you.

I know more than you. Okay.

All right.

Yeah, this is good. I think we, I think we covered it. We'll come back at some point with additional segments, right? What else do we need to talk about with our primer series?

Yeah.

Sharpeners and also like, I mean, I don't know if it'd be worth talking about, maybe it'd be more like a, we could have like a miscellaneous kind of like potpourri episode.

At the end of just kind of like things like, like, uh, considering like what kind of papers are really good with pencil and what kind aren't really good with pencils and what.

Grips?

Grips! I thought you said lips. I was like—

Clips on the guitar.

All right, yeah, I think we covered it cool.