Owner: Pencil Things URL:http://www.pencilthings.info/ Join Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2007 02:30:51 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Reviews and comments about pencils and pencil accessories, and information about other pencil things.
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Notebook review: Rhodia notepad 2007-07-09 21:41:48 (See Product Page) I first discovered this wonderful little orange notebook back in 2003 when I was watching one of my favorite shows, Good Eats. The host, Alton Brown, was writing a grocery list on a Rhodia notepad. It didn't... Read more:Notebook
, review
Pencil Points: KUM Left-handed sharpener 2007-06-19 20:11:08 (See Product Page) As with KUM's myriad of other products, the blade sharpens pencil wood like a machete with a stick of butter. It is smooth. The small rectangular shape is easy to hold. The blade is positioned on the... Read more:Pencil
, Points
, handed
Sharpening the Dixon Tri-Conderoga Pencil 2007-06-15 10:15:01 The Tri-Conderoga pencil is a little difficult to sharpen well. Dixon
supplies a dual-hole sharpener in its dozen pack. The large hole on the Dixon sharpener, though, is too large. It is difficult to not wobble your pencil during sharpening,... Read more:Pencil
Pencil Points: Rhodia Triangular HB pencil 2007-06-07 09:19:39 Rhodia Triangular
HB Pencil(See Product Page) This pencil matches my Rhodia notepad perfectly, but is stylish enough to write on its own. Even though the ONLY two colors are orange and black, it doesn't give off a cheap Halloween vibe... Read more:Points
Vintage Pencils 2007-06-03 23:09:43 If you have fond memories about a pencil you once used, I encourage you to find it again. For, every time you see it, and handle it, and write something down, those memories will well up and you'll have some... Read more:Vintage
, Pencils
Mongol Trio - large diameter triangular pencil 2007-06-03 22:08:28 Many writers like a triangular-barreled pencil, such as the California Republic Prospector HB pencil. The triangular barrel seems to fit better into the triangular channel formed by the fingers when gripping a pencil. Many claim that this comfortable fit reduces... Read more:large
California Republic Golden Bear 2B pencil 2007-05-31 21:35:04 You probably have already tried writing with a soft-lead pencil, so you have the idea of why a B or softer degree pencil belongs in your pencil case. Isn’t it nice at times to write with a dark lead such... Read more:California
, Republic
, Golden
TreeSmart Recycled Newspaper pencil 2007-05-31 21:28:05 Here’s how the TreeSmart Recycled
Pencil is made. Water-wet sheets (not pulp) of the English edition of a Chinese newspaper are rolled around the lead. Huge presses squeeze out the water and force a round shape. The metal ferrule and... Read more:Newspaper
ForestChoice Carpenter pencil 2007-05-31 21:24:45 Sharpen this pencil with a pocket knife, leaving a broad width of lead. Don’t point it too sharply. Now it is ready to use for marking wood, or almost any other rough surface. You can do pencil calligraphy with the... Read more:Carpenter
Shrouded in Mystery 2007-08-22 14:13:22 I'm not a person who usually buys into hype. Sure, I went to check out Apple's iPhone when it came out. And I stand in line in front of Best Buy if a particularly good movie is being released. But... Read more:Mystery
A realist's review of the legendary Blackwing 602 2007-09-14 13:01:34 I'm sure those pencil enthusiasts out there know what I'm talking about. It is the Holy Grail of Pencils. What the DeLorean is to cars, is what the Faber Castell Blackwing 602 is to pencils. It's the hard-to-find, insanely-expensive, out-of-production pencil.
And many people out there give it a perfect 10 rating.
A popular review
of the Blackwing, which has captured the attention of such sites as Boing Boing (here and here) is pencilpages.com's review, "The Blackwing 602 - Final Chapter."
An excerpt:"What is so special about this pencil that its devotees will accept no substitute and make them willing to spend $250.00 for a box of them? It has a sleek and unique design, and if you've ever used one, you know it is a very smooth-writing and easy to use pencil. Its famous slogan "Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed" is no exaggeration. It is also the last of a line of pencils featuring a distinctive rectangular ferrule with a unique, replaceable eraser. I am no artist, but I know
Pencil of the Month Club -- Volume II 2007-09-13 19:12:52 Pencil of the Month
Club, Vol. II, No. 1, will be mailed November 10th. to members enrolled by midnight, Wednesday, October 31st. (POST REVISED 9/12, 9/16, 9/26, 9/27,10/1)
Enroll now at Pencil of the Month Club.
Each monthly Pencil of the Month Club subscription package will contain 2 to 3 interesting pencils and sometimes a pencil accessory. The contents will be an eclectic mixture of pencils and related "things" that I find interesting and think you will, too. Even an item from the other side, like a pen, may wiggle in! As with Volume
I, from time-to-time various manufacturers will contribute an item to be included with the mailing. And as before, I will include a letter with my comments about all included pencils and accessories.
The price will be $6.00 per month. Billing to your credit card will occur monthly for 12 months, or until you or I call a halt, which either of us may do at any time. For those subscribers who enroll during October, you will notice that your s Read more:Pencil
"I never though a simple pencil would mean so much to me." 2007-09-12 18:16:33 Dear Don,
I received my order of pencils, and I am very happy with them. Of course, I really like the Rhodia. I would like to order a box of them when they come in.
I taught English classes to children at the junior high, senior high, and college levels for about thirty years. Every once in a while when shopping, I would come across some high quality pencils, I would buy a box and then display it proudly on my desk at school.
Whenever I had to sign a hall pass or tardy slip, I would reach for the box and pull one of the pencils out with such flair and drama, everyone in the class would turn their eyes to me to see what I was up to. Invariably, one of my students would ask what kind of pencil I had, and I would cup my hands together at my lips and project an echoing whisper out to the class, “Magic. It’s a magic pencil.”
Reactions were always varied, but whether it was a college class or seventh graders, I always got responses. Some were moans, some were smiles, b Read more:though
Pencil holders reviewed 2007-09-12 14:14:18 There is just something about a wooden pencil. Sure, they don't have a retractable tip or a cap. If you try to put it in your shirt pocket, it falls out easily because there is no clip to hold it there. Even if it stays in, you sometimes end up stabbing yourself with the tip or dirtying your shirt because of the exposed graphite.
Let's face it -- wood case pencils aren't portable. But that doesn't stop us from using them. It brings us closer to nature, closer to the fundamentals of the mechanics of writing. Graphite and wood combined in one tube.
But this post isn't about the pencil. It's about a solution to your portability problems.
When I go to work, I like to take a selection of pencils with me. Sometimes I feel like using my Helix Oxford. Sometimes the Palomino is the best one. I am fickle, and want to have a selection there with me.
While I was at Office Depot one day, I looked around for the pencil boxes of my youth. It was a wooden or plastic affair, with a sliding Read more:Pencil
Tombow Mono 100, Mono R and Mono J pencils are coming to PencilThings.com 2007-09-04 17:07:03 PencilThings.com is going to offer Tombow pencil varities not otherwise available in the United States, or anywhere outside of Japan. for that matter. They are: Mono 100; Mono R; Mono J; and 8900 HOP. In addition, we will offer Tombow colored pencil sets and erasers. We are beginning with the Mono 100, Mono R and Mono J, each in HB lead degree.
Tombow MONO 100. This pencil is designed for the widest range of professional writing, drafting and drawing uses. It is Tombow's flagship model. Tombow says that this pencil shares the same lead as the Tombow MONO, which is currently available in the United States. The body of the MONO 100 looks quite different from the current MONO pencil. You can see a picture of it at and read comments at the "paper and pencil" BLOG.
The MONO 100 is manufactured in 14 degrees: 6B 5B 4B 3B 2B B HB F H 2H 3H 4H 5H 6H. The pencils are boxed one dozen per degree, and the pencils and box are printed and packaged for sale in Japan. Our initial supply w
Why the pencil? 2007-10-08 06:00:21 To write is to put clues about your mind, heart, and soul on paper or similar medium, to share yourself with the present and future through the unique combination of words and handwriting.
The act of writing is a sensual experience; the smoothness of the pen or pencil's glide across the page and the appearance of letters that form words that form sentences can be intensely satisfying, while any scratchiness of graphite, point, or nib offends the senses.
Writing is a form of magic that connects our brains and hands in a way that typing cannot equal. When we type, at least part of our brain is unconsciously distracted by the mechanics of the action. "Where's the backspace key?" "How do I get an umlaut?" "How do I magnify the page view?" Using the combination of hardware and software disrupts the flow of thoughts in a way that a pencil doesn't. It may need sharpened once in a while, but we can rotate it to obtain the best point without giving it a thought.
There is also the question
The Plight of the Pencil 2007-10-16 10:14:26 Shannon South of the Dallas Morning News wrote a great editorial last Sunday about the pencil. Here's an excerpt:
Don't touch my pencil.
I mean it.
You can cut me off on the highway, and I won't flinch. You can go through the "Cash only" checkout line holding a checkbook in your hand, with nary a complaint from me. You can disparage my mama's intellect, physical appearance or army boots, and I'll just ignore you.
But if you mess with my 100 percent premium cedar pencil with a premium eraser – or any other version of wood and carbon fashioned into a writing tool – you may discover that tampering with elements that have born witness to historical genius carries consequences.
If you haven't done so in a while, hold a pencil. Grip it between your fingers and feel the pulse in your fingertip mingle with the wood, graphite and clay. Inhale the scent of cedar.
Make some marks on a piece of paper; listen to the soft scratching sound. This is the same sound that van Gogh hear Read more:Pencil
Search for "fantastic eraser" ends with Maped "Zenoa." 2007-10-25 23:55:03 I once had this really fantastic eraser. It worked really well until someone stole it!!! I looked at a ton of places, but couldn't find it anywhere! I want to buy a replacement. Think you can help? It was a white round eraser completely inside a round plastic casing that had a sliding cover to protect the eraser from getting dirty. It was made by the Mapped company. If you find anyplace that sells it, could you tell me the place name or website? Thank you so much, I'm desperate!!!!
----- Mr. Pencil: The eraser you are referring to is the Maped "Zenoa". We have them in stock at Pencil Things, but haven't yet added them to our Web store at PencilThings.com. I'll ask the Webmaster to add them on Friuday, October 25th. The packaging says "New Formula".
_______________Can you help further answer this question? If so, please leave your comment here.
Please send your question for Mr. Pencil to support@pencilthings.com. Please use "Ask Mr. Pencil" as your subject. Read more:Search
A thin pencil - Bridge, Stenographer, Notebook 2007-10-25 23:40:39 I am looking for a thin pencil...its diameter is smaller than regular pencils. It still has an eraser and you sharpen it, but it's a bit thinner in diameter. My teacher over 15 years ago had a bunch of them and I have not been able to find them since. They were multi colored, though that doesn't matter to me at all. I just want to find a thinner pencil. Help me please!
----- Mr. Pencil: You are referring to what are called “bridge pencils”, after the card game. People sometimes call them “notebook pencils” and, when they are sharpened at both ends, stenographer pencils. They are considerably thinner than the usual pencil, have erasers, and the barrels come in several different color lacquers. The leads are #2 HB (medium soft). They sharpen with a normal hand-held sharpener. We stock them at PencilThings.com.
_______________Can you help further answer this question? If so, please leave your comment here.
Please send your question for Mr. Pencil to support@pencilthings Read more:Notebook
Pencil sharpener to use with a Caran d'Ache 3mm Fixpencil. 2007-10-25 23:30:19 Jeb W., a Canadian student draftsman asks "What pencil sharpener will work well with my Caran d'Ache 3mm Fixpencil?"
..... Mr. Pencil
: The Swiss-made Gedess sharpener works very well. It permits one to insert the tip of the pencil into the sharpener with about 1/5" of color lead or 2/5" inch of graphite lead exposed for sharpening._______________Can you help further answer this question? If so, please leave your comment here.
Please send your question for Mr. Pencil to support@pencilthings.com. Please use "Ask Mr. Pencil" as your subject.
The great eraser race 2007-10-25 20:52:16 I love our readers. The commenters we get from the pencil community are friendly, opinionated, and intelligent. And I'm not saying that just to butter them up -- since I've joined the Pencil Things blog, I've met other people who genuinely care about office supplies. I thought I was a freak. It's nice to know there are others like me out there.
One regular commenter and scribomechanica freak out there, Barrel of a Pencil, dropped me an email the other day. He said he ran across a vinyl eraser at a Dollar Tree in Lakewood, NY. It was sold in a blister pack of 8 for $1. Although it is comically generic, it erasers like a champ. (That's right, I used "eraser" as a verb. Anyone gonna challenge me on that?)
He wrote me this:I post comments under the nom de pencil Barrel Of A Pencil. If possible I would like to send you one of the little generic white vinyl erasers I wrote about in my comment posted to Pencil Thing's ruminations on the timeless question Why The
Ask Mr. Pencil 2007-10-23 19:43:53 Ask Mr. Pencil
to answer your specific questions.
Every day we get many specific questions about pencils, sharpeners, leads and other pencil things. It's time to share our research and answers with all who may be interested.
Here's the place for you to ask a specific question whose answer may be of broad interest. Many questions do require research, so expect an answer several days after you post your query.
Please send your questions to support@pencilthings.com. Please use as your subject line "Ask Mr. Pencil".
Customer Comments & Feedback 2007-10-23 19:18:49 Each week we folks at PencilThings.com get lots of comments via email, and a few by mail (really! - and oftentimes written in pencil . . .). We like to recieve them. The comments have always been polite. Some are amusing, some are touching and many are informative. Even when critical, they have been written in a helpful tone. You just wouldn't believe how people are rooting for PencilThings! Many persons have asked to leave a public comment about our service, selection, prices, shipping policy, etc. Our eCommerce system at our primary Web site does not permit "freelance" comments, so we're initiating that capability right here. Oh yes, and if you want to write about something that just doesn't fit one of our other BLOG categories, do it here. We'll find a proper home for it!We look forward to reading your thoughts.Don Bell | Proprietor, PencilThings.com. Read more:Customer
, Comments
, Feedback
Lost Treasure - A Blackwing 602 Story 2007-11-08 12:47:13 I enjoyed Andy Welfle's Blackwing 602 review. My experience adds up to a horror story, or rather, a tale of lost treasure in regard to the Blackwing.
In 1988 I went to work for a school supply company in Birmingham, AL. The original company had been a fixture for kids in the 1960s onward: art supplies, textbooks, office supplies, etc. The name was changed and the owners crafted a new emphasis on teacher materials and parent/teacher products.
All the old inventory, dating back to God knows when, was transferred to a new warehouse and distribution facility. Inevitably, a years-long clearance sale began at that point; at various times we would rummage through the warehouse for old stock and place it on sale tables. You don't want to know how many vintage office products flew out the doors for pennies. I sold things I had to look up in catalogs just to determine their purpose. Magnetic, portable stenographer desks. Complex folders with metal clasps for odd-size paper. Very cool looking Read more:Treasure
Pencil of the Month Club, Vol. I, No.1 (Nov. 2007) 2007-11-11 08:57:48 Let me say that the first POTM package I received was BRILLIANT. I LOVED it.
Times haven't been much fun lately, but those pencils pasted a grin on my mug you could not have jackhammered off.It's pure personal opinion, but I immediately had several favorites: the O'Bon recycled newspaper pencils are perhaps the first of the first, because I do so enjoy the smoothness and darkness of the line that lead lays down. Then, of course, there's the black Ticonderoga, an old favorite in a genius color. I know; some may feel the yellow is sacred, and that's perfectly cool. But I REALLY like the black one. The semi-matte finish just feels different—and better, I think—in the hand than the traditional gloss yellow. And the Venus Velvet, with the dark-blue ferrule band? Swoon.Not that I didn't like the others! But those I've mentioned are just too cool.
I might have mentioned before—or not, can't recall—that I write almost all of my first drafts longhand, in pencil, before t Read more:Pencil
, Month
Pencil of the Month Club, Vol. I, No. 2 (Dec. 2007): Mystery Solved? 2007-12-05 19:08:28 I know what the T I N Y pencil is for! We used to get them when I was a
child (1960s), and I saved them because they were cute, not because I
was interested in pencils. Advertisers used to include them in direct
mail envelopes with their business reply cards as a "gift" to make it
easier for you to fill out the BRC for their offer then and there. They
are tiny to fit into flat #10 and other envelopes without adding weight
or width that would increase postage or prevent the piece from being
processed by the postal service equipment. I'm sure a lot of people
missed them, but I could always feel them in the "junk mail" envelopes,
and sometimes the piece would mention the included pencil. The idea,
I'm sure, was really just to get your attention and to throw the pencil
out. Interestingly, I have seen them only in red.
Read more:Pencil
, Month
, Mystery
A Very Pencil Things Christmas 2007-12-10 20:36:52 If you're like me, holiday shopping doesn't come until you can see the whites of Father Christmas
's eyes. When December 20 rolls around, I look at my planner and realize, "Holy #%*&," Christmas is in less than a week!"
If you want a little bit of advance warning, however, have I got the blog post for you! In the spirit of a list-lovin' American capitalist, I am presenting, from cheapest to most expensive, the TOP FIVE PENCILTHINGS.COM GIFTS.
5. The California Republic Graphite Sample Pack - $2.25For a mere two Washingtons and a, um, Washington coin, you can purchase the following top-quality pencils: Palomino. Orange. #2 HB.
Golden Bear w/eraser. Blue. #2 HB.
Prospector w/eraser. Green. #2 HB.
Forest Choice w/eraser. Natural. #2 HB.
This is perfect for when you want to introduce a quality pencil to a plain ol' Office Depot-brand pencil user. This very sampler pack was what I ordered when I first discovered Pencil
Things and
Save a tree, write with a newspaper 2007-12-10 19:03:23 I went to school to be a journalist, with every intention of writing for a newspaper. It wasn't until after college, when I worked part time as a copy editor at my hometown paper, that I realized maybe I didn't want to work at one after all.
I know there are those who will disagree with me, but newspapers are a dying industry. Well, dying is a harsh word. I'll say declining. It's tough to work there, and plus newspapers are wasteful. Look at all that paper they produce, just to be kept for a day or two.
A while ago, Don from Pencil Things turned me on to pencils made from discarded newspaper broadsheets. Apparently these are manufactured from a single broadsheet which has been cut and rolled up over a glue-covered piece of graphite. It's then dried in a hot over for several hours. Pretty awesome if you ask me, and environmentally friendly. Granted, pencils are so small and compact there is hardly any wood used up anyway, but I like to do my part for a sustainable future.
The f
Pencil of the Month Club, Vol. II, No. 2 -- Dec. 2007 2007-12-09 05:37:03 Jack Boles Wood Spirit hand carved pencil.Jack Boles is a wood carver living deep in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. His passion for wood carving started as a 5-year old lad at the Silver Dollar City County Fair. While the other boys were on the amusement rides, Jack was propped against a tree, fascinated by the woodcarvers! Now a grandfather, Jack loves to carve for the little ones. At the fairs, the adult folks are by the tables browsing his high dollar woodcarvings. But Jack is over yonder, fascinating the children sitting all about him. He's carving something they can afford to have as their own -- a Jack Boles wood spirit pencil!
Bridge Scoring and T I N Y pencil.Musgrave Pencil
Co. (Tennessee) manufactures these pencils. I don't get it. What does one do with the tiny pencil, and why do bridge players favor a shorter, smaller diameter pencil? Musgrave's sales manager, Vicki, despite having over 20 years in the pencil business, is just as puzzled! She advi Read more:Month
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