Pilot Custom 74 Pencil

Wandering through one of the area flea markets, I finally came upon a seller with some pens wrapped up in plastic bags. I saw this Pilot and thought it looked familiar, so I bought it for a few dollars and went home to check it out.

The pen is actually a Pilot Custom 74 pencil, with a plunger system that pushes the lead out of the steel cartridge.

The rubber eraser was used a bit and the end was crumbling inside the steel cartridge, but other than that everything works perfectly. The pencil uses 0.5mm lead, which seemed small until I started writing with it. There are no nicks or scratches on the barrel or cap, no brassing or wear at all, just some minor micro-scratching on the section. It's a great find, and a nice addition to my collection as I already own a Custom 74 fountain pen.

Economy Pens Reviews the Ikea Golf Pencil

Missed this post originally, but I love the review of the Ikea golf pencil. I always pick up a couple when I hit the Red Hook Ikea store and write down all the things I'd love to order, then forget about them when I re-enter The Real World. Great review of a humble pencil that carries our wishes.

O'BON Wildlife Pencils

One product Kevin from O'BON sent me was this triangle pack of Wildlife Pencils; all O'BON pencils are made the same way with a graphite core wrapped in recycled newspaper. This set contains 10 2B pencils in animal prints and patterns and their signature "Save Wildlife" phrase.

I think these recycled newspaper pencils are a lot of fun, starting with the different patterns (I chose a tiger print but could have gone with a snakeskin, giraffe, bear, parrot, or grass prints to play around with) and then the really cool sharpener effect. The recycled newspaper doesn't easily break off when you sharpen the pencil, so you're left with one very long whirl of newspaper that for some reason I enjoy (rather than yellow and graphite shavings).

The 2B graphite is fine for writing, hard enough so I can press down without shattering the point but soft enough for some shading in my letters. No smeary writing, a "green" pencil, and a cute theme make this O'BON a winner.

Koh-I-Noor Progresso Woodless Pencils

While wandering the National Stationery Show I noticed a lot of booths featuring pencils, and one booth in particular was showing off woodless pencils. I've been thinking of those for some time now, and so went looking on eBay. What I found was the Koh-I-Noor Progresso, a dark gray, lacquer-coated pencil made of Hardtmuth graphite.

While I don't know much about pencils, I do know I like a softer pencil, such as HB, but then I hate the smearing. So I chose the standard 2B instead, and am definitely impressed by the laydown and staying power of the graphite. Smearing was minimal, and writing was soft and smooth and a bit strange. I kept looking for line between graphite and wood, but the pencil is one gray color, no lighter wood to mess with. The pencil is also quite weighty, solid grahite being heavier. Most of all, I love the idea of writing with a pure graphite pencil, and as a bonus there are no wood shavings to clean up. While I purchased mine from eBay, there are other places to buy so check them out if you can.

Black Pencils at the NSS

One of the interesting details at the National Stationery Show last week was the abundance of black pencils with jeweled caps. Everywhere you looked booths had them as adornments and sale items. Several booths were dedicated exclusively to black pencils and they also had different types of caps you could buy to adorn the pencil ends if you wanted something other than colored jewels.

Above is one of the jeweled cap pencils I received at one of the booths (as I was drooling over the all-graphite, wood-less pencils on display). This black one with the orange jewel has a soft, smeary lead (possibly a B), and because of that it may not be used much for writing. But I'll find something to do with it, I'm sure. It's really very pretty as is, so I could just keep it on my desk for general admiration.

An Intruder Among The Pens

I was looking around on my desk for something to write with (too many choices) and kept bumping into a small, white-and-black oblong-ish thing that I suddenly remembered was a pencil. Strange to find it there as I keep pencils in a different bin on my desk, but this is no regular pencil. Back in March 2009 I went to the Art Brown International Pen Fair (next one is October 2009) to take a peek at the pens. I wound up purchasing two from the Faber-Castell rep at the show, and she very generously gave me this pencil. The Fabert-Castell E-Motion twist pencil uses a 1.4mm lead, which is much thicker than most pencil leads, and the width of the line can be broad and fuzzy or slim and strong. There is an eraser inside the back cap, and the tip comes off to reveal storage space for extra leads. Pencil Talk has a great review from 2005 of the E-Motion.

I tend not to use pencils very much, as I don't like the smearing and fading. Or maybe I'm just trained not to like writing that can suddenly disappear with a few strokes of some colored rubber (or plastic, as the case may be). But I'm re-thinking that decision as I like the way this writes. The width of the line adjusts depending on the angle you use to write, so it can have a finer, sharper line or a broader, blurred line. The lead is soft, which I like but may not be to every one's taste. I also don't have to worry about sharpening the point, and because of the thickness the lead isn't supposed to break under pressure. That's attractive to me as I tend to put a death grip on whatever I'm writing with, and pencil points break easily with me. I quite like this E-Motion, although the shape is a little too futuristic for me. But I plan on adding it to the rotation and getting acquainted.