Faber-Castell - Textliner & Jumbo Grip - Multi-Post

Faber Castell Textliner 1148

So here we are with a 3 pencil post, all from Faber-Castell, grouped together because i think they are all the same use of pencil, although Faber-Castell think differently going by the names given to them

First up is the Faber-Castell Textliner 1148, I presume the number derivation must be for the colour, the Textliner is essentially a Jumbo Grip (more of which later) but in luminous orange and also available in fluoro yellow.

 The Textliner is at the top of the picture here, the orange one, next to two Jumbo Grip pencils, all from Faber-Castell, as you can see they are all exactly the same except for the names.

The Textliner itself is a very bright luminous orange when used on plain paper, understandably the lead is soft, no rating given by Faber-Castell, as it will have to put down it's colour easily without much pressure, presumably to avoid damage to paper used on, as this could well be textbooks and similar I think it's a good thought on their part when designing and conceptualizing the pencil.

 Above is the standard test card scan, this time it didn't come out very well, but does give some idea of the line when used for writing, not that I would ever do so or expect users to use it as a writing pencil, although I guess there are times when you would want to.
Because of the scan issues below is a photo of the same card, as you can see it is a very vibrant and "highlighter-esque" orange, why I did a timed smudge test I do not know, but it's there if it is of any use, rest assured thou' that the line put down is resilient enough to stand up to what the intended use of the pencil would have to go through.

And just to prove that it does highligh text, here is an example.

It may have been the quality of the paper that the book used, but i would have expected something more like above, a brighter, more vibrant laying down, but as it is I think its acceptable for a non-bleeding source, possibly especially useful for borrowed books or when paper is especially thin in textbooks, as some are, at least with a pencil highlighter you should be safe from bleed thought to reverse of the page.

After the above tests where carried out, the nib from a sharp point was as in the picture below, a fair and reasonable amount of were I would say, expecially on a pencil that is over 6 and half inches (17 cms) when new, plenty of life and service in these. I bought these in Gerona, Spain, (the Spanish love a stationery shop, watch out for a post on these in the months to come) for about £1 each, that's about $1.49 four our American readers, Canadian readers that's about the same for you too, C$1.53 to be precise, all at today's exchange rate mid March 2013.

All 3 pencils are finished with the standard Faber-Castell nodules on the shaft to aid grip, a hob which they handle as well as can be expected, I do get very swreaty hands when using a pencil over a period of time, so maybe it's just me that finds them just a little too ineffective.

I would personally prefer a larger and more substantial nodule, but, hey that's just me. Tell me what you think is the best anti-slip/gripping addition on a pencil you have used, use the comments box below. 

All 3 pencils are of triangular construction with no ferrule on the top end, not that I can imagine anyone would even attempt to erase the pencil line from these, but I would say a putty eraser would be the best to attempt that.

And here we have the Gold and silver tests, like the orange Textliner the gold line does not seem to have scanned very well, so see below for a photograph  I'm putting this down to some sort of fluorescence in the lead to achieve the bright and metallic finish, although the silver has transferred very well in my opinion so maybe that is another terrible theory.

Again the lead softness is as the Textliner, wear and line thickness etc being the same also.

Personally I think the silver gives a more definite line, and better colour representation when laid down, but it depends on your own view and which colour you actually need or want.
These gold and silver pencils are labelled as Jumbo Grip, but either are any different in size to the Textliner, I would expect a pencil with this moniker to be of a considerable size, perhaps a fist clench size pencil, but I guess Faber-Castel thought they may be getting into the novelty pencil market if they where any bigger.

Remember each test features a literary works first line, if you know it pop it in the comments box and a short review of the book.

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