Carpenters pencil

I always thought carpenters pencils were sharpened with knives, but there are sharpeners that do it apparently. I thought that was quite interesting.

Shopping finds

Recent trip to the shops for a fetish feed turned up some interesting new finds. All the following finds were discovered in Staples, who are admittedly a little over priced, but generally have good stock levels and variation.

First up is two new Bic pen finds, the 2-in1 Stylus and the Cristal Stylus. Their use and intention are pretty obvious I would say to everyone, I do like the fact that they have crafted a more budget end stylus pens as well as an all steel premium model. Although i think selling a bic branded Stylus cap would have been a good idea too, maybe not as commercially lucrative but a nice touch and addition to the Bic line up.

We are all familiar with the Bic four colour pen, well here we have a standard model branded with Hello Kitty, the colours are no different to the stanard model, which seems strange, why not brad the Pastel version as a Hello Kitty model, or perhaps some limited edition colours, anyone remember the yellow ink Bic Cristals that used to be available?

And of course no shopping trip would be complete without the obligatory Sharpie  product line check up. Here we have 2 Sharpie pen models, the Stylo Premium Pen and the Stylo Grip Pen, now, why the premium is labelled as such I'm not sure, as far as i can tell the barrel is all plastic, the nib is no different and colours are the standard fair available in all Sharpie pens, equally bizarrely, the premium version is actually cheaper as a 4 pack than the 3 pack grip pens. Neither of them replace in my affections the Stainless Steel or Pen Sharpies as reviewed in an earlier post.

 Here we have a new find, Aveo are I believe a Montex brand/model, first impressions are these pens are very similar to the old model Sharpie pens as mentioned above and reviewed in earlier post. These pens feature SilkScribe ink, of which there was no further mention on the packaging so what the benefits are of it I have no idea.

Some nice Staedtler penciles were also spotted in the loose section of Staples, as you can see there are a multitude of colours, which all makes for a nice product line up, rare to see investment in so many colours from a good manufacturer. I'm note sure what the white artifact is around the coloured lead, there was no mention of it on the retail pricing stickers,  so if anyone knows please get in touch.

 And in closing some new pencils from Faber-Castell, 2 1/2 HB Grip pencils, with a free Grip eraser too, nice little bonus there, writing pencils seem to be becomming more and more popular lately, perhaps following the American market.

Muji 2-in-1 Pen/Pencil

Muji, a Japanese design house selling everything from CD players to bathrobes and stationery, have long been a favourite of mine to get inspiration and envy from when I'm bereft of new ideas or desires to fulfill, sadly there is not a branch close to me to indulge myself very often. Anyway, here we have their 2-in-1 pen/pencil, twist one way for pencil and the other for the pen. Then pencil takes standard 0.5mm lead refills and the pen takes refills available from Muji, for a very reasonable cost, if you call in the shop to check out the pen and end up buying it, get some refills for the pen at the same time, save you a trip and ensure you have a good writing life with the pen, they do last a good while and I think are not available anywhere else.

Here we can see the workings of the pen, this is as far as you will get taking apart the pen without destroying it, the spring cased section is the pencil workings and the other part is the pen refill. As you can see the pencil workings enable a "push to advance" method of lead advancement, the pencil section is replenished by filling with new leads in the usual manner with propelling pencils, pop the eraser off the top of the workings and tip them in (see below). The pen is replenished by simply gently pulling the pen refill out of its housing and inserting a new one.

And there it is, the one extra with this pen, an included pen top eraser, usually hidden under a metal ferrule, they appear to be standard size erasers and holders, as witnessed on other mechanical pencils so i guess that it will be easy to replace when it is all used up.

And there it is, what you have all been waiting for, the famous pensetc.tk test card. The pen performs perfectly well, all Muji pens seem to work perfectly well from first use and have a very smooth flow, no skipping or troublesome ink flow. As the use of the pen, I think it's an ideal everyday pen, tough due to it's all metal construction, handy with the pen and pencil combination (though if they could make one with two colour pens and a pencil then it would be a must have buy) and cheap enough to buy for everyday use. It feels very substantial in the hand and very comfortable, although as with every all metal pen imagine it can become very slippy for those with hot hands.

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.

804 views since posting? WOW! but no comments?

Cretacolor Classic Black 5.6mm Leadholder

The Cretacolor.43000, an unusual name for a lead holder/clutch pencil, is definitely from the budget end of lead holders (or clutch pencil, whichever you prefer), but is very well made never the less. Comes supplied with a 5.6mm black 2B (not actually identified on site, but my guess at lead softness) 123mm long lead, more leads are available in Graphite, White Pastel, Sanguine Oil, Sepia Light, Sepia Dark, Graphite 4B, Charcoal, 2B, 4B & 6B, as well as light/dark sepia & Sanguine, from various manufacturers via Cultpens.

The written line is variable through the written word and sentence, a very soft variable writing head which lays down a very dark and easy sliding line. The integrity of the deposited graphite is as you would expect very susceptible to smudging, both wet and dry, but I would not use this as a heavy writer, more of a sketch pencil for travel and flow charting etc.

The Clutch action is very firm and reassuring, though how long this will last will only be told through prolonged use. If your after a budget lead holder either for travel/pocket then I would certainly recommend this one, with plenty of options for lead colours and hardness options you should be able to kit out a sketch kit for not much investment at all.
All available from www.cultpens.com, free shipping for orders over £10 and shipping worldwide available.