Five pencil accessories

Here are five pencil accessories. Purchased from JetPens, they are all inexpensive products aimed at children. Four are from Sun-Star, and one from Tombow.

Pencil accessories

The pencil cap with sharpener allows you to keep a sharpener adjacent to your pencil (if you really want to do this):

Pencil accessories

I can’t avoid noting that the plastic starts looking less pristine almost immediately after first contact with graphite.

The sharpener works, though the wood shavings from even one sharpening overwhelm the minuscule canister:

Pencil accessories

Next, a pencil cap which can theoretically become an extender. It looks okay, but I’m not sold on the value.

Pencil accessories

The Tombow Ippo grip. It has a mushy rubbery surface that I don’t like. This will obviously be a matter of personal preference. I can see it being an aid for anyone, young or old, who is seeking assistance in gripping a pencil.

Pencil accessories

The “Safety Pencil Knife”. Essentially, a retractable paring knife for pencils.

Pencil accessories

Of the bunch, this one is the winner for me – it allows for freehand sharp blade use on pencils, in a safe and portable format.

That doesn’t mean it is easy to use – but it works, and is a lot easier and safer to transport than an X-Acto knife.

Pencil accessories

The Sun-Star multisharpener is another take on a familiar theme. It works well enough.

Pencil accessories

Pencils sharpened ( l. to r.) with the multisharpener, knife, and cap:

Pencil accessories

Overall, I think the safety knife product is pretty good, and the grip may be quite helpful to some. The other three products are fine given their prices, but aren’t standouts.

Quoted in Fortune

penciltalk.org quoted in Fortune magazine

pencil talk is quoted in the May 23, 2011 issue of Fortune magazine. The attribution is not correct, but the quote is from here – this post.

Other blogs quoted or mentioned are Orange Crate Art, Pencil Revolution, Pencil Grinder, Pencil Points, Timberlines, and of course, the Blackwing Pages.

Several blog comments are quoted – in fact they drive the story’s narrative. Unfortunately, the commenters are not named.

The three page article is titled “Eraser Heads”, and is about the Blackwing pencil – the Eberhard Faber classic and the brand revival attempt from CalCedar. An abbreviated version appears online.

penciltalk.org quoted in Fortune magazine

HEMA Mechanical Pencil

Today, we are honored to have a guest post from Leon of Oude Tonge, Netherlands.

HEMA Mechanical Pencil
L. to R.: Stanley knife, Pentel Side FX 0.5 PD255, HEMA vulpotlood, Pentel Function .357, Uni Kuru Toga 0.5, Kaweco Sport

Since my schooldays, I haven’t done much work with a mechanical pencil. I have an education as a pre-press graphic designer and graduated in 1995. The Mac had taken over the pre-press world but our school was a little late to the party, so I still learned to work with paper, ink, huge cameras and chemically developed, rasterized film.

Outside of school and some internships I never used these (literally) old school techniques any more, but I still love the tools of the trade. I can’t resist buying them every once in a while, when I’ve found a new one that looks promising. Mechanical pencils (vulpotloden in Dutch) are among my favorites. Penciltalk.org was a eye opener. Apparently I am not the only one who likes mechanical pencils.

You’d think that, with the increased use of computers and the digital lifestyle becoming the standard, items like mechanical pencils would be used less and less or would even disappear completely. Fortunately, this is not the case, although they don’t get a lot of attention. They are there, but they are not advertised much. Still, I think some of these items have never been so high in quality while so affordable as now, in the 21st century.

I’m not a very active collector, but whenever I visit a warehouse or bookstore, I like to check the assortment of mechanical pencils. Of course, you’ll often find dozens of cheap lead holders usually mostly made of plastic, designed without any fantasy. Dull.

However, at the HEMA, a series of Dutch department stores, I found a nice exception. A full metal mechanical pencil. It comes with a single 0.5 mm lead to get you started and even though the eraser is too small for frequent use, the weight of it alone gives you confidence that it’s a serious piece of equipment.

HEMA is known for their ‘own’ products. Most are produced specially for them, to their specifications. Therefore, I wouldn’t be surprised if these mechanical pencils are not available anywhere else.

It is sturdy and handles well. The surface looks like aluminium but given the weight, I’d say it’s steel covered with a layer of aluminium. The metal clip is strong but flexible enough to be really useful. The body is sleek but the lower part is slightly wider, which makes it more comfortable to hold. The diamond shaped profile makes the grip much better and en passant makes it look like a piece of a fine mechanical instrumentation. In the center of the grip are some deeper laying rings that amplify this effect even more. All together, it’s a little gem among those plastic elements.

HEMA Mechanical Pencil
A closer look at the different parts of the HEMA mechanical pencil

Sincere thanks to Leon for contributing this excellent article. Photos and text by Leon. Since composing the article, Leon has noticed that the HEMA clip appears to be identical to that of the Rotring 600.

Moleskine pencil

Moleskine has slowly been unveiling a new collection from designer Giulio Iachetti. Included in the collection is a pencil!

Moleskine pencil

The pencils I obtained came in cardboard and plastic packaging. There was no simple way to open the package that I could determine, so I used kitchen scissors.

Moleskine pencil

The set includes two pencils, a sharpener, a clip, and a set of stickers.

Moleskine pencil

The pencils are very handsome, finished in matte black, including a finished rounded cap. The shape is not what I was expecting – the 13cm long pencils have a rectangular carpenter pencil format, though the lead is a standard cylindrical shape.

The packaging indicates the pencils are from the Czech Republic, the wood cedar (which should be clear from the photos) and the lead a 2B grade.

Moleskine pencil

The markings are a subtle black on black. “Moleskine” on the narrow side:

Moleskine pencil

And the grade on the wide side:

Moleskine pencil

An impressive product. I was recently speculating with an online friend that interesting new pencils are going to start coming from third parties and virtual brands, rather than the manufacturers. And the Moleskine seemed like a perfect example.

There is just one problem – with the smooth finish and rectangular shape, I couldn’t get a proper hold on the pencil. I tried various grip formations without success. Perhaps it takes some getting used to, but without forming an uncomfortable vice grip, I just couldn’t find a way of grasping the pencil for writing.

This was unfortunate, as the pencil has a great appearance and the lead seems to be high quality.

Unsatisfactory (to me) broken letter formations when my hand lost grip on the pencil:

Moleskine pencil

The sharpener is quite different. Do you see what I mean? You may want to compare with a standard sharpener:

Moleskine pencil

The blade is flush with the top of the sharpener, so the pencil will have to be inserted at an angle. Different, though I’m not sure about the impact on usability. The pencil set was sufficiently expensive that I didn’t want to sharpen the pencils just to test how they sharpen.

Moleskine pencil

The cap is interesting. It grips the pencil with a friction fit, and has an interior plastic piece to ensure point protection. The cap is surrounded by a rubberized metal clip.

Moleskine pencil

To me, it looks great, but official photos show the pencil being clipped to the side of a Moleskine, rather than the top.

Moleskine pencil

It is great to see the introduction of a compelling pencil set with really sharp looks, but I am torn about the usability question. I am curious about what others think – have you tried the Moleskine pencil?

Staedtler pencilmaker set

Staedtler pencilmaker set

Staedtler kindly sent pencil talk a sample of their new pencilmaker set.

The official product description in English is “7-piece historic pencil kit including instructions,” and the model number is “61 HP KIT”.

Readers of Lexikaliker know that the product was unveiled at the 2011 Paperworld show, and part of a larger series of pencil products with historic themed packaging.

The set contains two carpenter style pencil slats, a rectangular lead, string, glue, a seal, and instructions.

For some years, Staedtler has promoted their brand with employees in historical garb performing pencil making demonstrations. A little online searching reveals that these events are held in many countries.

As well, finished historic appearance pencil products have been packaged, as shown in the first volume of Stationery Magazine.

I am told the best place to observe the rendition of historic pencil making craft is at Nürnberg’s Christkindlmarkt. If you haven’t heard of a Christkindlmarkt, the Guardian has a nice piece on them. There is even one in my own backyard, though I haven’t been to it.

The kit is simple enough that I think it doesn’t need too much explanation. The version I received differs from the one seen at Bleistift and in official photos in that the slats in my version don’t have any markings. i.e. they are not marked “Staedtler”.

Staedtler pencilmaker set

As Joan asked, a key question is – are you going to assemble the pencil and use it, or just keep the set as a memento?

Staedtler sent this sample, but that’s far from all they did. They contacted pencil talk about giving away 175 sets (corresponding to their 175th corporate anniversary) via this blog. I was amazed. Manufacturers have regularly sent items for review or as contest promotions, but never anything at even close to this scale.

Staedtler pencilmaker set

The logistics alone represent a significant expenditure by Staedtler. And it was all done very graciously with just a few coordinating phone calls. The kit fits so well with the interests of pencil talk readers – it is great promotion, and I sincerely thank Staedtler for choosing to reach out this way.

Staedtler pencilmaker set

Some further details – the kits are being given away on a first come, first served basis. As of June 3rd, about 75 kits were claimed, and there are still some available as of the 6th. Shipping will not begin until late June, so please allow 4 to 8 weeks for delivery.

To request a free pencilmaker set, see the details in the previous post.