Author: Stephen

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Should I sharpen them?

Velvet pencil
Though I may have a lifetime supply, I don’t consider myself a pencil collector. I’ve always thought pencils were meant to be used. The economics seem in accord: Almost all the vintage pencils on eBay, even great and famous pencils, are cheaper than new quality pencils, with very few exceptions. So I’ve never had trouble sharpening a 1950s Faber-Castell 9000 or Eberhard Faber Mongol. And they all still seem to be in plentiful supply.
Velvet pencil
Somehow, this box seems different. American Pencil Co. of New York Velvet No. 2s, they’ve stayed put on a shelf, occasionally looked at. They have a very rich natural wood stained finish, topped by a gold ferrule with a blue accent.

Velvet pencil
The artwork on the box is unmatched by anything I’m aware of on the market today.

Velvet pencil
Some people would preserve these pencils for their collection or future profit. But I’m mostly curious about how they write.
Velvet pencil
So my question is, should I sharpen them?

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Pierre Belvédère notebook

Pierre Belvedere notebook
This is an inexpensive softcover notebook with 240 A5 pages of cream colour paper with a grey graph paper ruling. Despite the modest price, it is very well made, and the paper is definitely superior to that of many well-hyped notebooks.
Pierre Belvedere notebook
The secret, if there is one, is that it’s a refill for a leather journal. Although the journal seemed ho-hum to me, the refill was a great find.

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Clairefontaine novelty pencil

Clairefontaine pencil

Readers of this blog know that we like the serious stuff, and don’t typically mention novelty or advertising pencils. But we’ll make an exception for this pencil from Clairefontaine, possibly (probably?) made in Japan. It matches a Clairefontaine notebook set.
Clairefontaine pencil
In another way, it also matches the Rhodia pencil, coming from the same corporate family, and being a triangular, black-dyed wood pencil.

Give us more!

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Remake Mini Notebook – Cool Retro Style.

Remake notebook
I saw a picture of this notebook at Notebookism, and decided to order one.

It’s great! It’s a heavy duty cardboard cover, with sewn pages from a variety of reused paper sources, heavy on the graph paper and accounting styles. It fastens with a rubber band.

I keep a Zebra mechanical pencil clipped to it, which makes the notebook very usable.
Remake notebook
As a pocket notebook, it’s more portable than almost any alternative I’m aware of. It’s not for writing several paragraphs, but it’s great for jotting down an address, or a film or train schedule.

Remake notebook Remake notebook
Remake notebook Remake notebook


I love the way it pays homage to the paper working tools of the past – several types of composition, graph, and accounting paper.

Link: Remake Etsy shop

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Kum Automatic Longpoint Sharpener

Kum Automatic Longpoint Sharpener
The Kum Automatic Longpoint Sharpener (Automatic Langkonus Spitzer in German) is definitely known on the net. It’s often touted as being one of the best sharpeners made today.

After trying it myself, I felt that what I had previously read and heard didn’t really communicate how the Longpoint works. I doubt I’m alone, so with the help of a picture or two, I hope to clarify matters.

The sharpener is an oval prism container, with two externally accessible holes. It comes with two spare blades tucked into a corner of the container. This is a very nice touch. I’ve never seen a spare sharpener blade for sale at an art supply store or stationer, and it’s nice to see a sharpener given a longer life with this addition.

Let’s get to the sharpening method. The left hole has a exit diameter of about 2mm, which is the diameter of the pencil lead or core. Thus the blade catches and sharpens the wood of a standard pencil, but misses the core. (See photo.) The pencil is then placed in the second hole, where the lead gets sharpened to a very fine point.
Kum Automatic Longpoint Sharpener
So when I saw this, all I thought was that this looks like the way pencils were sharpened a few years ago. Essentially, the angle of the point produced by sharpeners has been increasing over the years. If you like this very sharp point, and don’t mind the extra work of the dual sharpening, this may be the product for you.
Kum Automatic Longpoint Sharpener
One other thing to consider is that this sharpener is quite wasteful, and discards more of your pencil’s core than a standard modern sharpener. Recalling high school geometry, the formula for the volume of a cylinder is

V = ?r2h

and the formula for the volume of a cone is

V = 1/3?r2h

so turning a cylinder of lead into a cone of lead discards 2/3 of that lead.

For a 2mm lead, the radius is 1mm. The Longpoint produces a point of 3mm, so we have

V = ?*1mm2*3mm = 9.4mm2 will result in 6.3mm2 discarded to create a 3.1mm2 point.

A point which will be much harder to keep unbroken, by the way.

A more modest 2mm long point would produce only 4.2mm2 of waste.

The 2/3 of the lead discarded in making a point actually could be an argument in favour of mechanical pencils.

I’m sticking with regular sharpeners, but it’s nice to know about this alternative.

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