pencil talk | pencil reviews and discussion
exploring the art and science of pencils since 2005
I can’t read much of it, yet it seems to speak very well to many interests of mine.
Red and blue pencils, leadholders, quirky office accessories – they’re all here, and featured prominently.
The magazine is in Japanese, with about 150 glossy pages crammed full of photos of woodcase pencils, mechanical pencils, leadholders, erasers, sharpeners, staplers, hole punches, rulers, and much more.
Yes, they have a page on Vernier calipers:
Sharpeners also.
The Tortoise Lead Pointer is a remarkable all-in-one unit for blade sharpening of leads. It can handle:
1.18mm: Traditional mechanical pencils (pre-1950?), and today, Yard-O-Led, some Autopoint, and some Retro 51 pencils.
2.0mm: A standard lead diameter.
3.15mm: A standard lead diameter.
3.8mm: Less common – used by the Pilot Croquis, and some Koh-I-Noor models.
5.6mm: A standard lead diameter.
Two sharpening angles are offered for 2.0mm leads.
I like the playful name, the design, and the focus on the leadholder culture. Though there are individual sharpeners and lead pointers on the market, I have never seen such an all-in-one unit. I look forward to getting one.
The product can be purchased at bundoki.com.
The design behind the product is thanks to U5 Architects Unit.
Please see the review and additional photos at the uncomfortable chair.
This site now has an index page. I’ve tried to put links to most of the past pencil and stationery content, organized by topic. I also created links to the most popular posts (so far). Please let me know if there are any problems.
Link: pencil talk index
Thanks to those who voted or left comments in this informal poll.
Unsharpened pencils were preferred, with the final tally being 35 for unsharpened, 17 for sharpened.
fixedgearfiend asked, “How are the pencils that come pre-sharpened, sharpened?” Staedtler’s Pencil Facts website has a video that very briefly shows factory sharpening. The machine is moving quickly, and the video is quite small, so it’s hard to give too much description – but it seems to be capable of sharpening several pencils in a second.
Kent mentioned the retail experience. Stores often have scratch pads to try out pens, pencils, and markers – but that won’t work with unsharpened pencils. So retail needs may be another factor in a manufacturer’s decision.
I wonder what the subject of the next poll should be.
An interesting, artist-oriented perspective on sharpening pencils:
I just received a Draplin Design Co. Factory Floor Issue Longhand Set. It’s like an early Hallowe’en loot bag for stationery/design lovers.
The shop floor never looked so good. The set included:
Field Notes ruler
Field Notes sharpener
Field Notes notebooks
Draplindustries carpenter pencils
Draplin round pencil
Draplindustries ballpont pen
Draplin Sharpie
Draplin Mini-Sharpie
Draplin Calendar
Draplin Anvil decal
This was much more than I ordered. They threw in a number of these items as extras.
I don’t know how they did it, but they’ve got the retro industrial look down pat. With many touches of whimsy.
The fun doesn’t end there. The envelope in which this was delivered was addressed “Canada, eh!”, which someone at the post office found the need to manually annotate as “CANADA”.
There is something that just feels great about a talented designer taking on these “ordinary” items. I will definitely keep an eye on Draplin for their future projects.
