this post is in memorium of a pencil that is very special to me. this is the first time i have successfully used a wooden pencil down to an unusable length.
at least where i have lived and seen, wooden pencils have taken a back seat to other erasable mediums, whether that is a mechanical pencil or (more recently) erasable pens (which are the most useless
invention of all time, by the way), even in some areas that i really didn't expect. i see a lot of people drawing with mechanical pencils, which really surprises me, but that's for a different post.
i have always had an interest in stationary and nice writing utensils, but it was only a few months ago when i got a nice wooden pencil. i saw a bunch of blackwing pencils in one of my local stationary stores and got one instinctively. i didn't use it that often until recently, though, because i had also gotten a rotring drafting pencil which was absorbing most of my attention. recently, i started using it and found it really pleasant. it's a different feel from the heavier metal pencil bodies that i've been using, and it's a welcome change. i've gotten another blackwing of a different lead weight to try it out, and as it's going right now i might try to find a box of these for christmas.
in a lot of things, i'm pretty minimalist, but when it comes to stationary i care a lot for some reason. i'll take this post as an opportunity to talk more about stationary.
paper
pencils/pens i've been trying to use fun pens and pencils since as long as i can remember. i'm just going to run through a short list of some of my current writing tools and what i think of them.
i have always had an interest in stationary and nice writing utensils, but it was only a few months ago when i got a nice wooden pencil. i saw a bunch of blackwing pencils in one of my local stationary stores and got one instinctively. i didn't use it that often until recently, though, because i had also gotten a rotring drafting pencil which was absorbing most of my attention. recently, i started using it and found it really pleasant. it's a different feel from the heavier metal pencil bodies that i've been using, and it's a welcome change. i've gotten another blackwing of a different lead weight to try it out, and as it's going right now i might try to find a box of these for christmas.
in a lot of things, i'm pretty minimalist, but when it comes to stationary i care a lot for some reason. i'll take this post as an opportunity to talk more about stationary.
paper
- i can't get enough of japanese paper. i design a lot of parts for robotics and projects and such on grid paper, and for fine and careful drawing i love using my hitotoki note notebook. i keep it to pen for technical drawing, and the paper absorbs the ink amazingly with no feathering and no bleed. i have been too scared to try my fountain pen on it, but the fountain pen works beautifully on my hobonichi planner, so it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume it would be a good experience on the hitotoki notebook.
- i keep a midori md paper notebook as something of a commonplace book, somewhere where i organize my thoughts when i don't want to look at a computer anymore. great paper, all kinds of ink work great, bound really well, and has a convenient ribbon bookmark (my one gripe with this bookmark is that it is cotton and braided, so it frays and can't be fused, so i had to knot it which isnt my favorite look , but this is a very minor problem).
pencils/pens i've been trying to use fun pens and pencils since as long as i can remember. i'm just going to run through a short list of some of my current writing tools and what i think of them.
- juice up 03: great pen for really thin lines which comes in handy in technical drawings. it has a tendency to feel scratchy on paper that isn't really smooth, but i don't use it on printer paper much so it's not a problem. i guess it makes it a little less versatile. there are pens from muji that are similarly thin but feel good on copy paper, so maybe there are better options out there, but i am happy with this one.
- kakuno fountain pen: this is my only fountain pen at the moment. i don't really plan on getting any more, since this one is nice as is and the hobby gets so expensive, and i don't use it a ton as is, really only in my planner. i have the fine nib, i have had half a mind to get a kakuno extra fine nib to try that out, but i have not gotten around to it and i might never.
- rotring 600 drafting pencil: this is a great mechanical pencil. i like 0.5mm lead weight because it is fine enough to support the size of my handwriting but is still common and easy to buy. i have a 0.03mm lead pencil and while it is definitely interesting it is not practical for my use. it is balanced well, the knurled grip is also pretty good for holding on, and the eraser cap is satisfying. i have one issue with this pencil, and it is that it like a quarter millimeter too small to house the generic pentel eraser refils. i have to shave them down with a utility knife and insert them into the original eraser housing, but i only have to do this once in a while and it isn't too much of a hassle.
- blackwing pencil: to elaborate a little more, the erasers are nice but despite having a really long eraser that is supposed to be shifted up, the eraser doesn't actually hold and gets pressed back down into the eraser housing. i made some little blocks that i can set under the eraser that will hold it in place, which work just fine. i also have more use cases for this pencil than my other writing utensils. i like a wooden pencil with thicker lead for writing on wood or drywall or metal or whatever i need to mark up when i'm making things, really no other issues with this thing that i know of eyet.