#84

Blackwings are nice, though you are absolutely paying for marketing and finishing. If you’re trying to save money you’ll get an as good pencil from Tombow or Mitsubishi.

If you’re in the US CW Pencils is supposed to be a good shop and you can buy most of them in singles rather than dozens. If it’s a gift you’re after they might have some interesting options.

Unfortunately Blackwing are a pain and don’t allow singles to be sold usually, but there a few places that do, the Pearl is close to a 2B/3B so quite soft.

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#85

Absolutely. Would always recommend a Tombow Mono 100 over a Blackwing – unless BYOE is a deal-breaker.

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#86

cough, cough Mitsubishi Hi-Uni

Though Blackwings, especially with all their special editions, are more fun.

?

#87

Bring Your Own Eraser

I do use Uni for 2mm clutch, and am a big fan of the classic Vermilion/Prussian Blue, but prefer the 100 as general workhorse.

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#88

Is there a word or phrase for “I love that you showed me this” and also “I am very angry at you for showing me this”?

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#89

:smirk:

It’s worse for me. I can’t even shop there, the postage to the UK is insane.

#90

At least you’ve got Present & Correct ?

Though I guess their pencil selection is pretty limited compared to CW.

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#91

Yeah we’re not spoiled for choice.

Never used Present & Correct, but I have shopped at Choosing Keeping, The Journal Shop, and Nero’s Notes before.

There is also Cult Pens which is our equivalent of Jet Pens, though weirdly they’re now owned by WHSmiths (you may only find this weird if you know of the hellish landscape that is the inside of a WHSmiths).

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#92

I’ve used a Fisher Space Pen for years, as I can keep them in my pocket without fear of leaking, and they’re great for writing down notes or doodling. They are, however, pretty terrible for drawing (no flow). When I was heavily into notebooking in the 90s I used a Uni-Ball Eye Fine as they have a really nice flow, and dry quickly.

The past few years I’ve been depending more on pencils both for writing and doodling. I could never find a good way to carry a pencil in my pocket (a wooden pencil, not interested in mechanical pencils), as the tips break off [side note: I have a ‘tattoo’ on my thigh of a single dot from a pencil point piercing my leg as a 10 year old].

I looked into the Metal Shop Twist Bullet Pencil but they seem to have ceased production. There are a (very) few retailers still selling them but they also have proprietary erasers (which would be non-replaceable if they really have stopped producing them) and I don’t need an eraser (for one thing, if it’s kept in my pocket all the time it wouldn’t be very tidy for erasing).

There’s also the Midori or Traveler’s Company Brass Pencils, but they too have an eraser, are reportedly a bit flimsy, and also require proprietary pencils as well as erasers. So that was a big no.

This afternoon I came across this company Elegant Utility, and ordered two! The standard machined brass Pencil-Pal, and the machined brass Pencil-Pal Hex. I have no idea if they’ll click with me but I’m really excited to try them.




I’ve started two new notebooks in the last week and seem to be on a reasonable roll after a hiatus of many years!

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#93

I’ve been using a Kurosawa Stad pencil cap for the last year or so, no complaints. There are quite a few pencil caps available.

Those Elegant Utility look really good, I’ve always been put of by bullet pencils because of the ‘bullet’ bit. Nice to see something that looks different.

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#94

In a video the maker made about his pencil holders, he addresses this point: he stayed away from the bulbous bullet shape because he likes to ‘make love not war’. That’s the spirit!

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#95

While not knowing your reasons for disinterest in mechanicals, this is the reason I started using a clutch pencil – the feel of wider lead without the carrying frustrations. Plus a bonus of less mess when sharpened.

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#96

anyone ever seen pencil caps that fit larger body pencils? I think the standard size is usually 6mm but I need something that will fit more like 8mm. I like to carry around my water color pencils, but they aren’t cheap and they break/flake much easier than graphite so I want to be able to preserve the tips and keep them from smearing all over stuff when they are still kind of wet.

#97

No promises, but the Kutsawa Stad caps are pretty mailable. You can bend the opening to make it tighter or looser, I usually have to given them a squash every now and again to keep them snug.

And they are very cheap, so hopeful no big loss if they don’t work out.

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#98

I studied painting and I’m a picture framer by trade so I prefer a wooden pencil because they are more traditional I suppose. But wow, honestly I’ve never heard of clutch pencils till now! They look pretty good too!

#99

The 2mm size were widely used for drafting, but I find them good all-rounders. I also have a 3.15mm Lamy that feels great in hand but really only suits sketching.

Random knowledge: The firm that popularised the mechanical pencil in Japan is still in existence and takes its name from its first product – The Ever-Ready Sharp Pencil – hence Sharp Corporation.

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#100

As this thread has in part inspired my re-interest in notebooking, I’m acquiring a variety of notebooks to use in different ways (and I reckon having plenty of notebooks to work with has so far made me feel less precious about them, so I just dive in). I’m looking for decent thinnish softcover sketchbooks around the same size as the Moleskine Large Cahiers which I’ve been using for the past few years (about 13cm x 21cm). The Moleskines are a good size, nice creamy-colour paper, about 80 pages, but the paper is too flimsy for drawing. Can anyone recommend a decent softcover sketchbook with drawing paper pages around this size? Doesn’t need to be watercolour paper grade, just able to handle pen without bleeding through to the other side and the erasing of pencil drawings without wrinkling.

#101

Is there a thread somewhere about where people are sharing drawings they’d made? I bet this community is producing some interesting work.

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#102

not specific to drawing (& not entirely specific to work coming from the lines community, tho it leans that way)

#103

Certainly not exhaustive–and someone else’s “best” is always subjective–but this article briefly reviews 100 notebooks from a variety of makers:

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