In this month’s issue of Wired magazine, there is a brief little article about the Alvin Brass Bullet pencil sharpener ($6.17 from our local art supply store, Creative Coldsnow). This dandy little brass, knurled sharpener features the all-important KUM blade. Simple, classic and 100% effective. Glad to see even the tech geeks see the value in a classic manual tool.
Since I posted the new stamp designs, lots of people have asked when and if handled versions would be available. Well, they are here! Most of the new designs are available in classic art block and handled versions. If there’s one you’d like but is not available in the format you prefer, send me an email and I can arrange for a custom order.
I haven’t had a chance to photograph the handled versions for the shop yet but these photos show what they look like — good quality wood handled stamps with deep cut stamps with thick cushion.
There are lots of designs to choose from and more on the way!
I confess that I quite specifically got the Pilot Plumix Medium Flat Italic (comparable to a 1.1mm) fountain pen ($7.25) to cannibalize the nib for the Pilot Metropolitan ($14.50) pen I have. I had the chance to try out the Plumix thanks to a local pen geek (Thanks, Geoff!) and immediately went home and ordered one. While the shape and overall outside aesthetics leave me wanting, the nib was silky smooth. I had heard other folks mention what a great nib it is for the price point and after trying it, I was sold. It is really as good as everyone says it is. Silky, silky smooth.
My first order of business was to disassemble both pens in order to swap out the nibs. While I think the medium nib on the Metropolitan is a fine nib, it doesn’t make my heart sing so I was ready to swap it out. I like the metal body of the Metropolitan line over the plastic of the Plumix and its weird, stumpy, wingnut cap even if my Metropolitan is a bit blingy in metallic gold.
I couldn’t be bothered to clean the pens before disassembly so I used a shop rag to grasped the nib and feed and gentle shimmy it out. Its basically help in the grip section by friction so it didn’t take much force or effort to remove it.
There is a notch inside the grip section that keeps the nib and feed in a specific spot but otherwise it was just a matter of shimmying it back into the other pen body to make the swap. I’d have diagrammed it more if there was anything else to it but really its: grasp, pull and then grasp and push. Also, we are talking about a combined retail value of $22 so I wasn’t too concerned about potential damage if I didn’t do it correctly.
Voila! The completed and fully customized Pilot Metropolitan italic! Total cost: $22. This same surgery can be done if you want an extra fine nib on a Metropolitan by purchasing the Pilot Penmanship pen ($8.25).
DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Jet Pens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
(Tested on Rhodia Pad No. 18 Uni-Blank)
I picked up this stack of Kyokuto Word Cards at Maido in San Francisco. They are small cards measuring just 1.5″ x 3.5″ (3.7 x 9 cm) and contain 100 sheets. I paid $2.75 for them. They are hole punched at the narrow end and held together on a clamp ring making them perfect to store and collect ink sample swabs. Because the clamp ring is easy to open, ink samples can be rearranged by color or manufacturer on a whim.
I’ve started using them to have swab references of the Ink Drop colors I receive. I plan to go back and do all the previous color swabs so that I can get all OCD and mix and match them by color, which ones I’ve purchased and manufacturer at a whim. The paper quality seems good, only one ink swab of the ten I tried showed any bleeding or feathering. Its bright white and my printer husband estimates the paper weight between 60 lb and 80 lb cardstock. Think of the card stock used for magazine blow-ins (those subscription cards that fall out the first time to open it) for a comparable weight. The cards are very smooth paper, there is little-to-no texture.
The nice thing about this set (or any of these mini-flash-cards-on-a-ring) is the ability to add more cards as needed. If they exceed the ring capacity, larger rings are available in most office supply stores or I can split the colors between multiple rings or divide them into smaller rings — all the reds, all the blues, all the blue-blacks, etc. I just love how easy it is to review, sort and be as anal about my ink collection as I want to be.
The closest product I could find online is the Maruman Mnemosyne Word Cards which measure 4.1 x 2.1″ (5.4 x 10.5 cm) with 100 sheets for $4.95. For more about the Maruman Mnemosyne Word Cards, check out the review on The Pen Addict. Have fun and nerd out with your new ink cards!
Tad Carpenter, a Kansas City illustration celebrity, has recently produced a notebook with a great typewriter illustration on the cover.
The notebook is softback with a textured cardstock cover and each page is lined. On the inside covers are pencil patterns and on the front cover it says “Inspiration is Everywhere”. There’s a place on the first page to write your name.
The paper is smooth, bright white and interspersed in the book are eight illustrated quotes to inspire and delight. The lines are wider than I prefer but they are a teal blue with a pencil illustration in the upper lefthand corner on the left hand pages. The lines are a little wobbly like they were hand drawn which makes them fun and cool.
I wish some of the pages had been left blank with just the little corner illustration so that the book could be used for writing or sketching.
I didn’t do a full-fledged pen test but the paper seems decently weighted so that it could probably handle a lot of everyday writing tools.
All in all, this is a super fun notebook and sells for $8 so what’s not to love?
While you’re shopping on his store, check out the new Kansas/Missouri print: “A city so great, one state couldn’t contain it!” ($25) or his epic quote print “What I love most about my home is who I share it with” ($20).
(written with my Kaweco Sport EF filled with Kaweco brown ink — no feathering at this fine width)
The wait is over. I have “random numbered” a winner in the Nock Co. Maryapple giveaway.
Ta da! Congrats to Shaun! Shaun, I’ll be contacting you today via email to get your shipping information. Thanks to everyone who entered.
Clearly, the Nock Co products are seriously coveted at the moment. Soon, they shall be available to all.
This Film King Dur-O-Lite pencil. It is one of those weird and wonderful pencil goodies that occasionally find their way to me. This one came from my pal Bryan over at Field Notes (much obliged!).
It’s branding includes where is was made “Melrose Park, Illinois” (yeah!) and “Film lead D-1”. It appears to be a wood case pencil but it has a twist mechanism to reveal the lead. Around the lead point end of the pencil is a metal graduated cone in weirdly Clearasil flesh color with a gold clamp ring keeping it taut. Twisting the fleshy end will reveal more lead. I attempted to hack the pencil to see if it could be refilled and it seems a bit fussy in that regard.
Film pencils were designed with a different type of graphite to hold up better on film, mylar and other plastic-y papers used in drafting, print pre-production and by photographers and the motion picture industry. The characteristics of the graphite that made them write better on film is not as important to a modern pencil connoisseur as very few people have need of this specialized ability. I like the history of tool like this though. Dave’s Mechanical Pencils has a longer article about film leads, if you’re curious.
Leadholder has some great images of an ordering brochure for the Dur-o-Lite Pencil Company which has a great typography and a fabulous illustration. From the brochure, I can establish that D-1 is probably on the harder end of the lead grades offered and that it was touted as a disposable pencil with a cedar casing.
Finally, I found a short stub on Wikipedia that indicated that Dur-o-lite and Auto-Point were rivals in their hey day. Dur-o-lite shuttered its operations in the 90s but Auto-Point is still in operation. I love that they still produce their classic Twinpoint.
I found one Dur-o-Lite film pencil on Ebay with a Buy It Now price of $3.35.
