Author: Andy Welfle

Ben Cohen’s Halloween Candy Hierarchy

/ Andy Welfle / 3 Comments

I saw on BoingBoing the other day, and then later on Pencil Revolution‘s blog, this handy chart outlining the Halloween Candy Hierarchy.

You’ll note that pencils fall on not only the lowest tier, but the “Tier so low it does not register on our equipment.”

Pencil Revolution noted,

I love candy as much as the next Comrade (and have the love handles to prove it), but this comment makes me almost sad.  I’d love to get pencils for Halloween.  Anyone giving the youngins pencils this year?

I bet these cheap things are a dime-a-dozen, if that, and will fall apart in the pencil sharpener.

I can see the commenter’s point, but I have a feeling he chose the wrong pencil. I really dislike those pencils that have holiday-themed designs shrink wrapped onto the barrel. It’s cheap, lazy, shoddy construction. When you try to sharpen it, the plastic starts to unravel, and often jams your sharpener.

Maybe we should hand out Blackwings? That’s kind of a scary, Halloween name: Blackwing. Or maybe we could get CalCedar to rebrand a Blackwing as “Batwing” for Halloween. (-:

In any case (wooden or otherwise), happy Halloween!

Pencil sampler packs: A good idea?

/ Andy Welfle / 7 Comments

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, but the reason I decided to start writing about pencil was because I bought a California Republic sampler pack from PencilThings. As I recall, it had a Palomino, a Prospector, a Golden Bear, and a ForestChoice, and it was only three or four dollars! It was such a steal, and I think it taught me to appreciate pencils as an instrument for writing, rather than a throwaway item.

PencilThings no longer sells a sampler pack, and I can’t figure out where to get them. I’ve been thinking about selling sampler packs of various pencils on this site, not really to make a profit, but as an educational outreach tool. I could sell a 4- or 5-pack for $5 or less, and include a letter explaining some of the finer points of using the pencil. What do you think about that idea?

Some of the ideas I’ve had:

Pencils from Around the World:

  1. Palomino (USA)
  2. Chung Hwa 6151 (China)
  3. Hi Uni or Tombow (Japan)
  4. Staedtler Mars Lumograph (Germany)
  5. Helix Oxford (UK)

California Republic Sampler:

  1. Palomino
  2. Golden Bear
  3. Forest Choice
  4. Prospector
  5. Palomino Blackwing

Fine Writing Sampler

  1. Palomino Blackwing
  2. Palomino
  3. Tombow Mono
  4. Faber Castell 9000

Triangular Sampler

  1. Golden Bear Triangular
  2. Dixon Tri-conderoga
  3. Marco Grip-tite

Do you have any ideas? Would you get any of these sampler packs for friends you’re trying to evangelize pencils to?

Checking in

/ Andy Welfle / 1 Comment

Whew! It’s been a busy week here at the Woodclinchery, what with my day job, some medical emergencies in the family, and whatnot. I missed the Open Thread Tuesday, for which I apologize. I’ll be back soon, with my Chung Hwa 6151 review! I’m putting it through all the trials and tribulations I can think of. So far, it’s really nice.

Meanwhile, check out this little 4chan cartoon. This was totally me in 4th grade.

Field Notes assembly video

/ Andy Welfle / 3 Comments

Following up on how printing ink is made, I wanted to bring you some  letterpress porn. I could watch these videos all day. This one is from Field Notes, who I’ve discussed previously and just announced a new color in their lineup: “Raven’s Wing“. It’s a good looking notebook. Seriously. If I didn’t already have too many of the regular Field Notes cahiers, I would totally get a pack of these.

I can’t think of anything I don’t love about this video. The rousing old-timey march spun slightly too slow on an old record player, the press shooting off uniformly attractive black notebook covers efficiently, or just the knowledge that the resulting product will be a beautiful black Field Notes cahier.

In any case, check it out. It’ll bring a tear to the scribomechanical enthusiasts’ eye.

WoodChuck in the flesh!

/ Andy Welfle / Leave a comment

Well, on video at least. Charles Berolzheimer from California Cedar and Pencils.com made a short video about the Palomino Blackwing! It’s short and sweet, though nothing a faithful reader of this blog probably doesn’t know already. Still, I think you’d be interested in seeing it.

Pencil geeks: If you are trying to explain to someone what you’ve been blathering on about for the last two months (like people have asked me), or someone simply wants to know what that cool pencil you’re writing with is, this is the perfect video to show them.