new product

A pen that’s dressed like a pencil

/ Andy Welfle / Leave a comment

Things have been quiet around this blog for the last couple of years, but it’s not for lack of effort and interest in the pencilsphere.

One big thing that’s happening in my world is that my Erasable Podcast (130 episodes strong!) co-hosts and I are going to be going to the 2020 Baltimore/Washington International Pen Show to do a live episode on Friday, February 28!

Yes, we’re infiltrating the inky enemy and pronouncing our graphite propaganda. It’s been my (admittedly limited) experience that while the majority of pen show attendees don’t give a shake about pencils, there are a small but interested contingent who have just never thought about good-quality pencils. All they need is a little education and encouragement, and we’ll get them well on their way to regular graphite usage.

In order to raise the money to get to Baltimore (I’m flying in from San Francisco, and Tim from East Tennessee), we partnered with our friends at Baron Fig to customize their fantastic (and highly collectible) Squire pens and give it a makeover that’s relevant to our interests.

Introducing the Baron Fig X Erasable Number Two Squire!

The Baron Fig X Erasable Number 2 Squire Pen

This baby has ALL the features:

  • A bright #2-pencil-yellow anodized aluminum body
  • An eraser-pink anodized twist nock at the top.
  • A rollerball refill with a rich blue ink, in tribute to our favorite mass market pens, the blue Bic Cristal: the pencil of pens.

Baron Fig x Erasable Squire - Detail - 01

So here’s the rub: We have to place the order with Baron Fig all at once, so if you’re interested in getting one, you need to order it by this Friday, December 13, 2019 (five days from this posting). We might do it again, but we have no idea!

And for those of you looking for a nice Christmas gift for the pencil lovers in your life, I’m afraid this isn’t going to work for you — we’re not expecting this to be ready until late January.

But otherwise, we’d love your support, and in turn, you get a pen that when you know you must use a pen, you’re still supporting independent pencil media ventures.

Check out the Erasable Shop to buy a Number Two Squire for $60 »

The Palomino Blackwing Pearl — now, with an exclusive preview!

/ Andy Welfle / 2 Comments

It’s been a very Palomino-focused spring around here at Woodclinched. I hope that soon I’ll have some more Yikes! stuff to show you, but in the meantime, there’s some news out of California Cedar Products that I can’t resist sharing.

Pencils.com and Palomino (I’ve never sure which brand is now the authoritative Blackwing spokes-entity) just announced this week the creation of the Palomino Blackwing Pearl, the third pencil in the Palomino Blackwing lineup.

It sounds like the performance is just right in the middle of the two existing Palomino Blackwings:

The Blackwing Pearl features a lustrous pearl white finish and black eraser, along with a balanced and smooth graphite core that is softer than the graphite found in the Palomino Blackwing 602, but firmer than the graphite found in the Palomino Blackwing.

I spoke with Pencils.com president Charles Berolzheimer, “WoodChuck“, last week about the new pencil. The phrase they’re using to describe it is “balanced and smooth.” I asked if they’re going to put that as the motto on the barrel, and he said no. Charles did, however,  tell me a little bit about the style of the new Pearl.

“It’s going to be pearly white, almost a pinkish, translucent hue,” Charles told me. “We talked a lot about introducing another eraser for it, but we’re going to stick with the black eraser. We’ll still have a series of replacement erasers so people can hack their pencil.”

Admittedly, I imagine a pink eraser would look really good with this pencil, but honestly, the black eraser on the white pencil with that gold ferrule? That’ll look really lovely.

The Blackwing Pearls will be released to the public on May 2, and will apparently be available both on Pencils.com and in retail stores, where the product line has really been become more and more prevalent. No word yet on their price, but I’m assuming they won’t cost more than their counterparts ($19.95 for a dozen, or $163.98 for a gross).

I am proud to announce, however, that Woodclinched has discovered some top secret images of the new pencil. Prepare yourself for the exclusive world premiere of this highly-anticipated pencil:

A fabulous Photoshop mockup of the new Palomino Blackwing Pearl

Just kidding. This is the product of my terrible, terrible Photoshop “skills”. I used to have a vector of the Palomino Blackwing logo, which I can’t seen to locate, so as you can see, I expertly re-created it.

I will, however, attempt to talk my way into a advance sample, so I can give it a good try, all in the service of my Dear Readers. And hopefully, the real-life thing will look much better than this abomination, above. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, check out the full press release here. And after May 2, check out Pencils.com to buy it!