pencil revolution

The Blackwing Slate: The pencil-optimized notebook

/ Andy Welfle / 4 Comments

It’s a really exciting day today, folks. It marks the ninth anniversary of my friend Johnny Gamber’s first pencil review on Pencil Revolution! He wrote about Pencils.com’s ForestChoice pencils.

It’s speculated by Pencils.com’s Fearless Leader (and CalCedar president and CEO) Charles Berolzheimer, this is the first pencil review, ever, on the internet. (And to celebrate that, Pencils.com is having a one-day-only sale on ForestChoice products — 25% off!)

Congratulations, Johnny! Long live the Revolution!

Blackwing Slate

Yesterday marked the first day the Blackwing Slate was available for purchase. If you get emails from Pencils.com, or have been reading the blogs at Pencils.com and Blackwing602.com (there’s a lot of websites nowadays in this franchise), you may have seen teasers for this product. It’s a Moleskine-like notebook, but improved for co-branding with the Palomino Blackwing. And, in my opinion, way nicer than a Moleskine.

It seems that the devil is in the details with notebooks nowadays. The Baron Fig, reviewed here back in April, excelled in the little design choices that set it apart from its rivals. The same thing applies to the Slate — there are numerous little improvements that really make it stand out.

The Exterior

Its size is quite similar to the Palomino-branded journal line at 5” by 8.25”. The cover is a bit thicker and softer,though, and very matte — more of a shark skin feel to the harder, shinier Palomino hardcover. I’m not sure about this softness — I hope that it means it won’t scratch easily. Only time will tell. Besides that, it’s quite nice to touch.

Blackwing Slate Cover Closeup

It has a really nice thick elastic loop on the spine for a pencil, which is a great feature. This isn’t a dinky little piece of elastic either — this thing looks like it’ll hold its stretch for years.

Blackwing Slate Spine

Speaking of spines, the really innovative thing (in my opinion) about the Slate is the spine. because there’s a pencil strapped close to the spine, the two thick covers stop at the edge, and then are bound together with a substrate (I think I’m using that word correctly here). Essentially, the spine is reinforced, not with an extension of the cover board, but with the cloth that binds the cover to the signatures of pages inside.

It results in a very flexible cover — the first time I opened it, it wasn’t stiff at all. And I can even open it with the pencil still in the loop, which is great. It seems like it might make the notebook less durable — if the cover’s not protecting the spine, will it tear easier? Again, time will tell.

The Paper

Writing in the Blackwing Slate

Man. I love, love this paper. It boasts a 100gsm paper, compared to the Palomino luxury notebook’s 90gsm and Rhodia’s 80gsm paper. It’s so thick and plush, you guys.

It’s available in both lined and plain. Since the guys at Pencils.com know I am not an artist, they sent me a lined one to try out. The grey lines are set apart 0.25” on an off-white paper. The paper is smooth, but not as smooth as Rhodia paper. It has a little tooth on it, specifically engineered — I hope — for pencil. It’s the perfect amount to grab your graphite but still feel smooth.

Closeup of Palomino Blackwing 602 writing in Blackwing Slate

I tried it out with a medium-nib fountain pen, just to see how the paper held up to ink (though it would be sacrilege to use anything but pencil in this notebook!), and it worked great! No bleeding of note at all on the opposite page.

Closeup of a medium-nib fountain pen ink in Blackwing Slate

The opposite page from the fountain pen wriiting. As you can see, there is virtually no bleed-through! This is some thick paper.

The opposite page from the fountain pen writing. As you can see, there is virtually no bleed-through! This is some thick paper.

The Details

Besides the spine, this is what really gives the Blackwing Slate its distinction, and contributes greatly to those details I mentioned earlier. It has all the Moleskiney amenities, but all a bit nicer than the Moleskine’s — a satin bookmark, an elastic strap to keep the cover closed, a paper pocket in the back to hold stuff.

There are two different pockets in the flap in the back!

(That pocket is interesting — it’s actually a double pocket, with a small flat on the front for small things like, say, a driver’s license or credit card, and a wider one behind to hold things slightly smaller than the cover)

It even comes with a shiny new Palomino Blackwing 602 pencil tucked in the pencil loop on the spine!

It’s the details.

The Price

The Slate sells for $22.95, a full $9 more than a Moleskine Classic notebook sells at Barnes & Noble. The included pencil is worth about $2 of that price, so at $20.95, is the notebook worth it?

Depending on a lot of factors, of course, in general, I’d say that yes, it’s worth it. I’m not trying to bash Moleskine here (we actually had a discussion on the most recent episode of Erasable about how it’s become fashionable to look down on Moleskine), but the Slate is much better constructed, the paper is so much heavier and nicer, and for a pencil user like me, that elastic loop on the spine is wonderful.

Go check it out!

The Blackwing Slate | $22.95 at Pencils.com

Disclaimer: This product was sent to me, free of charge, for review purposes. No monetary compensation or additional direction was provided to me.

 

Presenting: the Erasable podcast!

/ Andy Welfle / 2 Comments

I’m a big, big fan of podcasts. Whether it’s the Pen Addict, any of the tech podcasts I listen to, or public radio shows presented in podcast format, I’m deeply entrenched in the medium.

I’ve been wanting the chance to do a podcast for a couple years now. Pencils seemed like a logical topic; trouble was, I didn’t think I could come up with enough content for a regular show. It’d hard enough keeping this blog up to date, and I didn’t want a podcast that was just an audio version. It should have something different.

Enter Tim Wasem of The Writing Arsenal. He’s a relatively new blogger of scribomechanica who jumped in head-first and is brimming with enthusiasm and ideas. So when he approached me about maybe collaborating on a pencil podcast, I was really excited.

We both knew that Johnny Gamber over at The Pencil Revolution needed to be involved, too, if he was willing. His experience and contacts in the pen and pencil community are unrivaled, and his mind and wit are sharper than a pencil fresh from a Classroom-Friendly Pencil Sharpener. Luckily, he was interested in joining us.

The trio was complete!

After some back-and-forth, and a trial run, we present: The Erasable Podcast!

erasable_temp_cover_largeWe’ve still got a lot to figure out, and as you can tell by the audio and the format, it’s still a little rough. But we’ve already caught the attention of a lot of listeners already (and the iTunes podcast directory hasn’t even approved our feed yet!

The description from this first episode:

So the audio’s a little rough, and we ramble about the philosophical implications of writing with wooden pencils, but Erasable is up and live with our inaugural episode! We’re starting off with some basics: our origin stories, why we started blogging about pencils, our top favorites, and the characteristics of a good pencil.

 

We’ll be back next time with a glossary episode: the terms we use when we talk about pencils.

 

Give us a listen, either by hitting up the website, or by subscribing directly to the feed with your favorite podcast-listening app. And we want to know what you think! Feel free to comment here, there, or via email if you have any questions or suggestions. Seriously, we’d love to hear from you.

The Atlantic loves Pencil Revolution

/ Andy Welfle / 2 Comments

Comrade John, the proprietor at Pencil Revolution, scored a big victory for Pencilism last week when The Atlantic online wrote about his site in their article, “The World’s Best Website About Pencils“.

Gamber says that part of the joy of pencils is the “physical experience” of them: “sharpening them, wearing them down as they sort-of-scratch across a page, making a minor mess erasing their marks.” And there’s the smell too, with its Madeleine-level nostalgia power. “Cedar pencils smell wonderfully, and such a scent from childhood always seems to affect us strongly. I get eager for recess and a chocolate milk sometimes when I smell my pencilcase,” Gamber writes. [Link]

I’ve been a faithful reader of the Pencil Revolution ever since I discovered it back in 2006, before ever blogging on my own, and sites like John’s set the bar high.

Congratulations, John — this is some well-deserved mainstream recognition!

Check out the article:
The World’s Best Website About Pencils | The Atlantic

 

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!