Dandelion Wine is a whole lot of summer in less than two hundred pages. It tells the story of young Douglas Spaulding, who lives in Green Town, Illinois. At the beginning of one summer, he and his brother decide to record the things they do in the summer, in order to keep track off the regular activites and experiences of children during that season — from buying a new pair of tennis shoes, to making dandelion wine — whose taste brings a bit of summer to even the longest and most dreary of winters and coldest of hearts.

Just why this little novel by Ray Bradbury is of interest to Comrades and Pencil People lies in lines like these:

He brought out a yellow nickel tablet. He brought out a yellow Ticonderoga pencil. He opened the tablet. He licked the pencil.

Douglas licked the yellow Ticonderoga pencil whose name he dearly loved.

For, you see, the main character’s pencil of choice is the Ticonderoga. Pencils figure strongly in this little book of wonder, even near the end of the story and the end of summer:

And then, quite suddenly, summer was over.
He knew it first while walking downtown. Tom grabbed his arm and pointed gasping, at the dime-store window. They stood there, unable to move because of the things from another world displayed so neatly, so innocently, so frighteningly, there.
“Pencils, Doug, ten thousand pencils!”
“Oh, my gosh!”
“Nickel tablets, dime tablets, notebooks, erasers, water colors, rulers, compasses, a hundred thousand of them!”
“Don’t look. Maybe it’s just a mirage.”

Dandelion Wine is a splendid read for anyone who remembers being a child in the summer and all of the little things we all did to stay cool and not bored — or for those who want to remember.

[Images, J.G. Special thanks to Matt Le Claire who recommended this book in a comment on Tom’s review of the Ticonderoda.]

At Navy Pier in Chicago, there is a bronze statue of Oak Park native Bob Newhart.  What is special is that he is holding a pencil:)

[Images, J.G.  Used with my own not-so-kind permission.]

Jeremy from Loud Style has caught the pencil blog even more than the last time we checked in.

My little collection has grown quite a bit in the past six months. Since my last blog post about pencils is the most visited page on this site (after the homepage of course), I decided to write about them again.

My favorite pencils are often the natural, unpainted variety of incense cedar pencils. A nice coat of varnish is fine — completely bare is even better. The details and my opinions of the pencils pictured are below.

Read on about natural pencils such as the Blackfeet Indian, Musgrave, Forest Choice, Mongol and more!

Once again, comments will go unmoderated, and email will be on hold until I return home late Tuesday night from my trip. Apologies for tardiness (again).

[Image and text, L.S. Used with permission.]

We have been remiss to not have mentioned our friend Armand’s divine source of all things paper, including Moleskine notebooks and Palomino pencils: Paperitif — Written and Stirred.

At Paperitif, you can find fantastic gift sets ranging from gardening to travel and fly-fishing:

Paperitif.com is a new company based in Lake Villa, Illinois, USA offering distinctive gift sets featuring the best materials for writers, graphic artists, journal keepers, musicians and other professionals and hobbyists. At Paperitif, we believe that its “always better on paper” and invite you to rediscover the joys of text; the handwritten kind, that is. Yes, we’ve got the materials! Just add personality.

Stop on over, and enjoy Armand’s wonderful photos and the opportunity to treat yourself or a lucky recipient to a beautiful gift.

[Images, A.F.  Used with very kind permission.]

It has been a long time since we posted a review of a pencil, and that is one of the purposes this site was meant to serve when I started it. Among the pencils that keep popping up on the list of what Comrades would like to see reviewed is the Mirado Black Warrior, the pencil which will lead the charge in this resolution to a more consistent program of posting reviews.

Material: California Incense Cedar.
Shape: Round.
Finish: Glossy black with gold lettering.
Ferrule: Red-banded brass.
Eraser: Genuine Pink Pearl.
Core: Waxed-ceramic/graphite composite. Available in #1/B, #2/HB, #2.5/F, #3/H.
Markings: “USA/Mirado Black Warrior/HB/[two hearts].”
Packaging: Varies from open-stock, to packs of eight or ten, to boxes of a dozen.
Origin: Made in Lewisburg, Tennessee, United States by the Sanford Corporation.
Availability: Widely available in office supply stores, art supply stores, university bookstores, department stores and online.

What the Mirado Black Warrior has over other pencils that are as widely available is that it is obviously of a higher quality. It is not nicer than the Mirado Classic, but the latter’s yellow color does little to set it apart from cheapos you might find discarded on the sidewalk. The Black Warrior, with it’s black finish, banded brass ferrule and rounded shape, stands out among American pencils when on a desk or sticking out of a shirt pocket.

The obviousness of its quality does not end with the appearance. PaperMate bills the Mirado pencils as the smoothest writing pencils in the world. While that is certainly a matter for debate, the core of the Mirado is smooth, due to being impregnated with wax. This has its ups and downs. On the bright side, you get the above-mentioned smoothness and a superior strength of point that resists breakage and lasts long between sharpenings. On the not-so-bright side, the ultra-smoothness has the price of leaving a very faint line, even for an HB pencil. As a partial remedy, you could try the #1/B grade, which maintains the legendary smoothness and generates a darkness of line that runs a little darker than a Dixon #2/HB. Personally, I prefer this grade for writing and the HB for underlining and marginalia in books.

There is debate over whether “rough” erasers like the Pink Pearl damage paper too much compared with something like the Staedtler Mars plastic eraser. With the pumice in the Pink Pearl, this may very well be the case, and I would never use one on watercolor paper or the like. But that is not the purpose of the Pink Pearl or the Mirado. While one can certainly sketch away with a Black Warrior (and I have attended boring lectures where people did just that), the primary purpose of Mirado pencils is writing. A new Mirado with a semi-soft Pink Pearl will not burn holes through the pages you write on. It might remove a small layer, but only an overly heavy hand or inferior paper will cause ruin for pages of writing with a Pink Pearl. If one is concerned about the microscopic flaws such a rough eraser might cause on writing paper, one might not like a Mirado. Not caring about that myself, I prefer the eraser on Mirado pencils to the eraser on any other Sanford pencil, by far. The eraser does what it should do, while managing to last far longer than softer erasers. They are a bit on the messy side, but no one said this Revolution was going to be a tidy one.

Writing with a Black Warrior is a new experience for someone used to hexagonal pencils. With the glossy finish, even only slightly damp hands make getting a good grip a bit difficult. On the other hand, the round shape allows for holding the pencil in different positions, and I imagine that Comrades who have had the corners of a pencil embedded into fingers will appreciate the gentler shape of the Black Warrior. They fall right off the desk, so angle them carefully.

Of course, the Black Warrior smells heavenly because of its cedar construction, and sharpening a rounded wooden pencil is a breeze with any quality sharpener. And there are always some times that a very sharp and light-marking pencil is exactly the tool for the job, such as writing in precious LOA volumes. Still, with the softest grade, one can enjoy the smoothness and the darkness of a fine American pencil. Considering their relatively inexpensive price tag, wide availability and impressive quality, the Black Warrior is a formidable tool to have in a Comrade’s graphite arsenal.

[Text and images, J.G.]

Comrades, Pencil Revolution will take a short break this week, until later this week.  I am doing some travelling until late Wednesday.  So please excuse lateness in returning messages and in moderating comments until at least that time.  Have an excellent week!

Doug at the Grand Pooba of pencil sites, The Pencil Pages, posted a great story a few months ago retelling a tour he took of Sanford’s pencil factory in Lewisburg, Tennessee (United States), and I set it to post in the future, but after the Blogger-to-Wordpress switch, the post disappeared. Many apologies for the long delay, but Doug’s pages are well worth the wait.

Please check out the great photos and details of pencil manufacturing from Doug here.

[Photos, D.M. Used very extra kind permission.]

By my alter-ego, who is a [semi-] normal person who does more than just admire pencils.

Drawn on a pizza box with a Faber-Castell GRIP 2001 (HB) in the dark while watching “Globe Trekker.” I swear I can usually write/draw at least a little better. But damn it, drawings on pizza boxes are funny, and I had to share.

See a larger image and complete story here.

[Image, J.G. Used with my own permission.]

Shane from Utah sent in some great photos of a very beautiful pencil extender:

Here is my favorite pencil extender. The main advantage to this extender is that it is hollow its entire length, unlike most extenders which have a solid handle attached to a clutch. Because of this extender’s design, you can also use it as a protector or holder for even a full-length pencil without adding any significant length to the protected pencil. I carry a fully protected pencil in my pocket and use it down to the nub.

I cannibalized the pocket clip from a Pentel mechanical pencil to trick out one of the extenders and help it ride my shirt pocket more safely. The clip also prevents rolling on the desk.

I bought these beauties at the Kinokuniya Japanese book store in San Francisco, and I’ve seen them at the Kinokuniya in Seattle. They were $4.15 for the pair. I have not been able to find how to order these online, but physical store locations are linked at http://www.kinokuniya.com/. Maybe PencilThings or another supplier can get a stock of these and make them accessible online to our comrades everywhere? Looks like the manufacturer is Kutsuwa.

Visit Shane’s new blog Scrawler Tap!

[Text and images, S.T. Used with kind permission.]

Spitzen oder nichtspitzen: das its hier die Frage.

“To sharpen, or not to sharpen: that is the question.”
(William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Act III, Scene i.)

I have never been able to adopt a clear principle of action regarding exactly when to sharpen my pencils. Do I sharpen when the sharpness of the point is gone? That seems a little extreme, since it would require that I constantly sharpen (or use sandpaper pads), given that most of what I use pencils for amounts to long stints of writing. Do I wear the lead down to the wood? This seems extreme at the other end, since I would wind up writing in large, Kindergarten letters half-way through what is thereby considered a point. While large letters are not undesirable per se, they don’t fit in my notebooks.
So it would seem that the proper time to sharpen my pencils would be somewhere in between. But where? I do turn the pencil so that I use the points that several flattened plains have made at their intersections (see figure). This enables me to keep the letters fine without resorting to the blade just yet. But at a certain point (!), I give up and cut the wood and graphite with a sharpener.

The thing is, I’m almost never consistent on where this is, on when I finally sharpen the pencil and decide how much graphite is going to get shredded without having fulfilled its purpose of making a mark.

It varies by how hard and how dark the pencil I am using is. Darker leads can be used while dull, since I can still read what I write with them. A lighter German pencil is something I really prefer to keep sharp. It varies by how expensive the pencil is and how precious it is to me (i.e., how many of them I have in my stash). Palominos and Castell 9000s get very close to the wood before I dare to sharpen them, but I don’t mind cutting up a Mirado that is only marginally dull.

What I’m writing on matters, too. I have found that thinner Moleskine paper likes a sharp point, while Rhodia pads and Moleskine sketch books don’t seem to mind a smoother and duller point. Working out logic problems on my bathroom mirror (how Goodwill Hunting is that?!) is futile with too sharp of a point on my china markers. Cheap notebook paper causes any non-sharp pencil to smear everywhere, if the lead is anything softer than an HB.

This is not to mention situational factors. Do I have a meeting to attend where I don’t feel like pulling out a sharpener, or can’t? If so, I will sharpen my pencil before I leave, no matter how much lead is left. Am I putting the pencil into my pocket? I will leave a little dullness. Is it going into the cup, and is it cedar? If so, I will leave it dull so that I can sharpen it and enjoy the aroma the next time I use it.

Etc. Etc. Etc.

How about you? When do you know that it’s time to sharpen your pencils?

[Images, J.G.]

This is the first post about what we will call “Revolutionary Reading,” i.e., books that have some bearing on pencils and the Revolution. All Revolutions need their pamphlets, chapbooks and other volumes, even if such poetry or prose is not necessarily akin to some sort of doctrine.

It is only appropriate that the first such post be on Professor Henry Petroski’s The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance. This book is widely available in trade paperback, and the current edition is actually a very well-designed book itself, with a durable cover with very nice graphics. The height is actually longer relavtive to the width than more books, and this gives it a pleasing grip and span.

The Pencil is a book about engineering told through the sustained example of the pencil. What you get is the story of the pencil, from its origins in England in the sixteenth century to the pencil industry of the late twentieth century and everything in between. Professor Petroski covers graphite discoveries, the production of pencil “leads,” wood, erasers — and there is even an entire chapter devoted to my personal gadget, the pencil sharpener.

The text is extremely engaging, even though we non-engineers might be tempted to be wary of reading a book about engineering. In my own field (philosophy), I can certainly spot a boring book. But take my word for it: this is an exciting book for anyone who uses, likes or admires pencils. Far from being boring, it reads like an epic novel, with the protagonist and hero being the pencil, with other heroes that help the pencil along the way.

While it seems that pencils are simple objects at first glance, Professor Petroski shows that they are anything but simple, as he details the technological advances and engineering geniuses who have brought us our wooden warrior. Do you know why, for instance, Incense Cedar is the preferred wood for making quality pencils? Do you know what people used for erasers prior to rubber ones? Or just how long it took for sharpeners (as we know them) to appear on the scene? If you give The Pencil a good read, you will know all this and more.

Certainly, having some understanding of what forces, minds and inventions have brought us pencils affords us a much greater appreciation for the humble tool that many us take for granted. If you are intersted in learning more about our graphite champion and/or in reading an enlightening and entertaining book, then The Pencil is for you.

[Photos, J.G.]

Melony sent some great photos in recently. These are just a few:

You can check out Czech out Melony’s blog here.
[Images, M. Used with permission.]

This is fascinating: What is this object? The only hint that you get is that we’re posting it on a pencil blog:)

The solution can be found here (scroll down).

[Images, Rob H. Used with permission.]

This was taken by Réjane in Switzerland, who was kind enough to let us post it here. A much larger version can be viewed here. It’s just one of her great photos that you can view at her Flickr page. It does look like a familiar tool, no?

[Image, Réjane. Used with very kind permission.]

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Pencil Revolution.

[Drawing, F.G. Used with very kind permission. Photograph, J.G.]

A few months ago, I came into the department where I study and found this on my desk, a joke from a colleague (and fellow Revolutionary) which reads:

“This could easily happen to all your pencils,
if you don’t follow these directions exactly.
Get 100 dollars in nonsequential 2 dollar bills
and wait for further instructions.”

[Ransom note, Alex. Photos, J.G.]

We are not divisive enough here at Pencil Revolution to hate pens. Ink users will not be guillotined, French Revolution style. Rather than putting pencils over pens, I personally seek instead for the more realistic and peaceful telos of obtaining for pencils equal status with their inky counterparts. Along with my private stockpile of pencils (for when the Revolution really comes), I do have a lot of pens, with a particular affection for Fisher Space Pens.

This is a great photo by Jennifer Guillory of This Is Your Brain On Lithium (see photos here) that depicts graphite and ink in the same Moleskine notebook. A testiment of what is possible.

[Image J.Guillory. Used with permission.]

Our Comrade at Ninth Wave Designs writes about her quest for the perfect pencil, a hybrid of several great pencils around presently:

“I have been piecing together the perfect pencil in my mind lately, exhuming the parts from the assortment of good pencils I regularly use to create the ultimate writing tool.  In order to create the perfect all-around pencil I first need to harvest a few parts.  My goal here is a pencil that would be highly functional for day-to-day use, comfortable for writing for longer periods of time, and not too specialized (i.e., it doesn’t also have to be the best sketching pencil)…

….I don’t expect I will ever find a pencil that possesses all the qualities I have stitched together here, but it is fun to dream of the perfect pencil. In reality what is perfect would vary from person to person and job to job, so it would be impossible to accomplish this for everyone.  Until my Frankenpencil is given life by a pencil manufacturer (It’s alive, it’s aliiiiiive!), I will just have to be happy with the variety of pencils I have on hand.”

Read the rest of the post here.

[Images and text, N.W.D.  Used with kind permission.]

But we hit the 100,000 visit mark over the weekend, on Sunday! That’s a tenth of a million Comrades since the end of July. Thanks to all People who spread the Word of the pencil and our Revolution! This is a sign of how devoted to the pencil are the People of this Revolution.

And to whomever searched for information about something pencil-ish in Russellville, Arkansas (where my friend and colleague is from) at Arkansas Tech University and wound up here as the 100,000th visitor, Congratulations! You can claim your prize if you contact us with what you searched for, so we know it’s you:)

We’ve added a “Contact” form, linked to in the sidebar. The email link had to be taken down due to dozens and dozens of spam messages clogging up the mailbox. Hopefully, this will work a little better for everyone.

Finally, I hope the new theme works better in folks’ browsers and that it’s easier to read than the other Wordpress theme. It’s much more akin to the Blogger version we had. And much more pencilicious.

[Image, J.G.]

Our Comrade Bemsha in Japan has some great photos of his pencils, among which ranks the GRIP 2001 HB:

“After trying out fountain, ballpoint, and rollerball pens with Moleskine notebooks, my current and favourite choice is the Grip 2001 pencil from Faber-Castell.

My gratitude goes out to the Pencil Revolution website, which helped me rediscover the pencil in general as being the most reliable writing instrument - the ink in pens may run out or get clogged or leak, but with a pencil you’re sure the first letter you write will come out clear.

Among the five degrees of lead hardness in the Grip 2001 collection, my favorite is HB. I’ve used both B and H Grip 2001 pencils as well - B produces a dark firm line but in my case they tend to smear and create grey mists in my Moleskine after awhile when two pages written in pencil are stuck together (perhaps this won’t be much of a problem when you’re drawing a picture in the Moleskine sketch book); with H the pages remain clean but the letters look thin and faint, thus making it slightly hard to read the written words.

The Grip 2001 pencil is light in weight compared to most other pencils, and its triangular shape makes it comfortable to hold.

And it’s pleasant to the eye as well - just like the Moleskine.”

Check out more of his photos on Flickr, and his site here.

[Images, text, Songlines. Used with very kind permission.]