(Read on.)

While many a bad film has prevented at least some folks I know from reading great books (e.g., The Perfect Storm, whose movie was just, well, wow, terrible), the semi-recent film was particularly enjoyable. I won’t blather on about how it expanded on some of the psychological self-exploration of the book. But I will say that both I and my daughter enjoyed it. And she is particularly enamored of the soundtrack, featuring one of her favorite songs, “All Is Love.”

Rest in peace, Mr. Sendak.

(Image, WP.)

Tom opened the drawer and saw a table of Crane’s Linen Lawn and a package of envelopes to match and two gnawed and crippled pencils and in the dust[y]* corner at the back a few stamps. He laid out the tablet and sharpened the pencils with his pocketknife. [406]

There are several detailed pencil references, but another sticks out:

The writing stopped there. There was a scratch on the page and a splash of ink, and then it went on in pencil, but the writing was different. In pencil it said, “Later. Well, right there the pen give out. One of the points broke right off… “[34-5]

*(My centennial edition has quite a few typos, and I assume that’s one, too. Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. New York: Penguin Books, 2002.)

The Pencil Things Select pencil, however, beats the No Blot where it counts: writing.

First off, you can still get them! Secondly, the core is smoother, darker, and more difficult to erase. As you can see above (hopefully — my old camera left something wanting, and these photos are old). Often, with the No Blot, something feels a little…off. The core is thick and feels like it should be softer/darker, like most thick-cored pencils. The Select is soft and has a more “normal” diametered core. Of course, softer and darker usually mean more smears and more sharpening, and that is no different here. But the trade-off is worth it.

Like Ana, I will miss the lovely color of the dye in No Blots when my last dozen (wipes eyes) finally runs out. But the purple of the Select is a nice color, and it’s considerably easier to actually see/read. The Pencil Things Select basically does what the No Blot does (or did). It is a pencil that does not erase like other pencils, because of the dye in the core. It’s not quite as attractive as the No Blot, but it writes just as well, I’d argue, better. And, perhaps best of all, you can still get them!

There are more colors available now, and I’m definitely eager to try them.

But stay tuned. There aren’t enough Paperblanks reviews out there, and we’ve got a great one coming up.

For several months, whenever I’ve been too lazy to use my wall mounted sharpener, I’ve been sharpening my drawing and list-making pencils into a small glass on the coffee table. I’ve used grades from H to 9B, as well as Ebony, Layout, carpenter’s and water soluble pencils.

Over that time I developed a habit of rapping the glass against the table a time or two to send the graphite dust down through the shavings before leaving my sharpener and eraser on top. It started as a way to keep things clean, but as the layer of graphite grew at the bottom of the glass, I started thinking there had to be something I could do with it.

Eventually I scooped out the wood shavings and ended up with more than a 1/4″ layer of gritty black shards, fine dust and larger lead pieces. While pure graphite powder makes a great dry lubricant for things like sticky door locks, this was anything but pure. It contained all manner of fine wood shavings, paint chips, and who knows what else. I could have tried filtering it somehow, but it still would have enough clay, wax and other additives mixed in that I wouldn’t want to use it as a lubricant.

In the end I decided I would try reusing the mix for its original intended purpose, marking on paper. That translated into an experiment in graphite fingerpainting, the results of which you can see below.

Some tips if you try this yourself:

1 – Use loose leaf paper. I didn’t and it was very difficult to funnel the leftover graphite dust back into the cup without making a mess.

2 – Be sure there aren’t any unwanted indentations in the paper…because they’ll be highlighted by the graphite rub. I’d drawn a stick figure on the previous page of my sketchbook and its head was clearly visible on this page.

3 – Try making a shaded field and using an eraser to subtract an image from it. Tell people you did this on purpose, not that you made a big gray mess with an accidental circle in it and the eraser was the only way to make it look like anything recognizable.

4 – Think about how you’re going to clean your fingers off before you start. This way you won’t end up with black marks all over the bathroom door knob and light switch.

(Text and images, L.L.  Used with kind permission.)

With the Blackwing 602 out (thanks Charles and Andy for the dozen!), some cool samples arrived from Daycraft in Hong Kong, we’ll be back soon with more pencil adventures.

When I first saw the drill powered pencil sharpener on Notcot I was vaguely disturbed by it, but I wasn’t sure why.  On the practical side, if you regularly find yourself with an unsharpened round or hex pencil in one hand and a drill in the other, this gizmo will effectively sharpen your pencil in about 5 seconds.

Lets look at the pro’s and con’s:

Pro – low effort; makes big cool shavings; you get to use a drill; bright color so it won’t get lost easily; cheap ($4 for 1 sharpener & 15 pencils at Lowe’s); useable without the drill for resharpening; could sharpen a dozens of pencils in no time without the overheating problems most inexpensive electric sharpeners have.

Con – doesn’t work with carpenter’s pencils; round so it would roll off a table or roof easily; could be awkward to use with larger drills; construction site folks don’t usually need a finely pointed round pencil.

Upon further reflection, I think my issue with the drill sharpener is that I really enjoy using a hand crank sharpener for initial sharpening, and a blade sharpener for resharpening. But what do I know? I’m not the target market for the product.

That in mind, I asked two friends about it. One is a former construction worker; the other restores furniture professionally. Thumbs down from both. The construction worker only used carpenter’s pencils, and only sharpened with a utility knife: “I bought a square pencil sharpener once, used it one time and never bothered again. Finding it in my tool box and using it was slower than just carving a point with my utility knife, which I always had on me. It would take even longer to find this thing, take out the bit that was in the drill, put it in the chuck, use it, then replace the other bit. Besides, you don’t need a sharp pencil for marking boards.” The furniture restorer wasn’t any hotter on the idea. He uses finely pointed pencils for his detailed woodworking, but always works in a shop, so he has an electric sharpener on his workbench.

Not that it isn’t an interesting sharpener. In fact, I’d probably pick one up next time I was at Lowe’s if it didn’t come bundled with 15 generic HB pencils that would just take up space in my already overflowing pencil drawer. Hopefully there’s some other application it is perfect for that I haven’t thought of.

Suggestions?

[Text, L.L. Used with kind permission.]

“I found a bunch of pencil adds in some old “Industrial Arts and Vocational Education” magazines from 1951, and thought you might find them interesting, so I scanned some for you. I thought that it was interesting to see these ads, and know that there was once a time and forum for the art of the pencil in its different amalgamations and uses.”

Many thanks to Brian for always being on the lookout for great pencil stuff!