I enjoyed this snapshot of some good pencils and pens. I got on the Ebay and looked some up. I am one of those old schoolers that write letters to family members. I have to thank my elementary school teacher Mrs. Stanton for teaching us that writing was like drawing. Remember the cursive lettered border along the classroom walls. Penmanship was taught all through K through 6th grade.
Thanks to this video, I was finally able to convince my guy we should buy him the Lamy pen he's had his eye on for ages. He was ill and now I've lost him but I have really fun memories of us watching your video together and having our last little date night out to the art shop where we had a wonderful good chat with the owner, who we have loved for years. I'm so happy Neil got to enjoy that pen.
Just recently discovered you, so some of my comments will not be very timely. I was working as an engineer for a small company and my nice blue engineering pencils kept disappearing. Of course it's really next to impossible to tell one from another, and even scribing a name or other mark on it meant that you had to accuse someone and look closely at what he was using in order to find out whether it was yours. I was in an art store one day, looking for something else, and I found a bunch of engineering drawing pencils with very pretty floral patterns all over them. I never lost another mechanical pencil.
Thank you so much--this video brought back so many memories. I began to use a lot of these in the early 1970s when i was in intermediate school, when i took drafting.. My father was a oommercial artist and gave me all sorts of art/drafting tools. I also used syringes to fill fountain pens, i had some old pens from the 60s he gave me. Leaking was a real problem sometimes. A fact of life. Thanks!
Thanks to you, Fran, I now have several Pilot Varsity fountain pens in black, blue and red. What a wonderful reintroduction to fountain pens. They are so superior to the leaky fountain pens of my youth. And SO reasonably priced. I write theatre reviews for a local arts and culture blog. I write my first drafts in long hand. These pens glide across the page and are a treat to use for hours on end. I usually use them with reverse writing to get a finer script. Personally, for many other purposes, I still prefer my favourite ballpoints (Fisher Space Pen, Parker Jotter, Zebra F-301). But I'm enjoying experimenting with uses for these inexpensive little wonders. Yes, they're disposable, But the body is bigger than a cartridge and holds a lot more ink. All in all, an enjoyable improvement to my review writing experience. Thank you, Fran.
I got into fountain pens several years ago. Sadly I went through a period where my pens got neglected, and many of them now have dried ink in them. I've been writing with Pilot G2's lately. This video might have inspired me to give my fountain pen collection some much needed TLC and get them back into writing condition. The Lamy Safari is also one of my favorite. I have several. And after watching this video I ordered a pack of Pilot Varsity pens to use at work.
The first fountain pen I ever bought was a white Lamy Safari. I've had it for about 5 years, and it still writes as beautifully today as it did the day I got it. Fran, I love your videos. Thank you for sharing so much of your eclectic and interesting life with all of us, and please don't ever stop.
Back when I was around 10 years old, in the late 1950's, I would delight in visiting my grandparents house. It didn't take long for me to head to grandpa's desk to write and draw with his old fountain pens.They were beautiful instruments and I would spend hours with them. He also had the crow quill pens with the old ink well
Thanks Fran, you take me back to when I was in junior school, and we used quill pens to learn how to write. Not great as a left handed person, I always tended to smear the wet ink, and probably almost every day had a black spot on my left pinkie. The ball point pen was a great upgrade for making less smeared writing. But the ink well in the table, and the art of getting a drop of in to fly with just a shake of the wrist onto the person near you... But I agree on the pencils, they are great for drawing, still want to find a drafting table in usable condition for myself. They were nice to draw and write with.
I've always loved gadgets, and especially good writing utensils and flashlights. Nice little review - more like this, please! Btw: I really like the Rotring Rapid Pro series. All made with very high precision! A bit heavy, but the lead and pencil really feels like one solid unit without any kind of give. The 2 mm mechanical pencil is especially nice: It advances the lead like the thin mechanical pencils, and comes with a built-in sharpener for emergency use.
Great. Beautiful video. My whole family shares enthusiasm for pencils.. for writing, drawing, collecting.Favorites: Faber Castell HB. Our daughter loves all sort of charcoal pencils.Tool for creatives. Greetings from Germany, home of Staedler, Faber Castell, and Kindergarten.
My ball point of choice is a uni ball PowerTank. They are pressurised and on a field notes book they write underwater. Plus really nice to write with. Just the right amount of feel and they only stop working when the last of the ink is gone. I have never had any luck with fountain pens. They are lovely though.
That brought back a lot of memories. My Dad taught me how to use a drafting pen and compass (the type with two blades and a screw to set the spacing) back in the early 1960's. I forgot all about it until High School drafting where they had the exact sharpener you described. We only has strips of sandpaper to point the pencils so I bought a large iron version of the spinner you showed. It was at that art store I found the world of drawing instruments. I ended up getting several Staedtler Mars pens that had to be held vertical.for the ink to flow.
My everyday carry is a stainless steel Parker 45, i have it with me all the time, it shows the same 'just very tip' of the nib and bladder type reservoir as the 51. I LOVE the feel of writing with it :)
I have a pencil "tattoo" as well! Hooray for elementary school! Always glad to see new videos from you! I switched to (very cheap clone of the parker 51, mine has a 100% Chinesium tip) fountain pen for work a few years go. The very fine, abrasive dust I work with destroys the ball mechanism in ball point pens but it wipes right off a fountain tip. The one nice thing about it being cheap is that it will write with pretty much any liquid you care to use. It even dried out once by accident and took one a quick rinse to get it going again.
I found a Venus Velvet standard yellow pencil in my parents things after they passed away and used it at work for some time in the early 2000's. The company was bought out by Faber Castell in 1973 so it was an old pencil when I used it daily at work. Sharpened nicely and the point lasted much longer then any other pencil I ever used. Even the eraser was the best pencil eraser ever for me. Sad day when it was used up.
What an interesting video! I was taught in grad school to keep my notes in a numbered hardback book with non-removable pages and to write in pen. Make a mistake, cross it out. Don't hide your mistakes or dead ends. So for me 45 years ago, all my writing was in pen. Maps and charts were in pencil. 20 years ago carpel tunnel issues and arthritis moved me entirely to computer. I always loved writing. I sometimes will write letters but thats all the writing I do these days.
Fran, you would love the pencil museum in Keswick, the Lake District, England! the best graphite was mined there, hence the pencil industry in the area. love your vids! :-)
I have fond memories of the yellow and black Staedtler Noris pencils, they were a big part of my school life and after having used a a few brands, they're some of the best around. They make nice drawing pencils too, have had a few sets in the past
As far as mechanical pencils go rotring tikky has always been my favourite. They are really sturdy and feel well made and tend to be reasonably durable. They have enough weight to them to feel good and solid in the hand without being too heavy to write with, the way that rubber grip is integrated is amazing and honestly I feel more pencils should have that kind of moulded in grip rather than a separate sleave that can slide off. Also the way it tapers out towards the top and kind of has a flat side to rest on your palm is a nice touch.
I use the Pilot disposable fountain pen for all my daily writing! I keep a box of them in my desk at work and I grabbed a set of 6 colors once, which comes in handy for color coded lists and diagrams...
Fountain pens feel great to write with. Unless you're left-handed that is. I tried but then switched to super sharp fineliners and I'm happy as anything. And for pencils, I'm from Czech so I grew up with a mechanical Koh-i-Noor in hand and fell in love with it. There's something oddly satisfying about the heaviness of these mechanical pencils.
I love gel pens myself. I'm using a knock-off of the G2 at the moment. In school I had a Parker, with the bladder for drawing up ink, my favourite thing was the "reserve ink" feature it had. It had two chambers, that would both get filled when you drew up ink, but one chamber on top would not let the ink pass down unless you tapped it. I think I went off fountain pens the first time I dropped an entire bottle of ink. My chemistry teacher handed me a litre bottle of trichloroethane to go and clean it up (unsupervised). Those were the days!
Nice to see you have a love of fountain pens too! A quick not on the quill pens you may or may not have known. Author Shelby Foote always liked to work with a quill pen as it forced a sens of deliberation in the words when he wrote.
Great, Great, Great! Please do a video on paper, especially best paper for use with fountain pen writing. Also, I was told that the Parker 51 nib is designed so that for normal writing you hold the pen the normal way, but if you're an accountant and need to fill in columns with small numbers, you flip the Parker 51 over so you're writing with the top of the nib and you will get a fine point. FYI, FWIW, YMMV.
This video made me remember something that I haven't thought about in a long time. When I was a kid in elementary school, Berol made pencils that were made of graphite encased in recycled denim. They were called Berol Eagle Jeans pencils. The same brand also made a line of pencils that were graphite encased in recycled US dollar bills. I don't recall exactly what they were called. It might have just been Berol Money pencils. Regardless, I can remember that neither the jeans pencils nor the money pencils were anything special as far as writability, but to an elementary school aged child, the concept alone was just mind boggling. I was first introduced to them when I noticed a classmate using one of the Eagle Jeans pencils, and it piqued my interest to such a degree that later that day I had to drag my mother to the store so that I could get a set each of the bluejean and money pencils to have as my very own. Today, I really wish that I would have saved one or two of each, just to have as a keepsake from those times. After remembering them today, I did a few internet queries to see if they still exist, and while the occasional old stock pencil sets do pop up, it seems that they are extremely rare today, and relatively expensive. However, knowing myself, I will probably be buying a set of them the next time I see one turn up. Thank you Fran for helping to jog this long lost memory of a unique, grade school curiosity!
Very interesting - almost mesmerizing. I expect you have read it, but your readers might be interested in David Petroski's book "The Pencil" This is a history of the pencil from an engineering perspective.
Brought back some nostalgia from my draughting job. Technical pens, etc. etc. For scientific publication so it wasn't at all art, but it was fastidious and finicky for sure. Very rewarding.
My favorite ball-point pen was the red Paper Mate "double heart" pen. Unfortunately, refills for it have been discontinued. A good substitute is the Bic Clic pen, which you can still get refills for (but they're getting harder to find). The cool thing about the Bic Clic is they made custom models for small businesses, so you can find some cool custom pens made for obsolete companies. At one of my former jobs, I got compliments for my white pen for a South Dakota garage with the Mopar logo on it.
Very interesting! I just thought all pencils were the same. I do know I have bought pencils for my kids and the lead would just slide out. I was forced to use Sheaffer cartridge pens all through Elementary School. Those were horrible especially since I was left handed and after a few lines the paper fibers were shoved up nib. Ballpoint pens where a godsend for left-handers. You have the prettiest hands.
I love using fountain pens, but as another lefty I'm also a 'hand-dragger' so the ink smears on paper and hand unless it dries almost instantly.Back in school long ago I found an ink which was almost fast-drying enough but I just gave up on the concept and have used ball-points since then. Just to see what I could do, I found I could write mirror-imaged from right-to-left almost as well as I could left-to-right, and that stuck with me. So when someone makes ill-intended comments on me being a lefty I show them this and dare their inferior right-handed butt to match it- so far nobody has! 73
I didn't realise I have a stationary fetish until I watch this video....I have several drawers full of boxed pencils , pens, rapidographs , rotrings...tomorrow I will get them out and play with them again.Thankyou.Writing instrument therapism is so under rated.
Hi Fran, re filling the Lamy Safari...& similar fountain pens, we used to have similar at school, no need to use a syringe, just twist the plunger all the way down, dip the nib (just enough to cover the nib) into the ink bottle & twist the plunger upwards & it draws the ink into the cartridge just fine, no mess, no fuss, no syringe... That haw we used to do it at school & I actually just bought a Lamy to try & yup a nice pen, better than my handwriting deserves! Amazed at the prices of the Parker 51 pens, I had a few at school...i could be rich if i'd kept them!
My favourite fountain pen is the 'Sheaffer Imperial Fountain Pen with 14k Gold Nib' my sister bought me for my 16th birthday, many years ago but It still writes as good as new!
For refilling your fountain pen, you are supposed to leave the converter in the pen when the ink has run out and dip the nib of the fountain pen into the ink well and draw up ink using the converter mechanism. You're not supposed to dip the converter in directly as that would cause ink to drip all over the place and coat the outsides in ink, as well as the whole length of the converter issue you mention. I've never seen anybody fill a converter with a syringe but I suppose that is one way to do it, haha.
Hi friend glad to see somebody likes fountain pens other than me. Years ago I took a class for spencerian script in Kansas City. I too have a few pens so I really enjoyed your video.
My dad was born in the 1940's and when he was in school you could still get lead pencils. Graphite ones were also available but more expensive. I was given an electronics set that he had as a kid and it had a couple very well used lead pencils in it. Dad wouldn't let me have them. He used a soldering torch to test the "lead" and if it melted he threw the pencil away.
During the last few years of high school and in College into the mid-1970's I used technical pens. The Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph #0 eventually was replaced with the Staedtler Marsmatic as to me Marsmatic's ink flow was smoother. I was an oddball as I wrote my class notes in black ink with my tech pen. As a photographer they were good for notating date and file numbers on the film rebate.
Mechanical Drafting pencils - I love them. Many years ago I had one which had a flat 'lead' which you hand sharpened to a chisel point, the idea being to achieve consistency in long lines. Sadly I've lost it. I still enjoy the tactile experience of drafting with pencil and paper on a board. Parker 51 - found one on my way to college one day and it served me well for years, all though my BSc . ( I did take it to the local police lost property but it was never claimed after a month so it became mine )
Ha! I have the same tattoo! I was about 10, home from school, friends came by, I opened door to run out, the door hit pencil that was still in my coat pocket, it drove the tip into my hip right to the bone, the graphite is still there 55 yrs later.
I pretty much exclusively use 0.5mm mechanical pencils these days. I'm a big fan of the Uni Kuru Toga pencil, the rotating lead mechanism is really interesting and does a great job of keeping the tip from wearing down to a chisel that can cut through your page on the reverse stroke.
My favorite favorite is the Kuru Toga Roulette 0.5 because it rotates the "lead" as you write. Just love it! And as far as I know Art Gum eraser beats all hands down.
:) Just smiling here because I thoroughly enjoy this. What I handwrite is shopping lists. Occasionally I draw to visualise stuff but that's about it. But I used to draw quite a bit in my long-gone teenage years (with bits of calligraphy) and pens are still & indeed super interesting! I have a 6 year old daughter and the variety in the pens she has - whether felt-tip or crayons - is amazing! She sometimes gets give-away crayons on train rides and such which frankly disgust me. Barely any colour transfer on the paper, offset leads. Ugh. She has another set that is absolutely brilliant! Or, I really want to love the Stabilo Point 88 but my handwriting becomes literally illegible with those. Like I'm suddenly left-handed. What has personally stayed with me for years is a Faber-Castell TK-9400. In 4B ;) Which smears but it just suits me so well. So, uhm, pens. Yay ;) Oh, and my mother tongue's word for "pencil" still translates to "leadpen"
The 51 is my daily driver for many years now, Ive given up the search for the dual-sys sharpener. I build custom ukuleles so mechanical or the American for that. The odd carpenters pencil shows up at times. Ball pens... Hmmmmm ... love the vids and the rants. I think people need them. I like seein your face and expressions in a video not just fingers pointing and the odd or non existent commentary like other vids. good luck with the move !!
wow i have glass quill. got it as a fancy novelty but never used it. might have to try to see how it writes. i like the old stuff. just recapped a mid 70's cannon calculator that no one was interested in lol it has the VFD display and i think it uses shift registers because when you calculate a number it shifts those numbers visibly from left side to right really fast to the point where they stay. and its got that wonderful green florescent glow..
i absolutely love fountain pens, and as an artist its cool to see your take on more traditional "writing pencils." that said, i really like crappy ball point pens. like a plain old bic. you can get a wide variety of tones, and they can be quite fun to doodle with from time to time. Never for writing though. Fountain pens only for that purpose. I've been using a Lamy Safari for about 10 years as well, usually with noodler's waterproof black ink. I also really love J. Herbin Bleu Nuit as well; love the gradation from dark grey-black to blue. thanks for a great video. fountain pens get me all worked up :P -- oh and for inking drawings I like a Hunt's 102 crowquill and Higgins Black Magic ink.
I'm fond of Mitsubishi pencils. The 9850 is a great HB rubber tip writing pencil, and they also make a 772, which is vermillion one end and prussian blue the other end, which is great for sketching.
Pencils, that brings back memories. I don't think I've had a pencil in my hand for over two decades. I do remember that it was a Staedler 5B though. :-)
Fran, do you remember having to rotate your draughting pencil in your fingers as you drew a line, to ensure your the line remained a consistent thickness?
I got taught to do that on a school work experience placement in 2000. When I learned on that placement (at a local architectual firm, that none of them really drew with pen and ink anymore, and that they all used computers, I no longer wanted to be architect.
It's funny to see how one's preferred pencil evolves over the ages. I went from hating mechanical pencils to loving them, to only using 0,3mm, to 0,5mm to 0,7mm to wooden pencils again... to finally settle on mechanicals in 0,7H and 2mm (2H and HB) and a bunch of softer wood pencils...
I never thought I would watch such a long video on pens and pencils, but it was really interesting. Especially that Full HB pencil, that's rather interesting! I wonder whether it's brittle and will shatter on an impact if you drop it on the floor?
Seriously cool collection. I have mostly used clutch pencils with the Faber Castell 1345 (5mm) and 1347 (7mm) being my favourites. I had never heard of the Palaminos before and thought I'd have to order them from overseas, but glad to see they're selling them in New Zealand locally, even if they are NZ$6 each, I think I'm going to grab a couple. As for pens, fountain pens are my go-to and I have been collecting more of them recently. There are a lot of great Chinese manufacturers producing some nice clones of very expensive pens for only a few dollars. But my favourite pen to date is still the Parker 45. I have to admit I've never even tried a 51, mainly because of the looks, but maybe it's about time I picked one up from my favourite fountain pen seller. I look forward to your videos on ink and paper. :D
Great video. As someone who still prefers pens for writing , I think the best pen at least in my opinion is the pilot rf retractable medium. Once again great video Steven
You really are fascinating. Could probably talk about glad wrap and I'd keep listening. I know this is from more than a year ago but I just found ya. I enjoy your personality and way of looking at things. Love the shirt and hat too.
I used to really enjoy using the 'Derwent' pencil set, when I was doing an art course. I think the set I had went from 4H to 9B. Some of the softer ones were so nice to use. I'm not sure how the quality is thesedays as I haven't used any since the '90s.
Each country seems to have its own pencils. In Europe, two brands are famous for their quality: Faber-Castell and Caran d'Ache. The first being from Germany, the latter right from Geneva, Switzerland. Swiss generally think they're the chosen people and that their products are the best of the world. In school, children almost would be killed if they used anything else than Caran d'Ache. Since I haven't made a comparison test, I don't know how they perform compared to Staedler or Faber-Castell. Caran d'Ache also has pencil sharpeners like you would like to have. They are full metal, very heavy, a lower part in mushroom shape and a ball with a hole on the top. It has no filter but was used in any engineering shop in Switzerland, mainly to quick sharpen the fixpencils from Caran'd'Ache. Don't know if you ever heard of!
I collected Parker Jotter pens in secondary school, one of every colour. I also had some fountain pens which I enjoyed writing with. I looked on eBay, those Pilot Varsity pens apparently aren't sold here. :(
I've not owned the Lamy or a Waterman. I got sucked in to the Platinum Preppy pens when they shipped with the noodlers inks. They're dirt cheap but I love the feel and feed. As an upgrade I purchased the Plaisir to look a bit more formal. At $20 I don't feel bad if something bad happens.
That's so funny, I have the same tattoo on my thigh, just above the knee. Whenever someone asks me if I have a tat and of what, I always say: "Yes, I do. It's the earth from far away, 'the pale blue dot'. ;-) (A friend decided that it was a fun idea to plant a coloring pencil in my thigh when I was a wee chap. It's still there, four decades later.) Great video's, by the way, you gained a sub!
Thanks for this video, Fran. I am a mechanical pencil junkie. My favorite is the Staedtler 925 25-05. This video reminded me to order another spare one. I will have to try some of the wooden pencils you recommended.
Long time ago they made different graphite/ceramic mixture for different hardness. Nowadays, they make graphite/garbage/plastic mixture, which is really bad. I remember 'old school' trick how to get clean PCB hole after de-soldering parts; just use tip of the pencil and gently push through hole while heating with soldering iron. Now, you can't do it anymore because pencil tip just melting.
I've got a set of pencils like the solid graphite one, they were drawing pencils though, none have erasers and they are all round. They were definitely nice for shading and such. Although now I pretty much primarily use fountain pens and especially dip pens at home, it's nice to not be alone on the fountain pen usage, even though I never had a Waterman. Still slightly annoyed at my Lamy having clogged up really badly and refusing to write properly ever again after several flushes. Brause makes really good nibs for those who do want to make use of dip pens, Speedball tends to be very scratchy and not as well made despite the similar prices. And there are the new all glass pens too, among all sorts of other options.
you should give some mitsubishi hi-uni pencils a try, especially the 8B. i stopped using wood pencils at some point in high school and became a fiend for pentel p200's and especially graphgear 500's. something incredible about seeing a writing tool (and tools of all kinds) last for decades and decades of use. despite spending all my adult life with a practically useless tiny computer on my person at most times, i find if i take my hand, a tool and ink or graphite to something i'll have a much easier time remembering things even as simple yet easy to forget as groceries. i'm ready to try a mechanical clutch pencil with 2mm lead.
I know this isn't a problem you encounter, but writing with ball-points as a lefty is rough. The Pilot G-2, in my opinion, is a very close second, behind the Uniball Energel. The Energel is just so much smoother, which is necessary because writing lefty causes you to push the point into the paper, rather than drag it along it.
Just a little surprised you didn't include Mont Blanc. My favorite. and LOL, I also have a graphite wound just above my right knee where I stabbed myself bouncing my pencil under my desk in 2nd grade.
Who else but Fran can talk about pens and pencils and make it so interesting?
Or....make a video over 36 minutes long about pens and pencils lol
So true! She didn't mention how the ink gets in to the glass pens at the end, though. I demand answers!!
I came out learning a lot about pens and pencils
I enjoyed this snapshot of some good pencils and pens. I got on the Ebay and looked some up. I am one of those old schoolers that write letters to family members.
I have to thank my elementary school teacher Mrs. Stanton for teaching us that writing was like drawing. Remember the cursive lettered border along the classroom walls. Penmanship was taught all through K through 6th grade.
@@acid3137 You dip them into the ink.
Thanks to this video, I was finally able to convince my guy we should buy him the Lamy pen he's had his eye on for ages. He was ill and now I've lost him but I have really fun memories of us watching your video together and having our last little date night out to the art shop where we had a wonderful good chat with the owner, who we have loved for years. I'm so happy Neil got to enjoy that pen.
La Margot Sorry for your loss. Those moments spent with our loved ones are more than gold!
Just recently discovered you, so some of my comments will not be very timely.
I was working as an engineer for a small company and my nice blue engineering pencils kept disappearing. Of course it's really next to impossible to tell one from another, and even scribing a name or other mark on it meant that you had to accuse someone and look closely at what he was using in order to find out whether it was yours.
I was in an art store one day, looking for something else, and I found a bunch of engineering drawing pencils with very pretty floral patterns all over them.
I never lost another mechanical pencil.
Thanks for the suggestions. Good stuff!
Thank you so much--this video brought back so many memories. I began to use a lot of these in the early 1970s when i was in intermediate school, when i took drafting.. My father was a oommercial artist and gave me all sorts of art/drafting tools. I also used syringes to fill fountain pens, i had some old pens from the 60s he gave me. Leaking was a real problem sometimes. A fact of life. Thanks!
Thanks to you, Fran, I now have several Pilot Varsity fountain pens in black, blue and red. What a wonderful reintroduction to fountain pens. They are so superior to the leaky fountain pens of my youth. And SO reasonably priced. I write theatre reviews for a local arts and culture blog. I write my first drafts in long hand. These pens glide across the page and are a treat to use for hours on end. I usually use them with reverse writing to get a finer script. Personally, for many other purposes, I still prefer my favourite ballpoints (Fisher Space Pen, Parker Jotter, Zebra F-301). But I'm enjoying experimenting with uses for these inexpensive little wonders. Yes, they're disposable, But the body is bigger than a cartridge and holds a lot more ink. All in all, an enjoyable improvement to my review writing experience. Thank you, Fran.
I got into fountain pens several years ago. Sadly I went through a period where my pens got neglected, and many of them now have dried ink in them. I've been writing with Pilot G2's lately. This video might have inspired me to give my fountain pen collection some much needed TLC and get them back into writing condition. The Lamy Safari is also one of my favorite. I have several. And after watching this video I ordered a pack of Pilot Varsity pens to use at work.
Thank you, Fran. I am also a collector of pencils and pens. Your video was lots of fun.
The first fountain pen I ever bought was a white Lamy Safari. I've had it for about 5 years, and it still writes as beautifully today as it did the day I got it. Fran, I love your videos. Thank you for sharing so much of your eclectic and interesting life with all of us, and please don't ever stop.
Back when I was around 10 years old, in the late 1950's, I would delight in visiting my grandparents house. It didn't take long for me to head to grandpa's desk to write and draw with his old fountain pens.They were beautiful instruments and I would spend hours with them. He also had the crow quill pens with the old ink well
I love how informative she is.
And also I LOVE her little chuckle.
Yeah it's great. She's probably not even aware of it, which makes it nicer.
Thanks Fran, you take me back to when I was in junior school, and we used quill pens to learn how to write. Not great as a left handed person, I always tended to smear the wet ink, and probably almost every day had a black spot on my left pinkie. The ball point pen was a great upgrade for making less smeared writing. But the ink well in the table, and the art of getting a drop of in to fly with just a shake of the wrist onto the person near you...
But I agree on the pencils, they are great for drawing, still want to find a drafting table in usable condition for myself. They were nice to draw and write with.
I've always loved gadgets, and especially good writing utensils and flashlights. Nice little review - more like this, please! Btw: I really like the Rotring Rapid Pro series. All made with very high precision! A bit heavy, but the lead and pencil really feels like one solid unit without any kind of give. The 2 mm mechanical pencil is especially nice: It advances the lead like the thin mechanical pencils, and comes with a built-in sharpener for emergency use.
Short review of the 2 mm Rapid Pro: davesmechanicalpencils.blogspot.dk/2011/04/rotring-rapid-pro-2mm-mechanical-pencil.html
Great. Beautiful video. My whole family shares enthusiasm for pencils.. for writing, drawing, collecting.Favorites: Faber Castell HB. Our daughter loves all sort of charcoal pencils.Tool for creatives. Greetings from Germany, home of Staedler, Faber Castell, and Kindergarten.
It's so nice to see someone that shares the same love over a writing tool! Yes
My ball point of choice is a uni ball PowerTank. They are pressurised and on a field notes book they write underwater. Plus really nice to write with. Just the right amount of feel and they only stop working when the last of the ink is gone. I have never had any luck with fountain pens. They are lovely though.
That brought back a lot of memories. My Dad taught me how to use a drafting pen and compass (the type with two blades and a screw to set the spacing) back in the early 1960's. I forgot all about it until High School drafting where they had the exact sharpener you described. We only has strips of sandpaper to point the pencils so I bought a large iron version of the spinner you showed. It was at that art store I found the world of drawing instruments. I ended up getting several Staedtler Mars pens that had to be held vertical.for the ink to flow.
My everyday carry is a stainless steel Parker 45, i have it with me all the time, it shows the same 'just very tip' of the nib and bladder type reservoir as the 51.
I LOVE the feel of writing with it :)
I have a pencil "tattoo" as well! Hooray for elementary school!
Always glad to see new videos from you! I switched to (very cheap clone of the parker 51, mine has a 100% Chinesium tip) fountain pen for work a few years go. The very fine, abrasive dust I work with destroys the ball mechanism in ball point pens but it wipes right off a fountain tip. The one nice thing about it being cheap is that it will write with pretty much any liquid you care to use. It even dried out once by accident and took one a quick rinse to get it going again.
Nice to find another stationary fan!
I found a Venus Velvet standard yellow pencil in my parents things after they passed away and used it at work for some time in the early 2000's. The company was bought out by Faber Castell in 1973 so it was an old pencil when I used it daily at work. Sharpened nicely and the point lasted much longer then any other pencil I ever used. Even the eraser was the best pencil eraser ever for me. Sad day when it was used up.
What an interesting video! I was taught in grad school to keep my notes in a numbered hardback book with non-removable pages and to write in pen. Make a mistake, cross it out. Don't hide your mistakes or dead ends. So for me 45 years ago, all my writing was in pen. Maps and charts were in pencil. 20 years ago carpel tunnel issues and arthritis moved me entirely to computer. I always loved writing. I sometimes will write letters but thats all the writing I do these days.
I think I'm in love with this girl. I want to listen her all the time!
Welcome to the club!
There's nothing like good writing instruments. Thanks for this video, Fran!
Fran, you would love the pencil museum in Keswick, the Lake District, England! the best graphite was mined there, hence the pencil industry in the area. love your vids! :-)
I have fond memories of the yellow and black Staedtler Noris pencils, they were a big part of my school life and after having used a a few brands, they're some of the best around. They make nice drawing pencils too, have had a few sets in the past
What you call the "drafting sharpener" is generally referred to as a "lead pointer"
As far as mechanical pencils go rotring tikky has always been my favourite. They are really sturdy and feel well made and tend to be reasonably durable. They have enough weight to them to feel good and solid in the hand without being too heavy to write with, the way that rubber grip is integrated is amazing and honestly I feel more pencils should have that kind of moulded in grip rather than a separate sleave that can slide off. Also the way it tapers out towards the top and kind of has a flat side to rest on your palm is a nice touch.
okay, I just watched Fran talk about writing implements for 36 minutes..... and I'm okay with that. Hi Fran :)
I use the Pilot disposable fountain pen for all my daily writing! I keep a box of them in my desk at work and I grabbed a set of 6 colors once, which comes in handy for color coded lists and diagrams...
Fountain pens feel great to write with. Unless you're left-handed that is. I tried but then switched to super sharp fineliners and I'm happy as anything. And for pencils, I'm from Czech so I grew up with a mechanical Koh-i-Noor in hand and fell in love with it. There's something oddly satisfying about the heaviness of these mechanical pencils.
I love gel pens myself. I'm using a knock-off of the G2 at the moment. In school I had a Parker, with the bladder for drawing up ink, my favourite thing was the "reserve ink" feature it had. It had two chambers, that would both get filled when you drew up ink, but one chamber on top would not let the ink pass down unless you tapped it.
I think I went off fountain pens the first time I dropped an entire bottle of ink. My chemistry teacher handed me a litre bottle of trichloroethane to go and clean it up (unsupervised). Those were the days!
Nice to see you have a love of fountain pens too! A quick not on the quill pens you may or may not have known. Author Shelby Foote always liked to work with a quill pen as it forced a sens of deliberation in the words when he wrote.
Only you could make talking about pens and pencils so fascinating! XD
Great, Great, Great! Please do a video on paper, especially best paper for use with fountain pen writing. Also, I was told that the Parker 51 nib is designed so that for normal writing you hold the pen the normal way, but if you're an accountant and need to fill in columns with small numbers, you flip the Parker 51 over so you're writing with the top of the nib and you will get a fine point. FYI, FWIW, YMMV.
This video made me remember something that I haven't thought about in a long time.
When I was a kid in elementary school, Berol made pencils that were made of graphite encased in recycled denim. They were called Berol Eagle Jeans pencils. The same brand also made a line of pencils that were graphite encased in recycled US dollar bills. I don't recall exactly what they were called. It might have just been Berol Money pencils.
Regardless, I can remember that neither the jeans pencils nor the money pencils were anything special as far as writability, but to an elementary school aged child, the concept alone was just mind boggling. I was first introduced to them when I noticed a classmate using one of the Eagle Jeans pencils, and it piqued my interest to such a degree that later that day I had to drag my mother to the store so that I could get a set each of the bluejean and money pencils to have as my very own. Today, I really wish that I would have saved one or two of each, just to have as a keepsake from those times.
After remembering them today, I did a few internet queries to see if they still exist, and while the occasional old stock pencil sets do pop up, it seems that they are extremely rare today, and relatively expensive. However, knowing myself, I will probably be buying a set of them the next time I see one turn up.
Thank you Fran for helping to jog this long lost memory of a unique, grade school curiosity!
Very interesting - almost mesmerizing. I expect you have read it, but your readers might be interested in David Petroski's book "The Pencil" This is a history of the pencil from an engineering perspective.
Ok, Two episodes and I'm hooked.
I love Fran. She has so many great interests - well rounded and knowledgeable!!
Brought back some nostalgia from my draughting job. Technical pens, etc. etc. For scientific publication so it wasn't at all art, but it was fastidious and finicky for sure. Very rewarding.
My favorite ball-point pen was the red Paper Mate "double heart" pen. Unfortunately, refills for it have been discontinued. A good substitute is the Bic Clic pen, which you can still get refills for (but they're getting harder to find). The cool thing about the Bic Clic is they made custom models for small businesses, so you can find some cool custom pens made for obsolete companies. At one of my former jobs, I got compliments for my white pen for a South Dakota garage with the Mopar logo on it.
Very interesting! I just thought all pencils were the same. I do know I have bought pencils for my kids and the lead would just slide out. I was forced to use Sheaffer cartridge pens all through Elementary School. Those were horrible especially since I was left handed and after a few lines the paper fibers were shoved up nib. Ballpoint pens where a godsend for left-handers. You have the prettiest hands.
I love using fountain pens, but as another lefty I'm also a 'hand-dragger' so the ink smears on paper and hand unless it dries almost instantly.Back in school long ago I found an ink which was almost fast-drying enough but I just gave up on the concept and have used ball-points since then. Just to see what I could do, I found I could write mirror-imaged from right-to-left almost as well as I could left-to-right, and that stuck with me. So when someone makes ill-intended comments on me being a lefty I show them this and dare their inferior right-handed butt to match it- so far nobody has! 73
I didn't realise I have a stationary fetish until I watch this video....I have several drawers full of boxed pencils , pens, rapidographs , rotrings...tomorrow I will get them out and play with them again.Thankyou.Writing instrument therapism is so under rated.
Hi Fran, re filling the Lamy Safari...& similar fountain pens, we used to have similar at school, no need to use a syringe, just twist the plunger all the way down, dip the nib (just enough to cover the nib) into the ink bottle & twist the plunger upwards & it draws the ink into the cartridge just fine, no mess, no fuss, no syringe...
That haw we used to do it at school & I actually just bought a Lamy to try & yup a nice pen, better than my handwriting deserves!
Amazed at the prices of the Parker 51 pens, I had a few at school...i could be rich if i'd kept them!
My favourite fountain pen is the 'Sheaffer Imperial Fountain Pen with 14k Gold Nib' my sister bought me for my 16th birthday, many years ago but It still writes as good as new!
Oh Wow, did I love your engineers description of a Lamy ink converter ;-)
For refilling your fountain pen, you are supposed to leave the converter in the pen when the ink has run out and dip the nib of the fountain pen into the ink well and draw up ink using the converter mechanism. You're not supposed to dip the converter in directly as that would cause ink to drip all over the place and coat the outsides in ink, as well as the whole length of the converter issue you mention. I've never seen anybody fill a converter with a syringe but I suppose that is one way to do it, haha.
Hi friend glad to see somebody likes fountain pens other than me. Years ago I took a class for spencerian script in Kansas City. I too have a few pens so I really enjoyed your video.
My dad was born in the 1940's and when he was in school you could still get lead pencils. Graphite ones were also available but more expensive. I was given an electronics set that he had as a kid and it had a couple very well used lead pencils in it. Dad wouldn't let me have them. He used a soldering torch to test the "lead" and if it melted he threw the pencil away.
During the last few years of high school and in College into the mid-1970's I used technical pens. The Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph #0 eventually was replaced with the Staedtler Marsmatic as to me Marsmatic's ink flow was smoother. I was an oddball as I wrote my class notes in black ink with my tech pen. As a photographer they were good for notating date and file numbers on the film rebate.
Yay! Frans back :) Glad to have you back Fran. Have a great day honey.
Mechanical Drafting pencils - I love them. Many years ago I had one which had a flat 'lead' which you hand sharpened to a chisel point, the idea being to achieve consistency in long lines. Sadly I've lost it. I still enjoy the tactile experience of drafting with pencil and paper on a board. Parker 51 - found one on my way to college one day and it served me well for years, all though my BSc . ( I did take it to the local police lost property but it was never claimed after a month so it became mine )
Ha! I have the same tattoo! I was about 10, home from school, friends came by, I opened door to run out, the door hit pencil that was still in my coat pocket, it drove the tip into my hip right to the bone, the graphite is still there 55 yrs later.
I pretty much exclusively use 0.5mm mechanical pencils these days. I'm a big fan of the Uni Kuru Toga pencil, the rotating lead mechanism is really interesting and does a great job of keeping the tip from wearing down to a chisel that can cut through your page on the reverse stroke.
I've always preferred the white magic erasers to the pearl erasers. They both work well. Fran you're great and cover some awesome topics.
My favorite favorite is the Kuru Toga Roulette 0.5 because it rotates the "lead" as you write. Just love it!
And as far as I know Art Gum eraser beats all hands down.
Fran, you are an extraordinarily gifted woman
:) Just smiling here because I thoroughly enjoy this. What I handwrite is shopping lists. Occasionally I draw to visualise stuff but that's about it. But I used to draw quite a bit in my long-gone teenage years (with bits of calligraphy) and pens are still & indeed super interesting!
I have a 6 year old daughter and the variety in the pens she has - whether felt-tip or crayons - is amazing! She sometimes gets give-away crayons on train rides and such which frankly disgust me. Barely any colour transfer on the paper, offset leads. Ugh. She has another set that is absolutely brilliant! Or, I really want to love the Stabilo Point 88 but my handwriting becomes literally illegible with those. Like I'm suddenly left-handed. What has personally stayed with me for years is a Faber-Castell TK-9400. In 4B ;) Which smears but it just suits me so well.
So, uhm, pens. Yay ;)
Oh, and my mother tongue's word for "pencil" still translates to "leadpen"
I have a pencil tip tattoo as well got it in 1998 in my right hand. I like your videos :)
The 51 is my daily driver for many years now, Ive given up the search for the dual-sys sharpener. I build custom ukuleles so mechanical or the American for that. The odd carpenters pencil shows up at times. Ball pens... Hmmmmm ... love the vids and the rants. I think people need them. I like seein your face and expressions in a video not just fingers pointing and the odd or non existent commentary like other vids. good luck with the move !!
wow i have glass quill. got it as a fancy novelty but never used it. might have to try to see how it writes. i like the old stuff. just recapped a mid 70's cannon calculator that no one was interested in lol it has the VFD display and i think it uses shift registers because when you calculate a number it shifts those numbers visibly from left side to right really fast to the point where they stay. and its got that wonderful green florescent glow..
Just bought PILOT VARSITY pens. Smooth, even for a lefty like me. Wife tried one, had to order immediately from Amazon. Thanks for the recommendation.
the lead is in the paint on the pencil back then ! my fav. blackwarror pencil ! ever know a pencil chewer back in school
I have used a fountain pen in the past. My school desk had a hole in it for ink well. Bic, Papermate, Scripto, No. 2 pencils.
i absolutely love fountain pens, and as an artist its cool to see your take on more traditional "writing pencils." that said, i really like crappy ball point pens. like a plain old bic. you can get a wide variety of tones, and they can be quite fun to doodle with from time to time. Never for writing though. Fountain pens only for that purpose. I've been using a Lamy Safari for about 10 years as well, usually with noodler's waterproof black ink. I also really love J. Herbin Bleu Nuit as well; love the gradation from dark grey-black to blue. thanks for a great video. fountain pens get me all worked up :P -- oh and for inking drawings I like a Hunt's 102 crowquill and Higgins Black Magic ink.
I'm fond of Mitsubishi pencils. The 9850 is a great HB rubber tip writing pencil, and they also make a 772, which is vermillion one end and prussian blue the other end, which is great for sketching.
Thank you Fran.
Fran, and writing utensils? It's like a video made just for me!
Hi Fran, Thank you for this riveting description of quality writing instruments.
Pencils, that brings back memories. I don't think I've had a pencil in my hand for over two decades. I do remember that it was a Staedler 5B though. :-)
Fran, do you remember having to rotate your draughting pencil in your fingers as you drew a line, to ensure your the line remained a consistent thickness?
I got taught to do that on a school work experience placement in 2000. When I learned on that placement (at a local architectual firm, that none of them really drew with pen and ink anymore, and that they all used computers, I no longer wanted to be architect.
This was cool. Thank you. I look forward to seeing whatever else you like and collect.
It's funny to see how one's preferred pencil evolves over the ages. I went from hating mechanical pencils to loving them, to only using 0,3mm, to 0,5mm to 0,7mm to wooden pencils again... to finally settle on mechanicals in 0,7H and 2mm (2H and HB) and a bunch of softer wood pencils...
I definitely learned some new things in this video!!
I never thought I would watch such a long video on pens and pencils, but it was really interesting. Especially that Full HB pencil, that's rather interesting! I wonder whether it's brittle and will shatter on an impact if you drop it on the floor?
Seriously cool collection. I have mostly used clutch pencils with the Faber Castell 1345 (5mm) and 1347 (7mm) being my favourites. I had never heard of the Palaminos before and thought I'd have to order them from overseas, but glad to see they're selling them in New Zealand locally, even if they are NZ$6 each, I think I'm going to grab a couple.
As for pens, fountain pens are my go-to and I have been collecting more of them recently. There are a lot of great Chinese manufacturers producing some nice clones of very expensive pens for only a few dollars. But my favourite pen to date is still the Parker 45. I have to admit I've never even tried a 51, mainly because of the looks, but maybe it's about time I picked one up from my favourite fountain pen seller.
I look forward to your videos on ink and paper. :D
Great video. As someone who still prefers pens for writing , I think the best pen at least in my opinion is the pilot rf retractable medium.
Once again great video
Steven
Hey Fran glad to see another video. It's just started and I'm super curious what I'm gonna learn about pens today from my favorite Fran.
You really are fascinating. Could probably talk about glad wrap and I'd keep listening. I know this is from more than a year ago but I just found ya. I enjoy your personality and way of looking at things. Love the shirt and hat too.
I used to really enjoy using the 'Derwent' pencil set, when I was doing an art course. I think the set I had went from 4H to 9B.
Some of the softer ones were so nice to use. I'm not sure how the quality is thesedays as I haven't used any since the '90s.
My favorite pens & pencils are whatever I can steal outta the supply cabinet at work.
wow the bit about smoke filters and drafting. who knew?!!
Each country seems to have its own pencils. In Europe, two brands are famous for their quality: Faber-Castell and Caran d'Ache. The first being from Germany, the latter right from Geneva, Switzerland. Swiss generally think they're the chosen people and that their products are the best of the world. In school, children almost would be killed if they used anything else than Caran d'Ache. Since I haven't made a comparison test, I don't know how they perform compared to Staedler or Faber-Castell. Caran d'Ache also has pencil sharpeners like you would like to have. They are full metal, very heavy, a lower part in mushroom shape and a ball with a hole on the top. It has no filter but was used in any engineering shop in Switzerland, mainly to quick sharpen the fixpencils from Caran'd'Ache. Don't know if you ever heard of!
I collected Parker Jotter pens in secondary school, one of every colour. I also had some fountain pens which I enjoyed writing with. I looked on eBay, those Pilot Varsity pens apparently aren't sold here. :(
Hi Fran. The Lamy looks like the 'lightsaber' of pens! :-)
I've not owned the Lamy or a Waterman. I got sucked in to the Platinum Preppy pens when they shipped with the noodlers inks. They're dirt cheap but I love the feel and feed.
As an upgrade I purchased the Plaisir to look a bit more formal. At $20 I don't feel bad if something bad happens.
Very Cool!! Brought back a lot of memories. Thanks Fran!!!!
That's so funny, I have the same tattoo on my thigh, just above the knee. Whenever someone asks me if I have a tat and of what, I always say: "Yes, I do. It's the earth from far away, 'the pale blue dot'. ;-) (A friend decided that it was a fun idea to plant a coloring pencil in my thigh when I was a wee chap. It's still there, four decades later.)
Great video's, by the way, you gained a sub!
Giggle! That was good. Thought I was a stationary geek.
I loved the Venus Velvet No. 2 pencils.
Hi Fran, love the content, always something to learn.Thanks for the syringe tip. Regarding pencils, Japanese made ones are worth checking out.
Thanks for this video, Fran. I am a mechanical pencil junkie. My favorite is the Staedtler 925 25-05. This video reminded me to order another spare one. I will have to try some of the wooden pencils you recommended.
Long time ago they made different graphite/ceramic mixture for different hardness. Nowadays, they make graphite/garbage/plastic mixture, which is really bad. I remember 'old school' trick how to get clean PCB hole after de-soldering parts; just use tip of the pencil and gently push through hole while heating with soldering iron. Now, you can't do it anymore because pencil tip just melting.
I've got a set of pencils like the solid graphite one, they were drawing pencils though, none have erasers and they are all round. They were definitely nice for shading and such.
Although now I pretty much primarily use fountain pens and especially dip pens at home, it's nice to not be alone on the fountain pen usage, even though I never had a Waterman. Still slightly annoyed at my Lamy having clogged up really badly and refusing to write properly ever again after several flushes.
Brause makes really good nibs for those who do want to make use of dip pens, Speedball tends to be very scratchy and not as well made despite the similar prices. And there are the new all glass pens too, among all sorts of other options.
you should give some mitsubishi hi-uni pencils a try, especially the 8B. i stopped using wood pencils at some point in high school and became a fiend for pentel p200's and especially graphgear 500's. something incredible about seeing a writing tool (and tools of all kinds) last for decades and decades of use. despite spending all my adult life with a practically useless tiny computer on my person at most times, i find if i take my hand, a tool and ink or graphite to something i'll have a much easier time remembering things even as simple yet easy to forget as groceries. i'm ready to try a mechanical clutch pencil with 2mm lead.
The Pen IS mightier than the sword 😘 Lots of cool history I never knew about pencils, pens and their accessories. Thanx Fran 😎
chEErs,
93
I know this isn't a problem you encounter, but writing with ball-points as a lefty is rough. The Pilot G-2, in my opinion, is a very close second, behind the Uniball Energel. The Energel is just so much smoother, which is necessary because writing lefty causes you to push the point into the paper, rather than drag it along it.
One of my favorite nerds discussing one of my favorite nerdy obsessions... great video :)
Just a little surprised you didn't include Mont Blanc. My favorite. and LOL, I also have a graphite wound just above my right knee where I stabbed myself bouncing my pencil under my desk in 2nd grade.
Can you recommend a pen that has the 316 or the Inconel-X nib? I would really like to know. Thank you !
Great video...thanks Fran ☺