Monday, January 15, 2018

Erasers: Faber Castell vs Rotring vs Factis & Pelikan

A lot of people praise the performance of the Faber Castell erasers. The stores also seem to like the Faber Castell brand. So I have put them to the test two Faber Castell against the Rotring Tikky and some other brands Factis and Pelikan.
In the green corner is Faber Castell PVC Free and the 187121 Dust free. In the red corner is an old Rotring Tikky 20. In the benchmark corner is Pelikan and Factis 36R.
erasers test faber castell rotring tikky factis pelikan

I have put them against Rotring HB lead, cheap lead 2B which is more prone to smearing and a regular HB pencil.
The performance is quite similar between all of them. The Rotring lead was erased well by all of the erasers in the group. But it was more difficult to erase the cheap 2B lead and even harder to erase the HB pencil.
The best performance all around was delivered by .. all
erasers test faber castell rotring tikky factis pelikan

On longer erasing sessions Pelican was the worst, Factis did a good job but creates a lot of dust. Rotring compared to Faber Castell is made from a harder material, it requires some extra passes but you don't risk making creases on the paper. The Faber Castell Pvc Free is the softest and grips the paper more. The Faber Castell Dust Free is more balanced.
The FC Dust Free does what it says, it does not leave dust on the paper, and I understand why it is considered one of the best erasers. Second place goes to the Rotring which produces larger dust crumbles that are not sticky, they can be cleaned with ease from the paper. The Pvc Free is a little bit better than Pelikan. Factis creates the most dust.
erasers test faber castell rotring tikky factis pelikan
erasers dust test

You can't go wrong with any of the erasers, but I would choose the Faber Castell Dust Free or the Rotring Tikky

After taking into account the ease of erasing, the dust left behind and the chance of making creases in the paper this is my pick.

eraser test rotring faber castell

* mention, Rotring Tikky almost came as equal for the first place if it had performed a hair better on the erase test. Also it needs to be mentioned that Rotring is around 10 years old eraser. This might decrease the erasing performance.

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

The Zebra in the room

We have to address the Zebra in the room. Even though the orc dressed as a police officer is more eye-catching.
Orcs and zebras? The movie Bright has both of them and it has Will Smith (Scott Ward the police officer)
In a scene where he is taking in a deranged person, he is filling the log with what looks like a Zebra F301.
zebra ballpoint pen used in movie bright
Nice smooth metallic finish, with a black rubber knurled grip section. The clip is connecting to a black plastic like part that goes over the barrel and the end of the push mechanism looks to be made from the same black material.

A very good choice for a work pen. It is stainless steel, has a knurled grip, and has a fantastic price.
All this beauty for just $ 2 -3
So it makes sense, as orcs cannot be trusted. Why carry the finer Zebra 701 which cost double?

In my area, it is very hard to find Zebra products, and it is a shame. For example, the 701 mechanical pencil is around 6.5 $. I think you get a good value pencil for that money.
Other mechanical pencils made from stainless steel from more known brands cost more than the Zebra. For example the Pilot Graphgear 1000 (around 9 $) or the Staedtler 925 (approx 10 $)
I am wondering what watch does the orc ware. Is it a Luminox, or Maraton or something else?

Friday, December 15, 2017

Old stationery at Wilanow Palace

I was pleasantly surprised by a visit to museum Wilanow in Warsaw, Poland. The Wilanow Museum had a display section for old writing instruments and papers. Quill, diverse pouders for making colors, and even an old printing press.
I liked the fact that a curator was working on reconditioning old prints and was showing the visitators how a book would have been printed. Quite laborious  work. Manufacturing the letters, arranging them, and printing. 
The paper needs to be soaked in water before it gets pressed, to be more malleable. After using the press the operator needs to check if all the letters are uniformly printed, and if not he remedies the problem. And this is just one page. But it is still a lot faster than writing by hand.

quill old paper colors museum

museum, old wirtings, books, papers





Friday, December 1, 2017

Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Red ink


I got enthusiastic about ink colors and I bought Pelikan 4001 brilliant red. It is not a color that I use regular, but I felt it would be cool for occasional writing and mixing it with other inks from Pelikan.
The conclusion is that I should have read the reviews first.
Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Red Ink is a big no no. The ink has many flaws regarding color, mixing, deposits in the inkwell etc.

pelikan 4001 brilliant red ink
You can make it look a lot better by mixing it, but it is not mixing well and clogs the pen.
You can see in the bottle a white deposit on the bottom of the reservoir. If you shake it, the deposit mixes, but only for a short time.
pelikan 4001 brilliant red ink
For a company that has so much tradition, it is a very big disappointment. Why would you tolerate putting on the market such a bad product?
To show how bad things are, if you look on the internet for Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Red you will find pictures and videos where the ink is orange. Looks nothing like the one I got.
Definitely not worth buying!

Friday, November 24, 2017

Thor using bic 4 colours


Even gods need a pen from time to time, and when they need they go for a Bic 4 colours.
Versatile writing instrument. What can i say, he is a practical god.

Is the Bic mightier than the hammer?
The Bic 4 colors ball point pen appeared in Thor Ragnarok when Thor is explaining the Multiverses.

thor writing with bic 4 color pen

thor writing with bic 4 color pen ragnarok

thor writing with bic 4 color pen


Related post:
Bic Matic used by Jesse Eisenberg in the movie American Ultra

Saturday, November 18, 2017

Rotring tikky eraser

Today I was surprised when I found in a stationary store a rotring eraser. I don't know why but lately it is very difficult to find rotring erasers. They seem to have been replaced by the Faber Castell, Stabilo, Pelican, Factis, Stadler and other less known brands. But what is better suited to accompany a mechanical Rotring Tikky pencil?
rotring eraser and mechanical pencil tikky


Even though not the best eraser it does a very good job. One downside compared to the more praised Faber Castell 18 71 20, the Rotring is not dust free. It makes more crumbles.
But like the Tikky it is affordable, good quality and long lasting. It got me through College and it's still going strong.
The Tikky comes in three sizes, 20 being the biggest, then 30 and 40.
What has happened to it in the meantime? I guess it got a makeover.

rotring eraser tikky 20 30 40 white

It used to be an all white eraser with white paper cover. The branding and the name was hot red symbol for Rotring and the fine print on the side in black
In the meantime and seems the Rotring changed though color of the covering. It is now black, only the Rotring symbol remains red while the rest of the writing is white.
new rotring tikky eraser german

I do not know if this is an improvement, I really liked the simplicity of the previous design very Google ish for a lack of a better word. I mean it is simple and straightforward.
On the other side, I can see a benefit from the black cover. I have my old eraser since college and in the meantime the white it is not that white, it's kind of dirty yellowish. So the dark cover might add a plus in the long term.

On the Rotring site, the photos of the eraser still feature the white hood. But digging deeper and looking through Rotring catalogs the change was made around 2015.

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Tianhao mechanical pencil

tinhao 0216 chinese mechanical pencil

At the last visit at the local supermarket, I saw this mechanical pencil somewhat copying the design of the Pentel Graphgear 500, that came along with a pack of 20 2B leads, all for 0.50 $. If interested you can see some more look-alikes in the post Copy cats.

My thoughts were, I can not go wrong with the package, if the mechanical pencil is crap, at least I get an almost free pack of leads.

The design of the mechanical pencil is interesting, I would call it nice. I like the fact that the grip is a separate piece of plastic with a silver color while the barrel is black.

The mechanical pencil looks ok with the condition you look from a distance. At a closer glance, you see the pencil has a bend in the shaft. The fixed sleeve is a little larger than the diameter of the lead so there is play in the lead, and this causes the lead to break a lot. Also, the lead advances too much at every push. In combination with the soft, easy to break leads it came with it is a disaster to write.
But I found later why the sleeve is so larger, maybe ...
The led it came with branded as microled even though is 0.5 mm it is larger, or at least some of the mines are. I tested various leads in the post "Mechanical pencil lead", including the one that came with this pencil to see if is there a real difference in quality between known brands that have decent quality products and cheap no name leads. Biiiig mistake. I used a Rotring Tikky and first the lead broke. Not a tragedy but it got stuck in the sleeve and I could not get it out. It was stuck like glue in. I had to use a needle and pliers to push the led out. After a bit of struggle, it came out with a plastic bit that is inside the sleeve of the Rotring Tikky which has the role to keep the lead tight with no wobble when you write.
It does not come with an eraser, but this is not a problem for me as I do not like to use the erasers that come with my pencils. Not because they are not capable, but because I do not like the look after use. I always have an eraser block with me.
The clip rotates around the barrel and does not inspire confidence. But I think this is the greatest feature of the mechanical pencil. At least you can have the hope of losing it sooner rather than later. But probably this will not happen as the clip is not that problematic.

In conclusion, the mechanical pencil is bad and it's not usable.


chinese mechanical pencil tinhao

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Copy cats

I never thought that I will see pencil rip offs but it seems that there are quite a lot on the market.
I am trying to understand this market. What is the reason, well you get the same look a lower price. There are expensive products for which it makes sense to me to make a copy but why would you copy the design of a 3 - 4$ product? Could it be that they are just lazy?

Here are a few of the culprits

Rotring Tikky III vs Daco:


Between the two the differences are minor. The lack of the red ring and a grip that is more rhomboid shaped is all the visual difference Daco made to the visual aspect of the Rotring Tikky III


Rotring 600 vs Daco Metalix:

and again Rotring vs Daco, red vs black.



Pentel P205 vs Forpus Aztec vs Bic Criterium

or maybe Bic Criterium, ish. The cap is missing, Bic uses an eraser that looks similar to the Faber Castell 1345, so this is a mixed cat.


Pilot H327 vs Ico



With shame, I have to say this one I actually own. This 0.5 $ mechanical pencil made me think about this post.

If you have other copy cats in mind let me know in the comments.

Saturday, July 8, 2017

"Paul" sketch with Pentel Graphgear 500

pentel graphgear 500 in movie Paul

A new mechanical pencil spot in the movie "Paul". An older movie with Simon Peg where Graeme Willy (played by Simon) is trying to help the alien with the name Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) to escape from earth.
While in the RV, Willy is drawing a sketch of Paul, using a mechanical pencil.
Even though the image is not very clear I think it is safe to say that Willy is using a Pentel Graphgear 500


Not very clear but if you zoom enough you see that the cap and clip are metal while the barrel is not. Also at very close inspection the clip attaches to the barrel leaving a small gap in the back

The tip is "technical" with long sleeve and a knurled grip

This last picture is where you can see the entire pencil. Again with high magnification, it is more clear that the mechanical pencil used by Simon Pegg is a Pentel.
It seems that Pentel's are pretty used in movies (see the Doctor Who seen on screen post)

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Port Royal board game

port royal card game luck fun party game
As you could see from the recent posts, board games are receiving more interest from me. Just before Christmas I bought the game, a great period for having family/friends over, eat snacks and a looot of food, drink soda and everything alcoholic and have some fun.
I was in doubt if I should purchase this game, as it did not appear to be very fun or addictive from the game plays I found on youtube. I bought it as it got good reviews from everybody and high scores.
After buying it and playing a few rounds of the game I have to say it is a great card game. A lot of fun. Even those that were very skeptic at the beginning, after just a round, the Russian roulette style card turning game offered instant fun and thrills.
Let's play just one more round. In conclusion, everyone had a lot of fun playing the game.

The game is a bunch of cards with different icons characters or ships. At the same time, the cards have two rolls when they are face up they are used according to the picture on them when face down they are used as gold coins. The goal is to gather victory points either by completing quests or by collecting character cards that have victory points.
I recommend this game even after half a year since I own it. It is an easy fun game for everybody.


Related posts:
1. Secret Hitler board game DIY (a game that you can print at home and have a lot of fun, "mafia style game")
2. Party games, cheap and fun (3 short and fun games, 2 can be played with a standard deck of cards, the third dice rolling game)

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