How much lead do you actually use

 A little bit of math to calculate how much of the lead is actually used and ends up on the page or better said how much is wasted away during sharpening.

A very shor explination from SteveMould

Pencil doing the heavy lifting

Due to renovation work and many other things that are happening I didn't find time to share much on the blog lately.

But I want to say that it's not just me with a busy schedule. I am starting to think that my pencils are a little bit workaholics...

To the point that there is no more lead, just wood on wood action :)

We need to take some time for recharging and sharpening up

Great decor idea pencil and some artificial flowers

This was quite a nice surprise, to see that a restaurant has opted for pencil sets to create great looking decor. Some pencils, some artificial flowers/feathers, bright colors and you are done.

I realize that it might involve some elbow grease DYI. But a glue gun or some other kind of glue would help to do such decor in no time,it does look very good, simple and fresh.

It was a even nicer surprise as I ended up randomly at this restaurant after a great day road trip.

Very dramatic scene close to the mountains having their peaks covered with snow while the city is covered in fog and drama.

Bic mechanical pencil in TV Series Gen V

 As I enjoyed the unique approach and presentation of superhero movies in "The Boys" I started watching the Gen V spin-off while waiting for a new The Boys season.

It didn't take long for a Bic mechanical pencil to makes it's way in the hands of a super hero in the becoming.

It is not the first time a super hero chose a Bic, check out Thor

Fast note taking

Writing with a pen and on a piece of paper is an ability learned at a young age, even though nowadays I think most kids know how to type on a phone before they learn to write by hand.

I do enjoy the speed with which I type, the legibility remains constant even if I type faster, and not to mention the autocorrect feature, which is truly amazing. But writing with a pen is very satisfying. Choosing beautiful writing instruments, is another perk of writing by hand. I am not saying that there are no nice keyboards, custom-made or prebuilt, because there are a lot of them, but that is a subject for another time.

If you have a bit of proficiency using a computer, you will be able to write a lot faster compared to a pen. For starters, you just have to press a key for the computer to register the letter and second you can use all your fingers to press keys really fast, while when you write with a pen you have to create each letter one after the other. There is a caveat though, if for example you are taking notes, and they are graphs or drawings / sketches involved you will probably be able to make them faster the old-fashioned way (or you can use a tablet and a stylus and a keyboard for the plain text)

The most common question among typists is, how fast can you type?  There are dedicated sites where you can practice typing, and also you can compete. 

Starting from this idea, I am curious to know: How fast can I write?. And not only this, but also how will the writing instrument influence the speed with which I am writing by hand.

For this test I took a small text sample as I didn't want to get hand cramps and RSI from all the writing needed. I started with typing to have a reference, as I imagine it will be a lot faster than writing by hand. First time typing, I got 71 words per minute, a total of 14 seconds to type the sentence.

Then I started testing writing instruments. For the test I chose a: fountain pen, pencil, ball point, ink roller, gel pen. I want to see if some writing instruments are slower than others. For example, ball points usually feel slow. I feel each time that they are "sticky", I definitely feel slowed down by the majority of ball points. But that is just a feeling, I wanted to quantify the feeling in seconds. Will a smooth fountain pen be faster?

First thing I noticed is the big difference when I compare typing to writing. If typing the text took me 14 seconds, the writing took me double the time. For a longer text, the difference will be notable.

On the first run, the fountain pen was the slowest but, it was the first time writing the text by hand. So obviously, practice makes perfect. I wrote the text several times with each of the instruments alternating them, and the best results and the worst were very close together.

After a little practice with the text, you can see the differences started to shrink, to just a couple of seconds between the fastest time and the worst time.

To reduce the influence of the order in which I use the pens and pencils and to reduce the impact of mistakes or brain freezes, I wrote the text 3 times and measured the total time needed to complete. Also, to keep the sample size down I did this with 2 different pens

So the fountain pens represented by Faber Castell Loom F nib and Jinhao 51A F nib. Three runs took me 1 min 27:48 seconds using the Faber Castell Loom while the Jinhao 51A took me 1 min 29:71 sec

 

After completing the runs with all the writing instruments, I came back to the Faber Castell Loom and managed a much better time of 1 min 22.94 seconds

 

This tells me that more testing and practice is needed to reach maximum efficiency writing the sentence down, but for the purpose of the test I think this is good enough. I will take in consideration the last run of the Faber Castell Loom as the reference for the fountain pen.

The second head-to-head testing included 2 popular ball points. To be honest, I expected the ballpoints to be the worst in this test. They feel slow, and offer a dragging / sticky sensation when writing. But they felt much better than I imagined, and the times were very, very good and consistent. 1 min 22 seconds for both the Bic Round Stick M and the Parker Urban Premium. I am not saying that Parker Urban is a very popular ball point, but rather that Parker refills are very popular and used by a lot of people.

 

Next were the rollers (ink/gel pens). For this category I chose a Staedtler cool roller with red ink and a generic gel pen Forster. Both were admirable in the speed event, and also they offered very nice feedback, especially the Staedtler cool roller. The Staedtler completed the writing sample in 1 min 15:45 sec while the Forster needed 1 min 18:97 seconds.

 

The last category included 2 mechanical pencils, a Rotring 500 0,7 mm and a Kuru Toga 0,7 mm. Both pencils offered very nice feedback with a great smooth writing. The Rotring completed the run in 1 min 20:79 seconds, while the Kuru Toga needed 1 min 22:38 seconds.

Even though the times between all the writing instruments were very close, they still offered some surprises to me. I expected the pencils and fountain pens to battle for the first place, but instead the ink roller was the fastest in this small sample pool.
From the bunch, I expected the ball point to be the worst performer, feel wise and speed wise. The parker refills are great, smooth and with good flow, but then again so was the Bic Round Stic M which performed admirably for such an inexpensive pen.

The winners of the speed test are, (individual results)

Staedtler roller cool                      1 min 15 sec  (1st place)    - 25 sec/sentence
Forster gel pen                              1 min 18 sec (2nd place)    - 26 sec/sentence
Rotring 500 mechanical pencil     1 min 20 sec  (3rd place)    - 26.7 sec/sentence

 

The winners of the speed test are, (team results)

Rollers                                            1 min 16.5 sec (1st place)  - 25.5 sec/sentence
Pencils                                            1 min 21.6 sec (2nd place) - 27.2 sec/sentence
Ball Point Pens                               1 min 22.5 sec (3rd place) - 27.5 sec/sentence
Fountain pen                                   1 min 22.9 sec (4th place) - 27.6 sec/sentence

I took the best time of the fountain pen 1:22:9 because after a few more runs I managed to get under 1:20 sec with both fountain pens managing a 1:13 time with the Faber Castell and a 1:18 sec with Jinhao, without sacrificing much legibility. I didn't take these times in the consideration, as I think I offered more practice to the fountain pen compared to the rest of the pens and pencils.

Conclusion:

The instrument used doesn't offer a significant speed benefit (except the computer), but all the instruments offer very different writing experiences. Which one you chose is up to you.

Practice and what you regularly use for writing will influence the speed of your writing more than anything else.

If you need to write fast, like note-taking during a class, use a pen, pencil or fountain pen that offers good feedback. Too smooth, and you will lose a lot of legibility, too rough, and it will not be pleasant to use. The Goldilocks is a combination between the paper and pen used, but I find mechanical pencils too be quite good at offering the best of both. Their performance is offered by the lead, which is not specific to the pencil you use. In contrast, the fountain pen's nib will influence the writing experience much more than the ink that is in it.

And if you need to write really fast and keep legibility just use a computer, it is going to be twice as fast as the more traditional way of writing, at least. Of course this is valid for general writing, because if you need to add graphs, drawings, mathematical equations the traditional way of taking notes will probably outpace the computer and keyboard.

MSI Pen 2, a stylus that can write on paper

 

Recently MSI has announced the stylus MSI Pen 2 which apparently has a graphite tip that can write on paper. The MSI Pen 2 uses the same graphite tip on the screen as well. This is quite an innovative technology. Not quite sure how well it will do on paper, but it is very interesting.

From the pictures released by MSI, it seems the tips are "refills" and you would have to replace them once used. I don't think you can sharpen them. Because of this, after a little use they will lay down a thick line. But it would be interesting to see how exactly they perform in real life.

For the moment, I do not think it will replace the traditional pencil. The presentation is focused on the digital abilities of the pen, while the writing tip, is the latest and greatest gimmick. I think for now the pencil tip is intended for a few scribbles here and there, in case you really need to jot something on a piece of paper.

On the website it is specified it comes with two tips, one is the graphite lead and another which is a sharp point similar to a fountain pen.

Link to MSI Pen 2 website

Faber Castell 1112 HB pencil

The Faber Castell 1112 HB is a classic looking wooden pencil perfect for taking notes and writing. It is what most people would expect from an affordable wooden pencil. 

It is 18.5 cm in length, the body is hexagonal, painted black and at the end it has a white eraser hold in place by a yellow faded gold trim that gives it some contrast.

On the black body with silver letters it is written the model number followed by the lead hardness which are printed along with the Faber Castell logo and name.

The first thing I noticed when picking this particular pencil in my hand was the warped body, which I don't think is supposed to be a feature. I do not know how common this is, but it makes me feel that the quality of the pencil is not quite top of the market. It does not affect the writing, in any way, though.

 The lead of this model is HB. I would say it is a softer/darker lead than I had expected from it. Being a lower cost model, I expected the lead to be harder, and more scratchy, but it is a decent writer. I would say in comparison with Faber Castell Grip it is not as smooth, and possibly it is a fraction darker. Over all, I would say it writes good enough for most.

The writing doesn't smudge when you drag your hand or fingers over the page. It also erases well from the page, the first test is a light single pass over the hatching. The last test row is testing the residue left on the page after a firmer pass of the eraser. Compared with the Faber Castell Grip it is just as good.

The wood is soft and can be easily sharpened.

Faber Castell Grip 2001 pencil

This Faber Castell Grip 2001 pencil is part of a range of products that Faber Castell has put on the market under the Grip name. The characteristic of the pencil are the doted patches of rubber that offer comport and "grip" to the user. The pencil is on the higher side of pricing, being a step up from the competition's classical pencils. It has a triangular shape that is great for comfort, it has a cool metal gray color and dotted black grip patches as implied by the name. At the top it has a black eraser which gives the entire pencil a very slick and modern look, at least in the one I have, because the pencil can be found without an eraser.

It has a unique look and feel that I enjoy. The pencil is made in Germany and has a very premium feel when you pick it up. I've got the HB version, which corresponds to the US 2 1/2. The pencil comes sharpened and has a very nice pointy tip. It has a total length from tip to eraser of 18.5.

The cost of a pencil without the eraser is about 0.7 - 0.8 Eur while the eraser version comes just above the 1.1 Eur mark (0.76 - 1.2 USD).

The Faber Castell website, states that they produce over 2 billion pencils per year, and are taking great care of the woods used to produce these pencils and the labor workforce involved in their operations, and 82% of the energy used is from renewable sources. So let's take into account information like this when buying a pencil.

How does the Faber Castell Grip 2001 performs?

In the end the most important is how the pencil writes, how does it feel when the lead hits the paper.

The pencil writes well, it has a bit of a harder composition that you can feel while writing with it. It offers a bit of feedback, it is not as smooth as a mechanical pencil lead, for example. Because it is a harder, it saves you from resharpening it very often, in retaining the tip quite well. At the same time, it is not producing the darkest line possible. Compared with a generic pencil it did better, and compared with the mechanical pencil leads from Rotring it produced a similar line.

In the smudge test it performed very well, it was almost smudge free which is great.

The pencil erases just fine, and with a single pass over the writing, the result was satisfactory. Usually the attached eraser is not on par with standard erasers, and this is no exception. The quality makes it ok for when you are in a pickle, but a block eraser will offer much nicer results.

In the end the pencil performed well, it will offer better results compared with a generic brand, but it will not

Which are the best pencils?

According to the Wirecutter, the best pencils for writing and schoolwork are:

1) Palomino Golden Bear
2) Dixon Ticonderoga
3) Palomino Blackwing 602
honorable mention Faber-Castell Grip Graphite Eco pencil with eraser

I have to disagree with the author of the article right from the start. No doubt the pencils are great, and appreciated by many people, but saying the best pencil for writing and schoolwork is Palomino, Dixon or other brand is not true.

For writing, people will appreciate a no fuss approach. A pencil that needs sharpening on a regular basis, doesn't have a constant line width, makes a mess on your desk is far from being the best. In this regard any decent mechanical pencil will offer you a better experience to any of the pencils above. The lead advances at a push of a button, shake or automatic. There is no need for sharpening ever, because of this you don't have to carry a sharpener with you. Any mechanical pencil can store a multitude of leads inside, so you do not run out. You can swap the leads with different hardness ones. There are several widths available, from ultra-thin to normal tip size. In general, wooden pencils have a worse grip than their mechanical counterparts. Choose a mechanical pencil that suits you and is comfortable in your hand, and it will remain that way after writing with it, as the length of the pencil will stay the same virtually forever.

Saying that the best pencil for schoolwork and writing is a wooden pencil is the same as saying the best watch for timekeeping is a mechanical watch (insert brand name here). A $20 Casio will be a better watch in regard of timekeeping, or for that matter a cheaper no name digital watch will do a better job keeping time compared with watches that cost thousands of dollars.

I am not saying that wooden pencils or mechanical watches for that matter don't have a place in this world. Many like them, including myself, but I wouldn't go around saying that they are the best for writing or timekeeping. There are other reasons to praise these products and to appreciate them, the craftsmanship used in producing them, the quality, the feeling you get while using them. In some cases, these things are works of art.

The Loop pencil

I came across a modular pencil, called Loop, that reduces waste and extends the life of your stationary on Yanko Design.

When the pencil becomes short, instead of throwing it away and contributing to waste, pollution etc you can use one of these modular designs where you get an extension in different forms, being a cylinder, cap looking, eraser etc.

The design looks rather well. It is a good mix of cool and modern without being extra serious or goofy. I have to say that I like the presentation and the available accessories. You can get a stand for the pencil or a pencil "splitter" (I do not know how to call it)

Others do better in waste management, for example a mechanical or a clutch pencil offers all the benefits with none of the drawbacks of the conventional pencil. So solving a problem that doesn't really need solving is more like an imagination and design challenge than an actual solution. Trees still need to be cut to produce the pencil.

When I see this modular design my mind goes directly to primary school, when modular pencils (of course not of this caliber, all made of plastic, and were horrible for the environment), were in high fashion among the students. The pencils usually had a plastic transparent or translucent barrel and inside there were several very sharp leads held in plastic. And when the lead would dull, you would just pull it out and put it at the back of the pencil.

If you can't imagine it, here is a picture I managed to find online.

I am not so old that clutch or mechanical pencils didn't exist back then but for the kids it was a  novelty and an interesting pencil to dress your pencil holder with

Others have addressed this problem as well, like Faber Castell. They have a pencil extender which can be used as a cap, so you don't damage the pocket or break the lead, if you carry your pencils in this manner. And it also works as a sharpener.

I would say it brings more functionality to the table, but it doesn't have this cool looking design and color scheme. It is less friendly looking and more sober. But what it lacks in the design, it makes up in functionality.

Or you can find many pencil extender designs online

Faber Castell lead grade and a bit of history

I stumbled upon a catalog from Faber Castell which I consider to be very interesting, "Product Knowledge Manual".

The catalog starts with a short history of the company and its line. I like that the history was detailed and well documented.

I encourage you to read it but I will give below a short version presenting the important moments, so be aware, spoilers will come. 

-In 1761 Kasper Faber produces a pencil in Stein and sells it in a market in Nuremberg. 

-Then his son Anton Wilhelm Faber takes over and the workshop becomes A.W. Faber. After the business is taken over by Georg Leonhard Faber, but he doesn't do too well, as the business goes through rough times (political and economic difficult period). 

-The son of Georg, Lothar von Faber takes over and develops the business.

He develops the modern quality pencil, sets the length and different grades of hardness that remain valid today, also it is the first time to produce a hexagonal section

The pencil is labeled A.W. Faber, becoming the world's first brand pencil. Also, he expands and founds a branch in New York, and subsidiaries in London, Paris, Vienna, St Petersburg.

-Wilhelm von Faber, the son of Lothar runs the company for a while. 

-After Wilhelm's death, his daughter Baroness Ottilie von Faber marries Count Alexander zu Castell Rudenhausen. Lothar before his death through his testament assured that future generations will have to keep the Faber name. So after the marriage of Ottilie and Alexander, the family name became Faber - Castell. At this time the company became Faber-Castell.

In 1905 the green Castell pencil range is launched, with a new product logo "Tournament of the jousting Pencil Knights"

-Roland Graf von Faber-Castell, son of Ottilie and Alexander succeeds 

-Followed by his son Anton Wolfgang Graf von Faber-Castell ran the company until 2016

-After his death, the company was taken over by a board of directors of which Countess Mary von Faber-Castell is part of

Indeed an interesting history. So between 1839–1896, Lothar the 4th generation of Faber's running the pencil business standardized what today is a Faber Castell pencil, the basic shape, and the lead hardness grade. In 1905 Alexander, the 6th generation made the traditional Faber Castell green.

They tell us that "the ideal writing pencil (for example in office) is the medium degree of harness so-called HB, while the school student's pencil has a B hardness degree.

I always thought that a #2 pencil is the equivalent HB, but apparently, it is B.

1     2     2 1/2     3     4

2B  B      HB      H   2H

Faber Castell offers the model 9000 pencil in 16 degrees of hardness, which is awesome. Also, in the manual the diagram of the mixture between clay and graphite for all the hardnes's.

It is interesting as we can approximate the mixing of the two components to get the different hardness. Just at a glance, you can see around the HB is an inflection point where the increase of graphite in the composition is less and less. I mean that between a 2b and 4b the formula seems to be very similar. 

Based on this graphic the composition rounded up to an integer. The b - 8b is increasing the graphite by an increment of 2 percent. 

Also, the HB is not a 50% mix of the two but 66% of graphite and only 34% of clay.

This is true of course for Faber Castell as the hardness of the lead is not standardize, so different manufacturers can produce the HB pencils a bit different.

World record for sharpening pencils

A very interesting section can be found on speedrun.com on sharpening pencils.

For those of you who don't know, speedrun is a site where you can compete with other people via the internet in different challenges. For example, you can compete to finish a certain level of a game in the shortest time possible. It is not important the score, the execution, or anything else. You only have to obtain the fastest time possible.

You will find classic games like Mario or Wolfenstein, but also there is a section for sharpening pencils.

There are multiple disciplines in pencil sharpening, from sprint to marathon.

Sharpening 10, 69, 100, 420, 1000, 1500 and 6942 pencils.

The most competitive scene is the sprint with 10 pencils. The world record for sharpening 10 pencils is 3 minutes and 51 seconds, at this moment at least.

If you fancy being a world champion here is your opportunity.  In case the 3'51" proves too hard to beat you can opt for the marathon, in category 1500 there is only one time at the moment registered and for 6942 pencils there is no competitor. So this will guarantee a spot on the podium, indifferent of the time.

glhf = Good luck and have fun

For those of you who are more a board game type of player, there is a section In Real Life, which means exactly that. Sharper as fast as you can with a real sharpener, some real pencils.
The real life professional pencil sharpeners manage to beat the virtual time by a landslide. The competition is dominated by the USA in first and third place, and every other place, while Canada bringing home the silver.

Faber Castell color bar in local stationery shop

One of the local shops just got a makeover. It has more room for products and right in the center of it, there is a Color Bar from Faber Castell. I have to say it looks really cool.