Faber Castell Shark mechanical pencil

 Shark week presents Faber Castell mechanical pencil :)

Quite an interesting and fun design for a mechanical pencil, and not as scary as you would think based on the title of the post. The pencil caught my eye and I had to take it home with me.

It is completely made out of plastic, the barrel and the front section are made out of translucent grey plastic, which are contrasted by the over the top rubber grip in a nice light blue color.

The plastic used in the pencil is a bit on the flimsy side. So even though the pencil has a retracting metal sleeve, I would not carry it in a pocket.

The grip feels nice in the hand. The grooves give you a good grip. The front end flares a bit out, and the top end of the grip ends with an original fish eye, mouth, and teeth. In general, these kinds of grips do not cope well with the passing of time. But in this case, I don't know which will outlive which, the body of the pencil or the grip. 

The clip doesn't offer the impression of security or durability.

To refill the pencil you can take out the eraser like you would on most of the mechanical pencils out there or you can remove the plastic endcap entirely and get access to the lead reservoir.

The printing on the pencil is minimal. It is an off-white Faber Castell and the logo and beneath the name "Shark Pencil" and the size.
Overall this is a nice pencil, not necessarily because of the quality of the build but because of the intriguing design. I like the unique style, the balance of the colors, and the aerodynamic or hydrodynamic look.

Inspired I guess by the pencil I have watched a lot of shark movies, from classics like Jaws to newer releases like The Reef, Open Water series, Bait 3d, and a few others.

PVC in erasers, Faber Castell Erasers comparison

Recently I have spent more time reading about Radon, VOC, and products that contain harmful ingredients. If you try to eat more eco-product also take a look at the stuff that surrounds you. Inside our homes many if not all the surfaces release compounds in the air that are not necessarily good for our health. The first step would be to limit the toxic materials or use them as sparingly as possible and if the space allows for a mechanical ventilation system I would suggest you look into it, as it is a very good way of reducing the concentrations of pollutants to low levels.

If what you eat matters this should matter as well. 

Most if not all of the products that are made out of plastic and have a rubbery/soft texture contain harmful chemicals that enter our bodys. The easiest method for these substances to enter our body is licking/chewing (sounds funny but many children chew on erasers/pencil etc), but there are other ways and a lot more products that we use daily.

Moving on to the stationary... I have come across an article, China Testing School Erasers

You can read more in the article. Long story short, they have tested for products meeting the toxic materials present in the erasers and the concentrations.

The brands that were part of the test wee:

The complete report is in Chinese, so I can't understand more than the pictures tell me.

Tombow Mono Plastic Eraser, Muji Plastic Eraser, Uni Plastic, Pilot Foam, Radar, Pentel Hi-Polymer,  Faber Castell Dust Free plus many more use PVC in their composition. Some have really high values, but I will not try to interpret those. The highest numbers are beside UNI, Pilot, Radar, MONO.

The article recommends using PVC free.

So here I am, testing three Faber Castell erasers, not for toxic materials but on their performance in doing their job. Two of them are PVC Free Erasers (the top row erasers from the first picture) and the third is the Faber Castell Dust Free eraser. 

The Dust Free 18 71 21 is a very good eraser, praised by a lot of people and widely used. It erases ok, and leaves very little residue behind. This makes it a favorite. Also, the black color helps to hide the dirt accumulated on it. This will be the control, representing the PVC erasers.

The white PVC Free eraser came with a protective paper cover while the green PVC Free eraser came in a very basic plastic wrap. The white PVC Free has all the writing on the paper cover, while the green has the information printed directly on it. 

I have tested to see how the erasers do, with classic lead and with polymer lead. All of the erasers did very well erasing the pencil marks completely without any effort.

Even though the results are similar, the feel is very different.
The Dust Free is grippy in a nice way, not wrinkles in the paper grippy, and it flexes a lot, leaving little to no residue behind.
The white eraser leaves a little more residue compared with the Dust Free, but still, small quantities compared with other erasers. The residue tends to clump together but there are definitely a lot of small particles.
The Pvc Free green eraser seems to be a bit stiffer than the white Pvc Free. You can feel it in hand and when you use it. It has a plastic feel, sliding over the paper more. It leaves more residue but the residue tends to stick to the eraser (or not break off).

In conclusion, I would say get a PVC Free eraser. It won't be a huge difference in erasing performance. 

I am sure that PVC erasers will not cause that much harm, compared to other pollutants we encounter daily but it is good to limit as much as possible your exposure to them. 

Lamy present in Capitan America Civil War

Watching the marvel movies again I saw in the movie Capitan America Civil War that Capitan America likes Lamy inks.

On the desk, he has a Lamy ink bottle, and some fountain pens I assume even though the fountain pens can't be identified by the shoots.

I have to say the look of the Lamy ink bottle works really well with the somewhat modern office design.

In the same movie Tony Stark "Iron Man" offers Capitan America a set of fountain pens to sign a document.

These fountain pens look more like dip pens. Cool look but I can't figure out who makes them.

Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen review

There is a lot of talk about a cheap and very good fountain pen, the Pilot Metropolitan. So I decided to try it out as it was a good deal online. I ordered it and the packaging was a nice surprise. I usually don't care much about the way the fountain pen is presented, and the boxes usually are put to storage in a drawer but, for an affordable pen it was surprising to receive it like this.

The box came in a nice gift bag with Pilot name on it and some creepy animals. 

My box came with a brown snake print which is not the print and color of the fountain pen. This is a small minus, and I do not know if this happens because of the retailer or Pilot not match the box to the fountain pen theme. 

I also saw these fountain pens coming in plastic see trough cases.

I bought the leopard blue / purple fountain pen (more purple than blue). The color and finish are nice, even though I am not a big fan of animal patterns. But this makes an interesting combination between a classic shape and a more bold design.

The body and the cap are made out of metal and feel nice to the touch. The nib section is made out of plastic and has a tapered shape.
The nice and fine lines of the body are interrupted in the middle by the print and a chromed ring that delimits the cap from the body. Pilot Japan is printed right above the ring.
The cap is a pop fit and I find it secure enough. Though the pop is not very satisfying.

The thing that might put off people is the steep step between the grip section and the barrel. In certain hand positions, it might be problematic, but this wasn't the case for me.

I do not like to cap fountain pens but if you do then don't worry as it caps very nice and secure.

This version takes international standard cartridges, which is a plus (proprietary is a no-no).

The nib is not very decorated, just Pilot Japan and the letter M. The Medium nib writes very fine and it is smooth. I didn't do anything to it, just as it came it writes well. You can get it with a fine as well.

I appreciate that Pilot created a fountain pen that is affordable without cutting too many corners. The Metropolitan writes well, it has a classic shape that appeals to many people but with a twist of modern prints colors and designs, a body made out of metal and, this version at least takes international cartridges. A small drawback is the fact that it only comes in two nib sizes, Fine and Medium. But because the fountain pen is for general use "entry level", I consider it to be just fine.
More recently I have seen a very big price increase of the fountain pen locally. Probably people are more interested in Pilot's Metropolitan Fountain pen.