Editing The Pen Addict 261/transcript (section)

== Franklin Kristoff Pencil ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Another new product. I came home from Raleigh with these. It's the Franklin Kristoff 1901 pencil. I had no idea they were doing a pencil. I'm honestly not sure why they're doing a pencil. It doesn't kind of fit with their aesthetic. But, it's a cool looking pencil. So, I wanted to try some. Scott Franklin gave me some to take home and review. So, I did them. And, it's just kind of a good pencil. It's nothing special. Like, when I'm using pencils these days, since it's not my primary writing instrument, I want to write with something special. This one's not one I'd really pick up. And, you know, you can go read a better review than mine from Dee, who writes at the Weekly Pencil and who also does the RSVP podcast. She's a pencil nerd. So, she was a little tougher on them, mainly because of the aesthetics. Some of the stamping and printings off, which I noticed on mine. I didn't think about it too, too much because you actually destroy pencils as you use them. So, the printing out of alignment would bother me way more on a pen that's going to be around for a while than a pencil I chew up with a sharpener. But, I understand the point. Like, it should be nice and neat and clean and everything should be even. And, you can actually see that in my pictures, too.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Do you mean, like, when you lay them all down together and that they're... Okay. So, that they're not lined up when you lay them all out straight. So, like, they're off alignment. So, like, you can see on the pictures, like, the USA is where it shows the most. Like, you lay them down end to end and they're all over the place. Right. I don't even know how that would happen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Some aren't centered on the flat, either. Like, some are closer to the edges of the hex.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm just going to say, Brad, that seems a bit sloppy to me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It does. It is. It is. So, I think it would bother a lot of people. I didn't... It didn't... It wasn't a thing for me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Also, design is not really Franklin Kristoff. There's kind of...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Like I said, I didn't even know they were doing it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's just... It's so... You know what this looks like to me? It just looks like a promotional item. Right? That you would, like, I don't know, have in your office or something. Like, if you're Franklin Kristoff, I don't really...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Maybe that's what it ends up being.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. They are known for making, like, incredible designs. You know, like, the fire and ice is, like, kind of what put them on the map. Right? Like... But this is just, like, a pure black pencil. I mean, and also in this... Deirdre's post on the weekly pencil, like, she's pointing out some of the finish not being that great. Yep. This is weird. Yep. This is really weird.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It is. It did not come out perfectly. And if you're going to charge what they're charging, which, you know, pencils aren't that expensive, but relative to other pencils that are better, it's more expensive. So, yes, it could have been done a little bit better. But what I mostly had the problem with is I didn't think there was enough differentiation in the hardness of the four pencils that I tried, four different lead grades. I would pick them up and, you know, kind of blind test them, and I could tell there was a little bit of softness difference, but I couldn't tell that much difference in the color. Um, between, you know, the HB all the way to 4B. It's a little bit darker, but I didn't think it was that great. So, anyway, these were an oddity, I guess, if you will. It was a, okay, this is... Someone said to me, um, I think it was Sandra at the Raleigh show. She said, oh, did you get your Franklin Kristoff pencils? I was like, what are you even talking about? That's not a thing. And she's like, yeah, they're over there on the table. So, I went over there and grabbed some from Scott. But yeah, I think they could do a better job. And I don't think this is going to be a pencil that's going to replace any other pencil that I use on a regular basis. So, you know, I use maybe four or five different ones, you know, that I enjoy using. But these aren't going to rank up there with anything I use regularly. Weird. Very weird. Weird is accurate.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Weird also plays into this next batch of links that I have. I feel like sometimes you do these things just to troll me. So, when you saw this in the show notes, what did you think?