Editing The Pen Addict 252/transcript (section)

== Favorite Pencil ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So what was your favorite pencil to use in writing the book? And what's your personal favorite pencil to use on a daily, regular basis? I don't know if those are the same thing. Because there is a difference, which we're going to talk about, between necessarily a favorite and what's perfect for a situation.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Yeah, definitely. I used a lot of different pencils when I wrote the book. I tried to, well, I mean, because it depends on how fast I go through them. I tried to plan them according to what I was writing about. So if I was writing about Faber-Castell, I tried to write with, like, a Faber-Castell pencil. Or, yeah, like, if I was writing with, when I wrote about Black Wings, I used a Black Wing. When I wrote about Japanese pencils, I used a Japanese novelty pencil. Which made the process a lot more fun. Also, side note, writing a book and pencil is great because you have to sharpen them all the time. It's, like, really good if you really need a distraction. You can just, like, sharpen all your pencils. It's really therapeutic. But, yeah, for writing the book, like, that, I was writing on paper that was kind of toothy. So anything super soft was a little bit problematic because I had to sharpen all the time. Which is, in some cases, if I was at a certain mood, that's kind of a good thing. Because I needed those, like, forced breaks. But, yeah, I'm not a fan of harder pencils. But I did end up using pencils that had good point retention because I needed it. And a lot of, like, the Japanese ones in, like, an HB or an F, I ended up using a lot of Japanese pencils if I was using them just, like, purely for function.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Yeah, like, the Haiuni in HB is a good one because it looks like a soft pencil and feels like a soft pencil but has great point retention. I used a couple of Fs, even, and I don't use Fs ever. But, yeah, the pencils that I used for the book were very different from the pencils that I choose in my personal life. And I don't even know that I have, like, a favorite. I have a couple that I gravitate towards most often if I'm not – I mean, a lot of times I'm writing with something that's new just because I want to get to know it. Or with something that I haven't used for a while because I want to re-familiarize myself with it because I do need to know everything I can about these things. But I use an Epsara Absolute a lot. That's one of my all-time favorites. It's made in India, and it's very strong. You can drop it a million times and it won't break. But it's also very dark and very smooth, very inexpensive. I love that one. I love the camel pencils or, like, craft – we saw one from Craft Design Technology that's, like, a very pale mint green. And I know you've talked about those before, haven't you?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I've talked about Craft Design as a brand, but I didn't review that camel. I reviewed just one of the regular camels with the right white eraser. Yeah.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Yeah, they're amazing. They're a really great, like, simple pencil, great eraser. They're designed really well. If you're ever at the MoMA or in, like, a MoMA design store, the MoMA pencils are made by camel. They're round. They're painted great colors. They're matte, and they have a black eraser. They're really cool. Oh, cool. They sell them in a pack of sticks for, like, $7 or $8.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Yeah, I love the Craft Design Technology pencil or, likewise, the Toya pencils. Again, they're all the same. And I guess, like, in the past, like, four or five months, like, the It pencil of our shop, like, amongst the pencil ladies, has been the Tombow Mono 100 in an F grade. And it's a great pencil because Japanese pencils run a little bit soft. And so, even in an F, it, like, writes, like, an HB pencil or even a B pencil and looks like it. But the point retention is just unreal. You never have to sharpen. It's not very smudgy. That pencil itself is beautiful. The Tombow Mono 100 has 10 billion particles per cubic millimeter in its graphite core. So, they refine that graphite until it's basically, like, nothing. And so, it's really, really smooth. And the design is just, like, kind of flashy and amazing. But, yeah, that's definitely a pencil lady favorite across the board.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And what about a paper product to pair with some of these favorites?

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Ooh. I'm ashamed to admit that I don't really have, like, a notebook that I use every day. I use whatever's around or whatever I'm using at work.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' I use a planner a lot. And I have a type, I have a planner that's, like, half blank pages. So, that kind of doubles as, like, my regular life, like, everyday notebook. That's made by Smythson in the UK. It has blue pages. They're very, very, it's very lightweight. It works well with any writing instrument. But I really like Midori notebooks. I have one that I use at home as my journal that I made at an event that they did here in New York. Where you get to, like, those spiral bound ones. And you get to, like, make your own notebook. It was so fun. I really like their paper because it's really smooth. And it does well with at least the pens that I use. I'm not a very advanced pen user. But it's not, I really prefer smooth paper. But so much of it is, like, a little bit too smooth for most pencils. So, I think the Midori paper is about as smooth as you can get.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, we have a listener question about that, which is a very good question. I want to, we'll dig into that in a little bit. How about in the shop? Is there, so you have these favorites. The pencil ladies have their favorites. But is there anything in the shop that people just gravitate to constantly and can't leave without? Definitely.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Well, there are different ones for different purposes.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Well, black wings. We do sell a lot of black wings. But we call that, like, the gateway pencil. That's the one that gets people into fancy pencils. And then I think, like, after that, they kind of move on to things that are more specific to their taste once they start to refine their taste. And recently, one that's been, like, a real showstopper in the shop that's been selling really well is a Mitsubishi pencil. That's one of those penmanship pencils that's meant for practicing calligraphy. And they have a very thick core and they're always very soft. But it's, like, a soft pencil that's meant for writing, not drawing, which is a bit unusual. And we have this one that is a 10B. And if you're familiar with the pencil grading scale, a 10B is basically impossible. At that point, you're just writing with straight graphite. And a pencil is made out of graphite and klein. The grade depends on the ratio. And there are almost no 10Bs in the world. Mitsubishi is, like, the only company who makes, like, a true 10B. And this pencil is amazing. It's so buttery. And it's so strong, too. It doesn't, like, crumble like you would expect it to. And they're expensive. They're painted gold. They cost $7.50 each. And they come in their own, like, flashy little box. The packaging looks like it should be, like, a makeup pencil, not a pencil pencil. It's pretty amusing. But, yeah, if I leave that out on the test station, people pick it up and always react to it immediately. Yeah, that's a great one. The rainbow pencils, those ones that have, like, multiple colors mixed in them are always really surprising to people, especially, like, people just walking by. And, yeah, the camel pencils. Any form of camel pencil is always really exciting to our customers in-store and online.

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' So you up for some listener questions, Caroline? We got a few in here.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Yeah, I'm ready. I purposely didn't look at that part of the show notes because I wanted to be surprised.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I sometimes just leave these out just because, yeah, I think it's better just, you know, kind of going off the cuff a little bit. But this one is one I wanted to know the answer to, and one you just mentioned a moment ago, and this is from Scott, and I'm going to read this. It says, I'm rediscovering woodcase pencils, and I find fountain pen-friendly paper to be rather pencil unfriendly, as if it is too coated or smooth and doesn't allow for the pencil to leave enough graphite behind. What should I be looking for in a paper suited for pencils? CW Pencils carries the Mormon memo signed notebooks. What pencil hardness works best with that paper? So I think that's a great question because a lot of listeners that aren't necessarily into woodcase pencils or just getting into them, like, you know, I am over the past year, and a lot of listeners like Scott, you know, we might have rhodia pads sitting on our desk or some other coated, very smooth paper that's going to show off fountain pen ink properties, and then you break out a pencil, and it doesn't really work that well. So what's your thoughts on that?

'''Caroline Weaver:''' That is a great question. Yeah, rhodia paper is a little bit too smooth. If depending on the pencil, it's just going to smear all over your paper, and especially if you dig an eraser to it, that's when it gets really messy.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Yeah, pencil definitely needs something, like, something to hold on to a little bit. The Nemesee notebooks are amazing. Those, we sell tons of those. That's probably our best-selling range of notebooks because they are, they're great for any writing instrument, pretty much, and they just look really cool. They're basically just, like, a fancy adult version of, like, a school notebook. Yeah, they're one of my all-time favorites. Yeah, they're so good. That's what we use, like, for our own. We each have our own, like, small one that we use for, like, our to-do lists and all of our, like, daily work. But those, I don't have a problem with any pencil hardness on those. I wouldn't use anything, like, just for general note-taking, anything above, like, maybe, like, a 2B on those.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Harder pencils work well on it. One that I used a couple months ago, Alex had us do, like, a one-pencil challenge where we were only allowed to use one type of pencil for an entire week, and I chose one that I was really not familiar with, which was the Viarco Desenho in an H, which is much harder than I normally prefer. And I was so surprised by how great it was on that paper. It was amazing. It felt smooth. It, like, made a little bit of a sound. I almost like my pencils to sound a little bit scratchy. I feel like it just makes me more aware of, like, the physicality of the thing I'm using. But it didn't smudge at all, which was the best part. I realized after using that pencil that it's great for left-handed people, especially because it really doesn't smudge, especially on Nemesine paper.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' But, yeah, that's a tricky one because they do like different paper. And even pencils don't like really toothy paper. So then it just, like, picks up too much graphite, and it gets just, like, messy and gross. I don't know if anyone has tried the craft design technology, and Life Notebooks did a collaboration, and they have this amazing notepad that's, like, kind of medium-sized, and it's perforated, it's bound at the top, and it's this, like, really creamy paper that has a very faint grid on it. And the grid is printed on both sides. And that paper is great for anything, for fountain pen, for pencil. That's another one of our bestsellers, like, all-time favorites.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay, I need that notebook in my life because I'm a huge life fan. And, yeah, I will check that out, plus that pencil. Yeah, it's cool. Tell me the name of that Viarco again. Which model was it?

'''Caroline Weaver:''' It's the Viarco Desenho in an H.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay, yeah, added to the list.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So the one I had recently added to the list and made sure I ordered when I ordered my book, because they sell out from time to time and I've missed them, is your collaboration, your CW Pencils collaboration with Caran d'Ache. So I think that was probably my most asked question. Like, talk about that pencil. Tell her how, ask her how that came about. You know, what was the design based around? You know, tell us the story behind that.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Yeah, so that pencil is one that is, well, also one of our best sellers and one of my personal favorites. And that came about because Caran d'Ache makes this jumbo pencil that's black. It's, like, painted matte black like that. And the wood is dyed black. And it's really smooth. It's, like, the only example of, like, a really adult jumbo pencil that I know of, which is kind of the appeal of it because jumbo pencils are really awesome, but most people think that they're just for kids because that's how they're usually marketed. But I, like, on a day-to-day basis, only use, like, regular size pencils just because they're more practical. I don't have to carry, like, a double hole sharpener all the time. And so we had been talking with our friends at Caran d'Ache about, like, what would it be like if we took this pencil, which we love, which we think is, like, super sophisticated and made it smaller.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' And so we talked about it a little bit. And then out of nowhere, they just, like, sent this prototype to me. And that was that. We sent over our branding, and that was it. I think if you're outside of the U.S., you can have that pencil with your branding on it. That's something that they'll let you do. But we've got the exclusive in the U.S. And it's, yeah, it's a really great pencil, and it has really good point of retention. It's the same core that's in a Swiss wood pencil, if you're familiar with those. It's really great because it's a little bit dark. It feels very, very smooth, but it holds its point really well, which is something that people are always looking for.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that's one of my favorite just to write with. I really like that core. It's super smooth and holds its point forever. That's what I'm using. You asked me before the show started, what pencil were you writing with? That's the pencil I'm using today. And my show notes are being written on your Write Notepads collaboration, the Pocket Ledger book.

'''Caroline Weaver:''' Oh.