Another month is coming to an end, so here’s another pencil pot of the month.
Description: A pencil stand from Muji
Price: £2.95 (~$4.30; €3.85)
Material: Plywood
Further information: Except this pen stand there’s also a desk pot and a desk rack available from the same series. All are made from plywood in Vietnam and have been discussed previously.
Price: December 2013
Exchange rates: May 2016
Pencil Pot Of The Month – May 2016 Read More »
A year ago Lexikaliker got me a Super5 fountain pen [1]It was the same time he got me a KUM Masterpiece. I paid just under €20 for the Super5. The Masterpiece was just under €10. . It has seen quite a bit of use in the last days – that’s when I noticed an issue I didn’t notice before. The outside of the cartridge keeps getting inky. First I thought that some ink got into the body of the pen, but a day after I cleaned the pen body the outside of the ink cartridge was full of ink again.
I am not sure what is happening. All I could come up with so far is that there might be some capillary action going on, between the wall of the cartridge and the grip section of the pen – similar to the capillary action in the nib. Maybe a different cartridge with a slightly different diameter or opening would behave differently.
Have you come across this issue – with the Super5 or another fountain pen?
References
| ↑1 | It was the same time he got me a KUM Masterpiece. I paid just under €20 for the Super5. The Masterpiece was just under €10. |
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Super5 and inky hands Read More »
Another Orenz post.
I bought this Orenz from eBay seller Morgan’s Direct for £4.99 (~$7.30; €6.50).
You might have seen my Facebook post about the recently released 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm version of the Orenz and about the Orenz Mannish Line that will be released in June.
The Mannish Line has some interesting colour combinations. Very tempting.
The Orenz in 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm doesn’t seem to be available in Japan. The one I bought was the official UK version, but made in Japan, of course.
The 0.3 mm version of the Orenz needed quite a bit more force to slide the sleeve than the 0.2 mm version, see the sliding sleeve table for more information. This made me think that the 0.5 mm version will need even more force to slide the sleeve, but to my surprise that was not the case. While the 0.3 mm version needs more than 0.1 Newton, the 0.5 mm version needs only about 0.1 Newton. That’s still more than the best 0.5 mm pencil, the Staedtler Microfix S, but as far as I know, this is the best value for a pencil currently in production. Using different leads might result in different values, but both the 0.3 mm and the 0.5 mm version of the Orenz were tested with the original leads they came with.
Weight: 10.4 grams
Length: 14.5 centimetres
Diameter of the grip section: ~8 millimetres
Force needed to slide the sleeve: ~0.1 newton
Overall: it’s a fantastic pencil. Pentel’s pencil designs are very polarising for me, I either love or dislike them, but the Orenz has a design I really love, unlike the P20x series liked by many, but not me.
It’s a shame that this pencil is only available in black. Pentel, please release it in other colours, too.
Price and exchange rate: May 2016.
This mechanical pencil has been added to the sliding sleeve table.
More about the Orenz can be found in these Bleistift blog posts: Pentel Orenz 0.3, Peanuts Orenz 0.2, The sliding sleeve and the Pilot Color Eno, Why did the sliding sleeve disappear?…
…or at The Pen Addict, I Liek Pencils, One Lone Man…
…and at Lexikaliker, who was probably the first outside Japan to write about this pencil.
You can read more about Georg Christoph Lichtenberg at Wikipedia.
The notebooks in the photos are Silvine Memo Books.
After my 2012 blog post about the Atoma and the M by Staples’ Arc notebooks [1]…to my surprise it is still by far(!) the most popular blog post at Bleistift, even though it is a few years old. I have been asked more than once whether the Staples ‘desktop punch’ can be used for the Atoma system.
The short answer is that it works well.
Why would you want to use a hole puncher [2]I know they are not holes, but I will stick to this name for now as it is commonly used. not designed for your system? Well, it is much cheaper. The Atoma hole punch currently sells for around £140 (~$205; €185), the Staples one can be bought for around £35 (~$50; €45). [3]I got my Staples desktop punch for my birthday many years ago, so I am not sure, but I think prices were pretty similar at the time.
Not surprisingly holes punched with the Staples desktop punch, when used with Atoma discs, seem a bit worse than the original Atoma holes [4]I assume that Atoma punched paper, used with a Staples discs, would also be slightly worse than Staples punched paper. – but in my opinion Atoma makes the better notebooks, while Staples makes the affordable paper puncher, so I will stick with this combination.
The M by Staples arc desktop punch is sturdy and well made in Taiwan and can officially punch up to 8 sheets in one go.
If you want to read more about Staples’ Atoma clone have a look at the Arc It Blog (not updated anymore).
Price and exchange rates: May 2016
As usual: open in a new tab/window to see the images in high resolution (except the last image).
References
| ↑1 | …to my surprise it is still by far(!) the most popular blog post at Bleistift, even though it is a few years old. |
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| ↑2 | I know they are not holes, but I will stick to this name for now as it is commonly used. |
| ↑3 | I got my Staples desktop punch for my birthday many years ago, so I am not sure, but I think prices were pretty similar at the time. |
| ↑4 | I assume that Atoma punched paper, used with a Staples discs, would also be slightly worse than Staples punched paper. |
Using the Staples puncher with the Atoma system Read More »
There are two pencil purchases I’ve been thinking about for a while. One of them is a Rotring 800+, but with a price tag of more than £40 I haven’t been able to convince myself to buy it yet [1]I guess I should buy it. In a recent Pen Addict podcast they were talking about a similar situation https://www.relay.fm/penaddict/204 , it all reminds me of a Bavarian movie called ‘The sooner … Continue reading.
Every now and then I check whether I find a good offer for this pencil in online stores, on Amazon and on eBay. Earlier this week I was just checking CultPens again (so far they have been the cheapest store for the Rotring 800+ when taking postage into account) when I saw an offer I couldn’t resist: Lots, really lots, of ‘free’ items if you buy a Staedtler Initium pen.
The most tempting of these ‘free’ add-ons was Atoma’s Leather notebook [2]Mady by Belgium’s Ruitertassen.. Most tempting for two reasons:
…so this notebook was the reason why I went ahead and ordered the Staedtler Initium pencil.
I think I was probably even more interested than I otherwise would have been because of the recent flood of blog posts about William Hannah’s similar notebook after they sent free samples and discounted samples to many bloggers [4]including Scribble, Philofaxy, Pen Paper Pencil and Gourmet Pens.
I do love Staedtler products, you might have noticed that this blog has more articles about Staedtler than about any other manufacturer [5]So fat there are 50 Staetdler articles. Faber-Castell, the number two only has 39 articles at Bleistift. but so far I haven’t been very excited about their foray into the world of more expensive stationery, their Initium line. Based on the photos I have seen online I think the Initium fountain pens look like cheap ‘own brand’ pens from a high street stationery chain – I might revise my opinion when I see one in reality, though, photos can be deceptive. The pencil on the other hand looks nice to me, but maybe not >£60 nice. So I went with the mechanical pencil instead. On the photos it looks better than the fountain pen, but I couldn’t really imagine how the clip works – is there a spring like in the Lamy 2000?
Well, my purchase has arrived now, I just unpacked the items. First impression: The body of the Staedtler pencil looks a bit more plasticy than expected, but overall it looks good. The Atoma leather notebook looks just amazingly beautiful!
I’m very much looking forward to trying all the items out.
You can read more about Atoma in my 2012 blog post about this system.
References
| ↑1 | I guess I should buy it. In a recent Pen Addict podcast they were talking about a similar situation https://www.relay.fm/penaddict/204 , it all reminds me of a Bavarian movie called ‘The sooner you die, the longer you are dead’ |
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| ↑2 | Mady by Belgium’s Ruitertassen. |
| ↑3 | Think Yo no bi, which reminds me: I just hope my Rustico notebook doesn’t get too dark over time, but based on experience with a leather bag I think I will be fine |
| ↑4 | including Scribble, Philofaxy, Pen Paper Pencil and Gourmet Pens |
| ↑5 | So fat there are 50 Staetdler articles. Faber-Castell, the number two only has 39 articles at Bleistift. |
Staedtler’s posh pencil and Atoma’s posh notebook Read More »