Ceramic pencils? Not quite – rather: pencil-shaped ceramic reeds. This is the Anya Pencil Shavings diffuser. I assume that ‘pencil shavings’ in the product name is a reference to the smell as one of the ‘notes’ of the diffuser oil is cedar.
The image has been taken from the Selfridges website. I believe that the use of these images falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.
Pencil shavings diffuser Read More »
Daniel Kahneman’s new book will be out tomorrow.
His last book, released ten years ago, featured what appears to be a Mongol on the cover – with an extremely acute point, sharpened at 14°. At the time I did show a photo of the book cover with a Mongol on top so that you can compare the ferrule and the paint colour of the pencil to a Mongol.
It’s nice to see a pencil and also graphite lines on the cover of his new book as well. The pencil on the new cover seems to be the same pencil (same bite marks), mirrored in photo editing software.
You can find out more about Kahneman’s new book on Radio 4’s Start the Week programme.
The manga series Oh My Goddess was originally published from 1988 until 2014. I am only familiar with the early comics from this series, so the following might not apply to comics from the later years – but there was always exceptional detail on products and technology. Specific products and their features were often being mentioned or hinted at. A lot of this information was about cars, motorbikes, cameras, but you can also see calculators and mechanical pencils in this series, as seen in the examples below.
I am not sure if the pencil from page 39 is supposed to be the same as the one from page 71, but it’s a great close up drawing. The sleeve seems, proportionally, rather slim, though.
There were many different version of the Zebra Knock Pencil. Some versions of the M-1300 had the text “A most suitable pencil for desk work” printed on the side. As far as I can tell the Zebra Knock Pencil is not being sold anymore and Zebra has replaced this model with more high-end mechanical pencils.
The images have been taken from the English version of Oh My Goddess, published by Dark Horse Manga as Volume #5. I believe that the use of these images falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.
A most suitable pencil for desk work Read More »
Recently I came across some nice drawings of Sean Malone that I want to share.
They are from Conisanco who has previously been featured on Bleistift.
If you’ve watched a few videos from Bleistift’s YouTube channel then you might have come across some with music at the beginning. Sean created this intro music.
Last month, between Sean’s birthday and Cynic Day [1]In Japan some Cynic-fans say April 29 is Cynic Day.
April = 4 = si (in Japanese), 2 = ni, 9 = k, I posted a video on the channel with some background information about Sean’s intro music:
Sean, we are missing you.
You can visit Sean’s blogs at https://contrapuntalism.blog/ and at https://blackwingpages.com/.
I get why there is a market for fake luxury pens, but creating fake versions of affordable pens seems rather ridiculous. In this case the pencil being copied costs less than £1. Yes, you could argue that £1 is much more than what you’d pay for a no name pencil …but if you think about how long a pencil lasts (when you use it the way it is supposed to be used [1]i.e. writing or drawing on paper, I mention this because if you use pencils e.g. to mark wood it won’t last very long, so a Lumograph might not be the best choice for that) then I have to say that the Lumograph is excellent value for money. You can enjoy writing with an excellent pencil for weeks or months for much less than what a coffee costs on the high street.
Bleistift blog reader Koralatov made me aware that fake Lumographs are being sold on eBay and I couldn’t resist ordering a pack to have a closer look.
The fake Lumographs come in a Staedtler Box. In Europe the Lumograph usually not being sold in this box, but, and this was new to me, Staedtler confirmed that in Asia you can actually buy the Lumograph in this box.
Some of the information on the box doesn’t make sense for a graphite pencil. The lead protection that is being mentioned on the box (the triangular red logo you can see on the photo above) is a technology that is being used for coloured pencils, not for graphite pencils, so certainly has no place on Lumograph packaging.
The wood being used is very(!) different to the one being used for real Lumographs. It is very pale, we’re talking basswood pale or even more pale.
The hardness is only printed on one side of the end of the pencil instead of being printed on all sides. Some pencils don’t have the hardness printed at all and for most pencils the indentation around the hardness is very deep, as if they have been stamped too hard.
The fake pencils are being sold as Chinese made factory seconds. Staedtler does produce the Lumograph in Asia, but it is made in Indonesia with German Leads. The real Indonesian Lumograph pencils are marked with “German Lead” instead of “Made in Germany” and use cheaper wood, like Jelutong. They are also sold in other Asian markets, as seen at this link.
Suffice to say that these fake Lumographs are very scratchy, even the soft degrees, and are not nice to use at all.
Since we’re talking about pencils: Here’s a bonus link for you: It’s a Dutch music album called Bleistift from 1981:
https://www.discogs.com/Bleistift-Bleistift/release/1914478 – I wonder how it sounds like. I assume it’ll sound quite different to the Pencil Revolution song.
References
| ↑1 | i.e. writing or drawing on paper, I mention this because if you use pencils e.g. to mark wood it won’t last very long, so a Lumograph might not be the best choice for that |
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