Sorted By Manufacturer Archives - Page 24 of 89

Nine

11 Comments / Staedtler / 21 November 2018 / BBC, John le Carré, Mossad, The Little Drummer Girl

Today is Bleistift’s ninth birthday.

Well, since we’re on the topic of Mars Lumographs: it looks as if Mossad likes the Mars Lumograph ..at least in the BBC’s 2018 TV series of John le Carré’s 1980s spy novel The Little Drummer Girl.

Terrorist Salim gets a pencil to write to his sister – The Little Drummer Girl, episode 2 (Image © BBC)

Staedtler’s Mars Lumograph is a good choice: The pencil still looks quite similar to how it looked in the late 1970s / early 1980s, when the story takes place, and it would have been easily available to Mossad agents in Munich.

Charlie gets a pre-chewed pencil to write in her diary – The Little Drummer Girl, episode 3 (Image © BBC)

The images in this blog post are from the BBC series The Little Drummer Girl. I believe that the use of the images shown in this blog post falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.

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Lamy’s cp1 Multi Pen – Pencil Plus Highlighter In One

Leave a Comment / Lamy, Mechanical pencils / 17 November 2018 / cp1, Lamy, mechanical pencil, multipen

This blog post was first published on The Pen Company’s blog in April 2018.

1974 is a special year: In the USA, Star Trek: The Animated Series got cancelled; in the UK, ABBA won the Eurovision song contest in Brighton with their song, ‘Waterloo’; in China the Terracotta army was discovered; and in Germany, the VW Golf and the Lamy cp1 multifunction pen were launched.

I’m happy to say that the cp1 pen/pencil is still with us today, so many years later. Designed by Gerd A. Müller, who also designed the Lamy 2000, the cp1 has seen quite a few additions to the line over the years — Lamy’s design history page shows that the twin pen was the first off the line, but there’s also a fountain pen, ballpoint pen, rollerball, mechanical pencil and tri (multifunction) pen in the cp1 series.

The Lamy cp1 twin multifunction pen lets you switch between a 0.5 mm mechanical pencil and a ballpoint pen. My cp1 has Lamy’s M55 orange highlighter refill instead of a normal ballpoint refill. This way I can write with the pencil in my diary but can also highlight anything that needs further attention.

You’ll find more information in my video review below:

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Wörther’s Shorty

6 Comments / Mechanical pencils, Wörther / 14 October 2018 / lead holder, Shorty, Wörther

If you follow my YouTube channel you might have spotted this video about Wörther’s lead holder ‘Shorty’.

I was lucky enough to get two of these over the years. One from fellow stationery blogger Scribble and one from Pen Heaven.

I think they must be the first lead holders I have added to my overview of mechanical pencils.

The plastic version is light and very affordable.

While the aluminium version is still not expensive and rather elegant.

In the video you’ll see that the origin of the Shorty is rather fascinating.

Like fellow German company Lamy and like other companies world-wide including Hero, Wörther’s beginnings have a strong link to the Parker Pen Company. It’s a shame that Parker, like other old established companies seems to have suffered the consequences of past sub-optimal decisions and is not the strong player in this field it once was.

Have a look at the video to find out more.

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Preston’s Pelikan Hub 2018

Leave a Comment / Pelikan / 30 September 2018 / Pelikan, Pelikan Hubs, Pelikan Hubs 2018, Preston

It’s been fairly quiet on this blog – the beginning of the new academic year has been keeping me busy.

That made the two hours I spent visiting Preston’s Pelikan Hub last Friday even more precious. The Hub was in the same place as last year.

The outside might not have been as nice as last year, thanks to the scaffolding, but inside it was as nice as always.

We Preston Pelikan participants had a whole room to ourselves. Look! ..the green wallpaper even matched this year’s ink of the year 😜.

The wood fired Pizzas were absolutely delicious.

Here’s one I ate earlier..

The event was not only for humanoids. Here’s our feathered friend who came along..

..and our canine friend from the Hub.

..not to forget: some of our Hub’s Pelikans without feathers.

The fireplace made the whole place even cosier..

..as did the drinks (mine is the Diet Coke).

I hope Preston will get its own Pelikan Hub again in 2019.

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Stationery Factlets #6: Staedtler was the first European manufacturer of mechanical pencil leads

6 Comments / Mechanical pencils, Staedtler, Stationery Factlets / 15 September 2018 / mechanical pencil, Staedtler, Stationery Factlets

Time for another stationery factlet: Staedtler was the first European manufacturer of mechanical pencil leads.

Staedtler made lead holders and leads for the lead holders for a long time. Below is a page from their 1935 catalogue.

When thinner lead diameters were introduced Staedtler was the first European manufacturer of these thinner leads – the kind of leads I would refer to as mechanical pencil leads.

Staedtler’s catalogues from the 1960s don’t seem to show pictures of these leads, but the catalogue from 1970 does – and it shows a very familiar lead container.

The Mars lead container still has the same shape today, but the plastic is now transparent. The opening of this lead container has the perfect diameter for refilling Mars micro mechanical pencils as you can see in the old video from my 2015 neox blog post.

I would like to thank Eberhard Rüdel for his detective work regarding my mechanical lead questions.

Stationery Factlets #6: Staedtler was the first European manufacturer of mechanical pencil leads Read More »