Mechanical pencils Archives - Page 12 of 14

Lamy scribble

9 Comments / Lamy, Mechanical pencils / 31 July 2014 / 0.7mm, 3.15mm, Designed in Switzerland, Hannes Wettstein, Lamy, Lamy scribble, lead holder, Made in Germany, mechanical pencils

This is my second blog post about pencils that The Pen Company sent to me ^[1]They send pens to several bloggers. You don’t have to pay for the pens, but are expected to write a blog post about the pens.. The original blog post can be found on their blog.

Me and Lamy, Lamy and I

You might not have guessed, because of the lack of Lamy posts on Bleistift, but Lamy is one if the stationery brands I feel strongly connected to. It all started about 1985 when I got my first Lamy Safari fountain pen. From that point onwards I only used Safari fountain pens in school. After I left school I didn’t use fountain pens on a daily basis any more and temporarily lost my link to Lamy. I did buy the occasional Lamy pen, though, until finally, in 2008, I rediscovered Lamy as one of my favourite brands after I got a Lamy 2000 fountain pen.

Lamy scribbles — The 0.7 mm version (top) and the 3.15 mm version (bottom) of the Lamy *scribble*.

Volker Albus, architect and designer: Just think of his Scribble writing set for Lamy. Seldom have the central functions and haptic requirements of such a twist action pen been translated so precisely and at the same time unmistakably into an aesthetic vocabulary.
Studio Hannes Wettstein (2011, p. 151)

Lamy and pencils

I was quite excited when Lamy’s wood cased pencils came out in 2010, even though, for my taste, they are a bit too soft for daily use. I have also bought a few of their mechanical pencils and I have been tempted on several occasions to buy a Lamy 2000 or Lamy scribble mechanical pencil. So, naturally, I was very excited when I received two Lamy scribble pencils from The Pen Company, the Lamy scribble 0,7 ^[2]Germany, like most European, African and South American countries, adopted the comma as their decimal mark. Mechanical pencil and the Lamy scribble 3,15 Mechanical pencil. Because of its width I’d actually call the 3.15 mm version a lead holder, but I’ll go with the official name here, according to which it is a mechanical pencil.

The design – the process

First computer designs and prototypes of the scribble were created in 1997 by Swiss designer Hannes Wettstein, one of Switzerland’s most important designers ^[3]see NZZ: Suche nach den Archetypen von morgen, 7 July 2008. This was followed by two more prototype series in 1998 that lead to the final drawings in 1999. I’ll write more about the design later in this blog post. Overall, the development time of the scribble took less than two years.

The design – the colours

The current version of the scribble features what I tend to see as a classic colour combination: black and silver. It is a colour combination that I associate with simple design that follows functionality. Interestingly enough many of the great black and silver products I can think of feature a similar distribution between the two colours: lots of black and a bit of silver – and they also try to avoid unnecessary design elements that don’t contribute to the products function.

Another version of the scribble was available until 2010. Instead of fittings with a palladium finish it featured fittings in black chrome ^[4]I’d like to thank Lamy’s Marco Achenbach for this information..

Hannes Wettstein's early sketch of the scribble — Hannes Wettstein’s early sketch of the scribble

The design – the shape

The bulge in the middle of the short shaft makes SCRIBBLE a highly ergonomic tool. Its ergonomic quality is further enhanced by the flat surfaces, which are cut into the shaft. These flats also prevent the pen from rolling away.
Studio Hannes Wettstein (2011, p. 222)

With 10 mm – 13 mm ^[5]depending on where you hold this pen diameter the grip section of the scribble certainly has a wider than average diameter. I read in the past that wider grips on pens relieve writing stress and fatigue. I have to emphasise that I didn’t see any such claim from Lamy or Studio Hannes Wettstein, but after having used the scribble for a while I found that writing with another mechanical pencil with a much narrower grip felt much less comfortable, compared to the scribble. Even though the grip section is quite wide the tip is rather slim. This makes it possible to write using with a more acute angle.

The design – awards

It doesn’t come as a big surprise that such an excellent pencil won several awards.

In 2001 the scribble won the Design Plus award in Frankfurt and in 2002it won the if award in Hanover.

The 0.7 mm version

The 0.7 mm version can hold up to 6 leads (if you wiggle the pen a bit to get them all in). It also features a small eraser under the cap that comes with a pin / clean out rod. Each click will advance the lead by about 0.9mm, which is suitable for a 0.7 mm lead.

The 3.15 mm version

The 3.15 mm version has three grooves along the body of the pen. I first thought they are there to support rotating the pen to use up the lead evenly, but they are not close enough to the tip for this, so I assume the grooves are there to visually distinguish the 3.15 mm version from the 0.7 mm version version of the pen. The pen comes with a 4B lead. a bit soft for my taste and unfortunately Lamy only sells refills in 4B, but you can get harder leads from other manufacturers. I assume that slightly thinner leads, like Caran d’Ache’s 3 mm leads will also fit. As far as I know Lamy does not offer a suitable sharpener. So far I have sharpened the lead using a KUM Automatic Long Point sharpener.

Clip and mechanism

Both pens feature a sheet metal clip that can be removed. With 0.65 mm the sheet metal clip is thicker than that of your average pen. Most clips are bent on the corners to give the illusion of volume, but the scribble‘s clip is really that thick. According to Simon Husslein from Studio Hannes Wettstein designing and producing this clip was quite a challenge. I certainly believe that as I was not able to find another pen in my collection with such a thick sheet metal clip.

The lead holding mechanism seems to come from Schmidt. It is featured on page 12 of their catalogue – it’s the second mechanism from the left. The mechanism works very well, but my exposure to lead holders is limited, so I can’t really compare it.

There is also a ball point version available. This seems to be an afterthought that was designed in December 2000. The body is based on the 0.7 mm version body, the one without the grooves.

Hannes Wettstein post scribble

Hannes Wettstein and his studio later also went on to develop the studio for Lamy, which makes him one of the few select designers who designed more than one pen for Lamy. Hannes Wettstein died in 2008, but his design lives on. Current products by Studio Hannes Wettstein are created by Simon Husslein and Stephan Hürlemann and are very close to Wettstein’s design DNA. Look at this Braun watch for example.

Lamy scribble 3.15 mm and 0.7 mm version

Conclusion

It didn’t take long for these two mechanical pencils to become my current favourites. There are other pencils that I like for their design, but I love the scribble because it’s so comfortable to hold (the grip diameter is surprisingly comfortable and the weight distribution is very good, too) and looks so good. It’s just a shame there’s no 0.5 mm version available, but my understanding is that as users of the scribble Hannes Wettstein had architects and designers in mind who want to liberally put their drawing lines on a blank canvas. A thin line just isn’t suitable for that purpose.

I’s like to thank Simon Husslein from Studio Hannes Wettstein for answering all my questions about the scribble patiently. All the information about the design process came from Mr Husslein.

You can find more information about the Lamy scribble at Pencil Revolution, Jack the Scribbler (ballpoint version) and Dave’s Mechanical Pencils.

Only slightly related: There’s a great article on the Fountain Pen Network: Lamy 2000 and the Origins of “Lamy Design”

The quotes in this blog post have been taken from the following book:
Studio Hannes Wettstein. Seeking Archetypes. 2011. Lars Müller Publishers, Zürich.

References[+]

References
↑1	They send pens to several bloggers. You don’t have to pay for the pens, but are expected to write a blog post about the pens.
↑2	Germany, like most European, African and South American countries, adopted the comma as their decimal mark.
↑3	see NZZ: Suche nach den Archetypen von morgen, 7 July 2008
↑4	I’d like to thank Lamy’s Marco Achenbach for this information.
↑5	depending on where you hold this pen

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The Tombow Zoom 707 de Luxe

3 Comments / Mechanical pencils, Tombow / 25 May 2014 / Made in Japan, mechanical pencil, Tombow, Zoom 707 de Luxe

I’ve been luck enough to have been chosen by The Pen Company, together with several other bloggers, to receive stationery to try out. Here’s my blog post about the Tombow mechanical pencil they sent me, originally posted on The Pen Company’s blog.

Introduction

Do you remember what you did in 1987?

If you were living in the USA you were lucky enough to be able to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation. The UK and Germany got TNG a few years later, in 1990. If you’re more into computers: the Amiga 500 was also released in this year.

..and in the world of pencils 1987 was the year the Tombow Zoom 707 mechanical pencil, designed by Mr Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, was launched in Japan, one year after the ballpoint pen of the same series came out.

Awards

It only took another year before the Zoom 707 was released in Europe – in 1988. Over the next years it won three design award in Germany: the Red Dot Design Award in 1988, the Design Plus Award in 1989 and the Baden-Württemberg International Design Award in 1990.

Despite this pencil being so long on the market I didn’t know about it until recently. I got my Zoom 707 from The Pen Company as part of their programme where they send pens to stationery blogs for review. I even got the de Luxe version, which was launched in 1994. Tombow describes the de Luxe version, which sells for £28.60, around £10 more than the standard version, as being “glossy silver”.

Size comparison: Tombow Mono 100, Tombow Zoom 707 de Luxe, Staedtler Mars micro

Expectations and reality

I’ve got to be honest here, I would have never ordered this pen. The slim design doesn’t look very uncomfortable to me, so I didn’t have particularly high expectation when I started using this pen. To my surprise it was much more comfortable than expected. The rubber grip section of the pen has a diameter of 6.5mm and is not too far off a Tombow pencil’s diameter: the Tombow Mono 100 wood-cased pencil has a diameter of 7.2mm.

The grip is only slightly narrower than a wood-cased pencil

Build quality is excellent, but the red ball at the end of the clip and the rubber at the end of the pen show parting lines, and except the look the pencil behaves very similar to your typical mechanical pencil: with around 10g the weight is similar to other mechanical pencils. One click will advance the by about 0.6mm, which is also pretty standard and it also uses a ratchet mechanism like many other mechanical pencils.

One click will advance the lead by ~0.6mm

The pen comes in a nice presentation tin and with a lifelong warranty. It doesn’t come with instructions, though, and since I’ve used mechanical pencils in that past that have to be refilled through the tip I wasn’t sure how to refill this pen. It’s size and the fact that my careful attempt to remove the push top (I didn’t want to damage the pen) were not successful didn’t help either. The push top can however be removed, to be refilled. My pen came with three leads, but despite is slim design I managed to squeeze eight leads into the pen.

Overall

The Zoom 707 is one of those pens that ages well. Despite being more than 25 years old it doesn’t look old fashioned.

As far as I know this pencil is selling well. I wonder how most people are using this pencil. Its two main attributes, the slim size and the sturdiness (thanks to its metal body), make it a pencil that is probably more suitable than others to be a diary pencil, the kind of pencil you clip to your diary and leave it there to fulfil this specific purpose.

I would like to thank The Pen Company for this pencil and Mrs. Balsewicz from Tombow Europe for the information she has provided about the Zoom 707.

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Black Friday, black pen: Muji’s aluminium hexagonal flat clip mechanical pencil (0.5 mm)

7 Comments / Mechanical pencils, Muji / 29 November 2013 / aluminium, mechanical pencil, Muji, 無印良品

Just in time for Black Friday: a black pen – Muji’s aluminium hexagonal flat clip mechanical pencil (0.5 mm). This pencil and other pens from the black hexagonal aluminium range were first launched in August 2010.

The price

The official price in the UK is £9.95 (~$16.20; €11.95), at the current exchange rate this is more than 60% above the price charged in Japan …but Muji has recently removed this pen from their catalogue. It will not be stocked any more from Spring/Summer 2014, which means that you can get this and other black aluminium hexagonal pens for a very good price (I paid £3 in Manchester’s Trafford Centre) in shops where they are still available. Be careful though, I have seen a few damaged pens among the black hexagonal pens on sale.

The material and shape

The pen itself is nice and well made, especially when considering its price. I obviously realised that it has a metal body, but I didn’t realise that the body is made from aluminium until I saw “Alumi” written in Katakana on the packaging. The pencil is comfortable to hold. The weight is under 15 g ^[1]My scales are very old, so this might be inaccurate. and this mechanical pencils has a slightly bigger hexagonal barrel (8 mm) than the average wood-cased pencil (7 mm). Because of the similar shape and weight handling is similar to the Caran d’Ache 844, which features an aluminium body, too.

Muji cap — The cap is ‘raised’ when the tip is retracted. You can even see a small gap between cap and body.

The retractable tip

The most interesting feature of this mechanical pencil for me is the retractable tip. To retract the tip of many other retractable pencils you press the top button while pressing tip and lead sleeve against the table. If you want to retract the tip of this pencil you just press the top of the clip and the tip will retract. You might have seen a similar mechanism on ball point pens that retract when pressing a side button. Another thing to mention: the thin lead sleeve and the conical part of the sleeve are one unit and will both retract. I mention this because on a Caran d’Ache 844, for example, only the thin sleeve will retract, while the conical part will not retract.

Retractable tip instructions (Instructions © Muji)

The flat clip

The flat clip ^[2]…one of those words where the number of characters in Katakana (フラットクリップ) is the same as in English, which makes it look almost comically long compared to other words in … Continue reading is, as the name indicates, flat. Unlike most clips that are parallel to the body, but leave a few millimetres gap to the body, this clip fixed very close to the body with no real gap at all. It is hinged at the top and can be opened to an angle of up to about 7°. The clip itself is made from very thin material. I haven’t had any problems, like bending, so far, but I haven’t clipped the pen often either as I didn’t want to risk bending the clip.

The quality

Muji quality is usually good, but it can be hit and miss ^[3]Some good and bad examples: One of our Muji tea pots didn’t even last a week, while the mugs from the same set are still ok – nearly ten years later. Muji’s green A5 notebook is … Continue reading. I’m happy to report that the overall quality of this mechanical pencil is pretty good.

The inner mechanism of the pen is a bit loose. This is more common with metal body mechanical pencils, but is not really a problem. When you shake the pen you can hear it move, especially when it is in its retracted state. The sleeve/mechanism of my pen is also slightly loose, but this doesn’t cause any issues when writing. The pen also comes with an “emergency eraser” under the top button / cap. Mine came with five very smooth leads, but I think according to the Japanese on the packaging there should be six, I’m not sure though. One push will advance the lead about 0.75 mm, which is good for my style of writing ^[4]Some mechanical pencils advance too much lead per push which can easily result in lead breakage if you write using an acute angle.. Overall value for money is excellent, especially when paying the Japanese price or the Western discount price.

The instructions are from the packaging of Muji’s aluminium hexagonal flat clip mechanical pencil (0.5 mm). I believe that the use of the instructions shown in this blog post falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.

Price: October 2013

Exchange rates: November 2013

For an even closer look click on any of the photos (as usual).

I’d like to thank Ms Adams-May for providing me with the dates of this pens availability.

References[+]

References
↑1	My scales are very old, so this might be inaccurate.
↑2	…one of those words where the number of characters in Katakana (フラットクリップ) is the same as in English, which makes it look almost comically long compared to other words in Katakana.
↑3	Some good and bad examples: One of our Muji tea pots didn’t even last a week, while the mugs from the same set are still ok – nearly ten years later. Muji’s green A5 notebook is completely unsuitable for fountain pens, while their passport notebooks are pretty good – you can often spot the black version being used on QI.
↑4	Some mechanical pencils advance too much lead per push which can easily result in lead breakage if you write using an acute angle.

Black Friday, black pen: Muji’s aluminium hexagonal flat clip mechanical pencil (0.5 mm) Read More »

Traces of graphite – Don Rosa

9 Comments / Mechanical pencils, Traces of graphite / 21 November 2013 / comic artist, Don Rosa, traces of graphite

You might remember my blog post about Carl Barks, the creator of many fantastic Duckburg comics and characters ^[1]…like Scrooge McDuck, the Beagle Boys and many more.

Don Rosa is famous for his comics in the style and tradition of Carl Barks, but he’s also created his own characters and comic universes. It’s difficult to try to convey Don Rosa’s importance if you are not familiar with Donald Duck comics, so I’m not even trying to explain why he is the most famous Disney comic artist alive – you’ll just have to believe me.

Happy Birthday, Bleistift would be a fitting as this blog post has been published on Bleistift's birthday — “Happy Birthday, Bleistift” would have been fitting – this blog post has been published on Bleistift’s birthday (Image © Don Rosa / Disney)

Unfortunately for Don there’s not a lot of money to be made in this field though, despite the huge popularity of his comics in many parts of the world, including Continental Europe. Luckily he’s a really nice guy, so he despite the lack of financial incentives he’s touring Europe regularly, patiently signing autographs for his fans. I wasn’t lucky enough to ever attend such an event, but I did manage to get a print signed by him sent over to England when he was in Würzburg, near my ‘old home town’.

Don Rosa’s pencils

As part of this blog post I want to tell you about Don Rosa’s answer to my question what pencils he is using to draw his comics. Just to put Don’s quote in context – his background is in civil engineering.

First of all, remember that asking me about art equipment or techniques is
idiotic because I have never had any training and never even read about how it SHOULD be done. I just kept using the same stuff I used when I was doing fanzine work 40 years ago, which is all wrong.
But I see other cartoonists who use “normal” pencils and that seems stupid
to me. I used a .07 mm lead mechanical pencil with hard lead. That way I
could get fine detail in the drawing and it would erase cleanly. But all
other cartoonists use soft blue pencils and they never bother to erase.
I don’t think I bought any special brand, but Pentel was always cheap and common.

If you want to read a book with his comics I would have suggested Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, but unfortunately it seems to be out of print, so the few sellers offering it charge a ridiculously high price ^[2]When I bought my copy it was maybe 1/10th of the current price..

As an alternative way of finding out more about him: what about a tour of his house in Kentucky on YouTube?

I would like to thank Jano Rohleder for forwarding my question to Don Rosa.

References[+]

References
↑1	…like Scrooge McDuck, the Beagle Boys and many more
↑2	When I bought my copy it was maybe 1/10th of the current price.

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Origins of the Mechanical Pencil

5 Comments / Mechanical pencils / 16 August 2013 / guest blog post

Today: a guest blog post by Alice Jenkins about the origins of the mechanical pencil. You might have already seen some of her guest blog posts in other stationery blogs.

Origins of the Mechanical Pencil

The mechanical pencil is a seemingly simple utensil whose invention and development actually took decades. Being an ever-sharp pencil it was at one time thought to be the perfect tool for basic writing and to some people, still is. The convenience of allowing the user to draw consistent lines and never need sharpening is largely taken for granted as this pencil was not always as refined as it is today.

(picture: Eric Jusino | flickr | CC BY-NC 2.0)

1822: Invention

The actual mechanical pencil was invented and patented in England by Sampson Mordan and Gabriel Riddle in 1822. What they had was more or less a refillable lead holder rather than a sophisticated mechanical pencil. Those who frequently used them would commonly carry around uniform pieces of lead in their pockets. Back then there was a shortage of the soft graphite that was used in regular pencils and the importation of lower quality graphite was needed to meet demands. This adaptation was one of the main sources of inspiration for Mordan and Riddle to invent such a device.

1860: Along Comes Faber

In 1860, a German named A.W. Faber invented a more advanced model to help drafters in architecture. Faber, an already renowned maker and manufacturer of writing utensils designed a holder that was more hollow and allowed for a longer lead to be fitted. A year later, Faber invented and patented the twist locking-clutch mechanism.

1862-1899: Upgrades and Improvements

Many small upgrades were implemented in the later part of the 19^th century. The most notable of which were the spring-loaded pencils developed in 1877 and the twist-feed mechanism which was introduced 1895. However, it wasn’t until 1915 that the mechanical pencil was truly sprung on the world.

1915: No Longer a Lead Holder

Up until this point the mechanical pencil had been called a number of things, mostly some variation of lead holder or push pencil. Then in 1915, two men in two different countries came out with designs that would change the mechanical pencil forever. Tokuji Hayakawa, a metal worker in Japan, implemented the use of a metal shaft, a screw-based mechanism, and sharp lead. Introduced as the Ever-Ready Sharp Pencil, the new design actually did not sell well overnight as many were unfamiliar to the metal body of the pencil and we’re hesitant to buy into it. However, after a major company in Tokyo and Osaka put in large orders, the new pencil began to fly off the shelves. Years later, Hayakawa would get his company name form that pencil, Sharp. At the same time in the United States, a man named Charles Keeran from Illinois designed a ratchet-based mechanism in which the lead is held by two or three jaws at the tip of the pencil. The user could then press a button with their thumb at the opposite end and push the lead forward as the momentarily separate. Both of these men are credited with the invention of the true “Mechanical Pencil” and usually have their separate stories combined into one given their significance and bizarrely similar timing.

Today mechanical pencils are widely used throughout all businesses and educational institutions. “Lead Holders” are still used but primarily in architectural design and are clearly distinguished from your everyday mechanical pencil.

Alice Jenkins, is a writer who has always had a passion for penmanship and writing history. She writes for pensXpress, a leading supplier of personalized pens for dedicated writers and pen enthusiasts.

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