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Worst pencil museum / Postcards / Pencil+

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There are a few small things I want to mention that all didn’t make it into their own blog posts.

Pencil Museum

Last Sunday Sue Perkins was asking BBC Radio 2 listeners about their worst Sunday activities and gave visiting a pencil museum as an example ? (about 7 minutes into recording I linked to). Well, I enjoyed my visit to the pencil museum very much …and I guess the listeners, too, as none of them mentioned visiting the pencil museum as their worst Sunday activity.

Postcard Campaign

This morning our friend Phoebe Smith, editor of Wanderlust magazine, was on BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House programme (about 41 minutes into recording I linked to), having a look at the postcards Radio 4 has received as part of their campaign to revive the use of postcards. I think the postcard campaign is a great idea, especially with the postcard having many friends in the stationery community, such as East…West…Everywhere’s Shangching, Banditapple’s Arnie and many more.

Pencil+

When searching on Google for something rather unrelated this morning I came across Pencil+, an upcoming Kickstarter. I thought I share the link with you, but I don’t have any further information (price, start date, …) and have not been in contact with the people behind the pencil.

Pencil+ (Image © Pencil+)

I believe that the use of pencil+’s image shown in this blog post falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.

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…a Pencil Must Be Lead

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After yesterday’s blog post about Britain’s Northern Pen Show, here’s a blog post about Northern British [1]Stan Laurel grew up in the North of England and in Scotland. As this is his sentence I’m just going to attribute it to him. pencil humour from yesteryear.

Since we’re going to talk about horses: some horse pencils

Pencil Humour in the 1930s

From the 1930 Laurel and Hardy movie Brats: You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be le(a)d.

Pencil Humour in the 2010s

British pencil humour these days is very different. If you want a taste you can watch episode six of the BBC’s Fleabag. I won’t repeat the pencil joke here as it involves a hamster and is rather explicit [2]The BBC’s warning for this episode reads ‘Contains strong language and some sexual content.’.

Fleabag (image © Two Brothers Pictures / BBC)

Another quote from Fleabag then: People make mistakes. It’s why they put rubbers on the ends of pencils.

David Rees Pencil Humour

Since we are talking about pencils and humour anyway: You might have noticed the link to Lifehacker’s Expert Guide To Sharpening Pencils I put on Bleistift’s Facebook page.

The author knows that David Rees’s pencil sharpening is to some extent comedic but looks at all the claims from the point of view of a botanical illustrator – someone who works with graphite and coloured pencils.

The Three Horse Pencils photo is from a previous blog post.

The screenshot has been taken from Fleabag episode six. I believe that the use of the image shown in this blog post, falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.

References

References
↑1 Stan Laurel grew up in the North of England and in Scotland. As this is his sentence I’m just going to attribute it to him.
↑2 The BBC’s warning for this episode reads ‘Contains strong language and some sexual content.’

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Paper Made the Modern Economy

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If you’ve got 9 minutes to spare, why not listen to the episode about Paper from the radio series 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy? [1]Don’t answer that. It’s a rhetorical question. It is narrated by the pop star of economists Tim Harford. [2]This is not the first appearance of his name in this blog. Can you find the other appearance?

The image has been taken from a previous blog post about stationery stores in Shanghai.

References

References
↑1 Don’t answer that. It’s a rhetorical question.
↑2 This is not the first appearance of his name in this blog. Can you find the other appearance?

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Paul Kidby’s pencil

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This weekend saw the BBC airing their Terry Pratchett documentary Back in Black.

In the documentary Paul Kidby, the artist responsible for most of the fantastic Discworld artwork, can be seen with a rather impressive, hand sharpened pencil point on a Castell 9000. I think it can certainly compete with the longest pencil points I have seen in use. It’s even longer than the one on the James Bond cover.

Paul Kidby’s Castell 9000 (image © BBC Scotland)

In the documentary you can also see Rob Wilkins, Terry Pratchett’s former assistant, signing books with a Lamy Vista filled with green ink. Nice.

Rob Wilkins’ Lamy Vista (image © BBC Scotland)

If you are in the UK you can watch the documentary on BBC iPlayer for another 28 days.

The screenshots have been taken from Terry Pratchett documentary Back in Black. 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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Nail-gun-sharpening discontinued glow-in-the-dark pencils

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What an odd blog post title, but it’s just about a few things worth mentioning that didn’t make it into their own blog posts. You might have already seen some on Bleistift’s Facebook page.

 

Pilot 78G

It’s quite sad to read that the Pilot 78G has been discontinued. I have been using one for a while and really like it. There were rumours about it being discontinued for a while, but it now seems to have come true. You can still get them cheap on eBay, especially the ones with M or B nibs.

Image from ebay seller currycurrysing
Image from ebay seller currycurrysing

I just bought a blue one with a fine nib. More expensive than many other 78Gs, but still not more expensive than a Lamy Safari.

 

Roald Dahl

Bruce send me this link to a video where Roald Dahl, probably most famous for his books for children, talks about sharpening pencils.

Nail Gun

A very different way of sharpening pencils: a nail gun with a built-in pencil sharpener on Reddit.

 

Glow-in-the-dark pencil

I wish our city had a store like that (Image © Karrot Entertainment)
I wish our city had a store like that (Image © Karrot Entertainment)

When our little one was watching CeeBeebies I noticed that the episode of Sarah & Duck he was watching also had some content for stationery fans. It was about a glow-in-the-dark pencil.

Glow-in-the-dark pencils (Image © Karrot Entertainment)
Glow-in-the-dark pencils (Image © Karrot Entertainment)

I believe that the use of the eBay image and the images shown in this blog post, taken from the third episode pf the third season of Sarah & Duck, falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.

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