Well, I was dreaming there’s a new pencil grade: ‘L’, for use in libraries …because it’s quieter to write with than HB.
I guess that was because yesterday evening I listened to BBC Radio 4’s The Power of the Pen.
The Power of the Pen Read More »
Another appearance of Michael Wood at Bleistift, but unlike last time you won’t see a Staedtler Noris in his latest documentary The Story of China. Instead you’ll see Dr YiJie Zhuang using a Faber-Castell Castell 9000.
I believe that the use of the the screen shot of the Castell 9000, taken from Michael Wood’s The Story of China falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.
Castell of the Woods Read More »
Another blog post made up of different small bits put together.
First: a link to Sean’s blog. He has written another amazing and detailed blog post of the imho highest quality you will find in the stationery blogging world.
This blog post was a cooperation of Sean and Lexikaliker. What else did you expect if the greatest minds of pencil blogging get together..
Bleyweißstefftmacher: The Vagaries of Pencil History
I’ve never watched A Question of Sport ( am not interested in sports), but when I turned the telly on this weekend I saw this pencil (held by Osi Umenyiora). The pencil looks like the Impega / Lyreco to me. They are extremely common in offices in the UK. It’s the only wood cased pencil my employer provides and in the past Henrik has told me that this pencil is also very common in offices in Denmark. I think Henrik’s employer also provides them for staff (we both work in education). This is not the first appearance of the Impega / Lyreco on a BBC show. Who knows, maybe this sis the pencil you find in the BBC’s stationery cupboard. Contestants on other BBC shows tend to use ballpoint pens – but on QI you can find other cool stationery, like Muji’s notebooks.
There is a similar looking pencil from Lyra, but this one is most likely the Impega / Lyreco pencil.
Dr. Martens pencilI am not sure whether Dr. Martens is popular outside Europe, so just a quick explanation: It’s a British company selling WWII German army style boots in all sorts of colours. They also sell other shoes, but with similar soles.
I came across their kids line logo this weekend. It is a pencil, but it’s not any pencil – it’s a Staedtler Noris style pencil.
The screenshot in this blog post has been taken from Episode 13 of Series 45 of A Question of Sport. I believe that the use of the screenshot shown in this blog post falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.
Sean, Sport and Dr. Martens Read More »
A casualty of the classroom – in Episode Two of Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School.
There were also at least two more Noris pencils and a Noris sharpener – with two million viewers on the BBC.
I’ll also use this opportunity to link to the Noris in the Wild page again.
The screenshots in this blog post has been taken from Episode Two of Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School, a documentary on the BBC. I believe that the use of the screenshot shown in this blog post falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.
This weekend is Franconia Day (Tag der Franken) again, so I thought this blog post should feature some Franconia pencils – in the wild.
According to Wikipedia “only two European regions continue to be associated with the Franks” [1]I’m not sure whether this claim is true, but nevertheless I’ll just repeat it here:
These screenshots have been taken from Engrenages, where they used to use the BIC Matic last season.
While the magistrate is using Staedtler’s Noris the police is using the Tradition:
Meanwhile, on the other side of the channel. Actually, not meanwhile, but kind of 40 years earlier: MI5’s Alan Montag is using a Staedtler Noris. There are a lot of pencils in the series, but usually they are unidentifiable yellow/orange pencils. For a few minutes I thought Joe Lambe’s accent is Irish until I realised it’s one of the different types of Scouse [2]I should have recognised it earlier …a few years ago I had a student with a very similar accent.
The previous screenshot is from the great TV series “The Game” – from 2014, but set in the 1970s. In contrast here’s an MI5 pencil from the real 1970s – from the story Atout…coeur! / Hartkloppingen! from Franco-Belgian comic series Clifton. Burton and Taylor seems to be a reference to Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, the design of the pencil seems to be based on the Staedtler Lumograph.
After the BBC’s Make me a German this time: Make me Welsh. Funnily enough the TV series The Game I just mentioned was produced by BBC Cymru Wales, too. Sean told me about this programme and sent me a screenshot showing pupils using Staedtler’s Noris (very common in British schools).
If that’t not enough Franconian pencils yet – there are plenty more in the latest season of Episodes. Episodes does again feature an extremely high density of Noris pencils per episode. I’ll skip the screenshot though as it would be virtually indistinguishable from the last one I posted.
To celebrate what is probably my favourite pencil, the Noris, I have put together a page from the different Noris in the wild blog posts, which can be found here.
I would like thank Sean for the Make me Welsh screenshot.
I believe that the use of the screen shots, taken from Engrenages, The Game, Clifton and Make me Welsh falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.
A Franconian Noris Read More »