Monocle

Drehgriffel Nr. 2

If you like stationery, you have probably come across the Drehgriffel by now.

Leuchtturm’s [1]Officially Leuchtturm1917, but I will also use Leuchtturm without the number to shorten the name. first reincarnation of the century-old Drehgriffel has been around for about two years. When it was released, its beautiful design won the Red Dot Design Award in 2020.

The first reincarnation Drehgriffel, designated the Nr. 1, is sold as a gel pen and accepts G2 style refills.

Drehgriffel Nr. 1 on a MONOCLE by Leuchtturm1917 diary

Price

As is common for Leuchtturm1917 products, the pen is designed in Germany and made in Taiwan. I bought my Drehgriffel in July 2021 from CultPens for £18.50. Given what is going on in the UK and around the world, it comes as a slight surprise that the price has not changed in the last twelve months and is still £18.50 at the time of writing (July 2022). The price is in line with what you would be expected to pay for similar pens and normally you can’t find the pen much cheaper in the UK – unless there is an offer, like the current offer for £15 by The Paper Collective.

Innards and design

My Drehgriffel came with a Leuchtturm1917 branded, Japanese-made black gel refill in 0.5mm.

I love the design of the Drehgriffel. It has an old feel to it, thanks to the shape, the pastel-y colours and the old feel of the writing on the pen’s body.

The pen feels extremely well made and has an aluminium body with some plastic insides. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a clip, so mine spends its time on my desk, rather than in my shirt pocket.

Nr. 2

Leuchtturm has recently released the Nr. 2 version of the Drehgriffel. This version won the Red Dot Design Award 2022 and is the mechanical pencil version. Where the Nr. 1 had a white grip section and twist head, the Nr. 2 sports these elements in black. Despite my love for pencil I have not bought one yet as it is only available in 0.7mm – a rather big lead diameter for my handwriting which I prefer to be small (to get more on the page).

Leuchtturm group

I won’t do a review of the Drehgriffel Nr. 1 as there are already several reviews out there (you can find a list at the end of this blog post), instead I’ll tell you a bit about the Leuchtturm group that owns Leuchtturm1917. The company has been around for more than 100 year and, like Rotring, they are from Northern Germany (Hamburg). For many years their main business was linked to products for collectors of stamps, coins and other items. Lucky for us stationery fans they started Leuchtturm1917, which by now has branched out from notebooks and diaries to also include nice pens. The Leuchtturm group also own Semikolon and other brands, but most interesting for readers of this blog will probably be their brand Stilform.

The Stilform and Montblanc M fountain pens, both with magnetically held caps

If I want to simplify an explanation of what Stilform does I would boil it down to the following: Stilform uses Kickstarter to finance the production of pens made from Aluminium. These pens use a magnetic mechanism to hold the cap in place, similar to the one made popular by the Montblanc M. They are nice but a bit chunky, with a choice of (Bock) nibs. Their fountain pens don’t contain glue or plastic. I bought some of their accessories and my favourite, with a permanent space in front of my monitor, is their wooden pen holder, a bit like a pen tray for one pen.

Stilform’s wooden pen holder with a Cross Verve fountain pen

Other blog posts about the Drehgriffel (in chronological order)

References

References
1 Officially Leuchtturm1917, but I will also use Leuchtturm without the number to shorten the name.

Drehgriffel Nr. 2 Read More »

Noris & Co

IMG_1336A manly Noris

Well, I guess this is proof that the Noris is a very manly pencil, assuming that wood work is manly:

I saw this book in my local supermarket and spotted that the Noris is playing an important part.

 

IMG_1337

A Hobonichi Tradition

Nice to see the Staedtler Tradition being featured in the latest Hobonichi video

You can see more at http://www.1101.com/store/techo/2016/planner/about/

 

A cineatic Noris

There also a cinema ad for the Noris, unfortunately it’s for the Noris Colour, not for the Noris graphite pencil

IMG_1389

Monocle

I also noticed that Monocle magazine, mentioned previously, has a penmanship supplement. Unfortunately there isn’t much there except a nice big photos showing a few pens, most of them expensive.

 

A Noris Print and Egg

Since we’ve been talking about the Noris, have a look at this Noris print from the Well -Appointed Desk

…or this Noris Easter Egg from Lexikaliker.

 

A graphite Pac-Man

…and for all fans of graph paper and classic video games: The original notebook sketches for Pac-Man.

Noris & Co Read More »

Monocle again

Well, after having had a look at Japanese stationery in issue 81 the current issue of Monocle, number 88, includes a Bavaria survey. Quite a few Franconian companies are included as well and even though there are only five sentences in the magazine about Faber-Castell the editors must have thought pencils are sexy enough to put them on the cover of the latest issue.

Faber-Castell on the cover of Monocle magazine
Faber-Castell on the cover of Monocle magazine

They also have a paragraph on Gmund paper, the company that makes the golden envelopes for the Oscars and provides the paper for other big events and companies.


I believe that showing a photo of parts of the Monocle cover in this blog post falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.

Monocle again Read More »

Blog and Monocle

Blog

You might have noticed that the look of this blog has changed a lot in the last days. The theme that I have used until recently wasn’t working any more as it should, at least not in new versions of WordPress [1]WordPress is the name of the blog softare I use, because it hasn’t been updated by its developers for several years. I have switched to another theme. I still miss my old theme (I guess you do, too) and if I find a nicer theme I might switch again, but for now this is the best I could come up with.

How Bleistift used to look like
How Bleistift used to look like

Monocle - Issue 81Monocle

No, not the Gentleman’s single-use unlubricated monocle, but Issue 81 of the magazine called Monocle. When I went to the supermarket I noticed that the latest issue, a Japan special, also features an article about pens and pencils in Japan. Unfortunately you can’t read this article online, but (as a consolation) here’s a link to their video report about Staedtler.


I believe that showing the Monocle cover in this blog post falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.

References

References
1 WordPress is the name of the blog softare I use

Blog and Monocle Read More »