I’ve read a few comments that people think the Field Notes Shelterwood edition won’t hold up to everyday wear and tear in a back pocket. I decided to carry a shelterwood in my back hip pocket, without a cover, until it falls apart. It’s now been 12 days.

The first week was uneventful. So far, I find the wear and tear on the book minimal at best. The creases are the only damage that is noticeable. There is discernable wear on the corners and edges of the book, but again you need to look close for this wear.

Here are a few pics of the Shelterwood after 2 weeks in my sweaty back pocket.

I’m on a pencil kick lately, (as if you hadn’t noticed) and I recently purchased the Pencils.com mixed palomino pencil pack. This is a pack that contains a selection of 9 of the most popular Palomino pencils. Included in this pack are one each of: Blackwing, Blackwing 602, Blackwing Pearl, Orange Palomino Premium HB Eraser Tipped, ForestChoice #2 (FSC-certified), (the rest are all made in the USA) Green Prospector #2 , Natural Prospector #2, Orange Golden Bear #2, and Blue Golden Bear #2. I have previously reviewed the Blackwing and the Blackwing 602, which are both great pencils for sketching. I hope to review all of the pencils in the set but for now this is a general review of the set.

The Blackwing pencils included are obviously the high end of the lot. As such they perform flawlessly and will not disappoint in appearance or use. Read my review of the Black wing and the 602. The orange Palomino Premium HB with an eraser top sits in the premium grouping. Without a complete review, it’s a very nice pencil.

The next group of pencils are the middle level, the Palomino Prospector and Golden Bear. Their bright colors and smooth finish are also very nice. I really enjoy the clear finish on the naturally colored Prospector. It’s darn near perfect. The lead in all of this group of pencils is similar. The pencils in this grouping will also be satisfying.

The final pencil is the Forest Choice. It’s a very nice pencil but not my favorite.

In terms of sketching, these pencils are mostly HB. So they are great for starting out a drawing but won’t give you a huge range of shades or deep darks. The Blackwings are an exception to this, as they are all softer and darker than an HB designation. I’d put them in the range of 2B.

After doing a little rough math, the price for the 9 pack is not bad when you consider that buying a package of each of these pencils all together would cost about $90. It’s a great way to test out a great group of pencils without investing in 12-packs that you might not like. Overall these pencils won’t disappoint and it will help narrow down what you like, or don’t like, in a pencil.

I hope to get reviews of the rest of the pencils in the next few weeks.

Continue reading →

Another extruded pencil mentioned on the Erasable podcast is the Staedtler Wopex. These are $5 for 18 pencils at Staples. That’s 28 cents a pencil.

These pencils are nice bright lime green in color with a silver imprint on one side. The other side has a barcode and assorted other info printed. The silver doesn’t flake off or scrape off. The black barcode is easily scraped off with a fingernail. The lime green coating is soft and can be marked with a fingernail. These are slightly smaller, roughly 1 millimeter thinner than a regular pencil. Again like the allXwrite it does not fit into a bullet pencil. The ferrule fits the pencil well and the eraser is white plastic.

In terms of use, this pencil has a waxy feel. It’s not slick but unlike other extruded pencils this feels more like a regular pencil to me. Additionally, the pencil is stiff and not flexible like older extruded pencils. It does not like the KUM long point sharpener. Rather, it works best in a sharpener that produces a shorter point. The points are somewhat crumbly but not overly bad. When sharpening the plasticized wood peels off in long curls. It’s weird and rubbery feeling.

In use the pencil is perfectly average. It's nice and smooth without a hint of scratchiness. For writing, I found it to be relatively comfortable. After writing up case notes for a paper, my wrist, hand, and fingers were less sore than with the allXwrite.

For sketching this is a lightly colored pencil. It is not going to product nice deep darks, rather it does nice even shade of gray. I was able to get a nice variety of the lighter tones of gray. Again, I have to point out that this is a pretty average pencil in terms of color and lead. it’s a very pencil colored pencil. You are not going to get deep darks out of this pencil, no matter how many layers of pencil you put down or how hard you press.  

I did find myself sharpening this pencil pretty often while writing. Because it cannot be used in the long point sharpener I found myself have to get the wedge out to keep my point pointy. Unlike the allXwrite I didn’t feel like I was constantly writing with a blunt instrument, but it wore down quickly. though this pencil is supposed to last longer than other pencils, I’m not sure that’s the case. I’ll have to get a Palomino out to test against it.

On the whole, I liked this pencil for writing but not as much for drawing. It was a pretty blah and unresponsive pencil for sketching. For writing it works just fine and I’ll throw a few into my pencil cup to use for case notes and other various school duties. At 28 cents a pencil it’s not a bad choice for writing.

Continue reading →

I’ve been listening to some podcasts as I work on my papers and one of them that I’ve been listening to is Erasable, a podcast about pencils. One of the pencils that was mentioned was the Steadtler woodless allXwrite. It’s an extruded pencil with no wood case. They cost about $4 for 5 pencils.

The look of the pencil is very cool looking. It is graphite colored. Unlike most all graphite pencils it is not cased in plastic or lacquer. Rather the process and what is extruded creates something that doesn’t leave marks on your hand. The imprint is silver and the reverse side has a white print with the bar code. The pencil itself is slightly narrower than typical pencils, by about a millimeter. As a result it is not a candidate to be put into a bullet pencil . (Insert frowny face here.) The fit of the ferrule and the eraser is tight and looks great. All in all it’s a very good looking pencil. But looks alone won’t make me buy a pencil. Well, looks alone will get me to BUY the pencil, but I might not like it, or buy another pack.

In use, I found this pencil to be, in a single word, weird. The pencil feels plasticy in hand. But that isn't a problem, the problem is the drag as I write or draw. The tip is almost sticky on the page. To combat this I found myself using additional pressure, which didn't seem to stop the sticky feeling. The mark the pencil makes is lighter but the same color as a regular number two pencil. But at regular pencil writing pressure, it was light.

While drawing I was able to moderate my pressure to get a variety of shades, but I could NOT get deep darks. The maximum darkness available is not all that dark. For quick sketching or under sketches it would be fine. I would be worried about the plastic, wax and clay content and if acrylic would stick well. I have not had a chance to test this out.

The best way to describe the feel of this pencil is to compare it to a medium priced colored pencil. It has that same drag and feel.

Sharpening this pencil was also weird. It does not like the KUM long point sharpener. I was able to force it through but it took way more effort and the point was crumbly. I was better off using a KUM brass wedge sharpener that kept a shorter point. I did find that I was sharpening this pencil ALL the time. The point would chip off leaving me with a blunt point. Rotating the pencil as I wrote or drew didn’t help keep the point sharp for very long. Sharpening with a knife was possible but again, sharpening a long point was not very useful as the point would break off. While drawing I sharpened less, likely because I was using the blunted point to make specific marks.

Is is one I’d suggest for art journaling? Not really. It’s an interesting pencil but not that great for art or art journaling. As for writing, ehhh, I didn’t like it for that either. I used it to write up case notes for a paper and found it endlessly frustrating and by the end of writing 11 pages of composition page notes, my hand, fingers, and wrist were sore and tired. For 80 cents there are much better pencils out there. On a side note I did cut the ferrule and eraser off and fit it into my Stad one touch pencil holder, which made the pencil MUCH more comfortable. It still had that weird dragging sticky feel on the page and even WITH the holder I used more pressure than usual.