Monday, November 09, 2009

Excalibur Explained

Pentel Excalibur and SG65

Back on 8 September 2009, ‘Guacanator’ left this comment on my Guestbook.

"My question is in regards to the Excalibur. You've mentioned it, and have compared a few other pencils to it. However, I feel it has not been adequately explained. I've done searched for it, but all I found was people bragging about their collections.

Do you think you could put in a bit of info about it?"

I thought he (or she) had a fair point, but there was someone far better equipped to handle this than me, so I fired off an email to Germ of Pencils11 blog. Germ took up the challenge and has published his article, so head on over there.

Excalibur pen pencil set, 1984 LA Olympics
Pentel Excalibur set 1984 LA Olympics
One of these has had 25+ years of use and one hasn’t - Excalibur and SG65 gold + black stripe.

Pentel Excalibur + SG65 mechanical pencils

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great site. I was reading some of your information on pencil widths and hardness. Good stuff. I was also wondering if you know anything about PEN widths. From what I gather on google there are mixed ideas as to whether it is TIP width, or LINE width. Some say it started out as TIP now is LINE. But I have a pen that is .38mm and a pen that is .5 mm that look almost the same. Similary I have a 5mm and a 7mm that are nearly the same.

IF measurements are based on LINE, then isn't that subjective as to how hard you press on your pen or how long you let the ink sink into the paper? Also, the type of paper I'm sure would affect that. Confusing stuff.

Love pens and pencils. Obsessed. Unhealthily so maybe. It makes work slightly better with a nice pen/mechanical pencil, I guess.

Kiwi-d said...

No idea about pens, but I would have assumed it was tip width. As you say, line width would be variable depending on pressure, paper type, etc.

Germ said...

Bragging? We never do such a thing.... :)~ Yeah, I guess we do a bit at times, but it really is in good fun and about sharing our excitement for mechanical pencils versus the "I have it and you don't" syndrome of alot of collecting niches. (a few come to mind...)
No worries. I'll get back to scouring high and lo for the good stuff.

Anonymous said...

Dave, if the Excalibur is so wonderful, but discontinued, what's the nearest current-production equivalent, please?

Kiwi-d said...

Yes, well that's a good question. I didn't really have a good answer so I asked Germ and he didn't have much of an answer either. We both sort of thought the nearest by Pentel would be the S55, but it's not that close. Maybe Platinum or someone else in Japan has something closer.

2nd_astronaut said...

Stupid me&%§!$! Just missed a nice SG65 (the golden one with black stripes) on epay, because I waited too long and the auction was finished.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for answering the "nearest-equivalent" question... sounds like Pentel should consider making some more Excaliburs, at least as a collector's edition. They've done something similar with the Graph 1000, but I suppose it depends on whether they still have the tooling. [sigh]

Anonymous said...

Hi dave,i think u're doing a nice work here.am a pencil addict too but pentel pencils are not available in my area,do you have an idea on how i can buy them online? And please from your own point of view,which pentel pencil is the best for drawing and writing,has a retractable tip and a good eraser and also has a comfortable grip.