Progress

Well, I have been making some progress.

I believe I have found and updated all the broken links on the blog. If you find any broken links, other than in peoples comments, then please let me know so I can fix them up. A lot of the broken links could be updated to new addresses but of course a number of websites are just entirely gone so the link is permanently gone.

I updated Jeopardy in the sidebar. It went up quite a bit. That's a crazy number. I am out of control.

To help get the collection rationalized I have created a Sell Swap Trade page, you can access it by the Page links just under the blog header up above. Ebay is not an easy option down this way. You see eBay started up here with some fanfare, but after 5 years or so they quietly shut down without saying a word, as our local opposition auction site smacked them down. Thus buying from eBay is quite easy, but with no domestic site, selling as an individual is quite hard. Unfortunately for me the number of mechanical pencil buyers on our local auction site is nearly zero when you don't count me :) Starting out with a bunch of Papermates and some older vintage stuff. I will be adding things slowly to the trade page, so if you do want anything then give me a yell and lets see if we can work something out - sell for money, swap for something, all options are on the table.

It has been interesting watching Google slowly accept my return. Before I took the blog offline I had about 750 URLs indexed by Google. Of course that fell to zero when I shut down, but over the last few weeks the Google Bot has slowly started worming its way through the blog, and now has about 150 URLs indexed. It's slow going. I guess I just thought that once the Bot found your website it would index it all quite quickly in one go, rather than crawl slowly through it at a snails pace.

Newman Mechanical Pencil

I have tripped across a few Newman mechanical pencils over the years, but know very little about the company, and their pencils haven’t leapt up and slapped me across the face to get my attention… until now.

What little I can find out about Newman can he summarised as follows. Newman were a reasonably common and successful Japanese brand in the 1960’s through 80’s. The end. If you know more, then please do enlighten me.

Anyway, quite a few years ago, Germ of the now long gone Pencils11 blog sent me a box of “odds and sods” and within it a Newman mechanical pencil caught my attention. With this blog being on hiatus for so long, it has taken me all this time to get around to posting about it, but here goes.

At first this seems like a reasonably ordinary slim line stainless steel mechanical pencil with lightly grooved grip section and a rather attractive bright red push top button.

Let’s push the button to advance the lead.

That’s a bit strange; the red push top button is actually a sleeve around the real inner stainless button. Pushing the button down has pushed the sleeve about half way into the body, and it stays there. Also, the sleeve is attached to the pocket clip, so the pocket clip has also slid down a channel in the body and now exposes the letter “BP”. I’m confused. Ballpoint? The multi-national oil conglomerate? I don’t know.

But the pocket clip channel is longer still, so you can slide the pocket clip and the sleeve further down, all the way down, down and out.

Now just a tiny little red ring is left. Rotring as some might be tempted to say.

Really, I’ve got no idea what this system is all about, perhaps the sleeve is some sort of anti-accidental activation device? Or perhaps it is just purely aesthetic, for when you have the pencil clipped in your shirt pocket the shiny red sleeve is fully extended? Has anybody got any other ideas?

A couple of other images for you.

Parker Esprit Mechanical Pencil Review

Parker Esprit Mechanical Pencil Review

So here I am, back again nearly four years on from my last review, and I am effectively picking up where I left off because back when I gave up on this blog, the Parker Esprit was next in line for review.

Parker launched the Esprit back in 2008, and some sites suggest the target market was businesswomen looking for a small relatively minimalistic but colourful writing instrument. 

First thing out of the box, a very nice protective carry case for your Esprit. That certainly does strike me as something suited to a ladies handbag.

Open up and we have the mechanical pencil, or pen. It certainly is a bright colourful object in metallic blue and chrome trim.

The Esprit is a telescoping design, so you carry it retracted and then you extend it to write. Officially to me it is a mini-pencil. The Esprit is though fully functional when retracted, so if you just have to scribble a quick note or you are happy with a short pencil then the lead advances whilst retracted and you can write away.

Retracted

To extend the pencil you simply pull the front section out of the main body. It has a rather satisfying suction sort of feel as you pull the front section out and a definite stop at the end. You then twist the two sections through about a quarter turn to lock them in position.

Extended

I really like the little graphic printed on the barrel showing the lead size and indicating the direction of turn to lock the extension in place.

To retract you simply reverse the process, but that worries me a little. My Esprit mechanical pencil has a rather metal on metal sort of feel and sound during the retraction process and I wonder over time if somehow the barrel is going to get scuffed. I must stress there’s not actual physical sign of that; it’s just a suggestion from the feel and sound of it. If you are a bit heavy handed then when the barrel hits the retracting end stop you can accidently activate the lead advance.

The lead advance mechanism is a standard push top ratchet. 10 clicks will get you 7mm of lead. As usual there is a small eraser under the top cap, and you remove it to access the lead refill chamber. The pocket clip is quite strong.

In the hand the Esprit feels quite light. The grip section does not feel particularly positive and the ringed grooves are certainly a necessary feature.

Well, I am not a businesswoman, and might not be the target market, but I liked the Esprit well enough. It is a lightweight colourful attractive interesting mechanical pencil for carrying around in a purse or bag. Apart from the carry case it’s certainly as unisex as most other mechanical pencils out there. I suspect though that Parker have decided the Esprit is on its way out so availability will decline.

•    Best Points – Interesting telescoping design
•    Not So Good Points – Not pocket safe without the carry case.
•    Price Range – Mid
•    Does this pencil make it into the Top 5? – No

Dimensions – Length 124mm extended and 106mm retracted, diameter 10mm across the grip section. Balance point about 70mm up from the tip when extended.

Back With Triple Sets

I shut this blog down a few years ago and took it offline a while back, but I have recently been trying to get my "pencil-life" better organized. Part of that has been the long overdue decision to reorganize (down size) my collection. Over the years I have ended up with a lot of stuff I don't really want. Things that looked good online but aren't in the hand, duplicates, minor variations, etc, etc, etc.

The review of things to keep or sell got me thinking about triple sets - fountain pen, ballpoint pen and mechanical pencil. Not that they were ever that common 30 - 50 years ago, but I guess they are basically a thing of the past now unless you make up your own one by buying three separates. I do have a couple of triple sets... but not for much longer :)

Conway Stewart

Pilot

Faber-Castell E-Motion - the one I'm keeping, although it is a make up of three separates in a flip top hard case.

So, someone who knows about ink, why isn't the Faber-Castell nib gold?

He's Back, He's Bad

Blog is back online

1940 - A Centenary

I have been wanting one of these souvenir mechanical pencils for quite a while now, and finally found one that is in reasonable condition that still works. The problem is that they are not particularly good quality pencils and many of them no longer work and/or they are in poor condition. Also there do not really seem to be that many of them about, so perhaps they were not a big seller back in the day.

The New Zealand Centennial Exhibition celebrated the centenary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, which is generaly regarded as the founding of New Zealand, and ran from 8 November 1939 to 4 May 1940. It was hugely popular, with 2.6 million visitors at a time when the population of New Zealand was only 1.6 million. The exhibition emphasised the Britishness of New Zealand, it's independance as a Dominion, but its commitment to, and pride in being, a nation within The Empire. Despite all that, reports indicate that most visitors went straight to the Crazy House and roller coaster in the Playland amusement park that was part of the exhibition.

The certificate of attendance is a background image

There was some speculation that the Exhibition would be cancelled due to the outbreak of World War Two, but it was felt cancellation might have a negative effect on morale so it went ahead as planned. Of course during the exhibition morale was high - off the coast of South America the navy had the victory of the Battle of the River Plate, and the first echelons of the army had arrived in Egypt. Of course a few weeks after the exhibition finished it all started going wrong, the Fall of France, the disasters for the New Zealand Army in the Battle of Greece and of Crete, etc.

Imprint in good but rather unimpressive original state

A good quality instruction sheet is always a bonus

Not surprisingly the pencil is a 1.18mm screw mechanism. Note the "Made entirely in England" on the instructions. I was surprised to see that the instructions are repeated in five other European languages. Presumably the unknown manufacturer had a substantial export business. I have seen this same model mechanical pencil without Centenary markings.