Closed For The Holiday

It's that summer holiday time of year again. Well, maybe not quite just yet, but the Christmas holidays are fast approaching, so it's time to put this blog on hold until sometime in mid/late January. Of course I may publish a post or two in between if I have the time and incilination, but no promises. The big event for early 2011 is of course the DMP Fifth Anniversary. Hold your breath in eager anticipation.

As always, thanks for reading this blog, your comments and correspondence are always appreciated. Whether you celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday, a secular holiday, or not at all, I wish you well for my festive and holiday season, and for 2011.

Ka kite ano
Dave

The 2010 DMP's

Welcome to the third annual DMP Awards.

Just to remind you, any mechanical pencil or other item featured on this blog in the 2010 calendar year is eligible for an award, but preference is given to mechanical pencils. Awards will not be given if there are no suitable candidates. The awards are:-

The “Bonus Slice of Pav” and “Last Nights Left Over Warm Flat Stale Ale” - special awards for anything judged worthy of an award, good or bad, respectively.

The “Pencil of Shame” awarded for the worst pencil (or item).

And the supreme award, the “Mordan-Hayakawa Trophy” for the best mechanical pencil (or item) of the year.

All decisions are final and the judges need offer no justification or defence of their decisions.

Right then, the first envelope please. This year there were no nominations for the Pencil of Shame, so that's a good start. However there were two nominations for a Last Nights Left Over Warm Flat Stale Ale award - the Yoropen Pencil and Monami Gripix-T leads. After due consideration the judges decided that both were enough of a let down to be awarded an open bottle of left over flat stale ale.

Enough of the negative! Moving on to things more positive. First up, the nominees for a Bonus Slice of Pav are:
Keun Young notebook
Platinum Hayakawa M-10000B mechanical pencil
Yoropen Pencil
Zebra Sharbo X multi pen
Papermate Biodegradable mechanical pencil
Tombow Onbook mechanical pencil

The judges have decided to award a Bonus Slice of Pav to Keun Young notebook (cheap, little, unpretentious but damn useful) and Zebra Sharbo X multi pen (love the options and customization).

The judges noted the apparent contradiction of the Yoropen Pencil being nominated for both a Bonus Slice of Pav and a Last Nights Left Over Warm Flat Stale Ale award. The first being for it's attempt at innovation, the later for failing.

Now for the main event. This year there was a strong field of nominees for the supreme award. The nominees are:

• Mitsubishi Pure Malt Oak Wood Premium Edition mechanical pencil - a great tribute and special edition pencil.
• Rotring Side Knock mechanical pencil - a very interesting mechanism
• Metaphys VISS 44050 eraser - a new twist on the old problem of keeping a sharp edge
• Platinum OLEeNU mechanical pencil mechanism - stronger is better, and for once the marketing hype is true.
• Rotring 600 mechanical pencil - the august classic just keeps on going.

Drum roll...this years winner of the supreme award, the Mordan-Hayakawa Trophey is...
the Platinum OLEeNU mechanical pencil mechanism. Just as Kuru Toga showed, there are still advancements to be made in the design of mechanical pencils.

Cross Classic Century Pencils

Cross Classic Century Pencil

The roots of the A. T. Cross Company go all the way back to Providence, Rhode Island and the year 1846. Elegant gold and silver casings for wooden pencils were among their first products and pencils continue to be an important part of the Cross product line up. The Cross website has this to say about the Classic Century range of writing instruments.

Forever Classic 
An icon of American design and innovation. The choice of movers, shakers and ground breakers since 1946.
Does form follow function? Or does function drive form? Whatever your point of view, Classic Century delivers. Its sleek profile and patented twist-action barrel sparked a design revolution. Generations later passionate fans remain loyal to the iconic silhouette, while trendsetters appreciate its authenticity. Cool comes full circle.

I’ve ended up with three Cross Classic Century mechanical pencils – two old BP/MP sets and a recent MP.

From top to bottom

• Classic Century 10K Gold Filled/Rolled Gold 0.5mm mechanical pencil with 23-karat gold plated appointments. Twist action ratchet lead advance with retractable sleeve. Cross item 450305. This is a current item. 
• Classic Century Classic Black ballpoint pen / 0.9mm mechanical pencil set, with the Mobil Pegasus logo on the pocket clips. Screw mechanism lead advance. Cross item 2501. This is a vintage item, and marked “Made In USA”. 
• Classic Century Lustrous Chrome ballpoint pen / 0.9mm mechanical pencil set. Screw mechanism lead advance. Cross item 3501. This is a vintage item, and marked “Made In USA”.

Two generations. Modern 0.5mm and classic 0.9mm.

At some stage I suppose I should try and find out when Cross introduced 0.5mm and when they dropped 0.9mm. If you've got an old Cross catalogue feel free to tell me what lead diameters it has in it.

A perennial favourite. A lot of the Cross writing instruments down my way seem to have been business gifts, embellished with company logos.

Pull the top half of the body off to access the eraser. The classic Classic has an eraser, but as a screw action mechanism new leads are fed in through the tip. Spare leads are stored inside the body beneath the eraser, but thats just storage, to replace a used up lead a new one has to be removed from under the eraser and inserted in through the tip.

The current Classic has an eraser as expected, and you pull that out to access the lead refill magazine.

Note the change in font for CROSS on the pocket clips. Current above classic.

The modern Cross Century Classic in 10K Gold Filled – as timeless and popular as a day at the beach with fish-n-chips for dinner.

The Cross Classic Century 10K rolled gold pencil featured in this article was supplied by Euroffice, an office supplies specialist in the UK, in exchange for being featured on this blog and an acknowledgement.

Lamy Logo Mechanical Pencil Review

Lamy Logo 105 Mechanical Pencil Review

It’s been quite a long time since a Lamy mechanical pencil featured on this blog, so it’s time to put things right. Here then we have the Lamy Logo model 105 black mechanical pencil.

The Logo is part of what Lamy call their Modern Office range, as opposed to their High Quality Writing or Young Writing ranges. Modern Office…well the Logo does have a relatively modern looking style about it. Stainless steel and black plastic body, square end to the body and pocket clip mount. Overall then it’s a fairly plain simple look, but with a stylish silhouette.

Like most Lamy writing instruments the Logo comes in other system options – BP, FP and multi-pen. The 105 option has a stainless steel body with a slightly brushed finish, but is mirror polished on the clip. The plastic accents are black on mine, but there are other colour options. There is also the Model 106 which is brushed stainless steel, and the Model 104 which is a black resin body.

Weighing in at about 13 grams, the 105 is definitely not in the heavyweight class, despite its steel body and reasonably substantial dimensions. The grip zone is formed by a series of rounded rings pressed into the steel which feel quite nice under-finger and work very well at keeping your grip firm. There are also some ridges on the upper part of the plastic tip for those who like to grip their pencil really close to the tip. They also of course continue the ridged aesthetic look.

The Logo mechanical pencil is only available in 0.5mm lead size. The lead sleeve is a 2mm long thin pipe, not long enough for drafting work. It is retractable for pocket safety. Now this is the bit that a small number of you are not going to want to hear. Wobble. Yes, lead wobble. It’s not bad and didn’t really worry me, but there is definitely some wobble between the small black plastic front cone and the black plastic front section. Then there is also some wobble between the lead sleeve and the black plastic front cone that it is inserted into. Some of this is possibly due to lead cushioning, and for general writing it’s of little to no concern, but it’s there and some of you ask about lead wobble. There is a lot of cushioning in the tip, you can feel the lead springing back if you press hard onto the paper. It’s also a fairly noisy pencil. There is rattle of the internals, and the spring motion of the lead cushioning also sometimes produces some springy sounds. I didn’t actually mind the aural experience, but some might.

As you would expect, it is a standard push top ratchet mechanism pencil. Ten clicks will get you about 9mm of lead. The pencil though has two somewhat unusual features for a push top ratchet pencil. Firstly, there is no eraser under the push top button, or anywhere else for that matter. Secondly, you don’t refill the lead magazine by removing the push top button. Instead, you unscrew the plastic front section from the body, pull the innards out, and then you can pull the little cap off the refill magazine and stick a couple of pieces of lead in. Note the lead jam clearing needle on the refill magazine cap. As is so often the case with my Lamy’s, no instructions were included in the box. With a bit of effort you can find instructions on the Lamy website, but it would be better if they were included with your purchase.

The pocket clip is spring loaded and very functional. It slides onto anything with ease, yet has the strength to keep the pencil clipped on.

As is usual for Lamy, their logo and branding is minimal and muted. “Lamy” printed at the top of the body by the pocket clip is the only marking on the pencil. There is no indication of country (incorrect - see reader comments), model name or lead size.

A nice pencil, as always, from Lamy.

• Best Points – Good looks, good pocket clip.
• Not So Good Points – No eraser, noise?
• Price Range – Low/Mid.
• Does this pencil make it into the Top 5? - No.

Dimensions – Length 137mm, diameter 10mm. Balance point about 80mm up from the tip.

This Lamy Logo 105 mechanical pencil was provided to me by Cult Pens. Thanks Cult Pens.

Striker Carpenters Mechanical Pencil

Striker Carpenters Mechanical Pencil

The oldest known pencil in existence is a carpenters pencil dating from the 17th Century.

Time moves on. Part of the Biss Products design brand group, “Striker” is the brand name used for their range of hand tools, which includes a mechanical carpenter pencil. Or should that be carpenters mechanical pencil, or mechanical pencil for carpenters or…?

Striker claims their carpenters mechanical pencil is tough, durable and reliable, and you can run it over with a ¾ ton truck and it will still keep working. I’m not a carpenter, which makes me the black sheep of the family. I suppose I should really be a collector of carpenters pencils…but I’m not?

However growing up around all that sawing and hammering, helping build many relatives’ houses, etc means I do know my tenon saw from my fret saw, and I just don’t see my sawdusty relatives using a Striker. I don’t see it being suitable for all the non-drawing things that a carpenters pencil gets used for – as a glue spreader, a little wedge or lever, and so on.

Anyway, putting practicality aside, the Striker carpenter mechanical pencil certainly looks interesting, and I’m glad to have one. Thanks to Henrik for sending me one.

The Striker is of relatively normal dimensions for a carpenter pencil. Tough plastic body with a pocket clip.

It is a push top mechanism - that whole black pocket clip section is the ‘push button’ - but it’s not your normal mechanism. Basically it’s a clutch pencil or leadholder with a rudimentary advance mechanism. The pencil has to be held horizontally for the lead to advance. Hold it vertically facing downwards and the lead will free-fall as you push the top, and the lead won’t advance if it's facing upwards.

Feast your eyes on those leads!

Woo-hoo! The Catepillar of lead!

That’s impressive.

Striker brand them as Dura Lead.

As well as “medium density” graphite, there are red and white coloured replacement leads available.

I’m under the impression some artists use carpenter pencils so the Striker maybe useful for them, and I could see it being used in some home workshops, but for carpenters out on the building site…I have my doubts. So, if anyone who swings a hammer for a living (well these days its probably more like pulls the trigger on a nail gun) reads this and has used a Striker then it would be interesting to read your comments. Of course that also goes for anyone who uses a Striker for any other purposes too.

From Isu, here’s two mechanical pencils aimed at the Japanese domestic market for carpenter pencils…but that’s a posting for another day.

Half Way

Regular readers will hopefully remember I am putting the Paper Mate Biodegradable Mechanical pencil to the test. Well, 6 months is up, time to dig up ole Papermate Biodegradable and check him out. So, just as a reminder, here we have the gravesite test site.

Now then, lets dig down about 30-40mm (1 1/2 inches) to uncover our test subject.

First glance doesn't show any changes.

Let's have a closer look. Note I have just brushed a little dirt off. I didn't want to wash or clean it for fear that would remove too many micro-greeblies, and set the whole decomposition process back.

Well, the surface etc all looks in pretty good condition. The green colour of the top section has lightened, and much of the Paper Mate printing on the barrel has vanished. I guess they are the tastiest bits to the relevant species of microscopic life in my garden soil?

The Paper Mate website states:

Paper Mate® Biodegradable* products have been tested according to internationally recognized standards ISO 17556 and ISO 20200. Tests confirmed that, under normal temperature conditions found in soil/home compost, the product’s biodegradable components biograde (sic) in about a year.

Appears to me those micro-greeblies are really going to have to build up a powerful hunger if they are going to eat the rest of that pencil in the next six months.

Well, Paper Mate Biodegradable is now buried again, see you in another 6 months.