Johnnie Walker Multi Pen

Well this will be my last posting for the year. Its coming up on annual Christmas (summer) holiday time here down under so I wish you all happiness and good fortune over the next month while I’m basically a non-blogger.

Consumption of the “The Water of Life” tends to go up at this time of year, so for those of you who like a sip or two, here’s a little something from Johnnie Walker to help pique your interests in pencils and whisky. I picked it up at a recent auction.

Johnnie Walker Multi Pen
Here we have the Johnnie Walker fountain pen. It’s plastic, but with a woodgrain appearance. I don’t know its age, but I’m guessing it’s from the 1960’s or so. It sort of feels “average” quality, which is what you'd probably expect from an advertising freebie give-away. There are no indications of manufacturer, except it does have “Made in England” pressed into the barrel. (England? - Doesn’t seem entirely appropriate for Scotch whisky.)

The Johnnie Walker name and logo are printed on the barrel in gold.
As is the by-line “Born 1820 – Still Going Strong”.
Now, pull the cap off that end, and put it on the other end and our fountain pen reveals that it is also a propelling pencil. You twist the tip to advance or retract the lead.

Advertisement 5 - Norma 1950

Another old ad sent to me by Glen. This one is from the US magazine Esquire, April 1950. It’s for a Norma 4-colour pencil, a Norma Multikolor as they call it. Black, green, blue, and red. I don’t have a Norma so I’m not sure if the black was usually black, or “black lead” as in normal graphite. The sliders and tip look very similar to a couple of other old multi-colour pencils I’ve got. You push the relevant slider down to push out the tip you want, and then you twist the tip to wind the lead in or out of the tip.

I don’t think their claim of “The Versatile Pencil of Tomorrow” ever really came true.

Failure 3 & The Pelikan BR40 Eraser

Back when I put up my posting on the Caran d’Ache Fixpencil stamp, I wondered which eraser was depicted on the stamp. Roi commented that he thought the eraser was the Pelikan BR40. I didn’t know this particular eraser, and thought that the eraser depicted was a fairly generic style and thus there could be many possibilities. Roi, being a stamp collector, took up the challenge. Just which actual eraser is depicted on the Fixpencil stamp? Initial contacts with Swiss Post customer relations staff seemed promising, but in the end didn’t really achieve much. The Swiss Post website had some information relating to the printers and designers, but attempts to find and contact the stamp designer ended in frustration. So, despite Detective Roi’s dedication and best efforts, ultimately we have failed to confirm the exact eraser on the stamp.

Roi kindly sent me a couple of these Pelikan BR 40 erasers, so here’s a few quick comments on them. Firstly they are a rubber eraser, with one end for pencil and one for ink. When he sent them, Roi commented, “use them gently – the orange end might stain the paper, and the blue one will tear it up!” Now that I’ve tried the eraser I think he was being a little hard on it. The BR40 is a mid size eraser – 60mm long by 20mm wide by a rather thin 8mm thick. The colours are a bit dull, but the black printing on the eraser is very good. It’s a reasonably hard rubber, the blue end does feel a little more abrasive than the orange end. Erasing HB lead with the orange (graphite) end it did a fairly reasonable job, although it certainly leaves its fair share of eraser waste behind.

The blue end is for erasing ink, and I was actually mildly impressed. I haven’t got any real frame of reference for comparison, except I seem to recall that when I was back in primary school I thought these ink erasers were utterly useless. It certainly did do some abrasive damage to the paper, but it got the ink off. Perhaps modern inks are a bit drier and more erasable than the ballpoint inks of my school-days? Anyway, I started with rather low expectations of this eraser and was pleasantly surprised.

Photo: The word “Cross” was written in ballpoint at the end of the eraser. Just the last 's' is left un-erased.

So, all that remains now is a lightning commando raid on Swiss Post headquarters, the Swiss Postmaster-General will be cornered in his office, and the truth will finally be revealed.

Footnote: Pelikan are a big player in the luxury writing instrument market, and they have plenty of mechanical pencils. I’m sure you will be surprised to hear that I have a few Pelikans packed away downstairs, so I will have to get organised and get a few out for review. Rather bad of me to not have reviewed any so far.

Footnote 2: Detective Roi has come up with another lead, stay tuned.

An Early Finish?

I normally try to post something substantial every week, but the end of year rush and madness seems to have arrived early this year, so this blog is now officially on the back-burner until mid January or so. I do have a couple of postings that are almost complete so I will publish them over the next few weeks, but things will be a bit erratic.

A Colour or Two

Some of the research material in my search for good blue and other coloured leads.

Note the 8 different colours of Pilot Eno Color at the bottom of the photo.

Delta Dolcevita Medium Mechanical Pencil Review

Delta Dolcevita Medium Mechanical Pencil Review

I’m generally predisposed to think of Italian products as being of superior design and quality. To date my only review of an Italian pencil has been the Parafernalia Revolution, which was not an entirely complementary review, and this has always left me with a sense of unfinished business, that there are other Italian pencils out there, and I should at least give Italy a chance to even up their scorecard. It is therefore with much anticipation that I awaited the arrival of my Delta Dolcevita Medium Pencil, and its use as my pencil of the week – or even longer!

La Dolcevita – literally “The Sweet Life” or The Good Life as we more commonly say in English. Some might equate that to the saying about “Wine, women and song”. Now I’ve certainly got nothing against any of that, but there is plenty of the Good Life in other things, like for instance “Rugby, beer and pencils”!

Just a note about the photographs in this review. I had a lot of trouble capturing the colour and contrast of Dolcevita, and consequently a lot of these photos make it look a bit washed out - lighter and yellower than it really is. In real life it is a nice bright medium orange colour. Very bright and sunny. Very attractive.
First impressions then. The pencil arrives in a bright orange card box, about 155 x 140mm x 32mm thick. Inside the box is a plush presentation case which is covered in black velvet on the outside, and tan leather and black velvet on the inside. Inside the presentation case is the pencil, along with a small booklet extolling the glory of Delta and the Dolcevita collection – fountain pen, roller ball, ballpoint pen and mechanical pencil, all in several different sizes, e.g. small, medium, oversize, etc. I imagine I have missed out on another instruction sheet, as this Delta booklet seems a bit light on instructions like how to fill your fountain pen, change the rollerball refill, etc. More specifically, it contains no instructions on how to operate the pencil. Luckily I’ve owned enough pencils to figure it out, but I’d imagine a lot of folk would be a bit perplexed.
Onto the pencil itself – well it’s pretty good looking too. Big solid shiny black resin cap with silver metal trims, bright orange marble resin body and black tip with metal trims. The black caps of Delta instruments are individually sequentially numbered, mine being number 12146 to roll off the assembly line. The main cap-ring is made from 0.925 sterling silver, hand engraved in reproduction of an old Roman décor featured in paintings from the ruins of Pompeii. There are also some hallmarks on the silver ring. This silver central ring really does look antique, and certainly reinforces the general air of languid opulence that hangs around this pencil. Although it couldn’t have actually happened, I have no trouble imagining Fellini using a Dolcevita to sketch scenes for La Dolce Vita, well you get the imagery anyway.

Despite the lack of instructions, I can tell you this pencil is a twist action mechanism, you wind the whole cap around to advance or retract the lead. The whole cap also pulls off to reveal a small rubber eraser, and in turn the eraser pulls off to reveal the lead storage chamber. However, this is just storage, you refill the 0.9mm lead in through the tip like the pencils of old. How the average punter is supposed to figure this out I just don’t know, hence my suspicion that I missed out on some instruction sheet or booklet. The Delta website doesn’t seem to have any instructions, well at least not in any place I found with a quick scan through the site.

The pocket clip is platinum plated, and features an actual roller at the end to help it on and off your pocket, providing extra protection for those expensive shirts and suits. Yes, it works rather well. As there is no protruding lead sleeve, the pencil tip is reasonably pocket safe. In the hand this pencil is definitely “substantial”. It’s a bit shorter than average, fairly heavy, top heavy, the cap is quite wide – all these combine to ensure you feel like you have a real handful of pencil, and the 0.9mm lead supplied glides smoothly over the paper. The resin body is very smooth and shiny, but the grip is still quite good. However, I imagine things could change if you were sitting at the caffé, sipping Campari, sweltering under the Mediterranean sun. I like the orange marbled body, but one thing I don’t like is that because the resin body is translucent, the lower part of it is darkened by the threaded section of the black tip screwed up inside the orange body. I feel sure they could have done something to keep the colour constant.

Well, in conclusion, for a pencil, this is a nice piece of luxury or jewellery. I’m glad to own and use it.

• Best Points – This pencil definitely has character.
• Not So Good Points – The lack of instructions about lead refilling, locating the eraser, etc. The discolouration of the orange body down at the tip.
• Price Range – Stratospheric.

Dimensions – Length 138mm, diameter 11mm main body, 15mm at cap-ring. Balance point about 75mm up from the tip.

I took my Dolcevita away with us on a holiday weekend as part of this Good Life review; maybe it brought us luck, as we got upgraded to the penthouse suite at the Hyatt. Swweeeet - the Good Life alright - our hotel “room” was pretty much the same size as our house, and it had more bathrooms!

Photo - a page from my notebook, a quick sketch of part of the view from one of the penthouse balconies.

So, now our household has two important little possessions from Italy, one for each of us, His and Hers as it were – “Dolcevita & The Discus Thrower”