Papermate Biodegradable Pencil Test 1

Alas! poor Papermate. I knew him…

Sacrificed for the greater good, poor Papermate Biodegradable Mechanical Pencil lies in a shallow grave just outside my window, there between the mint and the parsley, his resting place marked only by a brother pencil, stuck half into the ground.

Laid to rest in early May 2010, after six months I will exhume, examine, document, photograph, report and reinter, for another six months. Thus we shall witness for our very selves the circle of life, the miracle of biodegradability!

So then, exactly how much of the Papermate Biodegradable mechanical pencil is actually biodegradable?

Well, as shown on the box, when you decide it’s time to compost your pencil you disassemble and separate it into two groups of components. Basically the grip and mechanism go in the rubbish bin and the main body is the biodegradable part.

Here they are separated and ready for experimentation down in the lab.

According to my scales, 2 mechanical pencils weigh 25 grams, and the non-biodegradable parts weigh 9 grams, so that means 16 out of 25 grams or around about 2/3rds of the pencil by weight is biodegradable.

So, we shall see whats left after 6 months, in early November.

Here's a link to my review of the Papermate Biodegradable mechanical pencil. As noted in the review, these Papermate Biodegradables were donated by office supplies specialist Euroffice.

Lijit Update

Just a quick bit of information re Lijit over there in the sidebar. I added the Lijit search function to this blog a bit over a year ago and find it very useful, and highly recommend it to any other bloggers out there. I have recently enabled a couple of other features on it. They’re not new, it’s just I’ve never previously enabled them. So, the “Surprise Me” button will now take you to a random article in this blog. The “Explore” button will give you a diagrammatic view of blogs that are fans of this blog, friends of this blog and blogs followed by this blog. You can then click on any of them to create their diagram, etc etc. It’s not totally accurate, but kind of interesting. Anyway, just thought I’d draw it to your attention.

Like A Phoenix?

The Revolutionary Blood still pumps.
Pencil Revolution

Staedtler 760 Mechanical Pencil Review

A little while ago Max from Copenhagen sent in a guest review of his latest mechanical pencil purchase. So, I’ll now hand over to Max.

Review of the Staedtler 760 Mechanical Pencil

I’ve just recently bought the fairly new Staedtler 760. (Mine is a 0.7 mm).

It looks nice and it’s reasonably priced at around £6 (GBP). It follows what has become the “new” standard triangular shape of Staedtler. I am not really a great fan of that triangular shape – neither with Staedtler nor with the Faber–Castell Grip 2011. According to Staedtler this pencil is designed for writing. It has a rubber grip. The grip has a sort of hard rubbery feeling. It’s not too soft but not too hard and plasticy either. I’m not a great fan of most grips whether they are of rubber, plastic or metal. I just prefer a plain pencil of a material that is pleasant to hold – like the Lamy 2000. Sorry…back to the Staedtler…

The pencil is very light, a little too light for my liking. The body is made of a shiny blue plastic. This makes it look better from a distance than up close. The transitions between materials are actually nicely made despite the triangular shape. The pocket clip may look a little cheapish from a distance – like the clips on cheap ball pens. But examining it a little closer reveals that it is actually of quite good quality.

It is a push top mechanism with a twist operated eraser as on the Paper Mate PhD and the Faber–Castell Grip Plus. The eraser itself is quite thin but does a decent job. There is no description of how to fill the pencil with leads, so you need to figure out for yourself just to pull the top off with a firm grip. The benefit of is that the ratchet is held firmly in place. It was a pleasant surprise to learn that it holds a lot of spare leads – actually on par with the Lamy 2000.

The push mechanism is pleasantly smooth and without noise. Ten clicks will give you about 9 mm of lead.
The pencil is completely pocket- safe. The tip supporting the lead stays firmly in place while writing without being locked. It only takes a light push to retract it after writing while pushing the top button down.

What is the Staedtler 760 like to write with? This is where it is actually a bit of a surprise! It is light, triangular and with a rubber grip. It has everything against it! But it is actually a very pleasant performer with good balance (approx. 40/60 weight distribution, being bottom heavy). But but but…after a while the rubber will start to loosen a little and the edge of the rubber grip is felt against the finger tips.

This will never become one of my favourite pencils. It just lacks the quality feel of my favourite pencils. But it is a good pencil for carrying at work. I do find it a bit pricey. You will get three Rotring Tikky 3 for the same price or almost a Lamy Safari which is far superior.

Update

A number of readers are contacting me to enquire about my wellbeing after the Christchurch earthquake. So, firstly thanks for your concern. Luckily for me personally I and my immediate family and friends are all a long way away from the quake zone and are thus all unaffected. Obviously though a different story for those who live in the zone or were otherwise affected by the quake, and my thoughts are with them.
For a 7.1 quake the damage and casualties appear astonishingly light which is good fortune and I guess a testament to our earthquake construction code.
Thanks again for your messages.

From The Desk - of Florida Bob 2

Some say “The pen is mightier”…but they are just wrong!

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Oi! What's your game Bender?

All photos courtesy of Florida Bob.
Thanks Bob!