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The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

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Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#71

Post by xeonmc »

mauvehaus wrote: post #60
jerieljan wrote: post #47

> Masaki had the idea to register a three-diamond trademark, along with the "Mitsubishi" name, which means 'three diamonds.' (It may surprise you to learn that this was ten years before the much better-known Mitsubishi Group of heavy industry companies registered its name and identical mark. Mitsubishi Pencil has no connection to the numerous other Mitsubishi companies in Japan; it is and has always been a manufactur…

Upon learning of a third Asahi branded thing, I once made the observation that Asahi must make everything. There's Asahi Pentax cameras, Asahi beer, and now this forgotten other thing. At which point someone kindly informed me that Asahi means rising sun, and seeing it in a company name is roughly equivalent to seeing "federal" or "national" in a US company name.

Reminds me of Ferrari sparkling wine, for a few years they were the only Ferrari’s on the podium.

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#72

Post by bayindirh »

Analemma_ wrote: post #61
ehnto wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not related to your main point, but I am happy to see we are in somewhat of a resurgence of innovation in keyboards. There are some innovative new designs, entirely novel approaches to key inputs, and personalisation and craftsmanship has never been more impressive or achievable.

I agree. Getting a split keyboard with tenting so my wrists can be in a neutral position made my low-grade RSI vanish completely, and the trend toward increased programmability with macros and layers has been a wonderful thing for my productivity. The Cherry patents expiring mean switches have been getting better and better too. And while I myself am happy with the UHK I bought, it's also great to see that it's now e…

Yes, even if you don't go full custom, now you can get pretty good keyboards with light key action and good switches.

I have a couple of mechanical keyboards, but my workhorse keyboard is a Logitech MX Keys Mini, which has scissor switches, and while it's not crisp as a good mechanical, it's a great keyboard which you can type all day without any problems. Considering it has lighting, hall and ambient sensors, you can charge it every couple of months and type all day long.

I also don't fancy multi-layer layouts, but I use text expanders for boilerplate, and that's good enough for me, for now.

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#73

Post by bayindirh »

luqtas wrote: post #46
bayindirh wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK. I'll come with another research, the one I'm doing on myself for more than 30 years. See, I'm both typing and writing for more than 30 years, and I started doing both almost the same time, so there's no inherent bias there. Here's what I found. - I can type around 75 WPM in a good day, yet writing on paper always brings out clearer ideas. - I write my blog posts in iA writer, fullscreen and in DnD mode, yet drill…

i remember burning a pile, like 15 cm thick, of paper notes once. i still have another one but i didn't parsed to the computer yet you don't know how sacred to me is my scratch (temporary) file on Emacs or my org documents or Gimp files with stuff like studies of games platform level design (quite easy to screenshot views and highlight stuff i want to comment) or digital collages material for me there isn't anything…

When I finish a notebook, I scan it, file it and recycle the paper.

I can understand the value of a good digital data storage. At the end of the day, I keep public and private personal knowledge bases for myself. However, I don't like to spread my information over many applications, and currently shrinking everything into a couple of tools. See, decades of computer use creates a lot of clutter.

On the other hand, I don't like to keep notes under the sun on a screen which needs a shade, and powered by a battery which might die any second. We're also different in noise regard. While I like to read and listen a lot, I much prefer silent walks since it allows what's beneath to surface.

This will be a bit personal, but you seem like a bit tense. Maybe you should slow down a bit, and listen what your inner voice says to you. I have a hunch that there's something you should see and give a good listen.

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#74

Post by Maken »

JadeNB wrote: post #24
redwall_hp wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I exclusively use Japanese writing implements, and hand-wrote all of my notes when I was in college. (Saved carrying a laptop around, and some professors were sticklers about not having laptops out during lectures.) * Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen and Namiki ink * Pilot G2 is my "minimum" pen, though I vastly prefer roller ball pens. * Uniball Air Micro * Pilot Precise V2 * When I need a pencil, I use the Uni Kuru…

> * Pilot Precise V2 I've only ever heard of V5 (0.5 mm) and V7 (0.7 mm), and Googling doesn't turn up a V2. Is there one, or was this a typo?

I am the same. I have used V5, V7 an VBall Pilots. I even checked their webpage to check if the V2s were some kind of premium line I didn't know, but found nothing.

What it's even more puzzling is the children comment that totally remembers them.

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#76

Post by kinnth »

I appreciate this isn't about Japanese pencils, but if anyone is ever visting the LAke District in the UK, I highly recommend going to the Derwent Pencil Museum. It's absolutely fascinating how pencils came to be, the number of steps to make them etc.

I really appreciate old school manufacturing and pencils were the top tech around the turn of the century!

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#77

Post by williamdclt »

jerieljan wrote: post #47

> Masaki had the idea to register a three-diamond trademark, along with the "Mitsubishi" name, which means 'three diamonds.' (It may surprise you to learn that this was ten years before the much better-known Mitsubishi Group of heavy industry companies registered its name and identical mark. Mitsubishi Pencil has no connection to the numerous other Mitsubishi companies in Japan; it is and has always been a manufactur…

Nobody could blame you, Japan famously does have conglomerates making completely different products under the same brand. If Yamaha makes motorcycles and pianos, why wouldn't Mitsubishi make cars and pencils?

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#78

Post by froh »

kinnth wrote: post #76

I appreciate this isn't about Japanese pencils, but if anyone is ever visting the LAke District in the UK, I highly recommend going to the Derwent Pencil Museum. It's absolutely fascinating how pencils came to be, the number of steps to make them etc. I really appreciate old school manufacturing and pencils were the top tech around the turn of the century!

Yes, these museums are geeky fun :-) same goes for Faber Castell in Stein close to Nuremberg, Germany; there you can also get a tour in contemporary production.

https://www.faber-castell.com/corporate/faber-castell-experi...

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#79

Post by FatChauncy »

otherme123 wrote: post #29
sleepybrett wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I finally ran out of my 'retro' blackwings and picked up a box of their revival. They are expensive ($2.50 a pencil in packs of 12) but the quality so far has been very consistent. Not sure I'd give them to my kids as likely as they would be to lose or destroy them, but you might consider them for yourself. For mechanicals I have a Rotring 600 and a Staedtler Mars Technico that is a billion years old.

Expensive pencils are one of those things that totally worth it. I use Faber-Castell pencil, eraser and sharpener, and while they are maybe double or triple the price of a cheap one, they last way longer than that because they do their job. I have sharpened a cheap pencil more than 3 cm at once because either the lead or the wood keep breaking.

I found a cheap plastic Faber-Castell sharpener in the drawer yesterday. No idea where it came from, but it was razor sharp and the perfect angle for my double-ended Mitsubishi 772 red/blue. I’ll definitely be ordering more of those, and will check out their other offerings too.

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#80

Post by ernesth »

pklausler wrote: post #54
bayindirh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are very good at higher end paper, pencils and erasers. Their gel and roller pens are mostly unmatched. OTOH, while they're top tier in fountain pens, Germans really equal with them. Lamy, Faber Castell, Diplomat, Kaweco and of course Montblanc make great pens. Pilot & Sailor are not behind them, though. Mitsubishi Pencil bought Lamy so things will get interesting. Inks are the same. Germans and Japanese are hea…

I use Quo Vadis Habana blank notebooks with (mostly) Lamy fountain pens and Sailor inks. They have Clairefontaine paper that just works wonderfully -- it both dries quickly and doesn't bleed through. If you haven't tried them, you're in for a treat; enjoy! (I believe Quo Vadis to be a Canadian company that mostly makes planners and such, and their notebooks are getting harder to find. Even the good folks at Goulet Pe…

Quo Vadis is french and in fact now belongs to the Clairefontaine group, just like Rhodia.
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