The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022) • Hacker News Board

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#81

Post by gennarro » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 12:14 PM UTC

bayindirh wrote: post #6

GuB-42 wrote: post #5

In general, I find Japan to be unmatched when it comes to stationery. Pens, pencils, notebooks, etc... Everything is just better: the simple stuff, like what you can find in "konbini" and "100 yen shops", entire floors in department stores like "Hands", and all the way up to luxury. As you might expect, Japanese brands of stationery are popular worldwide. So it is not surprising that Japan had a golden age of pencils…

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…

Can you share the name of this excellent new paper that you are using for your letters? Thanks!

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#82

Post by bayindirh » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 12:33 PM UTC

gennarro wrote: post #81

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…

Can you share the name of this excellent new paper that you are using for your letters? Thanks!

The paper doesn't have an official name, but the notepad using it is called "Meteksan Prestige Notepad" [0].

I don't know if it's exported or not. I have a stack of them. :)

[0]: https://www.sarikalem.com/en/meteksan-prestij-bloknot-17x24-...

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#83

Post by WithinReason » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 12:52 PM UTC

fallinghawks wrote: post #28

My most treasured tools when I used to draw were Pentel 0.3 sliding sleeve pencils, model PS523. The sleeve let me put a lot of pressure on a very fine lead without breaking. And of course the lead was wonderful to use, very smooth. B was the softest lead available in that diameter, so it was hard to get a really dark black, hence the need for pressure. I've bought a number of mechanical pencils since the model was d…

Here is an article from the same blog about mechanical pencils:

https://paperwhisper.com/blogs/blog/write-smarter-the-hidden...

Seem like the Uni Kuru Toga Dive is the peak mechanical pencil.

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#84

Post by krisoft » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 1:22 PM UTC

Mistletoe wrote: post #8

tocs3 wrote: post #2

We need more histories like this. History taught in school often seems so abstract and distant. Without the million little stories about the people that do things the political histories are little meaningless.

I really feel like this with regard to monarchs. Most of them seem like homicidal inbred mentally ill people. Why are we studying and deifying them? Henry VIII? One of the absolute worst human beings to ever exist. Put him in the bin with Pol Pot. Most of real history was a simple peasant working hard and making quiet decisions while avoiding being trampled by a king.

Kinda hard to understand the whole deal about the Church of England without Henry VIII though. I don't think anyone is deifying him. At least not in modern discourse. But that is not the only reason to study someone.

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#85

Post by account-5 » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 1:55 PM UTC

I love pencils. I collect them, nearly every gift shop will have a £|$|€1 customised pencil. I buy one everywhere I go. I also get people to buy me a pencil if they want to get me a gift as they're cheap. I have 2 collections, places I've been and gift from places family/friends have been.

I will leave them to my children when I die, they can use them or throw them out...

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#86

Post by freilanzer » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 1:57 PM UTC

vjust wrote: post #62

I have a bunch of these pencil brands Tombow, Mitsubishi. I usually buy them on ebay. Its an amazing experience to write with them... I usually use the H, HB to write, and its fascinating, how the premium ones H differs from an ordinary H. There is some paraphernalia that goes with it - sharpners, erasers. I had lost the writing habit..coding invariably takes you to the keyboard. Gradually I'm writing more, and it sl…

Next step: fountain pens.

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#87

Post by linsomniac » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 2:14 PM UTC

On mechanical pencils, Adam Savage recently did a test of a bunch of mechanical pencils, particularly for shop use. I ended up getting a Pentel GraphGear 1000 in 0.3mm ($10), with retractable tip, which I keep in my notebook which I use for drawings/notes of projects I do around the house. Previously I was using a Pentel TwistErase III ($15 for 3), but I'm always paranoid about bending the point, the eraser is very nice though.

https://youtu.be/hiNScN5ZR3c?si=7C_CZBk2OE9cA4Bg

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#88

Post by mrweasel » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 2:14 PM UTC

buildsjets wrote: post #34

There is an FAA accepted test of paint film hardness that requires special calibrated pencils, available ONLY from Mitsubishi pencil company, in packages of 17 for $224. Each pencil comes with an individual certificate of calibration shows that it meet's it's specified hardness level. The test is ASTM D 3363, "Standard Test Method for Film Hardness by Pencil Test" https://www.gardco.com/Products/Hardness-Testers/Scra…

17 to a pack seems like an odd number. Was it originally 18 and then they removed one to keep the price down.

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#89

Post by breggles » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 2:28 PM UTC

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.

Asahi Linux?

Re: The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils (2022)

#90

Post by nedt » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 2:31 PM UTC

mrweasel wrote: post #88

buildsjets wrote: post #34

There is an FAA accepted test of paint film hardness that requires special calibrated pencils, available ONLY from Mitsubishi pencil company, in packages of 17 for $224. Each pencil comes with an individual certificate of calibration shows that it meet's it's specified hardness level. The test is ASTM D 3363, "Standard Test Method for Film Hardness by Pencil Test" https://www.gardco.com/Products/Hardness-Testers/Scra…

17 to a pack seems like an odd number. Was it originally 18 and then they removed one to keep the price down.

In Japan numbers have meaning. Haiku have a 5-7-5 pattern - which gives you 17 as a sum. And saying the number 17 in Japanese sounds like youth and vitality. Might not be so odd after all.