Ninth Wave Designs

Moleskine Reporter Appreciation Day

The Large Plain Moleskine Reporter notebook has been a bit underappreciated by the Ninth Wave Designs online store customers.  Since its release last year it has lagged behind its Ruled and Squared counterparts in popularity, and this has me a bit surprised.  I see the Moleskine Reporter format to be an important innovation, but if my sales figures can be used as a gauge, this format has been slow to catch on.

I find the Reporter notebook format to be the most adaptable Moleskine format currently made, and among the Reporter notebooks the plain paged version is even more adaptable.  You can write in the large plain Report in either direction, or in any direction for that matter.  The cover flips over the binding around the back for a true Jimmy Olsen Moleskine experience, or when turned horizontally makes for a very different format for writing and drawing.  This kind of versatility is what made the Moleskine Plain Reporter the inspiration for the Pig Pog PDA, and is certainly up to the task of meeting your unique note keeping needs.  For the creative notebook keeper that knows no bounds this format is a must.

In order to tempt you into trying a Large Plain Reporter notebook I have put together a special offer for readers of the NWD blog.  I recently acquired some vintage Eagle "Chemi-Sealed" Reporter 300 pencils.  These are pencils that were specially designed with the reporter in mind.  Here is how they are described on the packaging:

"STENOGRAPHERS AND REPORTERS have long approved the thin diameter and special lead of these superb pencils.  For added service, they are now made by Eagle's exclusive new super bonding process which gives you:

STRONGER POINTS . . . Lead and wood are welded into a solid unit that effectively resists point breakage.

SMOOTHER LEADS . . . Every particle of graphite glides swiftly and effortlessly on a film of sealed-in lubricant.

LONGER WEAR . . . Super-refined ingredients and freedom from broken points add extra miles of line from every lead."

I have a limited number of these pencils available, and will include one pencil free with each Moleskine Large Plain Reporter purchased using the PayPal button below.  You can then see for yourself how useful this notebook format is, and at the same time have the singular experience of using a vintage pencils designed especially for a reporters needs.  The Reporter pencil meets the Reporter notebook - a perfect match.  These are great vintage pencils, in collector's condition, and haven't been produced in years.  These double ended pencils provide an additional sharpened point so that you can keep writing as fast as the information flies.

Make your purchase using the button below to receive your free Eagle Reporter 300 pencil with the purchase of a Moleskine Large Plain Reporter notebook.  This button will add your purchase to the Ninth Wave Designs online shopping cart, and can be combined with other items in the NWD online store HERE.  Shopping cart checkout is for US orders only - international orders can be arranged by emailing through the NWD store.

If the PayPal button is missing from this listing then I have run out of free pencils for this offer.  You can still buy the Moleskine Large Plain Reporter notebook HERE.

UPDATE 11/1/06: This promotion has ended.

Love Triangle Update

I have a late arrival for the Love Triangle pencil comparison, the Lyra Osiris 45100.  I found these a few days after the original post and find that they are a very nice addition to the triangular pencils I use.  They have a nice yellow lacquer finish, similar to the California Republic Golden Bears, but do not have a finished end cap as the Golden Bear does. They are made from good solid wood that appears to be cedar, and are more substantial than the Grip 2001 and the impossible to find Mars Ergosoft.  They have a very similar feel to the Golden Bears, but a better graphite core.  The graphite in the Osiris is dry compared to my still favorite Staedtler Noris Ergosoft, but isn't as hard and light as the Golden Bear.  For me the Osiris will be a good second to the Noris, for times when I want a slightly tighter line.

One element I didn't cover in the original Love Triangle post was the element of cost.  Some of you may want to have pencils of varying price ranges for different uses, such as economy priced pencils for work or school where you are more apt to lose them.  To this end here is the estimated price break-down on the triangular pencils I have compared - yours prices may vary:

• Ticonderoga Tri-Write 2/HB with eraser: 18 - 25 cents each.
• California Republic Golden Bear HB: 20 cents each.
• Lyra Osiris 45100:  37 cents each.
• Dixon Tri-Conderoga 2/HB with eraser (large diameter):  35 - 40 cents each.
• Mongol Trio with eraser (large diameter): 42 cents each.
• Staedtler Noris Ergosoft HB 2: 80 cents each.
• Faber-Castell Grip 2001 2=B: 75 - 85 cents each.
• Faber-Castell Jumbo Grip: $1.54 each.

If you want an all-around comfortable pencil that you won't care if you lose it, then the Ticonderoga Tri-Write is a bargain. If you up your budget a little bit you can have a very nice writing pencil with the Osiris for less than twice the price of the Tri-Write, and for double the price of the Osiris you can take a leap in graphite quality with the Staedtler Noris Ergosoft.

What is missing from this selection is a high end triangular pencil.  With the news from California Republic that there are no plans to release the Palomino in a triangular version, I am left to invent another dream pencil.  My current fancy for the ultimate triangular pencil would be a Tombow Mono Professional in HB or B grade with a sleek black finish.  The black lacquer with cream and gold on the Tombow Mono is luxurious, and it has a nice thick end-cap.  This would be a beautiful pencil in triangular form as well.  Although there is yet to be a high quality addition to the triangular pencil trend, and no indication that there ever will be, I think the Tombow Mono would make a likely candidate for such an innovation.

You can read the original Love Triangle post HERE.

PALOMINO Pencils: Back in the Corral

Palomino Pencils are now back in stock in the Ninth Wave Designs online store.  You can see the current selection HERE. 

Due to the influx of pencil enthusiasts generated by last week's Boing Boing feature, there was a wild stampede of Palominos that left the NWD pencil corral all but empty.  The tumble weeds didn't blow through long though, and now you can order these excellent pencils and write tall in the saddle again. 

Okay, enough of that - I think I have stretched that metaphor as thin as it can go!

Van Gogh Sketchbooks & Notebooks @ NWD

I have a limited number of Van Gogh notebooks and sketchbooks on hand that I have been keeping to go with the Smooth & Silk Moleskine & Blackwing pencil sets.  I sold the last of those sets today and no longer have any Blackwing pencils to offer, so I thought I would try a blog experiment to sell the remaining Van Gogh stock I have on hand.

For those of you not familiar with the Moleskine Van Gogh notebooks and sketchbooks, Moleskine took the pocket size (3½" x 5½" / 9 x 14 cm) classic ruled notebook and classic sketchbook and wrapped them in richly colored silk turning them into a luxury Moleksine.  Here is how I described them in my earlier post:

"The Moleskine Museum Van Gogh Colours notebooks are a special edition Moleksine that were created in league with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in the spring of 2002. These pocket size Moleskines have covers made from silk shantung in bright colors inspired by Van Gogh's paintings, instead of the usual black oilskin cover material.  Silk Shantung has a very tight, fine weave with occasional occurrences of thickening of the strands, called slubs in the world of fabric, as part of the weave.  They have gone to great care to match the color of the elastic closure with the silk fabric on the cover, and even the expanding back pocket features the same silk on the accordion hinge."

The experiment I would like to try is to list these for sale here and have the PayPal "Click Here to Buy" button deposit them into the NWD store shopping cart so that they will combine with other items in the NWD store.  This will allow me to list some items on the NWD blog without the investment of time needed to update the online store, and at the same time give the readers of my blog access to special items.  Let me know what you think of this idea.

Each Moleskine Van Gogh is $17.95 USD, with shipping in the US via Priority Mail for $5.95 for up to $60.00.  Click HERE for information on shipping outside the US.

To add a Van Gogh notebook to your PayPal shopping cart click the button below the description line.  You can change quantities once you place the item in your cart.  You can add more items from the Ninth Wave Designs online store HERE.  I will delete the PayPal buttons as I sell through the quantities I have on hand.

7/13/05 Update: I have sold through the Van Goghs, thanks!

Love Triangle

Pencils have changed very little over the years, at least in their outward appearance.  They are still the same length as they have always been, give or take the presence of an eraser, and a pencil made 100 years ago could easily be mistaken for one made yesterday.  Triangular pencils are a big innovation then compared with all the years of stability in outward design, and rather than being just a novelty item they seem to be growing in popularity.   I am excited by these new triangular pencils - as excited as one can get about pencils anyway.  The shift from hexagonal shape to triangular shape is a wonderful functional improvement, a major jump forward in the slow evolution of pencil design, and it has me trying out a bunch of new pencils.

I love the feel of a triangular pencil in my hand; it just fits so much better.  I also have issues with tendonitis from years of drawing, so the improved ergonomics of the triangular shaped barrel is something I really appreciate as well.  From a geometric perspective the new barrel shape, which I recently learned is not actually a triangle but a curve of constant width known as a Reuleaux  Triangle.  The fact that this shape does not have a fixed center of rotation means that triangular pencils don't roll off your desk as easily as a hexagonal pencil, which is another nice feature of the design.

I have been using a variety of triangular pencils lately to find the best one in the lot for my own use. They include:

• Dixon Tri-Conderoga 2/HB with eraser.
• Mongol Trio with eraser.
• Faber-Castell Jumbo Grip.
• Faber-Castell Grip 2001 2=B (available in other grades).
• Staedtler Mars Ergosoft HB (available in other grades).
• Staedtler Noris Ergosoft HB 2.
• California Republic Golden Bear HB.
• Ticonderoga Tri-Write 2/HB with eraser.

The first three pencils on the list are large diameter pencils designed for small children.  I was unable to track down the Staedtler Noris Learner's pencil which is another larger diameter triangular pencil that I wanted to try, but they don't seem to be available in the US any longer.  I like the large diameter pencils for sketching, since they are even more comfortable to hold than the smaller versions, but they may be too large for most people, and they require a special size pencil sharpener (the Tri-Conderoga comes with a sharpener for that purpose).

These three pencils all have a very similar feel to the graphite, so none of them exceed the others on that front.  The Tri-Conderoga has a  black "grippy" finish to it that makes it easy to hold without feeling sticky and the Grip 2001 which features raised textured dots.  The Mongol Trio has a nice semi-gloss natural finish that isn't slick at all.  Each of these finishes works well with the large format triangular barrel, adding to the ergonomic comfort of using these pencils.  When it comes down to choosing one over the other for these three pencils it will be a matter of subtle preference; do you want an eraser - do you like the color - do you prefer the finish.  My choice is the Dixon Tri-Conderoga because of the construction of the pencil.  Even though I prefer the little dots on the Jumbo Grip, the wood used by Faber-Castell to make these pencils is not cedar, but some other very light-weight wood that makes it feel insubstantial to me.  The cedar of the Tri-Conderoga sharpens very well compared to the Jumbo Grip, and gives a better overall feeling to the pencil. The Dixon and the Mongol pencil are very similar but I prefer the style of the Dixon over the Mongol.  Additionally, the Dixon Tri-Conderoga is much easier to find in stores in America.

The five other pencils on the list are all regular sized and of similar grades of graphite.  The Mars Ergosoft and the Staedtler Ergosoft pencils have the best graphite in my experience; with the other pencils having good but not excellent writing qualities.  The Golden Bear HB doesn't match my hexagonal Golden Bears for graphite quality, lacking the smoothness I have come to expect from California Republic. It's not bad graphite, just not as smooth as it should be.

The finish on these pencils is varried, with the two Staedtler pencils have the same "grippy" rubberized finish, the Grip 2001 having the same dot grips as its larger version, and the Tri-Write and the Golden Bear having a traditional lacquer finish.  Of the last two the Golden Bear has the best finish, with a nice thick orange lacquer with a blue endcap.  I like the rubberized finish of the Staedtlers and the dots of the Grip 2001 over the lacquer, but if you have a tendency for sweaty hands these may not work as well for you.

The wood of the Grip 2001 and the Mars Ergosoft are lighter than I like, as I mentioned above, with the Mars pencil being so light that it seems to be made from Balsa wood.  The Mars Ergosoft is nearly impossible to find, but it would be nice to have the choice of graphite grades that it offers available with the Noris as well.  The Noris Ergosoft, Tri-Write and Golden Bear are all made from more substantial wood, and fit my liking better.  As with the larger pencils, your choice among these may depend on subtle preferences, but based on graphite and quality I prefer the Staedtler Noris Ergosoft over the others.  I like the look of the design as well, with the black and yellow stripes and the distinct red end cap.

Let me know if there are any good triangular pencils I missed or if you have anything to add on the pencils discussed in this post.

UPDATE: 7/14/06 You can read part two to this post HERE.