I agree about the stiff, porous-feeling white erasers, which feel much like a desiccated pink eraser and are just as effective, but my favorite eraser is also white: the Staedtler Mars plastic/vinyl eraser. If you want an eraser that won't leave any sign of itself behind, and can erase almost every graphite product I've tried, Mars is it. Pink rubber is classic, and fresh pink or black erasers usually work well, but on darker or colored pencils, the force required to do the erasing sometimes means faint pink (or gray) smudges are left on the paper (depending on the paper, of course). Though they're still better than the white ones that work like pumice, less erasing the graphite and more just rubbing away that layer of paper, if you can get them to work at all.
Noticed the three star Tennessee logo at the top of the pencil before the eraser. Musgrave Pencil Company is located in my home state of Tennessee. You can get custom pencils made and they have an online store with a plethora of different pencils available. My go-to pencils I order from them are their Unigraph 1200 drawing pencils. They have no erasers, but I use a pink drawing eraser that works great.
I've always been partial to the Staedtler "Mars Plastic" eraser, which is a white eraser. I started using them when I was in a drafting class (back before CAD). They worked on various softness of lead...HB, 2H and up to 6H is what I have used. Perhaps the led you are using is softer. I believe the "H" in the lead designation is for "hard." I also got out of the habit of using a pencil's eraser and just use an external one that doesn't wear down as fast. Plus, with mechanical pencils, they often don't have an eraser as that area is where one releases more lead.
I was taught/told to use erasers in one direction, i.e., lift and reposition to starting point btwn strokes, rather than "back and forth", especially with the white ones.
You can still find the "Old School" Pink Pearl erasers if you look. I still have mine an old one made by Paper Mate. They're made to actually erase pencil marks.
Yes when I was in grade school in the 60's the favored snack of pencil chewing classmates was the snazzy Paper Mate yellow painted (probably lead based) #2 with the red stripe on the eraser holder.
Leaded paint on pencils was stopped by the 1950s. Leaded paints were banned by NY state in 1960, so the effects of lead were well known. It is possible a kid might chew on an older pencil in the 1960s - even today that could be possible, but not very likely. It took until 1978 until lead paints were banned nationally- and today, only the US government may continue to use lead paints.
Big fan of clicky pencils here. I've had one Rotring Ticky Special since about '87/'88 ("Made in West Germany") and still use it, though it's worn to my grip in some places and the nib has been bent and straightened several times... still works though! Standard school pencil here in the UK from what I remember was the stripey Staedtler.
I've adopted using 3 jawed mechanical pencils with that hold 2mm leds. More durable for quick draughting down on a production line. They also tend to have a stronger clip for the pocket.
Yeah, but no pencil shavings! I love the sweet smell of the Cedar shavings mixed with the pungent bitter smell of the graphite. Love that. Not Man apart from that.
I don't like to touch my erasers. Even the handheld ones. The white Staedler ones with paper wrap are my favorite. (Ever since drafting class in the eighties). The oils can sometimes really mess with them. If hand contact is made or the eraser is too dirty, I tend to do a sacrificial rub.
In middle school in the 80’s we specialized in pencil fights - one would hold a pencil at each end, while the other would hold the tip and flick the metal end at the middle of the victim pencil. If you didn’t break it, it was their turn to flick yours. There were rules (no chopping, only flicking; no holding beyond the ends, etc) and of course a careful development of technique. Matches were spontaneous and could be quickly executed wherever, and whenever. The preferred weapon was similar to these, a ‘natural’ clear varnished wood, I suspect a hardwood like hickory or rock maple? The cheap yellow school pencils were trash, one flick and they were done. With some “flipping for quarters” to round out the delinquent activity, we stayed busy. Those were the days!
I'd stop watching your channel because I'm not massively into computers and engineering stuff anymore and have been more into traditional writing stuff lately, and just in time, this video! I'm glad I have an excuse to watch again.
Don't remember these from the 60's. It was always yellow painted #2 Dixon Ticonderoga, pink eraser. Those followed me throughout my schooling. Remember taking those pre-printed tests you had to fill-in those little rectangles? They insisted you use a #2 pencil. I concur what was said about the white eraser. I typically use them with the push-to-load drafting pencils when sketching or doing mechanical/electrical drawings.
Mechanical pencils aside, my favorites were always the Mirado Black Warriors. Burn the finish off of them and you're left with the perfect grippy texture.
It says a lot about me that when I saw the Patreon message for this, I read "Tennessee Red Cider". I opened the link so fast I nearly wore out the mouse pointer! 😁 Still a good vid though. BTW, the t-shirts have arrived and they're superb. I am now officially the best dressed fat geek in Liverpool. 🙂
Thanks for the explanation about white erasers! My experience has been that after a while they turn into really mushy or practically fluid feeling substance. Trying to erase anything causes a coating being left on the paper and then even other color erasers just get "glued" to the same mess.
I use pencils for note taking I am happier with them. Have alway been infatuated with fountain pens I just don't have the skill to show off their ability.
I was starting to think you were not going to tell us how it smells. Too bad about the eraser tho. Nothing like a good old "pinkie" as my friend calls them.
I live in Tennessee and have all the Red Ceder you could want on my property. It is a nuisance to me. I would like to grow apple trees and produce fruit. Ceder trees are the bane of apples.
The Dixon Ticonderoga is an abomination, IMO. Here are some reasons. Green is my favorite color, but I find the green ferrule and imprint garish. The yellow is sickly. The graphite is not as nice as a number of other pencils in its price class-to say nothing of the Palomino Blackwing and the Tennessee Red you use in this video. Ticonderoga leads are often slightly off-center in recent years, as well. Plus, Dixon outsourced their production to China and I greatly dislike that. For American-made, I think you can't beat Musgrave. I'm glad you pointed out the eraser/lead mismatch. They really need to address that. I always use a Pink Pearl anyway, but a better tipped eraser would be super nice. Great video!
That demonstration of pencil erasers was misleading at best. You barely even touched the paper and purposely smeared the graphite. First, pretty much all ferrule erasers suck. Second, other high quality erasers such as the Pentel hi-polymer, mars plastic, mr. pen, and Faber Castell dust free work wonderfully.
