Just What I was Looking for to Carry My Pencil

Above: A view of the new journaling tool I picked up. It's a pencil with a cap on it. The cap contains a sharpener. Read on. (Sorry for all the shadows in the image, but you get the idea!)

The other day I met a couple friends at Wet Paint to be on hand to help with some paper selections. (I don't think they really needed me, but it was a great excuse to get a bit of sketching in later!)

I arrived early and went about the store looking for new items. I wasn't disappointed!

Why would I need a pencil with a cap? Well my problem with carrying pencils around in my traveling tool case is that the tips get broken, or they shade all the other tools with bits of graphite. It annoys me so much that I usually only carry a mechanical pencil (with a thicker and softer lead than is typical in office models).

And there is the other problem of having to carry a pencil sharpener if you are carrying pencils. Some folks can just carry a knife and whittle away the end of the pencil. While I do this in the studio I don't think I'm checked out for "travel whittling" yet. With new security measures everywhere people aren't going to be too pleased when you whip out a knife.

When I carry colored pencils I also carry a pencil sharpener with a receptacle for shavings, and put that in a plastic bag (because the shavings always leak! Trust me, always!).

This little tool from Faber-Castell has solved almost all those problems. The plastic tip protects the tip of your pencil. You can also switch a tiny pencil around and put it butt end into the holder and use the holder as a pencil extender if you need a "longer" pencil to hold.

Right: The cap, disassembled, showing the hidden sharpener. Click on the image for a closer view.

This tool also solves my other problem: the need for a sharpener. The top of the cap pulls away to reveal a streamlined sharpener. Joy! Now I know there isn't a shavings receptacle, but I can carry a little baggy for that purpose. (I always have little baggies with me. You never know when you might find something interesting!)

I don't use an eraser, so the pencil that comes with the cap isn't "ideal." But it is a Faber-Castell B pencil and that's a graphite pencil brand I do use. I checked the cap with my regular Faber-Castell pencils and they fit. (Large barreled colored pencils won't fit this cap.) I can add new pencils as needed. (I think the clip on the cap is cool too, though I don't carry things around in my shirt pocket, as typically I wear t-shirts.) Downside: the sharpener blade doesn't look replaceable to me. For the money, that would have been nice.

So, if like me, you have been looking for a way to carry your pencil around without dusting all your tools with graphite, check out this great tool. It's called "Perfekter Bleistift" or Perfect Pencil. I paid $10 for it at Wet Paint. I couldn't have found it at a better time because I was just thinking about working on landscapes again, using pencil instead of pen under my watercolor washes. Now I have an easy way to keep a pencil with me.

Comments

[Maria]

This looks great, Roz. Thanks so much for sharing your discoveries with us. Amazing that this hasn't been "invented" before. I'll look for the new pencil around here. --Maria

[Roz]

Maria, I bet we could find something like this from the 1920s or 1930s if we looked around in collectibles galleries. These types of things are always being re-invented.

Maybe it would have an earlier date. These types of contraptions were probably thought obsolete with Mechanical pencils becoming popular.

All I know is this suits me better. Hope you find one and enjoy it too.

Roz

[Sandy]

Wow Roz, this is so simple and yet so innovative, pencils are always a problem - I just went to wet paint and it is $45.00 YIKES and a quick search does not seem to find them any where else in the US and even then for big bucks!! I will have to keep my eye on this item.
Thanks for sharing, enjoy your Bargain!!

[Roz]

Sandy, I don't know what you found on your search but the pencil cap featured in this post is something I got at Wet Paint in St. Paul Minnesota for only TEN DOLLARS, not $45. Just $10.00 as stated in the the post.

If you want one of these I suggest you call them directly, since you didn't find the right thing on their website or were looking on someone else's site also called WP perhaps??

http://www.wetpaintart.com/

Wet Paint, Inc.
Artists' Materials & Framing
1684 Grand Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55105
651.698.6431

OR if you don't want to call long distance you can email sales@wetpaintart.com

You shouldn't be paying $45.00 for this and I sure don't know where you were looking.

Good luck.
Roz

[Roz]

Sandy, I just heard from Tim at Wet Paint. He told me that the 9000 Perfect Pencil dropped off their site due to a problem with stocking (now resolved) and all that was left on the site when you visited was a UFO aluminum version.

Now I never saw that version in the store, but evidently it's the one with the pricey price!

But no one needs that.

So if you're still in the market for one of these pencil caps email tim@wetpaintart.com
and ask him how to make it so.

He's sorry there was confusion.

Roz

[Alberto]

The $10 Perfect Pencil from Wet Paint is probably one of the better deals for a quality multi-function pencil extender. While lacking the sharpener feature and somewhat hard to find, the Kutsuwa pencil holders perform well as pencil extenders and point protectors.
Sketchblog entry: http://robotninjamonsters.blogspot.com/2008/12/mitsubishi-hi-uni-10b-and-pencil.html
Some Borders Bookstores feature come Paperchase stationery products like the "Self-Sharpening Pencil" that provide some of the Perfect Pencil functionality at a fraction of the price: http://robotninjamonsters.blogspot.com/2008/09/self-sharpening-pencil-and-faber.html

[Catherine Hubbard]

That's a nifty cap! For myself, I use the very inexpensive General's Sav-a-Point, sold by Blick for less than $2 for a dozen caps, plus they throw in a cheap pencil sharpener:
http://www.dickblick.com/products/generals-pencil-sav-a-point
These caps do fit the Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils as well as other standard-sized pencils, but not large-barrel drawing pencils. At this price, I can afford to put a cap on every pencil I carry in a pouch. These caps also fit the Carb-Othello pastel pencils. When putting one on a pencil, don't press too hard or the cap might crack, but I've adjusted to this requirement and haven't had any problems since.

For a sharpener, the best I have found doesn't have its own chamber to catch the shavings, but boy does it work well, plus Blick also sells replacement blades. It's the Alvin Brass Bullet:
http://www.dickblick.com/products/alvin-brass-bullet-pencil-sharpener

Thank you so much for your blog - I check it every day. May I ask, since I'm here, what nib you prefer for pen-and-ink sketching? I'll bet you've done extensive experimentation with different crowquills and others. The choice probably depends on the paper you are using, but I'd really like to hear your opinions of drawing nibs.

Best,
Cat

[Roz Stendahl]

Catherine, thank you for writing in about these caps from General! I must get some. They sound PERFECT!!!! I have not seen them before so I'm very excited.

I have tried the Alvin brass bullet and it is a great shapener. I really need to have a container when I go out and about (I can make do with a baggy, but I really don't like that), so I buy sharpeners that work well and which I can change the blades on. But that Alvin sure is a nice sharpener!

I like to use a lot of different nibs for dip pen as you guessed it depends on paper and line quality I want etc. Most of the nibs I use now are Japanese, like the Manga G-Pen. Others I can't read the labels on so I can't just list the names. I'll have to do a post on them after I track down a transliteration of the names. More later.