We kick off the Pencil Primer — a new series for anyone who wants to start at the beginning of pencildom. This installment traces graphite from the legendary Borrowdale lightning strike of 1564 to Nicolas-Jacques Conté's clay-and-graphite breakthrough during the Napoleonic Wars, plus the Thoreau family's role in standardizing the American pencil grade scale and a tour through HB-to-9B. Plus, Tim's into a Bill Frisell biography, Johnny's writing with a sparkly Narwhal "raspberry cheesecake" pen that looks like, uh, something else, and Andy debuts booklet.lol — a vibe-coded book tracker. Patreon subscribers can watch the video version.
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Show Notes & Links
Erasable
Read a transcript of this episode at Erasable Scribe
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Episode references
Episode 57: “The F Bomb”
Podcasts / media
Drug Story
r/pencils
Letterkenny
Books
Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer
Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Pencil / stationery / book arts
Cumberland Pencil Museum
Nicolas-Jacques Conté (Britannica)
Henry David Thoreau (Britannica)
Guild of Book Workers
General’s Layout Pencil
STAEDTLER WOPEX
Derwent
Photography / camera stuff
Micro Four Nerds
PetaPixel
Apps / sites / companies
booklet.lol
People / artists / companies
Willie Nelson
Charlie Crockett
Bill Frisell
JHS Pedals
Your Hosts
Johnny Gamber
Pencil Revolution
@pencilution
Andy Welfle
Woodclinched
@awelfle
Tim Wasem
@TimWasem