Welcome To My Thoughts On Pens And Pencils

I will respect your right to disagree with what I have to say about Pens and Pencils as long as you respect the fact that I am an Old Geezer.




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If you need detailed instructions on how to clear a lead jam from a mechanical pencil then click this link, "All Jammed Up?" or the link in the pages header.



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The Old Geezer
Please Excuse My Absence

I have not blogged since July of 2015 due to the fact that my Lovely Wife was diagnosed with 2 types of cancer. A new case of breast cancer which has metastasized and gone to her bones, mainly her back. She had a mastectomy of her left breast which showed the type of cancer that was in her bones. She has been taking an oral med. every day and she has a port under her skin to receive a liquid med. She has gone through one round of radiation treatments to stop some pain in her back. That gave her GERD and the med for that was nasty tasting. The bone cancer has caused the vertebra in her lower back to pinch her left sciatic nerve causing her pain, numbness and foot drag. She also has skin cancer that has only been partly addressed.

I have been busy taking care of her as the treatments have left her weak and sickly. She can not drive so I have to drive her to her appointments and treatments. I also have to do all the cooking and most of what cleaning we do. So I do not have a lot of time for blogging. However the installment of the review of the Schaeffer Ultrafine 0.3mm pencil marks what I hope will be a new review every month. However some of my future reviews may seem familiar as they may be a review of a pencil or pen that I have reviewed before just in another size due to my limited collection of writing instruments and the economic state of our nation.

I am grateful to George Fox for wanting me to do a review of another one of his pencils. I think that as a reader of my humble blog, may fine of interest as the Schaeffer Ultra Fine is a very unusual pencil.

So please excuse my absence and as a reader of my humble blog I hope that you enjoy the review of this unique pencil.

Coming Soon...

Thank you,

The Old Geezer.




Monday, December 15, 2008

Pencil/Pen Cases Are Where You Find Them

Being a Penaholic (which includes pencils too) I want to keep my most precious pencils and pens in a nice expensive pencil/pen case. I've seen some nice leather cases on the Net ranging from ones that hold 12 pencils/pens to ones that hold 96! I've seen pencil/pen boxes made of wood that hold from a single pen to large boxes that hold 48 or more. All of which are expensive, but beautiful and probably worth the price. However I can not afford them, not until I make my millions that is. What I can afford from time to time is some fabric, some heat and bond, some elastic band and a few other odds and ends. Recently I designed and made a soft pencil/pen case but it was not well thought out. Then I redesigned it, but didn't make it before I offered the plans for free on my blog. Then I took a second look at the plans and discovered a few design flaws! It's a good thing that only a few people had ask for the plans. Once I had revamped the plans I sent them to all who had ask for them along with my apologies.

Recently while looking through my belongings I found an old CD case. It was something that I had received from a vendor while I was working for a company that made physio-monitoring units for heart cath labs. It was yellow on the outside and black on the inside and measured 11" x 7" x 1-1/4" closed. But beggars can't be choosers... while looking at it I got a flash. It would make a good pencil/pen case. So I gathered together some vinyl fabric, some cardboard, some 1/2" elastic band, some spray glue, some heat and bond and a few other odds and ends and got to work. The design is quite simple, two thin cardboard panels (the backs of writing pads) covered in thin vinyl fabric heat and bonded to the cardboard. I allowed 3/4" for a pocket but allowed 1" of elastic to cover that 3/4" space. The result is a loop of elastic every 3/4" for the width of the panel. That makes 14 sets of loops, one near the top of the panel and one near the bottom. Some contact cement and some extra fabric and a piece of felt for a divider completes the project.

The 2 completed panels were glued into the 2 inside flaps of the CD case. The felt divider/protector is glued along the inside of the spine using 2 strips of excess fabric. With the case full of pencils/pens it's a tight fit when the case is closed if all the pocket clips are straight up so I have to turn the pocket clips to the side in order to protect them from undo pressure. Other than that the case works just fine. It has a fold over closure flap and seals with Velcro. For a makeshift pencil/pen case it's really quite good. I only wish that the color was red, or blue instead of yellow.

Another makeshift pencil/pen case is one that I made from an old, broken down wooden cigar box. It was a great find. My lovely wife's cousin had the box but it had come apart. I inherited it, glued it back together and decided to make a pencil/pen case out of it. This time I used cardboard from a corrugated box. It bends easily along the corrugations but it is easy to sew through. Again I used thin vinyl fabric to cover the cardboard (which was cut 1/8" shy of the boxes interior dimensions) and used 1/2" elastic banding as before in order to make the pockets. A piece of elastic made into a loop and attached to the back of each panel (one slightly off center) serves as a grasp. A piece of Fun Foam rubber sheeting attached to the back of each panel completes the project. The panels fit snugly into the box and the 2 panel are a perfect fit height wise as well.

So, if you can't afford an expensive pencil/pen case or box or even if you can and just want a great project to occupy your spare time, look around the house and see if there isn't something that you can turn into a great pencil/pen case or box. You may not have a wooden cigar box, but maybe you have a cardboard one, that will work as well. Perhaps you are into woodworking, if so you can build your own pencil/pen box. If you sew maybe you can design your own fabric pencil/pen case. Makeshift or designed the idea is to come up with your own alternative to the high priced commercial pencil/pen cases.

The figure on the left shows a typical panel like the ones that I used in both projects. The light gray area is the fabric covered cardboard. The dark gray areas are the elastic bands. Enough space is left between the bands to allow the shortest pencil/pen to rest in the pockets with part of the body protruding from top and bottom of the pockets. This distance is typically between 2" and 3".

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