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Which Pencil for the JMT?
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Home › Forums › Gear Forums › Gear (General) › Which Pencil for the JMT?
- This topic has 130 replies, 42 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 3 months ago by Ken Thompson.
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Dec 4, 2013 at 1:18 pm #2050793
Pencils and pens are for the amateur, for those afraid of their own voices, insecure that their words will not stand the test of time.
Personally, I carry stonemason's tools and inscribe monoliths.
Dec 4, 2013 at 1:26 pm #2050799I prefer a highly visible yellow golf pencil from some tacky miniature golf course in Kansas. Space Pens can run out of ink, you know. You can sharpen a golf pencil with your teeth…
Dec 4, 2013 at 1:40 pm #2050804You can order an advance copy of my forthcoming book, "Pencil or Pen? An In-Depth Analysis of Techniques and Tools For Writing While Hiking." Simon & Schuster, 450 pages.
Dec 4, 2013 at 2:34 pm #2050820Picking up on Paul Harvey's famous tagline, "The rest of the story," here is
Dec 4, 2013 at 2:58 pm #2050831"I went medical school, but I only made it through the handwriting course"
In the defense of MD penmanship, I can sympathize. Even as an EMT, having to write things like "periorbital ecchymosis" on the pre-hospital care report when all I want to say is "dude has two black eyes" (and am happy when I can spell my own name), I think MD penmanship allows for some Kentucky windage where they can fudge it a bit.
Of course I'm not med school material so YMMV.
Dec 4, 2013 at 3:31 pm #2050840"Pencils and pens are for the amateur, for those afraid of their own voices, insecure that their words will not stand the test of time."
LOL
Okay, for the truth…
I know you are an artist, and I bet you have a sketchbook full of pencil and even pen drawings.
:)
Dec 4, 2013 at 4:20 pm #2050860Chief Tom (after our very own Tom Kirchner), Thunder Basin, Sierra…a quick sunset sketch.
I like the Fisher Space Pen. For a ballpoint the ink flows well and I like the sleek little bullet design a lot. But usually I prefer pencil, charcoal, and conte crayon the best. Quick mountain snapshots are fun for me.
When I'm not imprinting clay tablets or carving monoliths, that is.
Dec 4, 2013 at 7:52 pm #2050928Good grief! Congratulations on planning to keep a hiking journal. Take any pencils you can sharpen. I met a long distance hiker who instead of using a camera, recored memorable locations by sketching them. He carried a box of colored pencils. He was a hiker who stopped to smell the roses
Dec 4, 2013 at 8:44 pm #2050955John Muir was an avid wilderness sketcher. Of course in those days cameras were weight prohibitive.
Dec 4, 2013 at 9:18 pm #2050969"in those days cameras were weight prohibitive."
Tell that to William Henry Jackson. He had an assistant named Hypo who carried his camera, very large format glass plates, and field darkroom. That was during the heroic age of camping and photography. Hypo was a burro. Nowadays Hypo would be six llamas. Wait! Do we still use wet plate photography? Ok, Hypo would be replaced by an iPhone, or maybe . . . a pencil.
Dec 5, 2013 at 7:28 am #2051054Here's a NYTimes video on Faber Castell, oldest pencil maker:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jHzrzP_AqJQ
Dec 5, 2013 at 8:06 am #2051073James,
you missed the Faber / John Muir connection.
On Muir's 1,000 mile walk he ended up in Cedar Keys, FL and worked in a saw mill there, harvesting redcedar, which was used for pencil manufacturing.
Both Faber and the Eagle pencil company used this wood for pencil making. I don't know if he worked in the mill owned by Faber. Might be interesting research.
Dec 5, 2013 at 1:51 pm #2051194I feel foolish giving a serious reply to this but I can't resist. I use a typical mechanical pencil with #2 lead at 1.2 mm diameter. Mine — with eraser — weighs .03 ounces or 008 grams.
I have owned a used bookstore for 20 years and have always used these for putting prices in books(though for a time it was hard to find the ones that could accept this "fat" lead). I need the #2 lead because thinner ones tend to etch the price into rather than writing it onto the paper — thus adding a new and permanent feature to the books. The pencil is reliable and carries extra leads in its body. It has a VERY long life expectancy. I know many think 8 grams is way too much, but it works.
Dec 5, 2013 at 1:55 pm #2051196"weighs .03 ounces or 008 grams."
Is there a decimal place error here?
–B.G.–
Dec 5, 2013 at 2:00 pm #2051199…
Dec 5, 2013 at 2:14 pm #2051203Bob, of course you are right: 00.3 ounces. Good thing I was not claiming to be mistake free like Roger Dodger!
I will admit I am astounded that someone read my comments!
Dec 5, 2013 at 4:18 pm #2051242"I feel foolish giving a serious reply to this but I can't resist"
You doubt the importance of the subject?
Dec 5, 2013 at 6:02 pm #2051301Nick,
I'm not sure your pencil apprenticeship is complete … have you read How to Sharpen Pencils?
The author is even a Blackwing fan.
Dec 5, 2013 at 6:18 pm #2051307"I'm not sure your pencil apprenticeship is complete … have you read How to Sharpen Pencils?"
The wood from pencil shavings will make a good fire starter. Wow, you want to talk about multiple use!
–B.G.–
Dec 5, 2013 at 6:18 pm #2051308Why read the book? Mr. Rees will personally sharpen my pencils for only $35 each. A much better deal than a Faux-dini that doesn't fit.
BTW, I did read about him and viewed his documentary video when researching the subject, which many, unlike me, did not consider a serious or important backpacking subject.
http://www.pencils.com/blog/david-rees-and-blackwing-artisanal-pencil-sharpener/
Dec 5, 2013 at 7:11 pm #2051335The book is humorous in a very dry, subdued way. If you brought all his suggested tools for sharpening your pencil while on the JMT, it would certainly not be lightweight!
Dec 5, 2013 at 7:25 pm #2051342Au contraire, Stephen…
I dutifully documented and weighed the JMT Pencil Solution in true BPL fashion, recording statistics in both grams and ounces in the link provided earlier. Here it is again, with apologies to the French.
Dec 5, 2013 at 8:12 pm #2051374I am awestruck! Mr Rees is a saint.
What's a Faux-dini? No, no, I take it back! Don't tell me. Let's keep this thread pure and beautiful.
Dec 5, 2013 at 8:25 pm #2051381As if death and taxes aren't enough, the thought of a mechanical pencil breakdown is more than I can bear. It's wood for me.
Dec 5, 2013 at 8:57 pm #2051392AnonymousInactiveWhen you realize there is no pencil per se, only an idea/thought of pencil temporally vibrating in this level of the one field of consciousness, then can you start on the path to true freedom, and then when you can react with compassion and patience to any temporal pencil stabbing you in the temporal back (ouch!), can you move out of this system into more expanded ones.
Who knew pencils were so deep and transformative of a concept.
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