Cretacolor Nero Medium (#3)

The Nero is an Austrian made, Cretacolor branded,  oil based charcoal pencil. I didn’t know they were oil based until I looked them up, just now…I knew they weren’t graphite, though. A graphite pencil has a very limited value range….a light pencil can only get so dark, regardless of how hard and how much you lay down. Eventually, you develop a graphite shine that will prevent you from laying down any more graphite. You basically have to plan or adapt to the choices you’ve made and a graphite drawing with varying intensities is the result of a suitable range of pencils (light, dark). The Nero is different.

With the same Nero pencil, you can have very dark over very light and many shades in between. I’ve used this to good effect. I can, for example, do a preliminary sketch with more refined layers on top and I can color over the earlier work and get a fuller range of values all from one pencil. Now that I think of it, I was doing the same with the oil based Cretacolor Sanguine 5.6 mm leads. The drawing builds on earlier layers. The Nero pencil is well made and I haven’t had any problems with core breakage like I used to have with charcoal pencils, which means Cretacolor has a good formulation going on. They also sharpen well. Highly recommended.

Skilcraft 1.1 mm Mechanical Pencil

I picked up the Skilcraft 1.1 mm Mechanical Pencil to use with some old (very old) IBM Electrographic leads. The mechanical pencil is designed to take 4 inch leads — most (all?) 1.1mm lead out there is stubby stuff, anywhere from 1-3 inches in length. Don’t recommend getting into the 1.1 mm lead space if you can at all help it. Not enough choices in the ecosystem.

I bought the Skilcraft mechanical pencils in a pack of 12 for about $24. You may end up spending more. At 2-3 bucks a piece, they’re a good deal. A great price for a well functioning mechanical pencil. The alternatives started at about $11 per pencil. I have no problem spending a few dollars on a quality pencil, but none of the other pencils I surveyed looked capaable of handling 4 inch leads and no way I wanted to snap my leads.

The Skilcraft pencils are made of a sturdy black plastic and use a knocker at the top to advance the lead — typical functionality. I’ve been using them for several weeks and they work fine.

The pencil can take 6 total leads, one in the mechanism and 5 more in the chamber. If you have 1.1 mm leads, this is the pencil to get. There’s an Autopoint and a Rite in the Rain …but both of those are stubby, not full-sized pencils. Cost wise, the Skilcrafts have those other ones beat.

Black n’ Red casebound notebooks

I mostly use Black n’ Red casebound notebooks for work notes. For my other writing, I use Moleskines or Rhodia webnotebooks.  Black n’ Reds are excellent general purpose notebooks, with a good look, smooth, opaque acid-free paper. They don’t hold up too well with repeated rough handling, and I’ve seen quite a few lose their spine. For the price, however, there’s nothing better. Amazon sells these notebooks for about 7 bucks in multiple sizes. The 8.25 x 5.875 notebook has sold for as little as 2.99 but event at the 6 dollars that it averages, when available, is a great price. The larger 11.75 X 8.25 size sells for about 7. I have several of each. They work well with all the writing instruments I use, ballpoints, fountain pens, pencils, etc. Highly recommended.

IBM Electrographic Pencil Leads

I bought this box of leads on eBay and then spent many weeks locating and then considering lead holders. The size of the leads is 1.1 mm, which is a, now, no longer well supported lead. If you go to an office supply store, you’ll find the more common .5, .7, and .9 mm leads. 1.1 mm leads dropped from the mainstream at some point.

The reason I bought the leads was that I wanted to try out the IBM Electrographic lead, but could never find a decent, well-priced, well-cared for pencil collection on eBay.  The Electrographic is one of the fondly remembered and admired pencil from yesterday.

A few more words on lead holders. A couple of companies sell 1.1 mm lead holders, like Rite in the Rain , but these are stubby pencils meant to be carried in a pocket. The leads these guys come with are 3 inches long. The Electrographic leads are 4 inches. I didn’t want to risk having to snap off an inch to make the leads I got fit an $11 pencil. I eventually found a modern box of 12 Skilcraft mechanical pencils for 24 dollars, online. I filled up all 12 mechanical pencils with the Electrographic leads and stashed away the original leads (doubt I’ll ever use them).

The leads are very soft and very dark and very smooth. In terms of darkness, it’s as dark as a 7B Mars Lumograph, a German art pencil, but it’s much, much smoother than that. The Lumograph is unbearably squeaky at 7B.  Unfortunately, I can’t readily see my set of Hi-uni pencils to compare the smoothness of a dark one of those with the Electrographic. It’s also a very smudgy pencil (smudgier than the Lumograph, which is formulated not to smudge as much). Can it be used for art? Sure and I should try that on a finished piece. I’ve done some quick drawings but that’s about it in terms of art. I’ve primarily used these for writing notes on notecards. I’ve developed a practice of taking notes for work and these leads stand out very well. Would I use them for writing long form, like for my story writing on notebooks? No. Too smudgy.

Advice, if you need a super dark and smooth pencil line, get these leads on eBay when they turn up. In general, you’ll get a better deal on eBay for old leads, like the 2mm leads that artists use, than what you’ll find anywhere else. Grab what other people overlook!