Can you believe this is the 1000th post on The Pen Addict? When I started this blog almost four years ago, I wouldn't have believed you if you told me I would be crossing this posting threshold today, if ever. It has been a fun ride, and I look forward to what the next 1000 posts bring.
THANK YOU for reading and making all of this possible!
One of the things I always try to be is transparent, and in that vein, I have to say up front that I am far from an expert in the realm of woodcase pencils. There are many people that know much more than me in this area, and I often defer to their judgement when asked about these wonderful, yet sometimes overlooked, writing instruments.
The Palomino Blackwing 602 is such a famous and well known pencil that I wanted to do the review justice. The more I thought about it and the more I talked to my Twitter friends about it, I realized I should just tackle it the same way I would any other review I have done on the site. That is, review it how I personally would use this product on a daily basis.
My first challenge with the Blackwing was how to sharpen it. Not having a need for a good quality sharpener before, I headed to my daughters room to use the electric one she uses for her colored pencils. Blasphemy, I know, but I had to roll with what I had. One I had a nice, sharp point on the pencil I was ready to put it to the test.
The first thing that struck me as unique about the Blackwing was how smooth the lead is. I have only ever used “normal” #2 type pencils before, and when writing with them it is almost like you can feel the grain and hear the scratch of the graphite. Not so with the Blackwing. They are smooth and quiet, and honestly a completely different writing experience.
I also like how there was no difference in lead color depending on the sharpness or dullness of the tip area I was writing with. It was very consistent, and in relation to that, the tip held its point better than I recall on most pencils.
The only thing I wasn’t crazy about with the Blackwing was the eraser. The design and replacability of it are great, but it just doesn’t erase that well in my testing. I think most hardcore users will have a favorite stand alone eraser handy, so this is by no means a deal breaker.
If I choose to review more woodcase pencils is my experience with them going to be skewed by how much I enjoy using the Blackwing 602? Probably so. I have been using it on a near daily basis, and have no plans on stopping anytime soon.
(This is a guest post by Brian Draghi. You can follow Brian on Twitter @Sketchscape)
Thanks to Brad and Jetpens for sending over this sample highlighter to review. I have used several different highlighters over the years but I have never used an erasable highlighter before. I was quite interested to see how well this type of highlighter erased its own highlighted areas. Unfortunately the Uni-ball Propus Blue Highlighter was a complete disappointment on several levels with an erasing ability that was less than ideal.
I really wanted to like this highlighter from Uni-ball but there are several brands of highlighters that aren't even erasable that are better than this particular one. The first strike against this highlighter is the horrible erasing ability where the highlighted area is still present after erasing. Using copy paper shows the best results but leaves a faded streak of highlight after erased. Marks on card stock can't even be erased without much difference to the original highlighted area. Trying to erase an area immediately after highlighting just smears the ink across the page. Anything written down is slightly faded in the process; highlighted ballpoint pens and pencils react the worst to erasing. Erasing any type of highlighted text in books is quite pointless since it nearly rubs out and destroys the words in the process.
The second issue is the very muted color that is produced from this highlighter. I prefer to have my highlighted areas to be bold and bright so that it stands out, instead a very dull line is produced. The final issue revolves around the rather slow drying time for any highlighted area. When it does dry, it seems to have a consistency of watercolor where you can see gaps of white space left over. It's even worse when you press down the highlighter too hard because it can tend to really saturate the space. Forget using this highlighter on any type of glossy surface such as magazines and glossy card stock since there will just be a nice pool of ink on the surface that will never seem to dry.
Overall
There's not many positive things I can say about the Propus. It has a nice compact style with a decent clip but there are too many issues with this highlighter to use on a regular basis. I could even set the lack of erasing aside if the highlighted color wasn't so muted and distorted in consistency. I can't say anything about the other colors available in this line but the blue is definitely the one that needs to be avoided. There are better highlighters available that outperform the Uni-ball Propus highlighter and choosing another erasable alternative would be ideal. For the non-erasable highlighter choice I would recommend the Sharpie Accent Liquid Highlighter.
Rating
1 out for 5
Cons
- Horrible erasing ability
- Doesn't work on glossy or card stock materials
- Erases highlighted book text
- Very muted color
- Dries very slowly
Pros
-Compact style
-Works decent on pigment ink pens
