High Gloss Pens

The great Blackwing pencil brouhaha

It's unusual for any consumer product to arouse such passion, let alone one that can cost less than 10¢. But then the wood-clinched, eraser-tipped graphite pencil has some extraordinary properties. It has outlasted the marker, typewriter, and dedicated word processor as a means of communication, and survived the arrival of the ballpoint, texting, and the iPad. On websites like Pencil Revolution and Pencil Grinder , enthusiasts obsess over fit and finish, the merits of presharpening, and the properties of erasers.

So you can imagine the uproar that ensued when a sixth-generation pencil manufacturer named Charles Berolzheimer II, who writes under the pen name WoodChuck, used his regular column on Pencils.com to make a special announcement. His company, Berolzheimer wrote, was embarking on a mission to revive what had become known as "the best pencil ever made": the Blackwing 602.

Berolzheimer, whose family began making pencils in Bavaria in the 19th century, owned a company called California Cedar Products, a supplier of pencil wood that also had a small branded pencil business. He built the Pencils.com website to market his pencils, sold under the Palomino brand, and contributed his own column, called " Timberlines ."

His web-supported marketing was successful. Sales reached $150,000 in 2010, and Berolzheimer, a Stanford MBA, believed he could lift them to $2 million to $5 million in the next five years. Intrigued by the challenge of building a new brand in a commodity business, he wondered if he could do so with a high-quality pencil.

Some Timberline readers urged CalCedar to re-create a pencil with a distinctive, wide, adjustable eraser, the Blackwing 602. Introduced in the 1930s by Eberhard Faber, the Blackwing had attracted a cult following. A sleek-looking charcoal-gray pencil with a particularly soft lead and a unique eraser and ferrule (the crimped metal that holds the eraser), it was advertised as requiring only a fraction of the usual physical exertion to produce a mark. HALF THE EFFORT, TWICE THE SPEED was printed in gold letters on its side. The Blackwing counted among its users such writers and artists as John Steinbeck, Stephen Sondheim, and Chuck Jones.

looking for very high gloss pen finish - Woodworking Talk ...

So far the best finish I've been able to do in wood was a pretty nice sheen with Crystal Coat, but not as glossy as the plastic sections of a Wall Street II pen and the finish seemed to dull a bit later. In the last couple of days I tried a BOL/CA finish on a scrap piece of purpleheart and it was pretty nice, but not quite the gloss I was looking for, and I sanded with micromesh both before and after the CA/BOL was applied, but still could see the pores coming through the finish. Warning: The topics covered on this site include activities in which there exists the potential for serious injury or death . WoodworkingTalk.com DOES NOT guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information contained on this site. Always use proper safety precaution and reference reliable outside sources before attempting any woodworking or home improvement task! I just started turning pens about 3 weeks ago and when I started I sanded up to 1000 on the wooden pens,starting at 400,then buffed with white diamond,hut buffing bar ,then carnuba wax and they came out real nice,but now all I use is CA after the finish sanding,then 1000 between Ca coats.I put about 5 coats sanding between coats.I let the CA dry about 2 min between coats,then let the final coat set about 5 min,then wetsand to to 12000 micro mesh,then apply a coat od carnuba wax,and the shine is fantastic,If I do say so myself As for the acrylic I start sanding with about 1500 micro mesh to 12000,then just polish with a paper towel.

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