11 May 2026 09:03
Episode 237: Pencil Primer, Part 1
We kick off the Pencil Primer — a new series for anyone who wants to start at the beginning of pencildom. This installment traces graphite from the legendary Borrowdale lightning strike of 1564 to Nicolas-Jacques Conté's clay-and-graphite breakthrough during the Napoleonic Wars, plus the Thoreau family's role in standardizing the American pencil grade scale and a tour through HB-to-9B. Plus, Tim's into a Bill Frisell biography, Johnny's writing with a sparkly Narwhal "raspberry cheesecake" pen that looks like, uh, something else, and Andy debuts booklet.lol — a vibe-coded book tracker. Patreon subscribers can watch the video version.
For this episode, we recorded video, available to Patreon subscribers! If you’re a patron, head over to see our faces and visual examples of many of the things we discuss. And if you’re not a patron, join us at any level and you can see this and other supplemental content at any time!
Show Notes & Links
Erasable
Read a transcript of this episode at Erasable Scribe
Erasable Discord invite
Episode references
Podcasts / media
Books
Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer
Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Pencil / stationery / book arts
