Superb!
Wow, I didn’t know you nabbed a vintage PILOT Automatic, Patrick. Serious buy! Did you get a good deal on it?
I finally got the black 925 15-05MB, completing my set of 0.5s. I was lucky enough to find it locally, in pretty much the middle of nowhere.
Blick Premier.
A friend from the US came visiting, so now I finally have the pencil I keep recommending to people even though I never tried it.
As expected it’s ”the same” as the Kitera KS-02, buy the slightly differently cut pieces means you can swap tip+grip, but you can’t swap just the tip.
(Kitera tip is prettier, but Blick grip is better)
Grip is slightly better (for me) on the Blick Premier.
The best current true double-knock.
Some are disappointed in the knurling not being aggressive enough, but I find it to be pretty good. It’s a phenomenal value when considering what a similar all steel vintage double-knock will cost you! Or even a Manufactum Druckbleistift, because of the shipping and import fees.
I have this feeling, if a machinist could just ‘deepen’ the concentric grooves on the BLICK a little bit, it would make a world of difference.
It reminded me of my art school days. One of my calligraphy teachers really liked quietly observing everyone from behind while we were practicing. If someone got distracted or started doodling instead of practicing, he would casually smack the back of their head.
This double-ended pen would be extremely dangerous in an art school setting… someone would definitely get hurt…
I’d had a fountain pen friend for some years who worked in the cellular phone industry as a designer, and he had access to people who would do CNC machining. He learned enough where he could use the CNC equipment for a few very small parts projects in making prototypes. He was able to fabricate a couple of nifty parts to substitute on some of his PILOT fountain pens. I imagine he’d be able to have an existing BLICK pencil grip re-etched. I lost touch with him and he dropped off the forum (FPN). And before that happened, I was just transitioning to mechanical pencils (he had zero interest in them).
I did that (grooves where there where none) on the Kitera pictured above. Problem is that it reveals brass, which is not for everyone.
Lovely blue gradient
thanks!
That S3 in the middle—I’m not sure if I should call it a first-generation model—I’ve really been looking for one of those; the lettering is great, as the other colors in that series.
@First_Sail It’s actually part of the pastel color limited series released in 2011, available in ivory, blue, pink, violet, green in 0.5mm, and ivory, blue, pink in 0.3mm.
An actual first gen S3 (2000-200?, have only seen an 2002 one) looks just like a current production S3, but with date of production printed in black on the lead reservoir.
About other S3s in the picture
The yellow one is S3 ‘‘standard’’, with a non-drafting tip and a different knock cap, only available in 0.3 (S20 ‘‘standard’’ was only available in 0.5), produced from 2007-2009.
The purple one is part of the Lamé limited series in 2010, with unique printing fonts and glitters in the lead reservoir, available in 5 colors in 0.5 only.
The white one is part of the 0.4mm limited series in 2021, with no difference from a normal S3 besides the color. There are 2 limited colors, the other being navy blue.
The teal(?) one is a current production normal S3.