You think you know pencils? Well clearly you have not met Andy Welfle yet. He is the master of his domain at Woodclinched and one of the triumvirate of hosts of the Erasable Podcast. My thanks to Andy for answering Three Questions.
1. What role do analog tools such as pens, pencils, and paper play in your day to day life?
I work at a big tech company in the Bay Area, so I don’t use analog tools as often as I’d like! But I almost always have a running to-do list on paper, some kind of rough outline of a podcast episode in planning, and if I’m at a conference or meeting, a notebook for notes. I always have at least a pencil and a pocket cahier notebook with me.
2. What are your favorite products you are currently using?
I’m right in the middle of a Field Notes Ambition memo pad right now (I celebrated my Staple Day two days ago!). I absolutely love the gilded edges and the graph paper with a title line. I just bought a fresh batch of Palomino Blackwing 602s, so that’s what I’m using right this minute. I absolutely love my Twist Bullet Pencil from MetalShopCT, too. Besides those, I’m enjoying the Rollbahn notebook I have in my bag. When I need to write something in ink (which, I’ll admit, is often), I’m carrying a green Le Pen and a gorgeous Muji wooden ballpoint pen.
3. What post are you the most proud of on your blog?
One of my favorite posts, and what bring a lot of people to my blog, is a remembrance of Yikes! pencils from the mid–1990s I wrote on a whim back in 2010. It turns out there are a lot of people around my age who only half-remembers these pencils with bright colors and funky shapes.
Looking back, they’re pretty terrible in quality, but as a 11 year-old, I didn’t really care about that. They were so cool to look at. They still hold a special place in my memories.
