The Erasable Podcast

Today, we’re talking with our friend and fellow podcaster Harry C. Marks about a post he made in the Erasable Facebook group about companies that release quarterly subscriptions — how can they sustain these constant reinterpretations of notebooks and pencils? Are their tweaks and reinventions a response to their users wants and needs? Or are users reacting to the constant new releases? A political...

Tonight, we get to talk to someone responsible for designing pencils! Perhaps you have marvelled at the swelt Bridge Pencils or the rare Jumbo Hex pencils from Hester & Cook. Andy and Johnny get to talk to Music City-based Courtney Cochran, the talented designer behind Hester & Cook’s stationery.

2016 is fast fading and might go down as the year that erased the most celebrities. But not everything that happened this year sucked. We got another year of Blackwing Volumes and Field Notes, and Write Notepads released their membership to wide acclaim. Tune in to wave goodbye to 2016 with Andy, Johnny, and Tim, as they rap about their favorite pencil and stationery items of 2016.

It’s that time of year, and we’re all thinking not only about the gifts which we would like to receive -- but also the gifts we would like to give. To that end, Andy, Johnny, and Tim are joined by Caroline and Caitlin from CW Pencil Enterprise, to talk about suggestions for holiday giving.

Tonight, Tim is back after paternity/Cubs leave. He, Andy, and Johnny update their top fives for the first time in almost a year. Check out the cross-overs and the arguments about which pencil is Top Dog Number One.

Tim is taking a bit of paternity leave, in order to welcome his daughter into the world. Andy and Johnny are joined tonight by Less Harper, artist, art therapist, and pencil hero. We’ll be discussing composition books, as a segue into National Novel Writing Month, which starts today. Tune in, and compose yourself accordingly.

Today, we’re excited to be the first to cover the birth of a brand-new pencil, the Baron Fig Archer. To celebrate, we’ve invited Joey Cofone and Adam Kornfield, the founders, onto the show to celebrate! We get graphitey and gritty with them as we discuss the company’s origins, its future and dig into the details of the Archer.

This fall, the quarterly editions of three of our favorite brands all came out within a week. Join Andy, Johnny, and special guest Chris Rothe of Baltimore’s own Write Notepads & Co. as we discuss the latest Field Notes Lunacy Edition, Blackwing Volume 344, and of course Write Pads’ Royal Blue Edition. Fall in!

For an in-between weeks episode, your three brave hosts are joined by intrepid hostess Caitlin, recording from the CW Pencils Graphite Mines with Andy while he's in New York City. Tonight, we tackle yellow pencils, and not the cowardly kind. Find out if any of these canary-colored beasts are worth your time, money, consideration, and sharpener wear.

Tonight, your hosts take you on a tour of the Back-To-School season of 2016. We run through our favorite back-to-school supplies of this year. If you could go back in time a month, this episode might make your life easier. As it is, you can just reminisce about your frenzied trip down the BtS aisle at Target, dumping crates of ten-cent composition notebooks and brightly striped Ticonderogas into y...

Bleistifte! We’ve discussed Japanese pencils and American pencils at length, but we’ve seemingly overlooked products from that great pencil-producing country, Germany. Join Andy, Johnny, and Tim as they discuss a bit of the history of pencil-making in Germany and what makes German pencils so special. Ausgezeichnet!

Have you ever wondered where those funny pencils with a #2 and a fraction pencils fit into the hardness/softness scale of pencils? These are your #2 1/2s, your F grades. Today, we explore that funny little half-grade that exists between HB and H, between #2 and #3. Plus a Snapchat update from Tim, gifts for Johnny, and a plea to Blackwing from Andy.

Johnny's not with us today, but he has a good excuse. Instead, we're honored to be joined by Caitlin Elgin, a genuine Pencil Lady from Pencils.com. We're just talking about our Fresh Points, including a discussion about the new Blackwing Volume 56 (for our 56th episode — coincidence?!), Write Notepad's edition, an update to the CW Pencil shop and a shipment of bright, shiny Indian pencils.

There have been some great releases from the USA in the last few weeks, and we are waiting to see what Blackwing has cooking up for us. While we wax both critical and hopeful on these and other topics, we are joined tonight by Slate’s June Thomas — back herself from other shores, where the stationery getting is good. Tune in for a Worldwide Pencil Party like no other. Tonight’s episode is sponsore...

After more than 50 episodes, we finally tackle our namesake: erasers. We're joined by our good friend and Veteran Eraser Destroyer Ana Reinert of The Well Appointed Desk (and now also of the Art Supply Posse podcast!). Listen in as we discuss aspects of erasers that we look for and some running-down of our favorite erasers. This episode is sponsored by CW Pencil Enterprise, purveyors of superior g...

Get out your Stars and Stripes, and get to wavin’. Tonight, we are presenting the second episode in which we explore pencils made in the Land of the Free. Stay tuned to find out how to save 15% on pencils by a certain American brand we know and love with tonight’s sponsor.

The butt. The tip. The non-business end. In Episode 52, we are discussing the backends of pencils -- those colorful dips, those precise plastic caps, the naked rears, and the eraserless ferrules. Join your most Up Front hosts as we discuss the seemingly meaningless end of the pencil. We also rap about the Pencil of the Episode: a Swiss neon pencil from sponsor CW Pencil Enterprise.

We’ve hinted. We’ve teased. Now we finally get Phat and talk about wide-bodied pencils. What are they good for? What are the best? How old can we be and still use them? Listen in, and find out about all this and more.

Tonight, experience our revamped Pencils 101, with some basic — and not so basic — information and strategies for Your Best Pencil Practices. On the occasion of our fiftieth episode, Andy, Johnny, and Tim are proud to present: What To Look For In a Pencil.

We're delving deep into the world's greatest writing utensil: pens. Later, Brad Dowdy of the vastly superior Pen Addict podcast joins us to give his tips on selecting a pen that is better than whatever janky pencil you're using.

Tis the season of spring quarterly releases! Andy, Tim, and Johnny are back to talk about the newest releases from Field Notes, Blackwing and Write Notepads & Co. Tune in for a uniquely graphitilicious take on some of your favorite limited releases. Plus, international pencil aficionado t-shirts and a fantasy stationery baseball league. This episode is sponsored by Write Notepads & Co, now with a...

Johnny and Andy help Tim through some issues when he admits he has too many concurrent notebooks going at once. They talk about pocket-notebook-only systems, journaling, using one main notebook or several, and plenty of other directions. Plus, Andy tells the tale of the Aaron Draplin art show in San Francisco and of his upcoming travels to London. This episode is sponsored by MetalShop and the Tim...

Sometimes you buy a piece of stationery, full of high hopes, and it annoys, disappoints or infuriates you. This week, Tim, Johnny and Andy engage in a smear campaign (just in time for Super Tuesday!) and talk about their least favorite pieces of pencil gear. Join in for our least positive episode yet.

Tonight’s guests need no introduction. Caitlin Elgin and Caroline Weaver run CW Pencil Enterprise, the online and real-world Mecca for pencil lovers on the Lower East Side of NYC. After spending some time in Frankfurt, Germany at Paperworld, a huge trade show for stationery shops, they have returned to these shores and have agreed to join us tonight for the entire episode. After the show, go liste...

The guys have a short episode this week with just some fresh points, with a little baseball talk thrown in at the beginning for good measure. We’re discussing Field Notes — the DDC Dead Prints and the Chicago edition — as well as a glossary of pencil terminology stemming from our show and beyond.