Zebra Pen & Pencil
Sales list item, a notice that this was a Zebra Pen & Pencil on a back to school sale from a certain pervasive retail giant, right at $20. I wondered. Flipped over to amazon, and looked for the same set, just under $15, with prime delivery.
Old memories surfaced, and I refer back to the time I first got attached to a certain type of mechanical pencil, and when I bought my first Mont Blanc pen for myself. I used both, have used both, for the following years, sometimes a little less than I used to, but who cares?
The gold standard for pencil lead was 0.5 mm. Just about every mechanical pencil at the time was that size with larger barrel lead-holders available. I settled on 0.7 mm because it fit with my art and my own style of note-taking, more than three decades now distant. It’s my preference. So seeing the Zebra Pen & Pencil and finding out they were — purported — stainless steel bodies and my favored 0.7 mm diameter lead? Sure.
The slightly larger pencil lead size renders better under my ham-fisted approach to use. The price differential, right at 25%, amused me and helped prompt the sale. dueling retail giants with dissimilar formats, and is the pen mightier than the sword?
In this lifetime, I’ve longed for a sword to carry, with some of my stereotypical Texan friends frequently armed with a “hunting knife” that is close to the same size as a Roman Infantry Broadsword. The movie depiction of the epée or a foil, often depicted on Shakespeare’s stage? Those look like fun, too. I’m forever reminded of a comment from a short, round woman (vendor at an event) and how she chased an intruder from her apartment while brandishing her mediaeval sword of some ilk or another.
Maybe Scottish Claymore taller than her?
I’d run. I’d run fast and far.
Zebra Pen & Pencil
“The pen is mightier than the sword” commentary got me thinking about my various collection and one-time search for the perfect pocket knife. I wound up with a series of single-blade, liner-lock quasi-traditional clip blade knives, folded into a handle with bone scales. High-carbon steel which means, not stainless. Usually, from being around the knife and steel set, I try to avoid real stainless, and in this situation, before I got the Zebra Pen & Pencil set, I thought that the barrels might feel insubstantial. Buyer’s remorse?
However, in hand, the pen and pencil set feels reasonably good, with special nod towards the machine-cut grip at the end, near the tip. I’m sure the pen freaks have a name for it. Works for me, and feels good. New toys, and I’m happy.
The stainless barrel itself feels little light, but the rest of the tool seems substantial enough. It’s also just a tad bit thicker than the usual pens and lead-holders I’ve been carrying and using, with the exception being their standard Sharpie, but other than that? These are a nice complement to the hand tools.
Nice presentation, too, should’ve done an “unboxing” video, but seriously, it’s just a pen and pencil set, and relatively inexpensive one at that. Perfect for back to school. Or, at least, nice enough but not one I would worry about losing, if it came to that.
Things happen.
All of this, because I was fascinated by price, and an ad.