The Blackwing of chalks, Fulltouch is beloved of mathematicians who despair now that the manufacturer, Hagoromo, is out of business.

Gizmodo's Sarah Zhang explains this legendary … chalk.

The first thing you notice is a shiny, clear coating on the outside — it feels like a thin layer of enamel.

Caroline Weaver likes pencils so much she has a tattoo of a pencil on her arm. Weaver is the owner of the newly opened C. W. Pencil Enterprise, a preciously tiny retail store in Lower Manhattan.

From Molly Young's NY Times profile:

The store is organized with the space-saving rigor of a ship's cabin.

Welcome to this year's Gift Guide, a piling-high of our most loved items from 2014 and beyond. Books, comics, games, gadgets and much else besides!

Our guest this week is Steve Denton, AKA Dr. Monkey. Steve is an internet scourge, sometime writer, full time smart aleck, and an unrepentant gadfly in the ointment of life.

David Ng and Ben Cohen performed acts of science (realistic ones) in order to determine, once and for all, a true and empirical understanding of which Halloween candies induce the most joy and despair. With more than 40,000 of your votes duly recorded, the results below are indisputably unassailable.

Mark caught up with two of his favorite cartoonists, Gabrielle Bell, who has a new autobiographical book out, called Truth is Fragmentary, and Ruben Bolling, who announced his upcoming series of illustrated kids' books, called Emu Club Adventures.

Our guest Kent Barnes chatted with Dean and me about the magic of Brooks Brothers 346 non-iron shirts, a cooperative board game called Forbidden Island, crowdfunding for fun and swag, and lots more.

I'm happy that Pencils.com is a Boing Boing sponsor because I love their Blackwing pencils. They have a unique ferrule, a removable eraser, and high-quality graphite. Blackwings come in three models and you can select the model that's right for you at Pencils.com's — Read the rest

Glasgow's Popculturepencils makes custom pencils that come in threesomes which spell out fannish messages, For example: "He's dead Jim," "Beam me up Scotty" and "Live long and prosper." Or: "Sedagive?" "What hump?" and "Put the candle back." Very nice: now, put 'em on rebooted Blackwings. — Read the rest

Welcome to this year's Boing Boing Gift Guide, a piling-high of our most loved stuff from 2013 and beyond. There are books, gadgets, toys, music and much else besides: click the categories at the top to filter what you're most interested in—and offer your own suggestions and links!

I want to thank Pencils.com for sponsoring Boing Boing. You might be aware that I love their Blackwing 602 pencil. Recently Pencils.com introduced a new Blackwing model: the Pearl. I have to say this is my favorite Blackwing yet. The graphite is ever-so-slightly softer than the 602, making a rich dark line with very little pressure. — Read the rest

Here is the best website about pencils. The Atlantic's Rebecca J. Rosen sings its praises:

So, the obvious question is, why pencils? What is it about pencils that merit this sort of attention, this level of devotion? Johnny Gamber, the site's creator and leader, answered that for me over email.

Our first-ever stage event is going great today, bringing us into the material plane for the very first time. All day Sunday, we've got all sorts of fascinating presentations, astounding performances, and living curiosities on show at a former Masonic Lodge in San Francisco.

Our thanks to Pencils.com for sponsoring Boing Boing. As you know, Pencils.com makes my favorite pencil, the Blackwing 602. And Blackwing is now more than just a pencil, it's a full creative experience. Premium materials and generations of bookbinding experience come together in each Blackwing notebook to create the next chapter in the Blackwing story, giving you a place to store all of your ideas.

The Mirado Black Warrior pencil is made in the USA from high quality materials, available practically everywhere, and, very importantly, cheap (hey, it’s a pencil, after all).

The Black Warrior’s No. 2/HB graphite is darker and softer than standard No. 2's and has a wax additive to make it smoother. — Read the rest

I use soft pencils and I bear down hard when I write. As a result, I have to resharpen the pencils frequently. A few years ago I came across this pocket-size two-hole pencil sharpener and now swear by it. It produces very sharp points and does so efficiently. — Read the rest

I use Palomino Blackwing 602 pencils every day. The graphite is perfect for me – dark, but not greasy. And it lives up to its motto: "Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed," which is printed on each pencil. I'm delighted that Pencils.com — Read the rest

Faber Castell's Perfect Pencil is described by the ad copy as "the culmination of the history of the pencil", which somehow does not quite prepare one for the eye-watering $240 price tag—or that of the $500 gift set! Don't worry, though: refills are only $50. — Read the rest

This year's Candy Hierarchy provides gentle but firm instruction for your confectionary purchases this Hallowe'en, and serves doubly as a means to evaluate the success of one's own haul of treats. Updated and newly annotated by the authors, this is the indispensable guide to a successful All Hallow's Eve.