Since I first posted my Custom Pencils back in October 2018, I have more than doubled my collection of custom pencils, and this is going from 5 creators to 9 different creators. I still have the largest portion of my collection in metal pencils, and 2/3 of those from Spoke Design.
I decided to put all of the pencils in this post, so many of the write-ups below are copied directly from the first post with only minor edits.
Wood Turned Pencils
The first custom pencils I found online were from Turn-of-the-Century but I later found some more on Etsy. The newest creator contacted me via my website contact page.
Thom Wilson – P205 Wood Turned Teak
Thom has apparently closed his Etsy store.
This is a very nice looking pencil, but it would never make it into my regular pencil rotation. This is no fault of Thom, it is just that I like a thin pencil (look at what I am collecting), and his pencil has a grip diameter of almost 11 mm, much to large for me.
One other issue is that the pencil has been sealed or varnished, but the end-grain on the cap end, does not appear to have been sealed. Either it was not, or the wood absorbed the sealant on the end.
Richard had several pencils in different variety of wood, but I finally decided on the Bloodwood. Again, this is much too thick for my taste (11.25 mm), but in his description of the pencils he writes, “I make the diameter of my mechanical pencils a bit larger that [sic] the original because I find people like the grip better.”
One thing I do like about this pencil is that he copied much of the detail that is on the standard P200 body. He has the groove cut out for the clip to sit in, and he has the grooves at the front along the grip, much like the P200 body.
His pencils normally come in P207, but he will change them out to P205 or P209 upon request.
Dale Parrott – P205 Wood Turned Zebra Wood
This is one of my favorite of the wood pencils. At the time I purchased this, he had two Zebra Wood pencils, but I like the looks of this one the best. Another reason that this is one of my favorites, is the shape mimics the P205, and fits my hand perfectly.
It is also very reminiscent of the Brown Marble P205, in the flow of the lines.
Larry Heuvelman – Matched P205 Wood Turned Zircote
I purchased this set in February of this year. It is a set of “Book Mirrored Zircote (this means they were made out of the same piece of wood, but mirror each other).” My favorite of the two is the top pencil with the major portion of the pencil being the lighter wood.
The next three pencils come from the website Turn-of-the-Century Wood Turning. They offer several types of items including pens and pencils. The pencils use either the P205 or P207 internals, and they usually have a couple of dozen pencils available in several different varieties of wood, and three different styles. I chose one of each style in a different wood each.
P205 Wood Turned High Flare Cocobolo
Turn-of-the-Century carves their flare on the pencils in two different positions. This one is the high flare, set above the end of the pencil for people who like to hold their pencils further up.
I don’t particularly care for the flare, especially this high up, but I wanted to have one of each style of pencil that they make. This is the darkest wood of the pencils I have and is hard to photograph, but it does have some wood grain aspects in a very dark red and brown.
P205 Wood Turned Flare Honduran Rosewood
This flared pencil is made of one of the lighter woods that I have.
P205 Wood Turned Purpleheart
This is my other favorite of the wood turned pencil, and is also the first one I purchased back in January 2017. I really like the purple color to the wood and the tapered shape; it feels really good in your hand.
Resin Turned Pencils
This year is the first time I have purchased one of these pencils. I found this creator via Reddit, when he posted a picture of a pencil he had done for his daughter.
Dan Cannon – P205 Resin Turned Mineral Sea Alumilite
I first saw a pencil like this on Reddit, when Dan posted a picture of a pencil he turned for his daughter. I immediately contacted him about purchasing a resin pencil. He sent me a picture of some resin blanks he had, and I chose one that was similar in color (primarily blue-orange).
This pencil has a nice feel to it, and I really love the blue in the resin. He has a few others currently up on his Etsy site and I am tempted by one or two of them.
Metal Pencils
This time, I have purchased metal pencils from 2 other creators besides Spoke, who I have also purchased many more from.
When I first got on Kickstarter, I backed several makers of pens, but I never found people making pencils out of metal. Finally in 2012, I came upon a Kickstarter by Brian Conti to design a metal pencil based on the Pentel P205. And the collection started there.
Spoke One Dot
As I said above, I had purchased metal pens (and still use one or two), but had never found metal pencils until the Spoke Mechanical Pencil.
According to the Kickstarter, Brian wanted to design a pencil that was not just another round pencil in metal, and used his CNC machine to make this pencil out of aluminum. To make it unique and stand out, he carved the slots out of the sides to give it the look of spokes in a wheel. Since he planned on doing more pencils later, he decided to make a single dot on one side near the cap, and that would be how he designated the pencils, thus the Spoke One Dot was born.
Spoke Solid
As best as I can remember, after the Kickstarter, Brian set up his website and a couple of months later he offered this limited edition pencil, without the cutouts. This one still has the One Dot at the top, but also has “SPOKE” stamped on the side, along with the number of the pencil (20 pieces in the limited run), in my case, “6”. This pencil is made of Gunmetal Gray anodized aluminum.
Spoke Inverse
This pencil was released in 2013, and was a kind of side pencil from the main Spoke line, and thus does not have the Dot designation and is labeled “SPOKE 2013”. This one is made from the guts of the Pentel P225 (the only size available at this time).
It is a good thing that Brian did not decide to try to continue to use the P225, as (at least here in the USA) it was discontinued after the 2012 catalog. Or maybe that is why he did not carry forward with this…
Spoke Two Dot
I missed this pencil when it was first offered in 2013 and only picked it up in 2018 when Brian posted about having a few left in stock.
Aside from the Two Dot designation, the only difference I see in this pencil is that the slots are cut narrower than the One Dot.
Spoke Three Dot Prototype
I picked this one up at the same time as the Spoke Two Dot in 2018. Made of bare aluminum, this pencil marked a complete change of direction for Spoke pencils, and I think it is for the better. I did like the uniqueness of the prior pencils, but they never fit my hand comfortably due to the flare at the tip end.
This pencil, with the straight grip section that flares out larger into the body where the spokes are is, to me, a fantastic design. It just fits my hand very comfortably.
The only real downside to this design, is that it no longer has any flat edges to keep it from rolling off a desk.
As I said, this pencil is a prototype for the…
Spoke Three Dot
In July 2017, Spoke Design released almost the perfect pencil.
It had the right shape and it was Brian’s first pencil released in Titanium (the only way the Three Dot was released). It was perfect, except that he kept having issues making these out of Titanium (“the deep bore was difficult in the Ti as well as the slots”). Thus, only 100 were released, making a limited edition out of what was (I believe) supposed to be an ongoing production.
Spoke 4
P205 8.3 mm Black Anodized Aluminum Grip with Red Anodized Aluminum Body
(First Spoke 4 I purchased)
P205 8.3 mm Shiny Titanium Grip with Blue Anodized Aluminum Body
P205 8.3 mm Stainless Steel Grip with Black Anodized Aluminum Body
P205 8.3 mm Brass Grip with Blue Anodized Aluminum Body & Gold Tip and Cap
P205 8.3 mm Blasted Titanium Grip with Purple Anodized Aluminum Body
(This one normally resides on my desk at work)
P205 9.2 mm Blasted Titanium Grip with Lime Green Anodized Aluminum Body
P205 Shiny Titanium Inverse Grip with Cyan Anodized Aluminum Body
P205 Blasted Titanium Inverse Grip with Gunmetal Grey Anodized Aluminum Body
Released on Halloween (October 31) 2017, the Spoke 4 was a departure in several ways.
First, the name. The dots and Dot designation were dropped for this release, although the 4 is inside a big white dot. Second, this pencil is made of two sections; the grip and the body.
And these two sections, give you a lot of choices. The body currently comes in 7 colors; the grip comes in 3 sizes: 8.3 mm, 9.2 mm & Inverse, and 6 choices of materials/colors (Inverse only available in 2 different Titaniums). Of course it is still available in the three sizes: 0.5 mm, 0.7 mm & 0.9 mm (if you ask very nicely, you can even get it in 0.3 mm). This gives you 294 different combinations to choose from (392 for those who asked nicely).
Spoke 5
In September 2018, the first of these pencils were released.
Spoke 5-2 – Anodized Storm Grey Aluminum
Spoke 5-3 – Anodized Bare Aluminum
Spoke 5-3 (revision 2) – Anodized Gunmetal Grey Aluminum
These pencils feature the return of the Dots on the pencil, but not in the name. They are designated “5” after the Dots and “2” or “3” after the number of slots cut on each side. The smaller grip area (than the Dot 3 or 4) is 9 mm in diameter, but the cap end features the return of 6 flat sides, which will help with rolling on desks. Originally, these were only offered in the two colors above (Storm Grey and Bare Aluminum).
The revision 2 of the Spoke 5-3 added an additional mark to the back side of the pencils (opposite the 5 dots), which you can see in the picture above. If you cannot see it clearly, the symbol above the 5 is the Spoke logo. This was also only offered in 3 colors: Gunmetal Grey, Red and Blue.
Due to being made of aluminum, and such a small cross-section, these are very light, and thus won’t make it into my permanent rotation, as I like heavier pencils.
I do not remember exactly where I found out about Nicholas Hemingway pencils, but in February 2020, I decided to order 2 of these pencils.
P205 Carbon Fiber in Matte finish
P205 Titanium
Out of the UK, Nicholas Hemingway offers several different styles of pencils, including some based on the Pentel P205. He offers them in about 7 different materials (including a Sterling Silver version), but all are made in this straight, plain style that really is not that exciting. But I want to have custom pencils from all of the different creators that I can find, so I decided to get a couple of the higher end materials.
I first saw Lindsay Wilson’s pencils on Reddit last year, then I found his Instagram page and started looking at his handmade pencils. In October 2019, Lindsay released a Kickstarter to launch his Number 9 Pencils made from Pentel P200 pencils. After seeing his stuff on Instagram, I was all in and ordered all 4 styles of pencils.
Number 9 Pencil – Low Taper Plain in Aluminum
Number 9 Pencil – High Taper Grooved in Brass
Number 9 Pencil – Continuous Knurl in Stainless Steel
Number 9 Pencil – Interrupted Knurl in Stainless Steel
All of the above pencils were purchased in 0.5 mm, and I received them in January 2020 and loved them, although my favorite is the Continuous Knurl. It has a great feel in the grip and is heavy enough to satisfy my need for a heavier pencil.
Geometric Bamboo Style Pencil with Brass Cap & Tip
Towards the end of his fulfillment of the Kickstarter in January, Lindsay started playing around with making a bamboo style pencil. A little while later, he made an improvement to the pencil to make each section longer and longer. This pencil is not compatible with a clip, which is fine, since I don’t think a silver clip would look good with the all brass look.
Titanium Pencil
I purchased this pencil and the Geometric Brass pencil above in February 2020, not even a month after receiving the Number 9 Pencils. Because I liked the Continuous Knurl on the Number 9 Pencil, I asked for that style when I placed my order.
Now, I do own a bunch of other pencils, both Pentel and other, so when I saw some of Lindsay’s work on other pencils, I decided to order a non-P200 pencil before he ramped up for the Kickstarter.
Pentel PG5 in all Stainless Steel
Lindsay does not do this style of pencil (all exposed pieces in SS) any more, as some of the pieces take too long to do and he is too busy now doing other pencils. I believe he will still do the body, but will use the original PG5 pieces for the end.
This is my everyday pencil I use at home.
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