A Bit of Spice and Herb

Pen spinning is an activity that is becoming a very popular way for students to make boring classes interesting. As Wikipedia puts it, “Pen spinning is a form of object manipulation that involves the deft manipulation of a writing instrument with one’s hands.” Students start by learning a few simple tricks:

the Sonic -The pen is normally held between the middle and ring finger and is moved so that it ends up between the middle and index. The move is done by revolving the pen in a conical motion behind a finger .

the Thumb-around – This trick is performed by pushing a pen by one’s middle finger (the index finger is also used to make it look smoother in a combination of moves) so to initiate the pen to spin around one’s thumb a single time, then catching it in between the thumb and index finger.

the Charge – The Charge does not involve spinning the pen around any fingers or any body parts, rather, the pen is manipulated in such a way with two fingers, that it seems to spin in a very fast motion, in a conical path. Its conic path and its speed thus create an illusion of the charging motion of the pen.

Once a student has mastered these tricks, they can move on to more advanced tricks, and eventually put these tricks together in what is known as a ‘combo’ where several different tricks are performed one after another smoothly. But all this is much more difficult to perform using a normal mechanical pencil or a simple yellow pencil. Pen-spinners have invented several ‘pen mods’, or pen modifications in order to make pen-spinning easier. the essence of pen modding is to create a pen which is heavily weighed down on both ends so that it is easier to spin. Common beginner mods can be created using common bic ballpoint pens while more complex and advanced mods sometimes require several different parts and a lot of cutting, sanding and taping. While its primary purpose is to aid pen-spinning, modding has turn into a popular activity in itself. Students use several different materials to build cool-looking mods more for the pleasure of it rather than the actual spinning. Though it started off as something students would do when they were bored in class, pen-spinning has turned into a popular activity and to some people, a sport. The number of pen spinning websites and forums have increased since 2006, opening up more regional boards from France, Germany, China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. Tournaments are organized on the Internet and live tournaments are held in Japan and Korea.