52pencils - a pencil blog
52 pencils - that will be a pencil a week for a year then…
Blog entries
Index
Recent posts
- YPO February 17, 2025
- Ilasa Antillana September 28, 2024
- A Faber Janus 2160 red/blue
- A Johann Sindel 888 ‘SOMBRAS’ (which translates as ‘shades’) - for a later post…
- and the ‘ILASA 4000 Antillana No.2’, which we will discuss here.
- Bismark HB June 11, 2024
- Kita-Boshi 9500 August 09, 2023
- Calepino July 12, 2019
- Anonymous triangular pencil July 10, 2019
- The Ikea pencil July 01, 2019
- Faber Castell Dessin 2000 June 23, 2019
- Caran d'Ache Swiss Wood June 17, 2019
- Cretacolor 160 fine art June 08, 2019
- CDT Item 17 May 27, 2019
- Barcelo May 19, 2019
- Maped Blackpeps May 13, 2019
- Lyra Art Design 669 May 09, 2019
- Viarco desenho 250 HB April 25, 2019
- maat pencil April 14, 2019
- Caran Grafwood March 26, 2019
- Caran technalo March 11, 2019
- Apsara March 03, 2019
- Our Price February 24, 2019
- Letts diary pencil February 24, 2019
- Staedtler Wopex I February 12, 2019
- BIC Evolution Black February 04, 2019
- Staples Proffesional January 26, 2019
- Papermate Mirado Black Warrior January 20, 2019
- Stabilo Othello 282 January 11, 2019
- Dixon Ticonderoga December 22, 2018
- Kirin ruler pencil December 09, 2018
- Field Notes December 09, 2018
- Berol Handwriting November 24, 2018
- General Cedar Pointe November 10, 2018
- Faber Catell 1111 November 03, 2018
- Lyra natura October 27, 2018
- Staedtler 133-9 October 20, 2018
- Chapman Stylrite October 14, 2018
- Cumberland Coral October 06, 2018
- Your Finest September 29, 2018
- Derwent Graphic September 22, 2018
- Mirado shorthand September 15, 2018
- Stabilo Giraffe September 10, 2018
- bic evolution September 03, 2018
- Caran d'ACHE 777 August 25, 2018
- Stabilo Swano 4906 August 18, 2018
- Berol Mirado (classic?) August 13, 2018
- Faber Castell Goldfaber 1221 August 13, 2018
- Cumberland Graphite August 07, 2018
- Stabilo Opera July 30, 2018
- Staedtler Noris Eco July 25, 2018
- Helix Oxford July 09, 2018
- Stabilo Swano 307 June 06, 2018
- Staedtler mars lumograph May 06, 2018
- Hi-uni May 03, 2018
- Staedtler Tradition 110 April 23, 2018
- Tombow mono 100 April 16, 2018
- Palomino Blackwing 602 April 07, 2018
- Blackwing 602
- Blackwing Pearl
- Blackwing
- Faber Castell Grip 2001 April 02, 2018
- Faber Castell 9000 March 26, 2018
- Tombow 2558 March 17, 2018
- Perfect Pencil DESIGN March 10, 2018
- Photo resolution March 06, 2018
- Tombow 8900 B March 03, 2018
- Mitsubishi 9800 HB February 25, 2018
YPO generic office pencil
I don’t know where this pencil came from. I think it may have been one of my ‘finds’ - and by that I mean literally, found it, possibly in the street near where I live. There is a school not that far from here, and I won’t be surprised if this was dropped by a schoolchild.
The company
As far as I can tell this is another generic pencil from the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation, now known simply as ‘YPO’. This is not the first of these pencils I’ve acquired and used, and this one behaves similarly. See:
In summary, it is not a bad pencil. I’ve used it continuously at my desk for a couple of months and it has never annoyed me or been replaced. Ultimately, possibly still one of the cheapest useable pencils you will find - 144 pencils for £6.49 - 4.5pence per pencil!
The pencil itself
The pencils is a pretty standard cheap pencil. It’s not bad though - the paintwork is pretty smooth and the wood pretty ‘clean’. This is not a Japanese cedar pencil though - some vanilla white wood for this one.
I’ve had no issues sharpening it, and no snapping lead etc. The write is reasonably smooth with a little bit of grip (not a Blackwing..), and no anomolous grit!
Sourcing
As noted, unless you happen to work or visit somewhere that has these as their standard pencil, or you happen to find one in the street, then your only source is probably directly from YPO.
Ilsa 4000 Antillana
Earlier this year we had a trip in the North of Spain. That gave me the opportunity to do a little bit of pencil hunting…
I identified a couple of potential ‘targets’ to shop at. I ended up at Jugueteria RIVAS in Salamanca, which although translates as ‘toy store’, is more of a school and art supplies shop.
They had the usual european pencils out front and centre - the Staedtler and maybe some Faber. The very helpful lady behind the counter had little English, and we had little Spanish, but we muddled through and I managed to explain I had a small pencil collection and was looking for anything more unusual. She turned around and reached back to some dusty shelves behind the counter, to where I suspect the old stock from pre-Staedtler days was still sat, and haulted out a handfull of unusual pencils - yay!
From that stash I purchased (and, I wish I’d purchased probably two of each, but alas I did not):
The company
I can find very little out about the company ‘ILASA’. There are a few hints on the internet, and they point to them either being in Argentina or Barcelona. I’d have to hedge towards Barcelona here, as I’m not quite sure how an Argentinian pencil would end up in the middle of Salamanca.
The pencil itself
The pencil, is shall we say, a bit rough. That is, in manufacture. In fact, I think it is the roughest pencil I have in my whole collection. Fit and finish is a bit rudimentary, and I think one half of the wooden blanks in my sample was a particularly bad sample, and we can see a strong colour variation down the blank (possibly a mix of heart and sap wood?), and some tearing where they meet and have been through the cutting machine. Not good!
If we take a look at the end we can also see the lead is not centred very well.
So, overall, this is not up there in the quality stakes externally. I will also note, being a round bodied pencil, it has a tendency to try and Lemming itself off of the table!
How does it write
Right, let’s get her sharpened up…
First impressions - wow, this is a hard pencil. No way is this a No.2 (HB). I’d be putting this a good few notches up the H scale - at least 2H, maybe more.
Having said that, it writes satisfactorily on the pad, making a reasonably dark mark. It’s not gritty or scratchy, so the lead is actually not bad. Being so hard, I have barely had to sharpen this pencil over the space of maybe 7 weeks of use at my desk. It’s not annoyed me too much, but it is just a bit hard for my daily use.
Sourcing
Well, I don’t have a receipt, but I think I only paid a euro or two for this. Having a look on the internet, there are one or two Ilasa pencils popping up here and there, and then I did find a set of 12 ‘Antillana’s on one Spanish website for E20 - in fact, I think that might also be from a seller called ‘RIVAS’, so could be from the same source! Good luck if you go hunting though.
Bismark HB
Well, it’s been quite some time since I’ve posted an entry. Predominantly as I’d run down my pencil collection to test, not been using them as much as I used to, and not been anywhere to naturally ‘top up’ my swag.
These I think I found in a ‘Chinese superstore’ in Spain - you know, one of those places that does everything you could think of. I’d read it was a fun place to stock up on things for you Camino trip (no, we were not doing a Camino trip!), and thought I might find some unusual nick-nacks there. This one is called ‘Popular Oriental bazaar’ , and is located in Burgos.
The company
On the back of the packaging it identifies the main producer as ‘Poessa, S.A.’. Going to www.poessa.com brings up the site of a large manufacturing and distribution company. One of the things they do is stationery, and Bismark is one of their brands. Sadly it looks like you need to be a distributor to bring up their product pages.
On the back of the package it does however say the country of manufacture is China - so, no original Spanish made pencil here…
The pencil itself
On initial inspection the pencil looks just like a normal ‘yellow’ cheap pencil. Well, it is yellow, and it is cheap! Picking the pencil up, the wood looks like some sort of cheap generic white wood, and is definitely not cedar for instance. The paintwork is rather clean and neat. It does have a somewhat plasticky feel to the paint though. A little like you find on those ‘all plastic’ pencils, but this is definitely paint over wood. Its not unpleasant, or sticky or anything though.
The pencils come sharpened. It might not be so obvious in the photo, but the sharpening is slightly concave. It’s not a bad out of the box sharpening.
How does it write
You know, I was expecting these to feel like some standard cheap pencil, a bit scratchy with the occasional bit of grittiness. How wrong could I be. They are smooth, they are dark. There is no scratchiness whatsoever. They are just slightly waxy in their feel. If you’d just handed me this and asked me to guess where it was from I’d probably go for Japanese. These are actually pretty good pencils, and I’ve been happily using one as my daily desk pencil for maybe 3 months now, with not a single complaint. In fact, I quite look forward to picking the pencil up each day. And, it seems to be wearing well as well, holding its point well.
Given the price I paid (0.90 Euros for 4 pencils, so 22.5 EuroCents each), these have got to be the best bang-per-cent pencil I have ever acquired, hands down! If I’d known, I probalby would have taken a whole handfull!!
Sourcing
Well, I found mine in a cheap shop in Spain. It looks like they are distributed by a Spanish manufacturer, so finding them in Spain is probalby easiest, but I do see them listed here and there on Amazon, but didn’t investigate if they are imports or not etc.
Kita-Boshi 9500
The company
The Kita-Boshi Pencil Company (*Warning, that website looks to be in Japanese only!) is a small family owned Pencil company in Japan. A funny thing happened to me here - a friend of mine sent me a link to a nice YouTube video showing a Pencil production line that I find rather mesmorising - and it turns out to be of the Kita Boshi factory. I had a search of this blog and realised I’d not done any reviews of them, but then to my surprise found I had a whole box waiting in my stash!
Thus, after a rather long break from the blog, it was time to break out a new pencil!
The pencil itself
Apparently I had a whole box of them…
These are well finished pencils. A nice very dark ‘British Racing Green’ type colour. No real ripples or blemishes, and the embossing on both sides of the pencil is fairly crisp.
The pencil bodies are cedar, and so far I’ve had no issues with sharpening them. Well, apart from the point is slightly off centre, when I sharpened my first one, but I think that is more a consequence of my sharpener than the pencil. It’s and odd thing - I have a feeling that once you have started to sharpen a pencil off centre then it is quite hard to correct in later sharpenings. At least that is the experience I have with my X-acto L. I wonder if it is something to do with the sharpening hole being fractionally bigger than the pencil. It would not take much to make the off-centre point obvious (by looking at the encircling cedar ‘shoreline’).
Looking at the end of the pencil though, the lead is nicely centred.
How does it write
This is one smooth pencil. It writes very well. Well enough to have now been my on-desk everyday user for the last 4 months. The feel is smooth, but not waxy. The line is very dark and crisp. The point lasts a reasonable time. I can happily recommend these.
Sourcing
These may not be the easiest pencils to source in the U.K. It looks like I got mine from Choosing Keeping err, nearly five years ago! They appear to have 2B at the moment, but I got a box of HB, for a very reasonable price of £12.50 - that’s only just over £1 each! A bargain.
Calepino
There I was, looking for a pencil to review for the week, and having a bit of a surf to see if there were some easily available that I did not have, when not only did I find there was a pencil from ‘Calepino’ that I did not think I’d reviwed, but I also found I already had a pack of them in my stash!
The company
The Calepino company itself is really a maker of notebooks (the paper kind), but they also do a pencil to go with them.
Calepino do not make the pencils themselves, but have them made by the only pencil manufacturer left in France - La Compagnie Francaise des Crayons.
The pencil itself
The pencils are nice. They are a sort of eggshell black/grey finish, unsharpened, with a white eraser:
The text is pretty reserved and classy. Hey, no barcode!
They are made from Pulay wood. Not a wood I’ve heard of, or can easily locate - possibly that is the French spelling for Pulai.
How does it write
The pencil, writes well. A good dark line. Slightly scratchy, but not too bad, and I like a bit of resistance to my pencils. What did strike me was the wear resistance of the lead - very good. Did not have to sharpen the pencil often at all.
Sourcing
These are available from various internet supplies. They are not cheap - you are looking at £10 for 6 pencils, so well over £1 each. But, they are quite nice, and reasonably unique.
Anonymous ‘S’ logo triangular pencil
I’m running short of pencils from my stock to review! I had a dig through my unreviewed stash, and came up with this. It is a reasonably classy looking triangular pencil with a single character logo on it - but, I don’t know where I got it, and I don’t know whose logo it is.
The company
Well, that is the thing isn’t it - I’m not sure. About the closest logo If you look at the logo sideways then it very much looks like a stylised capital ‘S’. The nearest I could come up with from a surf was, it is very nearly the same as the Suzuki logo, but, not quite.
I have a strong-ish feeling maybe this was a pencil from a hotel chain. But, I can’t find any other clues or evidence.
The pencil itself
The pencils is quite nice. A nice triangular shape, with a good and fairly heavy gloss
black finish:
The log is a single gold embossed item on the end. I think it is an ‘S’, which you can see if you hold the pencil vertically.
The end cap is nicely rounded.
How does it write
When I started off with the pencil it seemed somewhat variable. It was as if the lead had some smooth parts and some scratchy parts. The more I used it though the smoother it seemed to become.
As the week went on, using the pencil was OK. It didn’t annoy me much, and I was quite happy using it.
Sourcing
Well, given I have no idea where it came from or who manufactured it, nope, I have no idea where you might source one.
title here
The ubiquitous Ikea pencil. If you’ve been to Ikea, you probably have one hiding in a drawer somewhere…
The company
Well, it’s Ikea, what can I say. If you don’t know of Ikea, well, you can always read the wikipedia article.
The pencil itself
What is there to say - it is a short, standard diameter, unfinished wood pencil.
It does not have a stated hardness, but let’s presume it is an ‘average HB’. Given the pencils natural short length, I struggled to use the pencil for anything but the shortest scribbling, so I dug out my ‘pencil extender’, normally reserved for using up the stubs of well loved pencils.
How does it write
Not bad. A touch hard, but it didn’t wear down too fast, and left a decent mark. For a ‘free’ pencil (and, although the pencils are free in the stores, it is not clear to me if they really are free to take away, or if technically that is a little bit or robbery :-)
You might think, being a pencil, these little things are predominantly used for writing with. But, there is almost a sub-culture around re-using Ikea pencils for purposes they were not originally intended for - a chair, a pencil holder (what else!), it has been mentioned in the BMJ, and the list no doubt goes on. One interesting thing that caught my eye relevant to some other work I’m doing at the moment is that it may be the exact same size as hex screwdriver bits…
Sourcing
Err, well, you get them from … Ikea! Funnily enough, I don’t think you can purchase the. You can buy a set of coloured pencils, but not ‘the’ Ikea pencil. So, you are just going to have to go visit a store and ‘liberate’ some. You know though, it is amazing what you can buy on ebay - yep, you can buy 10 un-used Ikea pencils from an ebay seller for £2.50.
Next time you are in, near or passing an Ikea, go, get at least one, and give it a try.
title here
Here we have a Faber Castell Dessin 2000 HB.
The company
Faber we have covered before, it being one of the more common pencil manufacturers here in the UK. Fabers website says they make over 2.3 billion wood cased pencils a year. Prolific I guess would be a fitting word.
The pencil itself
The pencil has a reasonably finish, with a fairly complex paint job, with its black and red stiping with gold accents.
The tip came reasonalby sharp, and in fact iirc I used the pencil directly for a couple of days before sharpening it, which is quite rare.
The tail is domed and painted:
and of course there is the obligatory barcode on the other side.
Apparently this Dessin is the pencil just below the Faber 9000 series in the quality stakes.
How does it write
Although the pencil is marked as a 2 1/2 HB, to me it feels much more like an H grade. This is a pretty firm lead. It writes fairly well, and wears fairly well. Despite the hardness I didn’t find myself thinking the line was too light.
Overall, not a bad pencil. I was fairly happy using this through the week.
Sourcing
They seem available from specialist pen/pencil suppliers for under £1 each, or you can get a pack of 12 for around £8. So, available, but maybe not in your local shop.
Caran Swiss Wood 348
Here we have a high end fairly unique pencil, that rather than being made from Cedar as you might expect, is produced from Beech, sourced from the Glovelier region in Jura.
The company
We’ve covered Caran d’Ache before - a high end Swiss art manufacturer.
The pencil itself
The pencil is ‘bare wood’ with a glowing red end, apart from, I suspect it is not actually bare wood, but probably coated in a matt-ish clear varnish. Key to note, is the pencil is made from Beech, but, it is not the color I would expect from run of the mill Beech, which would be a fairly light cream maybe with a touch of pink. No, these are dark brown:
The pencil came reasonably sharpened
and has a very distinctive bright red tip, with the swiss flag on the end!
and just for completeness, there is the barcode on one of the other sides.
Something else interesting about this pencil, is its smell! It is really really spicy. I would say it smells of curry - curry leaf, curry plant. My wife says it smells burnt, and I can see that - maybe a touch of burnt caramel. And I don’t mean just a little, it is quite a strong smell. Apart from Cedar pencils smelling quite nice, I think this is the only pencil so far I have reviewed that has had a distincive smell.
And, one last thing. Much like the Caran Grafwood, these pencils are a touch larger than a normal pencil. Just enough that they don’t fit in my normal preferred longpoint sharpener. Nor my other long point sharpener. So, I had to resort to using one of the few sharpeners the pencil would fit in, which gave me a fairly ‘normal’ point. If only I could get a nice long point on these…
How does it write
Well, this might just be one of the best pencils I’ve used. It has an excellent smooth writing feel, the lead is hard and wears very very well, and the line is really nice and dark. I’ve have to try and cast my mind back, but my suspicion is that these will be using the same lead composition as the Grafwoods. An excellent pencil.
Sourcing
These are not necessarily the easiest pencils to obtain. Caran being a well known company, I suspect you will be able to find them, it might just take some effort.
iirc, I got mine from Choosing Keeping.
Price wise, these are not cheap pencils - we are looking at £3.50-4 per pencil.
Cretacolor 160
Here we have a Cretacolor 160 fine art pencil. It was not until I went and looked up who and what Cretacolor were, that I found this is of Austrian origin.
If I remember correctly, I picked this up whilst browsing around Stuart R. Stevens art and gilding shop in London - what an excellent artists supply shop, stuffed full of all sorts of materials and implements. If you are passing that way, I’d recommend dropping in.
The company
Cretacolor are an Austrian art company specialising in fine art equipment. The company started in 1863.
The pencil itself
The 160 is listed as a fine art pencil. Normally I’d expect that to mean either a slightly chunkier pencil and almost always a slightly thicker lead - but in this case, that seems not to be. This looks and feels like a fairly standard writing pencil in its dimentions and build.
The finish on this pencil is really rather nice. A nice semi-matt body colour, a dual coloured tail tip with a nice rounded finish. And, I really rather like the embossing - not just the quality, but I rather like the fonts used as well.
How does it write
Being an art pencil, I was not quite sure what to expect. Given the high end status of the pencil and the quite professional finish, I thought it might perform well.
Normally I would expect that to mean a very smooth lead. In this case though the lead is not that smooth, but a little more gritty. Funnily enough for me, that is a good thing. I like a little resistance to my pencils, and a really smooth waxy lead is not wholly to my liking.
I liked using the pencil. I felt sharp and accurate, left a good line, did not feel like it was wearing down to fast. I’d be happy using this as a day to day pencil.
Sourcing
These obviously are available in the U.K., as that is how I sourced mine. I suspect you will only find them at a few select artists supply stores though. You can of course purchase them online. It looks like you can get packs of 3 HBs for £2-4, so maybe just under £1 each, which for an art graded pencil is not too bad.
One feature of the range, being an art range, is they are available all the way from 9H to 9B.
Reviews
I didn’t find too many reviews online. I saw there were a couple of youtube vlogs. I did find this blog review, that also indicates there is some backstory history with the Koh-I-Noor pencils factories as well.
http://benbutzer.com/blog/?p=379
CDT Item 17
You know, this blog-type-thing is titled ‘52 pencils’, and was at minimum going to be 52 pencil reviews over the space of a year. Well, sometimes we skip a beat, there may be holidays or occasionally I don’t get to write the review in a week and then I will forget some of the details and feel I will have to re-try that pencil another time…
The first review was on Feb. 25th 2018. Here we are, May 27th 2019, and this is the 52nd review. I would say ‘job done’, but, there are a few more pencils in the collection yet to review. Maybe not too many, but a few…
So, what to do for the 52nd review? I thought I should crack open something special, or at least not some unknown China import etc.
Here we have a ‘CDT Item 17’ pencil. I only have two of these, purchased from a specialist supplier, and to be honest I didn’t think I’d find any to purchase when I went looking for them.
The company
Craft Design Technology (CDT) are a Japanese craft company that specialise in bringing together heritage, craft and tradition along with technology to produce modern takes on traditional items.
The pencil itself
Item 17 is the pencil. It is a really rather nice shade of, what shall we call it, peppermint green?
The pencil comes unsharpened, and looks like a nice piece of Cedar.
The ends are nicely rounded and painted, with a very smooth finish:
Once sharpened:
How does it write
I originally sought out these pencils as I was looking to see if the legendary ‘Pentel Black Polymer 999’, which is probably less available than an original Blackwing. Searching around, the CDT 17 is made by Pentel, and the rumour is that it might be made from Pentel polymer lead. So, I guess we should note what Polymer lead is. I tried to find an actual reference, but failed! Afaik, Pentel developed a very strong dark lead - particularly for mechanical pencils, as mechanical pencil leads are so thin (0.5mm typically, but some 0.3mm ones), they need to be extra strong, and being so thin, it would also be great if theywere very dark and hard wearing… And then, if you take those leads, boost them up to the size of a normal pencil lead, and stick them in a normal pencil, you might get the Pentel 999. It’s meant to be a great pencil, but now basically unobtainable and not made by Pentel any more. The closest thing we can get might be… the CDT 17.
How does it write? It’s great. It’s smooth, hard wearing and dark. This is a nice pencil.
Sourcing
These may not be the most available pencils, particularly outside of Japan. I managed to source mine from a specialist stationers in London called Choosing Keeping, but I’m not sure they have any left - please do check!
Having a look on the internet - they are looking pretty hard to source. I see a couple of places like on ebay for between$6-12 for 3. $2 each, seems no that riduculous. $4 seems quite steep!
If you want a nice pencil, along with some of the other classic Japanese pencils reviewed much ealier on in this blog, then you could do worse than track down one of these pencils. You know, I might just keep using this for another week.
Barcelo
A pencil I picked up from a Hotel. You know the sort (of pencil, not hotel), the complementary pencils that come in hotel rooms with a very slim pad of paper…
This was from a Barcelo hotel chain hotel in Barcelona.
The company
Well, the pencil alsmost undoutedly was not made by the hotel chain itself, and there are no other details on the pencil to identify its origins. If I had to guess then I’d say probably some generic pencil made in China or maybe India?
The pencil itself
The pencil is round. Always a challenge on my desk. For once I don’t remember this one rolling off and hitting the floor during the week though.
It is an OK silver finish, but it feels like that would wear or show signs of dirt fairly quickly. The pencil has an eraser. I had a chance to use the eraser, and it felt like one of those ‘gritty’ type ones.
How does it write
It writes, surprisingly well. Better than I expected. The line is dark and the lead was not gritty. Overall then, for a cheap pencil picked up in a hotel, not bad.
Sourcing
Unless you happen to be staying in a Barcelo hotel, then I don’t see another way of getting one. But, hey. pick up other hotel pencils and try them out!
Maped Blackpeps
Well, this has to be one of the most unusually named pencil I have reviewed so far - maybe it means something in another language, maybe it doesn’t have a good translation?
The company
Maped are a French company, formed in 1947.
Aha, thank you wikipedia for expanding Maped, into:
Manufacture d’Articles de Precision Et de Dessin
It is only in the last decade or so that I’ve noticed Maped products in the shops here. First with pencil sharpeners I think.
The pencil itself
The pencil is pretty modern - it is triangular, it has a nice modern semi-matt slightly plastic feel to the finish, and the colours are quite modern.
The tip is sharpened to match the triangular body shape, and you can clearly see that in the end on shot.
How does it write
Funnily enough, I was not expecting great things from this pencil - it is not, at least here, a well known quality pencil brand, and well, the name just made me think it was aimed at young school children. So, I was pleasantly surprised - it writes a nice line, it is reasonably firm and is pretty smooth. Quite a nice pencil to use. I’d be fairly happy using one of these on a regular basis.
Sourcing
So, where to get? iirc, I picked this up in a stationery shop in Paris. It seems they are fairly available online though, and, they are pretty cheap. I am seeing boxes of 12 available for the sort of £3.50 range.
Lyra Art Design 669
A pencil iirc I picked up maybe in Paris. It is labelled ‘Art Design’, so I’m guessing this is aimed at artists, but it does not have some of the characteristics you might expect from an art pencil (quite often they have a slightly thicker body and thicker lead).
The company
Lyra looks to be a German based company, now a subdivision of the Fila Group (an Italian company?). Lyra is/was Nurembergs oldest pencil manufacturer, founded in 1806.
The pencil itself
The pencil has a nice finish to it - it may not show too well in the picture, but it is a nice semi-matt finish that feels fairly good in the hand, and is a quite classy black finish.
The white text really pops out. The rounded painted tail cap is also quite nicely done, and is in a contrasting gloss to the body.
How does it write
First, I sharpened it. Most pencils when they get to the point of sharp automatically stop feeding themselves into my sharpener, but not this one. It just kept feeding in (the only other pencils I’ve found that tend to do this are the plastic wood based ones). In the case of this pencil, I think it is tha the lead is pretty soft, so did not ‘stop’ the pencil feeding in, but instead crumpled.
I liked using this pencil. The line is good and dark and writes nicely. The only issue is that the lead is pretty soft, so it does wear down pretty quick.
Sourcing
Despite me picking mine up in an art shop in Paris, it looks like these are reasonably available online. Cost is about £1 each for singles, which is not a ridiculous price.
Portuguese pencil
The company
As far as I know, Viarco are the only Portuguese pencil manufacturers. Formed in 1907, they have been in exisence for over 100 years now. I get the feeling they are the pencils you would have used in school if you grew up in Portugal.
The pencil itself
The pencil is fairly plain, but stylish. A reasonable finish, a nice red colour.
I think the pencil is probably really the ‘Viarco 250’, and ‘Desenho’ is more a family moniker - apparently it is Portuguese for ‘drawing’. It doesn’t feel that much like a drawing pencil though - it doesn’t seem to have an extra thick barrel or an extra thick lead - it feels pretty much like a writing pencil.
How does it write
To be honest, I didn’t write this review immediately, and have forgotten a little the details of how I found this. That tells me something at least - that it was not immediately overly memorable. If I do remember though, it performed fairly well, and the tip held up quite well during use.
I do remember that it sharpened nicely, and if I remember rightly, there was a nice smell of cedar.
Sourcing
You can source these online outside of Portugal. I sourced mine however whilst in Portugal. There is a chain of shops in Portugal that specialise in selling items you may have remembered from your childhood - A Vida Portugesa who had stock of these, along with some other Viarco pencils, so I stocked up a little whilst there.
A pencil from the MAAT
This is a pencil I picked up in the shop at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology MAAT in Lisbon. We were on a trip through Europe, and I was collecting pencils along the way. This fell into the checkout basket.
The company
I’ve no idea who actually made the pencil. There are no maker marks on the pencil. The Museum had a few interesting exhibits in it though.
The pencil itself
The pencil on the face of it feels like the finish is maybe a little cheap. It looks like it is meant to be white, but is almost like it is a little bit ‘dirty’, like it is covered in dust. I’ve a feeling it doesn’t travel too well when maybe rubbing against its neighbours.
The pencil came with a very blunt tip:
But sharpened up pretty well.
At that point it was being quite nice to use, and then after a little while…. the tip broke off:
and continued to break for some number of re-sharpens, even to the point where I switched to a shorter point sharpener to see if it was the lead.
After a while I got back to a useable point, but the pencil had shortened somewhat. Maybe the pencil got dropped at some point, who knows. It’s not often I come across a pencil with broken lead in this day and age.
How does it write
The pencil was surprisingley dark. I would say this was more like a B grade pencil than an HB. It wrote nice and dark and fairly smooth. I didn’t mind using the pencil, it made nice marks.
It’s a shame the point broke on me a few times - hopefully it was just one sample that had had a bad travel experience.
Sourcing
I’m pretty sure the only way you can get these would be to travel to Portual, go to Lisbon, and visit the MAAT shop.
High end Swiss pencil
Here we have a high end Swiss pencil. I’ve been looking forward to using and reviewing these for quite some time. It took me a little while to find the right time and place to acquire some, and when I came across them for sale individually, I snapped a few up.
The company
CARAN d’ACHE have been in Geneva since 1915. They are the primary Swiss pencil manufacturer, and I’m not sure if I know if there is another Swiss manufacturer.
They are a high quality manufacturer. I’m not even sure they make an economy or basic pencil.
The pencil itself
Technically, these are artists pencils. Sometimes I wonder what defines a pencil as either for writing or art. Sometimes there are some obvious differences, and a few of them show up here. But, I’m not always convinced those differences make a pencil less suitable for writing…
First off, the most obvious thing you will notice is that these pencils are somewhat larger in diameter than your normal writing pencil.
In my hand they don’t actually feel that much larger, and I didn’t find them uncomfortable to use. One annoyance for me though is that they would not fit in my pencil sharpeners! Barely any of them! In particular, I could not find any of my assorted longpoint sharpeners that they would fit in. Funny, as the literature says they will fit normal sharpeners, and there is even a post out there listing the sharpeners they will fit in. But, alas, I did struggle somewhat to get a decent point on them. Not because the wood is bad (it is excellent), or that the lead is fragile (far from it). Purely because I didn’t have a good sharpener to hand that they would fit in.
Along with the thicker pencil overall, these (I believe, I forgot to closely check) will also have a thicker lead itself, as is the way with ‘artists’ pencils.
I purchased three pencils, two HB and one B. Then looking more closely, I found that the two HBs were slightly different.
I think I’ve managed to get an older style and newer style HB.
And that shows off a characteristic that I think is fairly unique to the Grafwood. They paint the pencils a slightly different shade depending on the hardness grade - the softer the lead the darker the tint of the paint.
How does it write
These write well. Very well. They are dark, they are smooth, and the lead wears very slowly. Even when I erratically sharpened this and the sharpener left a very warped fragile looking point, that point worked well, did not flake or crack or shatter, and held up completely. These are very strong leads.
If I had to use these pencils every day, I think I would be quite happy. Well, OK, I would have to find a good way to sharpen them with a long point!
Sourcing
These are reasonably available, online and in art stores. Not everywhere, but common enough. They are definitely not cheap. You are looking at something like £2.75 per pencil. They do do some nice sets, if you are feeling particularly flush - such as 6 grades for £16, or you could go for the smaller graphite boxed set, for only £137, or the full on pencil set with colours as well for (cough) £225 !!!
Caran technalo 779 water soluble HB
Some time ago we did a trip through Europe. We stopped in a number of places, and as part of the trip I planned and tried to acquire some European pencils that I would struggle to find locally.
The outcome was the acquisition of a number of pencils crossing a range of manufacturers and qualities. Along with the pencils I also picked up a wrap to bring them home safely:
One of the places I’d recommend you stop by, if you are a pencilophile and in the area of Porto, Portugal, then I would say you should at least visit, it not stay at, the 1829 Hotel. The whole hotel used to be a stationery shop. Now a hotel, they have kept a high class stationery shop in reception, and they have some very nice wares. The pencil wrap came from there.
The company
The pencil is from Caran D’ache, a Swiss pencil company founded in 1915. They are based in Geneva, and I’ve only ever seen them making quality items.
The pencil itself
Here we are looking at the technalo 779 HB water soluble pencil.
I didn’t realise this was a water soluble pencil when I bought it, and didn’t realise until a short while after I started testing it. I didn’t test the solubility at all, and just used this as an every day normal pencil.
The point came reasonably sharpened (I do like the striations), but it was not until I put a long point on the pencil until I realised the pencil has a thicker than normal core - as is generally the way with artists pencils. Apparently these have a 3mm lead. I don’t have a reference to what a ‘normal’ pencil lead thickness is though.
The pencil itself is a nice sort of matt finish, and has a fairly nice gloss tail cap.
How does it write
This pencil writes nicely. Quite smooth, quite dark. It wears at a medium rate - not too fast but noticeable. I enjoyed using this pencil through the week.
Sourcing
I picked mine up I think in an art shop in Paris. You can get these in the U.K. from specialist pencil suppliers. I’m seeing the listed at something like £2.30 each. Definitely not a cheap pencil.
Apsara Platinum extra dark
Some time back I went on a pencil shopping spree trying to find pencils that were not from the usual European or American companies. One of the countries/pencils I found was this Apsara from India.
The company
The Apsara is a brand name of the Hindustan Pencil Pvt. Ltd.. They seem to be celebrating their 60th year this year, and note they produce 8.5 million pencils a day. They note they are Indias largest pencil manufacturer.
The pencil itself
The pencil itself is a reasonable black and silver affair. Not the best finish, but I’d not really expect any more at this price.
I got mine as a set of boxes, as it seemed almost as cheap that way. They came with a sharpener and eraser in each box of 10. I’ve not tried either of them.
The embossing is reasonable, and states that the pencils are ‘extra dark’ and are ‘for good handwriting’.
The pencils come unsharpened.
How does it write
I … quite like these pencils. Probably a bit more than I expected. I was thinking they would be OK, but they are actually quite nice. They feel OK in the hand. They write quite well. The line is dark, and the writing is quite smooth. They wear pretty slowly. So on the list of things I like in a pencil, it is ticking a lot of the boxes.
If I were to be stuck with a couple of boxes of these for the year, then I’d not be too disappointed.
Sourcing
I sourced mine off ebay. I can’t find a record of how much I paid, but I have a feeling I didn’t pay much more for the 50 than I would have for 10. Having a look today, they are available, and you can pick up 10 pencils for as little as £2.25 - a mere 22.5p per pencil. Pretty good for a pencil I don’t mind using.
Our Price
I have a feeling this pencil will have come via some business stationry supply company, and it will have come into my possesion by way of an office etc.
I’m thinking this will be a pretty cheap bulk purchase pencil.
The company
I have literally no info. Well, that is what I thought, but the I realised that the little sort of domino symbol just in front of the ‘our’ might actually be a stylised ‘y’… making this a ‘your price’. That gave me a clue, and rang a bell… and led me to the YPO website, where indeed some of their products do use the phrase ‘your price’. Tada!
That also rang a bell in my head, and indeed we have reviewed a different pencil from the same company - the ‘Your Finest’ - over on the your finest page.
The pencil itself
This is a rather red pencil. The wood is not cedar, and the paint finish is not the best.
The stamp to me reads ‘our price’, but is actually I’m pretty sure ‘your price’.
The only other mark on the pencil is what I suspect is a makers mark. Originally I thought this said ‘BQI’, but upon close inspection, we can see it is ‘BQL’. I’ve not managed to identify any makers using that mark.
How does it write
It writes OK. I had a fairly reasonable week using this, with no major complaints.
Sourcing
I think the only way you are going to source these is directly from the YPO company.
Letts diary pencil
When I was young, quite often pocket diaries came with little pencils that fitted into their spines. I seem to remember I had a few of these. This type of pencil also came with the sort of ‘policemans notebook’ pads.
In my mind, the diary brand that sticks in my mind coming with these pencils would be those from Letts.
The company
Well, the diary company Letts started in, wow, 1796! But, I’m not sure they will be making their own pencils.
The pencil itself
This may be the smallest pencil in my collection. It looks to be made of probably cedar. Here it is next to a ‘normal’ pencil for comparison:
The tail cap of the pencil is plastic, slightly tapered to make a snug fit into the spine of the diary, with a little cap to stop you pushing the pencil in too far.
As it was, before I started using it for the test, the tip had been sharpened by a penknife I reckon. I thought I was going to have trouble sharpening a pencil this thin, but it actually fitted OK into my normal spiral sharpener. You have to make sure you hold it centrally whilst sharpening, but its not too hard.
How does it write
It writes OK. I think I’d probably grade it as a bit softer than an HB maybe. You’d think the very thin and short body would be a problem, and athough not as easy to hold as full size pencil, it was ultimately fairly useable.
Sourcing
Initially I looked around to see if you could buy these from Letts or elsewhere. Initially my search was not too successful, but then I spotted you can buy 10 of them for £8 from ebay, so maybe they are available, and not silly money. Pound for pound though, you definitely won’t get a lot of pencil for your money.
Staedtler wopex I plastic pencil
The company
We’ve covered Staedtler before. Classic German pencil company formed in 1835. Very common in Europe and the UK. In the UK the most common pencils you will find (Noris and Tradition) are from Staedtler.
The pencil itself
Not a pencil you can miss in a hurry. This is bright yellow! And, this is one of the pencils from the ‘plastic wood’ range - that is, it is made from a plasticised mixture of wood product. I’ve just tried two other variants of these. Not normally my favourite pencils. But, each of them seems a little different. The previous black one for instance almost had a foamy body, whereas this one is definitely very solid. This is a pretty solid and heavy pencil.
The pencil is pretty much, well, yellow! It has the standard name and type items embossed on one side:
and on the reverse side we have the barcode etc.:
If we look at the tip, we can see that the main body is a pretty uniform dense plastic type material, and the wrapping (I’m hesitent to call it the paint), is quite thick and looks like it might be a couple of different colours:
Something I have no tried, but have seen on some websites, is that you can ‘peel’ the outer cover off, which leaves you with a cream pencil that looks somewhat more like a plain wooden pencil.
How does it write
Well, it’s not terrible, but like the rest of the plastic pencil family, it is a bit ‘plasticky’, and I find the lead a bit waxy and sticky when in use. It’s a bit light on the mark as well. As with the other plastic pencils, it also tends to draw itself into the rotary pencil sharpener and never ‘stops’ when it is sharp.
Sourcing
I was having trouble finding these in Yellow, whereas other Wopex were available, and then I found them in a pack with a sharpener and eraser on Amazon. About £7 for 5 pencils, so, not that cheap.
Wopex and related other plastic pencils are pretty commonly available, but if you are looking for a specific model or colour then you may face more of a challenge.
BIC Evolution Black
Here we have a black version of the BIC Evolution. We have reviewed the BIC Evolution before. I wonder if I will find this pencil similar to its sibling?
The company
BIC (or probably more correctly BiC), is a French company, probably best known for the ubiquitous ‘BiC biro’.
The pencil itself
This is one of the series of ‘plastic wood’ pencils. If I remember, they are made from a mixture of wood and maybe resins, processed under heat and pressure that forms them into a quite platic like material.
This version is the ‘black’ version, which actually has a black core, but is shrouded ina silver sheath.
The black plastic inner seems quite ‘porus’, and almost foam like in its makeup. This is only apparent when looking at it though, and at no other time did I consider the pencil to be made of foam.
One oddity about these plastic pencils is, when sharpening with my x-acto L rotary cutter pencil sharpener is, they seem to get ‘pulled in’. With wooden/graphite pencils, once the central lead has reaches the correct length you feel resistance, the pencil stops feeding, and you know you are done. With the plastic pencils, this does not happen - they just keep on feeding. I have a feeling if I kept turning the handle and let go of the end the pencil might feed itself into the sharpener completely.
How does it write
A bit like… plastic. The line is smooth, and actually slightly darker on the paper than it feels like it might have been. But, the pencil has some drag on the paper, and not the sort of slightly resisting scratch I quite like from graphite, but a sort of plasticy stickiness. I don’t like the feeling. I struggle through the week a bit with this pencil.
Sourcing
An internet search shows these are fairly available, and unless I am reading this wrong, potentially very cheap. I see a box of 12 from a big box store at £2.81 - that is pretty cheap.
Staples Professional HB
Once on a ‘pencil hunting drive’, I raided the local Staples shop. Along with the usual suspects, they had some ‘own brand’ pencils, and some were in their ‘professional’ range. I grabbed a bunch, as they were pretty cheap.
The company
Staples is a UK chain of stationers, found on the high street and with ‘sheds’ in the big shopping centers.
The pencil itself
The pencil is an OK mixture of black and gold, with a tail tip.
But, the closer you look then you come to realise maybe this pencil is not quite as ‘Pro’ as you might hope. If you take a look at the embossing, then it is sadly somewhat third rate…
How does it write
The pencil writes OK. I used it through the week, and it drew a reasonably dark line, and didn’t wear down too fast. I found no grit in the lead. I was reasonably happy using the pencil.
Sourcing
Being an ‘own brand’ pencil, I’m pretty sure you are only going to source these from Staples themselves. Having said that, I just checked their website to try and get some current pricing, and I don’t see them there. Maybe the line has been discontinued. These may no longer be available.
Mirado Black Warrior
The company
Ah, but which company. Without doing some research or grabbing my copy of The Pencil Perfect book, I will try to remember my educated guess at the histor of the Mirado ‘brand’. IIRC, originally they were made by the Eagle pencil company, that then ended up belonging to Berol, and is now part of Papermate.
The pencil we have here is a modern rendition - a Papermake Mirado Black Warrior.
The pencil itself
A round pencil, a nice sort of satin black, and round! It includes an eraser on the
end.
The eraser is quite classy, with a red band of enamel around the middle.
Oddly, as I found on another pencil recently, the tip was amazingly acutely
sharpened to a blunt point - to the ‘point’ (pun intended) that I sharpened
it before even trying to use it.
As with maybe all round pencils, it did attempt to commit suicide by rolling off the edge of my desk throughout the week - luckily I caught it in time, and it survived.
Reading some reviews, they note that the pencil is Cedar - but, tbh, I didn’t notice the characteristic smell when sharpening.
How does it write
The pencil writes OK. Reasonably dark, and hard enough. But, overall, it left me feeling a little underwhelmed. I think it had no major outstanding features - it was not amazingly dark, nor smooth, nor long lasting. So, not a bad pencil, just middling in all ways I guess.
Sourcing
Having a surf, it looks like these are only available in America. That probably makes some sense - I have a feeling I picked these up on a trip Stateside.
Reviews
There is a decent review and a lot of feedback over on pencilrevolution
title here
The Stabilo Othello is marketed as what seems to be an everyday run of the mill pencil. Not bottom of the line, but not top of the range I suspect.
The company
We’ve covered Schwan-Stabilo elsewhere - an old (1855) German company.
The pencil itself
The pencil is a fairly pleasing green with green stripes. Not too fancy, not too plain.
The finish is OK, but not in the league of Japanese high-end shiny smooth.
There is of course the obligatory bar code printed on the other side.
One nice feature is the tail cap - quite nicely done - smooth and shiny and the red pops out quite nicely.
The pencil is made from some sort of hard-ish wood - not cedar, but not one of the super lightweight woods you find on quite a few pencils presently.
One interesting feature is that upon sharpening, the wood has a very spicy aroma. It is very reminiscent of the smell I get from the Caran d’Ache exotic wood pencils I have - that is a very dense Beechwood pencil afaik, which does not have the same density feel as this pencil, but it does have a very similar smell.
How does it write
I quite like it. It writes dark, and had a good amount of ‘feel’, resistance when writing. I quite like some resistance. It did wear down a little quick, and just once there was a bit of grit that came through the lead, but overall I enjoyed using this through the week.
Sourcing
They look moderately available. I see some for sale individually and as a set of 12 online. A set of 12 is about £11 - <£1 each is an OK price - much less than some premium pencils.
I don’t remember where I got mine. I think I only have one, and suspect it came from a high street book store pencil rack.
Reviews
Dixon Ticonderoga
The classic American Yellow pencil. But, as it happens, I have the Ticonderoga in both yellow and black. I happened to use these in consequtive weeks, and didn’t get to write up the yellow version in time, so will combine the two into a single review here.
An interesting point is the name ‘Ticonderoga’, derived from the place where the graphite was originally processed..
The company
Dixon Ticonderoga is probably the most well known American pencil manufacturer. I think when somebody talks about the classic ‘yellow’ pencil, then this is probably the one they mean.
The pencil itself
As noted, here we have two variants of the pencil. The classic yellow:
And the less usual Black version:
One thing that struck me as I took the fresh black version out of the packaging
was the very blunt and short point it came wth:
That is, frankly, amazingly short. So short I didn’t even try to use the pencil before I sharpened it.
How does it write
Obviously, with the two different versions of the pencil, we get to compare and contrast.
The first week I used the yellow version. I found it a little hard for my liking, and the line was not very dark.
The second week I used the black version. This I actually found much better, being just slightly softer, but with a much darker line. I actually fairly enjoyed using this pencil..
So, one might imagine that the only difference in these pencils would be the paint, but it didn’t feel that way to me. It occurs to me that maybe they could be manufactured in different places. I have some vague recollection that maybe some are manufactured in America (United States`), and maybe others are made in Mexico. This could just be my fuzzy memory though, or maybe I am thinking of a different brand of pencils. I think therefore we should check the packaging.
After checking, it seems both sets of pencils are manufactured in Mexico. Maybe it was just my perception that was differnet, or maybe there is a difference between batches, or dates of manufacture, or even an intentional difference between the yellow and black. Anyway, for me with the pencils to hand, I preffered the black ones.
Sourcing
Sourcing one for or another is pretty easy, especially if you are Stateside. Even in the U.K. they are pretty easy to source off the internet. I’m pretty sure I picked up mine in some general supermarkets in the States whilst there.
You can get 96 yellows for £14 - that’s down to like 14p per pencil - pretty cheap.
If you want an OK funcional pencil at an OK price, then these will work fine for you. Would I instantly choose them over some common European brands?, maybe not - but that is probably more to do with tradition and familiarity than it is to do with performance.
Kirin ruler pencil
And now for something a little different. I don’t have many novelty pencils in my collection, but this interesting ‘ruler pencil’ is one of them.
I don’t remember exactly where I got this. My best guess is either I got it in a Waterstones or in Paperchase. A search on the internet didn’t help me figure out which though.
The company
All I can really find is that Kirin is a Japanese pencil manufactureres who specialises in unique and novelty type pencils. I tried to track down their website, but failed to find it. I found a hint they have one, and you can find some of their pencils, including this ruler pencil, on pencils.jp.
The pencil itself
As the title suggests, this is a pencil that is marked up as a ruler.
As you can see, the pencil is also not hexagonal or round, but is of rectangular cross section. The pencil also has an inches scale on one side, and a centimeter scale on the other.
The finish on the pencil is pretty good - I actually quite like the
high gloss varnish finish, and the end cap is nicely rounded and painted.
One peculiarity about the shape of the pencil is that it does not
fit in my everyday pencil sharperner - it is just a tiny bit too
wide. Thus, once I’d worn it down a little, to resharpen it I had to
resort to some other manual single blade based sharperners - the result
was a somewhat blunt tip.
Sure, I think I could have dug out a long point sharpener that maybe the pencil would have fitted in, but I didn’t - and the stubby point was good enough. I really should get around to doing a sharpener comparison entry one day…
And finally, how do I know this is a Kirin brand pencil - well, there is some very finely printed text on one of the narrow sides of the pencil (that I did not spot immediately).
How does it write
Given I viewed this as a novelty pencil, I was not expecting much. How wrong could I have been. This pencil writes really really well. I really enjoyed using it though the week. If I could find a dozen of these at a decent price, or I could find any other Kirin brand pencils, then I would go ahead and grab a box.
Sourcing
As above, I don’t remember where I got this, and a search shows up nothing in the U.K., and only one place in Japan that is selling them. If I could find them, I’d buy the. This is one pencil I will add to my notional ‘look out for’ list in my head, and will pick up more if I see them. Next time I am passing by Waterstones and Paperchase I will stick my head in and see if that is where they were…
title here
Another pencil from the time when I was seeking out naked cedar pencils. To be clear, that was probably at least five years ago.
If I remember, I think I picked this up in a sort of ‘arts cafe’, where is was one of the arty items for sale.
The company
Field Notes are, unsurprisingly, more known for their field note books than their pencils - but, along with a field notebook you do need something to write in them with.
I own a whole stack of notebooks, but funnily enough, I don’t actually own any field notes ones.
I didn’t find much info on the history of the company, but they are American, and I do suspect they are a relatively recent forming (especially in the scheme of things with the world of pencils).
The pencil itself
For a start, this is a round bodied pencil. I’ve stated before, I have some sort of soft spot for round bodied pencils, and this one is no exception.
It is topped with a rather distinctive green eraser, and the body unvarnished cedar, which is something I quite like.
Nicely, and reasonably uniquely, on the ‘back’ of the pencil there is a paragraph of text explaining the materials
and eco ethics of the pencil, which is rather nice.
How does it write
I quite like this pencil. Feels good in the hand and the line is dark enough and the lead not too smooth. It can be a little bit scratchy at times, but overall I fairly enjoyed using it.
Sourcing
Even in the U.K. these seem fairly available. About £5 for half a dozen.
Berol Handwriting
What seems to be a fairly basic pencil on the face of it. Appears to be designed and sold for school classroom use.
The company
We have covered before. Sadly no longer an English manufacturer, and now owned by Sandford.
The pencil itself
The pencils is a pretty distinctive red/white strip with a rounded red tip.
Unusually, the pencil came sharpened with a very acute angle, meaning it had
a very short tip:
After sharpening, that’s a much nicer point, but, note how it is offset. Looks like the lead is not quite central here.
I find the embossing on the pencil quite hard to read - but, yes, it really does say ‘handwriting’ - here is a closeup:
How does it write
I quite like this for writing. The line is nice and derk, and not scratchy. It’s reasonably firm, but does need sharpening reasonably often. I was quite happy using this through the week.
Sourcing
I have a feeling I picked this up at some highstreet stationers. Having a look online, they look quite easy to source - in fact you can buy a rather healthy quantity of 200 in a box for a tad over £15 - that’s what, 7.5pence per pencil - they don’t get much cheaper than that really.
General Cedar Pointe
There was a time, not too long ago but, well, maybe a few years, when I went searching for naked (unvarnished) cedar wood pencils. This is one of the ones I found.
The company
The General Pencil Company started in America in 1889.
The pencil itself
The pencils has a nice feel. I like the feel of the bare cedar, and I like the look. It is topped with a black eraser that I did get a chance to try. It worked OK, but didn’t feel like the most effective eraser. Adequate though.
How does it write
I quite liked it. Nice dark line, didn’t wear down too fast, and not gritty. I was quite happy using this through the week.
Sourcing
It looks like these are reasonably available online. It looks like you can pick up a dozen for £6-7, which is not a bad price for a reasonably nice pencil.
Faber Catell 1111
A reasonably nice looking down to earth pencil.
The company
We’ve covered Faber before. Their link to this pencil is here
The pencil itself
The pencil itself is fairly stylish. It has a nice black finish, and some pretty nice silver embossing.
It’s not made from cedar, bug some lighter wood. It’s OK, but it doesn’t quite have that nice denser cedar feel in the hand.
How does it write
I like this pencil. The line is nice and dark, the writing is reasonably smooth (not too gritty, and not too waxy). I’d be happy using this pencil on a daily basis. Not a bad pencil.
Sourcing
Seems pretty easy to source - it turns up on all the regular internet search and purchase sites. And, it’s pretty cheap too. You can score 10 of them for around £4, so 40p a pencil, not terrible.
Reviews
There is a review over on penciltalk
German naked cedar pencil
iirc, I acquired these when I was on a drive to find un-varnished (naked) cedar wood pencils. They have good a good feel to them.
The company
Have I covered Lyra here before, I don’t remember. So, let’s go look up some stuff. There is a wikipedia article here, which notes that Lyra (or apparently to give it its full name, the ‘Johann-Froescheis Lyra Bleistift Fabrik GmbH & Co. KG’, was formed in Nuremberg in 1806.
Since 2008 Lyra has been part of the Italian group FILA.
The pencil itself
This is a reasonably good looking pencil, especially if you like the bare wood look.
It feels good in the hand. The embossing is reasonably nice, and is not too obtrusive to the look of the pencil.
How does it write
It writes OK. Given the German pencils tend to err on the side of ‘hard’ for the given grade, I was quite happy using this HB pencil through the week. The hardness was a nice sort of medium balance. needing sharpening reasonably often, but good for a decent stint of writing between sharpenings.
Sourcing
I thought these were going to be easy to source, but not quite as easy as I expected. They are available through a popular ‘auction site’, and are about £5 for a dozen. That’s not a terrible price.
Staedtler 133-9
The company
We’ve covered this classic German pencil company elsewhere. They are a common pencil type here, so we get to review quite a few of them.
The pencil itself
The pencil give the outward appearance of trying to have a little class. Trying a little too hard though maybe. It has silver embossed shiny spots, and carries the somewhat ‘mysterious’ name of ‘133-9’ - only it would seem.
The finish is quite a nice matt finish, and the silver embossing is done reasonably well. The pencil feels OK in the hand, fairly solid and with a touch of heft - not too much, but it does not feel too cheap.
How does it write
Well, for me, not so nice. It is not scratchy or anything, but this is a pertty hard pencil, and writes a pretty light line. Fairly typical for Staedtler, but I feel this one is even harder than normal. Not really my style. I didn’t really enjoy using this through the week.
Sourcing
If I remember right, I got a bunch of these off ebay. I don’t remember what I was searching for at the time, so can’t help with what magic phrases might turn these up I’m afraid. I don’t remember them being expensive. I think I got 8 or 12 delivered in a zip bag.
Reviews
There is a review of these on pencilsandotherthings, over here.
Chapman Stylrite
The company
The pencil itself says ‘H.J.Chapman’, Made in Great Britain. Well, technically it says ‘made exclusively for’, so I don’t think Chapman are the original manufacturer.
Having a surf around, there is a link here with a bit of history about Mt. Chapman, and at the end it says the company was finally purchased by W.H.Smith in 1989.
The pencil itself
A fairly classic yellow pencil. I suspect this is reasonably old. It is a little beaten up. It has embossing on two sides:
You can actually see the same pencil shown on one of the Chapman history pages here
Nothing fancy here, just a vanilla pencil. Given its likely age, I suspect it will be made of cedar.
How does it write
This is a pretty hard pencil. It is listed HB, but ir really feela more like an H. It does feel very ‘sharp’, and didn’t need much sharpening. The line was actually pretty clear - dark enough. I didn’t mind using this through the week, which is a surprise for a pencil this physically hard.
Sourcing
No idea where I got this. I suspect I inherited it from somewhere. afaik, the company no longer exists (and may not have done for 25 years), at least not as a company supplying pencils. So, good luck hunting one of these down - the only way is going to be the socond hand market. And, of course, we don’t know who the original manufacturer was either.
Cumberland Coral
The next pencil in my list, was this Cumberland. It looks and feels old, and I suspect I inherited this somewhere such as from a relative etc.
I think the pencil is called a ‘Coral’, but a combination of the faded colours and the fairly hard to read italic font means I can’t be 100% on that. That’s what we’ll call it here though.
The company
We’ve covered Cumberland (/Derwent/Rexel) elsewhere - a classic old English pencil company.
The pencil itself
The pencil itself is OK, A bit dented, a bit faded. I suspect this is going to be made of Cedar.
It’s hard to see the details in that picture, so we’ll go for some shots of the front and back ends more closely.
And here is the back where you can try and figure out if you think this is called a ‘Coral’ or not…
How does it write
For me, it’s a bit hard. As soon as I started to write with it I found it a little frustrating. Not quite dark enough, and a little too hard. The point lasts well, and does not wear down fast.
I didn’t think I’d last the week with this pencil, and started off hankering for which pencil was next to test… but, after a couple of days, it was fine. I used it all week, and rarely had to sharpen it. Not my favourite pencil though.
Sourcing
I had a brief surf around to see if I could verify or not if this pencil really was called a ‘Coral’. I found pretty much nothing. I can’t even verify exactly what pencil this is, so if you are looking to source one, I think the only way is going to be a combination of luck and some hanging out on the auction sites.
Your Finest
The company
Here is an interesting question… which company or where did this pencil come from?
I have a strong suspicion this came from an office, probably where I used to work. I expect I ‘inhereted’ this when somebody else abandoned their desk, and left the contents behind.
I went to see if I could figure out where the pencil came from, and ended up at The Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation?
The colouring may have changed a little, but I’m pretty sure that is the same pencil.
The pencil itself
The pencis is fairly well finished. The paint job is not bad (I’ve seen worse), and the end cap is OK. The quality of the wood is better than one might expect as well.
It’s probably pretty obvious that the pencil is not manufactured directly by the YPO company, but bought in or outsourced. The question is, where from. The only disguinshing mark on the pencil is a small stamp saying ‘BQI’ or ‘BQ1’. A quick surf doesn’t turn up any clues as to who or where it may have been made.
How does it write
I’ve been vaguely in the back of my mind looking forward to trying out this pencil since I started this series. I have memories of it writing quite well, and they have been bourne out during this test. I like this pencil. The line is nice and deak, there is just about the right amount of friction and resistance for my liking, and there were no gritty bits apparent during the test.
I’ve been vaguely in the back of my mind looking forward to trying out this pencil since I started this series. I have memories of it writing quite well, and they have been bourne out during this test. I like this pencil. The line is nice and deak, there is just about the right amount of friction and resistance for my liking, and there were no gritty bits apparent during the test. For reference, no, it is not as silky smooth as say a blackwing, but then for me they can be a bit too smooth waxy.
Sourcing
I suspect the only place to source these is going to be from the YPO. They seem to be available, and for the princely sum of £8.15 you can get 144 of them - which gives you a reasonably useful pencil for the princely sum of roughly 5.7pence each. I somehow don’t think we are going to find a better value pencil!
Derwent Graphic
Rexel, Derwent Cumberland, or Acco…
The pencil in question here is labelled as ‘Rexel Cumberland’. Looking at the history a little here, that would indicate that this pencil was manufactured at a time when Rexel had purchased the Derwent Cumberland pencil company. Since that time it seems Rexel was then further purchased by Acco.
I’m still going to presume and label this as an English pencil. It does in fact say on the pencil ‘made in Great Britain’. Ah, the home of Graphite :-)
The pencil itself
This is really an artists pencil, and not a writing pencil per-se. Having said that, normally what I see distinguishing between the two is the thickness (diameter) of the lead itself, and this pencil seems to have a more ‘writing pencil’ thickness lead.
The pencil itself has a fairly nice finish, even if this specific example is a bit beat up. Generally I notice that a nice set of drawing pencils (say from Derwent, which is common in the U.K.), will have a fairly high level of finish.
The pencil itself feels fairly light in the hand. I suspect this pencil is made of Cedar, but I’ve noticed that older Cedar pencils seem to lose some of their weight and also their smell as they age. I think that may be the case here.
How does it write
I like it. It is smooth, it is dark, and it does not wear down too fast. If this were the only pencil I had then I think I’d be fairly happy.
Sourcing
It looks like the Derwent Graphic ‘Made in Britain’ range of pencils are still available. They have the similar colouring including the orange band near the end. Of course, there is no guarantee that the pencils available today are the same as the one I tested here, but I’d bet the odds are reasonably good.
Mirado Shorthand by Berol
Here we have a classic yellow pencil. I suspect this is quite an old pencil. I have no idea where I got it, but looking at the end of the pencil there is a classic indiation that this was a ‘find’:
You can see that the end has been trimmed - this is a classic way I’d trim off a broken or chewed end - I roll the end back and forth under a penknife blade until it snaps off.
I don’t chew pencils - yuk - so strongly suspect this pencil came to me with a mangled end, and I trimmed it to a point where I would be willing to actually use if.
Berol
We’ve covered Berols complex history briefly before - needless to say, the Berol who made this pencil are not the same Berol that exists today.
The pencil itself
The pencil is slightly beat up, but not too bad. It has a few dents, and as above the end has been a slightly mangled and chopped off. You can also see a little stain on the embossing near the end.
How does it write
Strangely enough, the pencil does not carry a hardness weighting on the embossing. It feels quite hard. If I had to guess I’d say this pencil is weighing in around an H grade. A little hard for my liking. And thus, it writes OK, but a little hard and a little light.
Sourcing
I suspect these are no longer available unless you scour the secondhand market.
A Giraffe, or not?
Let’s start by trying to figure something out. In my head ths is the ‘giraffe’ pencil, but if you go look up what a giraffe looks like, it is brown with brown spots, not yellow with black spots with white centers…. so, if this pencil were an animal, what sort of animal would it be??
The closest I can come up with - is a Cheetah. Not quite the saem - afaict the Cheetah does not have white centers to its spots - but, they are yellow, the spots can be black ish and they do sem to have the right sort of shape… OK, I’m still going to call this the giraffe pencil, but maybe it is really a Cheetah pencil.
The company
We’ve covered Schwan Stabilo before. A good old German manufacturer.
The pencil itself
I have a liking for round pencils. I’m not quite sure why. Maybe it is just because they are less common. Practically they are actually a little bit of a pain, trying to roll themselves off my pad and desk. They do, generally, however fit into the ‘perfecth pencil’s.
The pencil seems to be made of a decent wood. I did notice one oddity on this pencil that I’m not sure I’ve seen on any other. On the bottom end of the pencil, which is neither capped or has an eraser, I cannot see the pencil lead in the center of the end though. All I see is solid wood? I’m going to presume the lead does go nearly all the way through the pencil, and is not just a stob in the front. We’ll only find that out if I ever wear the pencil down I guess. You can see that the pencil is made from two halves of wood though (clearly shown by a demarcation on the base).
How does it write
It writes OK. A touch hard, but the line is dark enough, and not too scratchy. It is a reasonably useable pencil.
Sourcing
I think I picked this up on a bit of a whim in a high street stationery shop. I doubt it cost me very much, but a quick surf does not turn up anything for purchase.
BIC evolution
Ah, one of the generation of plasticised wooden pencils. I have a feeling this may have been one of the early ones, and possibly the first sort of ‘plastic pencil’ I purchased. I also have a feeling I got this as a multi-pack, but didn’t manage to dig it out and grab a picture here.
I reviewed a little while back a noris eco, It is not clear to me if these are made in the same way or by the same company. They feel pretty similar though.
The company
BIC are a French company who are relatively new in the world of pencils - that is, they formed in 1945. Of course, they are very famous for their ballpoint pens.
The pencil itself
The pencil feels pretty plastic. Very slightly bendy, and a slightly odd shade of green.
Much like the noris eco, it is a little more dense and solid than a normal wooden pencil. I actually don’t mind the feel - it does at least feel quite solid, and also fels like you could probably bend it and drop it quite a bit and it might not break.
I grabbed a closeup of the tip so you can se the unique texture of the ‘wood’. I don’t remember the noris eco looking like this, so maybe it is a different mix, or from a different manufacturing process, or maybe things moved on over time.
How does it write
The lead is quite hard, but smooth. The line it leaves is quite dark considering how hard the lead is and how slowly it wears down. Given the slow wear down, the reasonably dark line and the smoothness, this is actually not a bad lead to use. A little odd, but not bad.
Sourcing
I picked mine up in a normal high street stationers. A quick surf shows that these still seem readily available, and can also be gotten pretty cheaply.
Caran d’ACHE 777
My first Caran pencil reiew here. At first glance it may look like it is just a normal ‘yellow’ pencil but on a little closer inspection you realise this is carrying a quality finish.
The company
Caran (d’ACHE) is a company I feel will always produce quality. Maybe it’s just because they are Swiss, and all things Swiss just start out with a reputation of quality.
The company formed in 1915, with their headquarters in Geneva.
I don’t own too many items from Caran, but I have a few, and recently had the pleasure of staying in a hotel (in Porto, Portugal), that had a predominantly Caran Stationery shop in its reception (the whole hotel used to be a Stationery shop, and having the shop still in reception is a really nice nod to its past). Everything I’ve seen from them feels like a quality item.
The pencil itself
This may be a yellow pencil, but it does not come across as your normal American style ‘every day yellow pencil’. The finish on the pencil is good, and the embossing is of excellent quality. The end cap is OK, but could be a little smoother.
The pencil is listed as being made from Cedar, which given the expected level of quality here, that is what I’d expect.
How does it write
It’s smooth. It feels good in the hand (I’m quite happy sat spinning an twirling the pencil). It writes just fine, but is probably a little on the hard side for me for an HB. The line is just about dark enough for me to use, but a little darker would have been nice.
Sourcing
I’m pretty sure this is not something you are just going to wander across on your highstreet. iirc, mine came as part of an internet shop speciality pencil grab by me - that is, I went and selected a bunch of pencils I didn’t own for delivery, just one or two of each. I only have one of these.
Sourcing off the internet is not difficult, they seem available. They are however not cheap - at >£2 each, even in bulk. I guess for me then I cannot rate these as ‘value for money’, there are other pencils equally as good that are significantly cheaper.
Stabilo Swano 4086
Another Stabilo (I didn’t realise I had so many!). Another Swano! But, this time with a different number. Not that long ago we looked at the Stabilo Swano 307.
My gut feeling is that maybe the Swano 307 is an older model, and the 4906 is more modern.
The company
We’ve covered this before - a long established German company. I did just note that they seem to have a healthy turnover and quite a few employees - I guess they are still doing OK.
The pencil itself
The pencil itself is not too remarkable. Not bad, but not remarkable. This one is eraser topped. I did have occasion during the week to use it a couple of times - at first I thought maybe it had hardened up with age - I think it is just quite a firm eraser.
The wood seems quite nice - not sure it is cedar, but it does seem to be a bit more of a denser hardwood than some cheaper pencils.
How does it write
For me, this is a nice pencil. I enjoyed using this. It is not too hard, and has just a slight bit of texture and resistance when writing. It leaves a good dark line. I really rather enjoyed using it thought the week.
Sourcing
A quick internet search shows these are reasonably available, but not overly common. They are swinging in around 50p a piece. Given I think I have a box of these, and it is quite rare that I can or do buy a whole box unless it is via the internet, I suspect I got these from an internet order.
Berol Mirado
The company
Phew, Berol has a somewhat complex history. Presently it is a brand name of Papermate - but I’m pretty sure this pencil is a pre-Papermate Mirado. I do have some Papermate pencils, and one day I’ll get to reviwing those - but, not today.
The pencil itself
The pencil feels a touch old. A little battered. I suspect I have had this around a little while. This is a classic ‘yellow’ pencil, with some simple embossing.
How does it write
It, is rather nice. It is a dark line, I like the feel of the lead on the paper - smooth, but not too smooth (I like a little bit of resistance and feel from my pencils). This is nice. So nice, I tracked down a pack of 12 and ordered them.
Sourcing
I found some, of these yellow Mirado’s, on the internet. They were also rather cheap. OK, so the ones I ordered are eraser tipped, as that is all I could find. Yep, I like these enough that I sourced some more whilst I still could - I do suspec these are all old stock, and will get increasingly hard to find.
Faber Goldfaber
With a name like ‘Goldfaber’, it naturally springs to my mind that maybe this would be something special. Having a peek at the Faber webpage though, it would seem this is a student drawing and sketching pencil. As we have reviewed before, I think the Castell 9000 is probably the top of the line pencil.
The company
We’ve covered Faber elsewhere already.
The pencil itself
The pencil is quite nicely finished - a nice blue mostly, with gold highlights.
It has a nicely rounded end with a good dip.
I’m not sure what wood the pencil is (I don’t remember if I gave it the cedar ‘sniff test’, nor thus the results…), but I don’t remember it having any sharpening issues.
How does it write
Ah, and here is the rub. This is a classically ‘hard’ German style pencil. Far too hard for me. Normally I manage to use a pencil for a whole week, but this was vaguely driving me a little nuts. It was barely leaving a mark on the page. I gave up after a couple of days, and moved on.
Sorry Fabergold, you are just not the pencil for me.
Sourcing
I don’t remember where this came from. I think I have a small multi-pack. It is the sort of thing I would have expected to maybe have gotten in WHSmiths, but a quick internet search shows that this is not that commonly or easily available in the U.K. afaict. So, there is atrong chance I picked this up whilst on some travels.
Cumberland Graphite H
Not sure (as with many of my pencils), where this came from. For some reason thought this is an H and not an HB. That’s a little sad as not only do I generally prefer my pencils more on the softer, or rather darker, side, but it makes it not really fair to compare against most of my other reviews.
The company
Ah, now, I would have thought that with the Cumberland name, and some connections to Derwent and thus the lakes and the ‘home’ of the original graphite deposits (at Borrowdale), that the Cumberland pencil company might be ancient! In fact, not as ancient as one might think. Still pretty good, starting in 1832, but nowhere near as old as some other pencil manufacturers. It seems the company was purchased by Rexel, now known as Accu UK.
Cumberland and Derwent are very familiar names to anybody of my vintage who ever went into an art store - they were probably the most common and pencil brand of choice for drawing (rather than writing) when I was a boy.
The pencil itself
The pencil is fairly plain - the pain job looks a bit thin and knocked about (the knocked about is most likely that this pencil has been in my collection for some time).
How does it write
The pencil writes a bit hard for me - but then of course, it is a grade H, and not an HB. It wrote fine, and did not strike me as too scratchy or too soft.
Sourcing
I went looking to see if I could source some of these, as I’d quite like to mae a fair comparison and get hold of some HB versions and give them a go. It feels like this is an older model, and no longer commongly available. There are some grades available sporadically on the auction sites, but it does not seem they are widely available. There are other Cumberland/Derwent/Rexel pencils available, but of course there is no guarantee they will be of the same composition or perform similarly.
Stabilo Opera
If I remember correctly, I think I picked this up either in a bookshop (maybe a Waterstones), or in a WHSmiths. I don’t think it’s been in the collection too long. I only have the one of them I think.
The company
I seem to have covered Stabilo fairly recently when I reviewed their Swano. In fact, it was recent enough that I keep typing ‘swano’ whilst writing this review… but, we are talking about the ‘Opera’ here. (Note, the pencil itself has an accent or acute over the ‘e’ in Opera, but I’m not going to burn the time trying to figure out the best way to add that into this blog post…).
The pencil itself
This is a reasonably distinctive pencil. Not too luxurious, but the white pinstripes on the red pencil are quite nice.
The printing is quite nicely understated, but the almost obligatory barcode is a bit of a blight on the other side. There is a nicely rounded and painted end.
I fairly like this. Nothing over the top, but does not feel too cheap.
How does it write
I was sort of not expecting huge things from the pencil. Not bad things, but I was not expecting too many ‘woo factor’s. Its sibling Swano was OK, and this being a German manufacturer, I was expecting a pretty hard lead. Well, that’s not what I found. What I found was a really nice dark ead that was not so hard to be annoying, light and scratchy. I liked this pencil - nice feel (it had a reasonable amount of ‘drag’, that made it feel like you were really ‘using’ the pencil), and I did like the bold line. Overall, nice. I’d be happy using this on a daily basis. Pleasantly surprised.
Sourcing
I don’t actually remember where I got mine, but I think I have seen these in some of the high street stores. A quick surf shows they are available on the internet, but maybe not that common. They are reasonably priced - far less than £1 per pencil if you buy a dozen.
Reviews
Steadtler Noris Eco
This is an interesting pencil. Most definitely not made of Cedar!
It has got to be one of the stranger pencils in my collection. There seems to be a range of these ‘plastic’ pencils, so a few more should turn up in later reviews. Some of them are under the name Wopex, and it seems Wopex is now used to relate to the process used to make the pencils (Woden Pencil eXtrusion).
Why strange? Because the casement is not wood. Well, OK, maybe that is not 100% true. Apparently they are mainly wood, but mixed with plastic, and then extruded at temperature.
The company
I’ve discussed Staedtler in some previous posts.
The pencil itself
The pencil is surprisingly heavy, and has a slightly plasticky rubbery feel. It seems that the pencil is made up of two or three layers. One of these is the outer layer, the outer colouring. It seems that this can be peeled off with some mild effort, leaving the pencil looking somewhat more like a naked wooden pencil. No, I’ve not done this yet. Maybe one day.
The pencil itself, or this invocation at least, is quite attractive. The colours are bold and I quite like them.
When sharpening this pencil seemed to get drawn into my helical cranked sharpener. Wood/graphite pencils come to a natural ‘stop’ when they are sharp, but this felt like it would just keep getting drawn in until there was nothing left. Be warned.
How does it write
The pencil does not write quite like a normal graphite pencil, but I quite like it. It is very smooth, and writes a reasonably strong line. What I really noticed was that the tip barely wore down at all - normally when I’d be sharpening a couple of times a day, I seem to remember maybe I only sharpened this once in the week. Doing a little research, it seems that the graphite core of the pencil is extruded at the same time as the wooden body. I have to wonder if therefore the graphite core is more a mix of graphite and plastic rather than the more usual mix of graphite and clay. I have to wonder if this plastic/grahite mix is more like the fabled Pentel polymer leads that are now so hard to get hold of in wood cased pencil form?
Reviews
Sourcing
Wopex and Eco pencils are pretty common in the shops here. Most big shed or highstreet stationery shops are likely to be stocking these.
Helix Oxford
If I remember, I picked this up in a pack, possibly a school style stationry pack aimed predominantly at school attendees.
The company
The Helix company feels like one of the old school classic UK pencil companies, and a quick surf shows that indeed it was a family owned company. It looks like it had a few wobbles back around 2012 or so, and was bought up and sustained by Maped - a French company. I didn’t know that. Mabye that has something to do with Maped becoming more common place in the shops here.
The pencil itself
The pencil is reasonably plain. It is a fairly nice blue, but the finish is lets say ‘to a budget’. The ones I have are eraser topped.
I don’t know what sort of wood the pencil is made from - it is not cedar (does not have the smell), but it is quite a nice pink red colour.
How does it write
The pencil itself writes OK, but it was scratchy. The lead seemed a bit gritty - you know, one of those leads where every now and then you seem to run into a gritty bit and just have to ‘work through it’. This is a pretty basic school pencil really.
Sourcing
In the UK is pretty easy. You can find sets of Oxford stationry in many stationers in the UK - especially if you are buying a set that has maybe a pencil tin or a compass or a protracter - then there is a fair chance you might be buying a set from Helix
Stabilo Swano 307
Bac from a small break (more of that in another post… there are pencils involved!), and due to timing, this pencil got more than its fair share of use - more like 2 weeks worth than the alloted 1.
I’m not sure where I got this pencil from - no recollection at all. Looking around, these are still available, but I suspect this has been in my ‘collection’ for some time.
The company
Stabilo, Schwan Stabilo are a German manufacturing company, formed in 1855.
The pencil itself
This is a pretty plain pencil. No fancy end cap, no particularly fancy paint job. The quality of the embossing looks pretty reasonable, but it is a little hard to tell from my sample as it is somewhat old and worn.
I don’t think the wood is cedar. It sharpens just fine.
How does it write
It actually writes better than I’d expected. Visually, I thought this was probably not going to be in the top quality bracket, but the pencil actually performed pretty well.
OK, so maybe it does not have the silky smoothness of some pencils, and maybe just once or twice a bit of scratchy grit made its way to the tip - but, overall, using this for the best part of a couple of weeks, nothing really annoyed me, and I was pretty happy with the lines this pencil layed down.
Sourcing
I have no idea where I got my one from. I may have picked it up randomly as a stray purchase, or I may have inherited it. You do fine Stabilo pencils of varying model available here and there in the shops, and checking online I did see this model for sale - but, looking at the current range of graphite pencils on the Stabilo site, I suspect this model is no longer in production, and any for sale are end of line products.
Staedtler mars lumograph
The company
As covered elsewhere, a German pencil manufacturer which is widely available, and is commonly found with its noris and tradition pencils in U.K. schools.
The pencil itself
The Mars Lumograph 100 is I believe Staedtlers top of the line pencil. It is nicely finished in a distinctive blue, with a nice rounded endcap.
The endcap is actually quite interesting - it has the ‘HB’ marking on all six sides, whereas the embossing on the main body is only on two sides.
How does it write
It writes well, but like the other Staedtlers I have tried here, it is quite hard for an HB, and appropriately also has quite good point retention.
This is quite a nice pencil, but does not have that silky dark quality that you might find in say the Hi-uni.
Sourcing
Relatively easy. You might not find it in the supermarket or the corner shop as you might the noris or tradition, but you are likely to find this in very art supply and stationers, and maybe in some of the larger ‘sheds’.
Of course, it is also readily available online. And, it is available in grades from 6H to 8B.
mitsu-bishi Hi-uni
A classic hi end pencil. This is one of the finer pencils in my collection, along with things like the blackwings, tombo mono etc.
The company
I really want to go point to a web site for ‘mitsu-bishi’ here, as that is what is wrtten on the pencil - but, the website is listed as the Uni company. This is all a touch odd, as wikipedia says Uni-ball is a subsiduary of the mitsubishi pencil company. Heh.
I covered the Uni company back in my first post.
The pencil itself
This is a classy pencil. Great finish. I love the colour, and they have a couple of unique finishing features, such as the rounded end (which is not unique, but is rare),
and then the dinky little painted dimple in the end.
How does it write
I like it. It writes great. To me this writes pretty closely to a Blackwing, but, it has a much longer point retention. For me, I think this is probably my current favourite pencil.
Sourcing
Off the internet, pretty easy. I strongly suspect during my next round of pencil purchases I may get myself a dozen HBs…
Staedler Tradition 110
If you grew up in the U.K., then you will probably be intimately familiar with these pencils. Well, either the Tradition and/or its close cousin the Norris.
Pretty much, when I think of a ‘school pencil’, one of either of these Staedtlers pops into my mind. You see them everywhere, and they are probably one of the most commonly found and sourceable pencils here. I have to wonder if that is not the same maybe across much of Europe.
The company
I’ve covered elsewhere in a previous post.
The pencil itself
The 110 is a black and red striped cedar wood pencil with a rounded top dipped in a white/black paing combo. Of the few I have, it would seem that they are, or have, been manufactured in at least both Germany and Great Britain. I don’t remember how I came by the pencils I have (and note, two of them are 2H, something I’d not normally purchase - and the HB one that I tested with). I also don’t recall how old these might be. It would not surprise me if the pencils used to be made solely in Germany and now have diversified, or the other way around.
An interesting thing that I notice when using one of these is … that the dipped tip has little ‘waves’ around it - that is, the black coating over the underlying white does not just go uniformly around the tip - but it is in little ‘scallops’. I wonder if this is just an effect of the paint miniscus and surface tension, or if it is a design feature. It seems sort of unique.
These pencils feel OK in the hand. Note, there is also a 112 version that has an eraser cap.
How does it write
Pleasantly, a bit better than I expected. Reasonably smooth, and dark, and point retention was pretty good. On a day to day basis I would be pretty happy using this - nothing about it particularly rattled me.
Sourcing
In the U.K., pretty easy. You might not quite find them in every shop and supermarket, but you will find them probably anywhere that does more than one type of pencil (and the other type would very likely be the cousin Staedtler Norris).
Reviews
Tombow Mono 100
A high end Japanese pencil. The question is, is this the most classy, well finished, good looking pencil that I own? Well, it might be, and it is definitely up there.
What with the deep black glossy paint finish, the crisp golden embossing, and the smoothed cap end with the finely pained white stripe over the top - this pencil is a pleasure to look at and hold.
The company
Tombow are a quality Japanese pencil manufacturer - you can find some more details in a previous post on a Tombow pencil.
The pencil itself
As mentioned, this is a classy and quality pencil. The finish is generally excellent, and the embossing very nice. There is an interesting feature at the back of the pencil - the body of the pencil is the usual hexagonal, but the last inch or so of the pencil is rounded:
This is quite a nice touch, but it does lead to one tiny little niggle - it means there are six little pimply edgy sharp transition points where the body goes from round to hexagonal - and I noticed this feature first when my fingers caught on the ridge, and I wondered what was causing it. Hopefully you can get an idea of the little ridges in this picture:
Does that really put me off using the pencil? No, in normal use I didn’t notice, and I do think the rounded end is a nice visual feature.
How does it write
This is a quality pencil, with a good reputation. My expectation was that it would be a nice write, and being a Japanese pencil, that it would be pretty smooth and dark. And, yes, it is a nice write. It is pretty smooth, dark, and the point retention is actually pretty good - possibly above average. Is it as dark and smooth as a Blackwing?, no, maybe not - but, the point retention is much better (something that I do notice and does bug me a little with a Blackwing).
Nice pencil. Very happy to be using one.
Sourcing
I don’t remember where I got mine - I suspect from a speciality supplier online supplier. These are not pencils you are probably going to find in a local shop, but they are pretty easy to source online. At some point when I’m feeling flush one day there is all likelyhood I’ll stump up for a dozen of these…
Other reviews
Palomino Blackwing 602
The company
Let’s be clear from the start - if you are reading a blog about pencils then the odds are you already may know more about the history
of the blackwing pencil than I do. There is no way I can, or probably should, try to cover the history here. Suffice to say that this
review is for a modern, current, Palomino Blackwing 602 - and not a classic (unobtainium???) blackwing.
The main website for the current blackwing is blackwing602.com
See the references section for more links for more info.
The pencil itself
The review is for the 602. I believe when generally folks refer to a Blackwing, this is the one they mean, but there are currently three blackwing variants:
each with different hardness - the ‘blackwing’ being the softest, and the ‘blackwing 602’ being the hardest.
As you can see in the picture, you can get all three as a ‘set’, which I have. One day in the future maybe I’ll review the other two blackwings.
Blackwings have a few interesting features. There is the iconic non-round eraser, which is adjustable. tbh, I don’t use a pencil eraser that much - 95% of my pencil use is writing and note scribbles, and if I get something wrong I tend to just cross it out. Still, this is a nice eraser and a nice feature that it is adjustable and even replaceable.
What irks me a little though is that it is broader than the pencil body - this prevents me from using any blackwing stubs in my Derwent pencil externder. This is not a cheap pencil, it might be nice if I could squeeze every last bit out of them…
Anther thing that occurs to me is that this pencil feels longer than standard. Maybe that is the eraser extension - I’d really have to go measure it to confirm.
How does it write
Accordingly with its reputation, this is a pretty smooth pencil. It glides well, and produces a good dark line. I quite like it, but I have been through a couple of these and I can note that they do wear down and need resharpening significantly more often than most other pencils.
Do I like the Blackwing 602? Yes. Would I say this is my ultimate everyday pencil - well, hard to say yet - I have about another 50 various pencils to try yet before I try to make that sort of choice. Can I recommend you try one - yes, sure. They have a reputation for a reason, and it is as good as any introduction to quality pencils, and they are moderately available.
Sourcing
Generally I have sourced these off the internet, but I did acquire the mixed selection pack from a University art/book shop (though it was not in the U.K.), so it may be worth seeking through local art shops and bookshop stationery departments as well. may be worth searching
References
Oh, where to begin - maybe just a link to the wikipedia article as a hopping off point.
Faber Grip
The company
I discuss Faber over in the Perfect Pencil poat.
The pencil itself
I’ve had these pencils some time. They are quite interesting in their design - pimpled surface (hence the Grip naming), and their bodies are triangular!
On a simple level these pencils appeal to me. Something I think about their fairly unique shape and colour, and they are finished well - they feel well made. One oddity is that these are incredibly light. I don’t know what wood they are made of (but it is not cedar), but they could almost be made of balsa! It might be something like Lime or Poplar. For me, the lightness detracts from the quality of the pencil somewhat. They sharpen OK, but not quite as nice as a cedar pencil. I did have one not so great experience sharpening one of these - I don’t remember quite which sharpener it was with (but I think it was an older model somewhat blunt hand cranked one) - where the pencil sharpened very very off center. I suspect the triangular body shape had something to do with this.
Speaking of the triangular shape - I quite like it. I don’t find it detracts from the pencil use at all, and I find myself twirling the pencil in my fingers more than I do with the standard hexagonal pencils.
How does it write
Much like the Faber 9000, for an HB pencil, this is a very hard lead. If anything, maybe even harder than the 9000. Somewhat too hard for me to want to use as my every-day pencil, but boy did this have some point retention.
I do like these pencils. I like the quailty of the finish, I like the little pimples, and somehow I like the lightness of the wood - but, I don’t think I’d want to use them as my daily pencils. Some of this is probablydown to te hard lead. At some point I’d like to try a B grade Grip and see how I got on with that.
Sourcing
These are easy to find. They are available in many shops here. They are relatively cheap as decent quality pencils go.
Reviews
And some links to some other reviews - where I will note it says the wood is Jelutong!
Faber Castell 9000
The company
I discuss Faber over in the Perfect Pencil post - see there for some details.
The pencil itself
I was expecting fairly good things from this pencil. It is sold in nice racks in art shops and as a quality pencil here. The paint job is nice, and the gold embossing oozes a touch of quality.
How does it write
Coming to use the pencil after having recently used a number of Japanese pencils, for an HB, this is a very hard lead. Not too scratchy, but definitely significantly harder, and subsequently not as dark on the page, as the Japanese ones. I believe this is a known trend or theme though - that Japanese pencils tend to be softer and darker for their ratings than their Western counterparts. I guess maybe it is true.
Following on from that, point retention here is noticably much better. I found I sharpened the pencil much less through the week. I did find though that the pencil did not seem to lay down the same on different papers - it seemed quite sensitive to what I think was the surface texture of the paper in use.
I’d quite like to try a B grade to see if that hits my happy place for softer and darker pencils.
Sourcing
Here this is relatively easy to source, being available (if you can find one) in many art shops.
Tombow 2558
The company
Tombow are a Japanese stationary manufacturer formed in 1913. All the Tombow pencils I’ve come across so far are quality products. afaik the only Tombow items I own are pencils.
The pencil itself
The 2558 is sold as a high quality general purpose pencil for students and office workers. Despite having an almost classic American yellow pencil appearance, I don’t think the intention here is to be a clone of such.
The 2558 is not the top of the line pencil from Tombow.
How does it write
Having spent a week with this, and having probably written a little more with a pencil this week than I normally do, the pencil is just fine. OK, so I don’t think wow when I pick it up to use, but nor do I not want to use it, and when actually using it, it writes pretty nicely.
Point retention seems fairly reasonable. I wrote a reasonable amount before I felt I needed to re-sharpen.
Sourcing
Not a pencil you are just going to find here in a local shop - I sourced mine off Amazon during a cycle of ‘I want to try some more Japanese Pencils’. A box of 12 is relativley cheap - so bang per buck on this is pretty good.
Other reviews
Some links to some other reviews:
The Faber Castell Perfect Pencil Family
The company
Faber Castell is a German company, formed in 1761. It is one of the larger and more common pencil manufacturers in Europe, and is quite well known for its higher end Castell 9000 pencils.
The pencil itself
I have a few ‘perfect pencils’ - three in fact. For this entry I’ll be describing the Perfect Pencil DESIGN, and specifically I have a ‘brown’ set:
And just for future reference, here is the small collection of perfect pencils I own:
Yes, that green perfect pencil did come with a short length 9000 pencil already in it. I will get to reviewing the other two perfect pencils in their own reviews another week - it didn’t feel like I’d get enough hands on time with them all if I tried them all at once.
How does it write
When I started using the pencil this week I thought to my self, hmm, somewhat hard and scratchy. Compared with the previous two Japanese pencils, the lead in this is pretty hard. Having said that, as the week went on I found that the lead perormed fine, and givne the hardness of th lead the point retention was significantly better than the somewhat darker Japanese pencils.
Previously when I’d picked up the ‘perfect pencil’ (and, no, I’m not really going to debate if this is the pervect pencil or not :-) ) I thought and found, that the pencil cap was going to be far too heavy and make the pencil very top heavy, and thus uncomfortable. I have to admit though, as the week went on I found that it did not interfere with my writing as much as I expected. I could cope with it quite well for the week.
The sharpener
One nice point about the perfect pencil is that it is a cap for the pencil and a sharpener. This makes it really nice as a carry around pencil, in theory - take it to a coffee shop and you can get there without sticking a hole in your pocket, and if you get really creative over your flat white then you can resharpen there and then (without whipping out your pocket knife and freaking everybody out…). OK, so the sharpener might be OK in an emergency. When I broke the pencil out at the beginning of the week, even though the pencil was already pretty shart, I gave the sharpener a spin. Oh dear, it snapped off the tip. I’m sure they work well enough out in the field, but when at my desk I think I’ll stick to my trusty X-Acto model L. That lives screwed to my desk, is in daily use, and for the last 3 years has been working really rather well.
and, as a pencil extender?
It did occur to me, whilst using the perfect pencil, that although it is supplied with a shorter than standard pencil, the cap will effectively act as a pencil extnder. Therefore, you should get significantly more use out of your pencil stubs. If desperate, I guess you could even use the perfect pencil cap to use up those stubs you may have laying around already.
Sourcing
These are pretty easy to source. They are possibly one of the only pencils you will find in some of the highstreet posh pen shops (which iirc is where I got my DESIGN model from). I also think you occasionally find them in some of the big box stationery stores, which is where I got my bottom of the range one from.
Pricing is, well, choose your spot - the bottom of the range starts around £3 or so, or you can stretch out to the solid silver editions at more like £360. No, I don’t own nor do I suspect will I ever own one of those :-)
Photo resolution
I’ve been posting photos here, in 800x600 resolution. But, generally, I’m not over the moon with the clarity and resolution of what I see on the screen. Am I being unrealistic though?
Now, I am not the best photographer, and I don’t have the best equipment (although, it is OK), and I’m not currently being too prudent about my setup (yeah, I should get the tripod out….), but I’d still like to briefly contemplate what I can expect…
What am I looking for? Well, is it unreasonable of me to expect nice definition of the imprints on the pencils, or to have some view of what the woodgrain looks like - all from an 800x600 picture?
The theory
My basic theory to examine is, at 800x600, for a maybe 150mm (yeah, I should really go measure) pencil, what is the dpi I will get, and how does that relate to the length of the point, and the width of the imprint letters? If I’m only getting say 8 pixels per letter, resolution is not going to be good enough. If I’m only getting 10 pixels across the width of the pencil, you are not going to get a good view of the wood grain. Let’s do some math…
The math
At 800 pixels wide, and a pencil at 150mm, we get are getting around 53 pixesl/cm (and, yes, I’m mixing up my measurement systems in this post). Now, we need to know the size of an imprint character, and the visible size of the exposed wood…
and then…
And then, it came time to post a new entry with a new photo. I grabbed the tripod, and my 35mm f1.8 prime lens and looked up which apeture was the sharpest for that lens… and on we move.
Maybe I’ll do the math one day. Maybe I’ll research and work out if it is best to shoot at the final resolution I desire (that is, take the shot and crop to 800x600), or should I shoot a maximum resolution and then downsample… that will be a fun topic to research.
The Tombow 8900 B
Another Japanese reasonable quality pencil. This one is grade ‘B’ - not my normal choice, gut it is what turned up - I think I didn’t realise I was ordering a ‘B’ grade, and would normally have gone for an ‘HB’.
The company
Tombow are a Japanese pencil (well, stationary) company formed in 1913. Tombow are prett well known in the pencil world, particularly for their Mono 100 - we’ll get to review one of those at some point, but not this week.
The pencil itself
The 8900 is apparently Japans best selling pencil (according to the Tombow web site). It a nice straight forward cedar pencil. Decent paint finish, no eraser (I’m not a huge fan of eraser capped pencils, I do prefer them without them).
I like the medium green paint. The pencil to me feels fairly light in the hand, but not too light - it still feels like a quality pencil.
Let’s fling up some other reviews:
How does it write
Well, it is pretty smooth and has a nice dark line - but, that could be because this is a ‘B’ grade. It didn’t wear noticly much worse than an HB, but it was definitely no better. If anything, sure, it wears down a little faster than the Mitsubishi 9800.
Sourcing
Again, maybe not something you are going to find in your local store, but they are sourceable via the internet. Mine came by import by way of Amazon.
Mitsubishi 9800 HB
First pencil?, will be a Mitsubishi 9800 HB.
Why? Well, no actual specific reason. I have quite a few pencils I could have chosen from - some scrappy ones and some really nice ones. So, why this one? It just happened to be one of the three or so I have been cycling though on my desk, and one of the last batch I picked up, which were some not so common (in the U.K.) Japanese pencils.
Mitsubishi
The Mitsubishi Pencil Company, probably now more generally known for the Uni-Ball brand, are a Japanese company formed in 1887. These pencils are branded Mitsubishi, not Uni-Ball.
The 9800 HB
This is a nice pencil. I like it. Good finish, cedar wood, good feel. I also happen to like the British racing green paint finish, and the gold embossed print.
Rather than me find and recite details, I’ll post some links to other sources of information:
How does it write
I quite like it. It has a nice dark line, and the point lasts a fair while. It is not the smoothest (not like the waxy Blackwings for instance), and has a slight scratch, but relatively speaking, this is a nice pencil to use. I find I come back to using it quite often.
Sourcing
Although you are probably not going to find these in your local shops, they are relatively easy to find via specialist suppliers or on the internet. I got mine via Amazon