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.