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.