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.