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!