Musgrave Unigraph
The Musgrave Pencil Co. has a solid history in the pencil industry, though their website indicates no products other than novelties. It appears the general use writing and drawing pencil is on the decline compared to advertising and novelty pencils.
It was a surprise to see some of their pencils at a small bookstore this week. And by “some”, I mean hundreds and hundreds! The pencils caught my eye right away. Many pencils don’t state a country of origin, let alone anything more specific. These state:
Musgrave Pencil Co. Shelbyville, Tenn.
The name is “Unigraph” and the model is “1200 Drawing”. Alas, of the hundreds of pencils I saw, all were H hardness. The staff told me that was all they had.
The pencil has a dark forest green varnish, and a pink eraser attached with a gold ferrule with red band. The stamping is gold in colour.
The pencil sharpened easily and writes quite nicely. I don’t have too many H pencils on hand, but it seems a tad darker than a Staedtler Mars H, for example. The lead is quite strong, as one would expect in a higher quality pencil.
I liked the pencil’s association with it’s origin, and can definitely recommend the Unigraph as a good pencil, though I’d really love to try a version with a darker lead.
February 24th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Interesting! Some years ago Levenger sold a very nice clear laquered Musgrave pencil, a set of 18 or 24 (I’ll have to go look) in a cedar box.
I later contacted Musgrave directly and was able to buy three gross of Unigraphs in B. They are still in business, and I hope they are still making the Unigraph in there in Tennessee. Sadly, they don’t list the Unigraph (or their equally high quality Harvest (yellow) pencil on their website.
February 24th, 2006 at 10:17 pm
Thanks so much for this information. Maybe they still have some stock today, though it’s not advertised.
Three gross is 432 pencils - that’s quite a few pencils!
February 26th, 2006 at 12:07 am
Yes, not surprisingly, I have some left. I guess I have a fear of good pencils becoming unavailable… I only have a dozen or so Mongols, which I bought in 1995 - and I regret not buying them in bulk as well. ;-) I was really bummed out when Eberhardt Faber Velvets became Faber Castell Velvets. I shouldn’t have saved the sadness for all the Faber Castell Velvets disappeared. (Velvet, Velvet Deluxe - a very nice grey pencil, and the Black Velvet, a direct competitor to the Black Warrior) And all the Empire pencils.
And I didn’t buy a gross of any of them. But I learned my lesson - I try to get at least a gross of an quality pencil I find. - Recently I got a gross of Forest Choice. I’d get a gross of Palominos, but #1, they don’t come in that quantity, and #2, the price would be prohibitive even for a fanatical pencil nut/geek like me. ;-) So, I have more pencils now than I’ll probably ever use, but I have a fear that we’ll end up only able to buy one brand of pencil made in china, and that will be it. :-( I’m still trying to find the Caran D’ache 341s that friends used to bring me from Switzerland…. Caran D’ache does still make a great drafting pencil, but I don’t know about the 341, which was a wonderful yellow #2 with a white eraser and a lead that was oddly super smooth and dark,yet more long wearing than most dark leads. Truly a great pencil. Oh well….
Keep up your blog. Its one of the best around. Thanks.
March 26th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
I am looking for the Unigraph 1200 drawing 6B pencil made by Musgrave Pencil Co. Shelbyville, Tenn. I am down to 2 of them and I love theses pencils for drawing. Please let me know if you know where I can find them. Thanks
March 26th, 2006 at 1:27 pm
Krystie, all I can suggest is to contact Musgrave. As Steve wrote, they may have some available, even if not advertised.
April 11th, 2006 at 5:29 pm
Musgrave still makes the 1200 Unigraph pencil, with eraser, in 8 hardnesses (2B to 6H), and without eraser in 15 hardnesses (6B to 9H). The non-eraser versions are all on order and will arrive at PencilThings.com in late April, 2006. One of the Musgrave pencils (but I ain’t saying which!) will be featured in our June issue of the Pencil of the Month Club.
April 11th, 2006 at 6:36 pm
Don,
Thanks very much for your good news. It’s great that you’ve taken the initiative to make these pencils more widely available. I think a lot of people will be interested.
November 18th, 2006 at 11:51 am
I have been searching for a box of Musgrave pencils that were in a box. What were these and where can I get them.