Comments on: Graf von Faber-Castell pencils.

By: penciladmin

penciladmin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:22:41 +0000

craniopath, congratulations on your purchase.

The cap is held on with a round rubber ring. At least with my sharpener, quite a bit of force is required to remove the cap.

By: craniopath

craniopath — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:39:15 +0000

I need your advice. I have bought myself a second hand large silver plated sharpener (thereby almost completing my set, yippie :) but the thing is I cant manage to move the top plate. I can neither move it up nor sideways, I wonder whether it is a screw on or pull out type. I just dont want to jam it any further.
thanks

By: craniopath

craniopath — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:03:57 +0000

As long as I am concerned these are the best pencils in the world. Maybe WoodChuch can talk Graf Anton into producing affordable version so we can enjoy using our perfect pencils more often :)

By: Alec

Alec — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 23:28:30 +0000

I have the sterling silver pencil to write appointments and little notes in my Gigliodoro agenda. It is a joy to use, to have the eraser and sharpener always at hand and the weight of the pencil cap is so reassuring that I often tend to play with it during long boring meetings.
Up until now I never had a lead break, an untidy sharpening or a grainy lead. For some other brands it seems so hard to get it all right, but these, well you get what you pay for?!

By: Ken Bowes

Ken Bowes — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 01:02:58 +0000

Not readily discovered is right! The sterling devices are easy to identify( even before seeing the price tag!) In silver-plated versions, there is a nicely flared ring at the top of the cap, with a single riow of “coining” around it. If it is sterling ( solid alloy of 92.5% silver ( by law), there are two coined rings one atop the other.

Best regards to all!

KenB

By: penciladmin

penciladmin — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 00:24:18 +0000

Ken, thanks for the comment and sharing your experience. The “thoughtful detail” you mention is great to hear about. I find that many of Faber-Castell’s products have these first rate design elements that aren’t immediately discovered.

By: penciladmin

penciladmin — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 00:18:02 +0000

Kali, thanks for the comment. And there is no rule against ordering two types of pencils!

By: Ken Bowes

Ken Bowes — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 00:01:57 +0000

I have acquired three sterling silver Graf von Faber Castell items, matching .7mm pencil, ballpen and ( at a bankruptcy sale )fountain pen. Workmanship is tremendous..very nicely made, but being sterling, they mark easily, so it pays to keep them in a leather case, and always return promptly to the case! An example of thoughtful detail is the ( I think) molded polyethylene thread insert in the fountain pen cap, meaning that if you “post the cap” on the pen, the doft poly thread runs over the back of the pen snugly, but without marking it!

By: Kali

Kali — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 22:10:29 +0000

I think those pencils are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen- the simplicity is so wonderful. I’d order some, but I just finished ordering a bunch of Palominos!

By: penciladmin

penciladmin — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 17:58:03 +0000

Great to hear from you. I imagine there was a lot of wood and pencil talk at that dinner!

Thank you for the information about the source woods.

Faber-Castell’s 250th anniversary is just a few years away. I will bet they are planning some nice products to commemorate the event. Oddly, they just released a Thoreau-themed rollerball. It wasn’t rollerballs that Thoreau’s family manufactured, if I recall correctly.

By: WoodChuck

WoodChuck — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 11:42:06 +0000

It has been awhile since I checked in at this site and see some interesint new posts. The Graf von Faber-Castell pencils are really beautiful to look at, but even I am hesitant to use them myself. Actually I have just returned from Germany where I even had dinner with Graf Anton this past week.

FYI – Grip 2001 pencils are historically produced from Jelutong or Pulai from Indonesia. However over time Faber-Castell may have begun using Pine or Gmelina from their Latin America operations. The 9000 continues to be produced from Incense-cedar.

By: penciladmin

penciladmin — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 16:57:23 +0000

Thanks for the comment John.

Many believe these pencils are made from pinus caribea (pine), since Faber-Castell manages a 10,000 hectare pine forest in Brazil. But I’ve never seen a formal statement from Faber-Castell, and the wood isn’t stated in product documents.

Which of course doesn’t make it not so! If anyone has any references, let us know!