Some thoughts about the pencils we’ve looked at this past month…
It’s great that Australia still has a pencil manufacturing plant (Staedtler). There were a number of pencil plants in Canada some years ago, but they have all since departed. Going way back, Thoreau’s pencils used Canadian graphite for a while. Today, the Pink Pearl eraser […]
This is the final pencil in this August series on the pencils of Australia and New Zealand. Thanks again to Dave for sending me these pencils.
The Faber-Castell 1111 is an uncapped hexagonal pencil in matte black, simply marked:
SV 1111 21/2=HB Faber-Castell
It definitely looks nice in all black with minimal markings.
As a pencil, it’s like […]
The Goldfaber brand is definitely marketed in North America - but it’s more known as a student or craft line of pencils. I’m not sure if one can actually buy this specific pencil here - I’ve certainly never seen one in person.
The 1222 is a real sleeper in the New Zealand/Australia series.
The only branded […]
It was a real pleasure to discover the Staedtler tradition 110. Like the pacific, it is also made in Australia.
With red paint on four sides, black on two, and gold lettering, it does look different than a North American pencil. This is a pencil colouring I’ve seen in many photos and illustrations, but never previously […]
Unlike the pacific, this Staedtler pencil is made in Germany.
It is a traditionally styled yellow pencil, with a pink eraser and shiny ferrule. The lead is also better quality than the pencils I’ve looked at the last few days - not great, but useably smooth, black, and non-crumbly.
A recent blog comment mentioned the Staedtler 134. […]
This is the first pencil in this series that specifies a country of manufacture, and the only one with a name associating it with a specific region.
The Staedtler Australia website proudly mentions a number of made in Australia pencils, including the pacific.
This pencil has a red varnish, with gold stamping that reads:
AUSTRALIA Staedtler pacific […]
This pencil is a bit more challenging to describe than others in this series. It has no brand, no name, no markings. Still, it’s apparently the common generic pencil in New Zealand.
One thing I’ll say is that compared to a cheap no-name pencil that I’d find in North America, it’s just a bit thicker and […]
Schwan-STABILO also manufacture the Schwan line - “Schwan” being a swan, derived from the name of company founder Gustav Adam Schwanhäusser.
The Schwan pencils I have are curious - a yellow version, the Schwan 305, marked HB=2, and a wine coloured version, the Schwan 306, marked HB=21/2. The 306 is also labelled with a barcode.
The 305 […]