General’s Supreme 550 pencil

General's Supreme 550 pencil

Those looking for inexpensive pencils soon discover that almost every large department and office supply store has a no-name or house brand – yet such pencils are often less than ideal.

Made of poplar or basswood with inferior leads, the pencils often just barely serve their purpose.

Yet if you’re buying pencils as a school teacher or department head, or for your workplace or organization, and have a limited budget, the options may seem very limited.

I don’t personally believe that children should have inferior pencils. Let’s think about this. Which will better promote learning – a pencil that is hard to sharpen and hard to write with, or a pencil that is easy to sharpen and easy to write with?

Yet financial realities may still be paramount.

It’s been a delight to recently learn about a budget pencil that is a remarkably good value. I have to thank a regular blog reader for telling me about this pencil, and sending a few my way.

The Supreme 550 is made by the General Pencil Co. of New Jersey. General is the oldest independent American pencil company.

The packaging for a dozen pencils is a re-sealable plastic bag. (A format also used by some other General products.)

The bag has a label stating: “Since 1889, General’s Supreme #2 Graphite, Sustained Yield Cedar Wood Pencil, Made in U.S.A.”

The pencils are labeled in green:

Obverse: USA General’s Carbo Weld SUPREME 550 2
Reverse: [bar code]

The pencil body is yellow, the ferrule gold with a black band, and the eraser dark pink.

General's Supreme 550 pencil

The finish overall is not great – it seems to be a very thin paint coating that easily shows defects. But it’s okay. And the classic lettering will bring a smile to many.

The pencil sharpens very easily. After trying out various basswood pencils recently, I realized that I was delighted to again be able to easily sharpen a pencil. Wasn’t ease of sharpening once an integral aspect of every pencil?

The lead writes well. I tried to use the pencil over a period of time, at home and work. It could not be called smooth in comparison to most pencils discussed here. It unfortunately is somewhat gritty. But it also seemed (compared to other HB pencils) to be relatively solid, non-breaking, and non-crumbling. And keep in mind that I’m comparing it to much more expensive “name brand” products. It functions very well compared to “budget” category pencils.

At US$1.50 for a dozen at retail, I’m thinking that large quantity purchasers can get the pencil for well under ten cents a pencil. I hope that price puts these reasonable quality, easily sharpened cedar pencils in the same range as those bad no-name, origin unspecified pencils.

Why don’t stores like Office Depot, Office Max, or Office Brobdingnagian offer General or Musgrave pencils? I think some of us should ask.

But in the meantime, I hope the Supreme 550 might be a candidate for those seeking a budget pencil.

General sells this pencil via a distributor who aims at U.S. college campuses. It can be purchased online (more expensive) or in person at various college bookstores. A larger order would have to be facilitated directly through the distributor.

Staedtler 134 yellow pencil

Staedtler 134 pencil

pencil talk has had ongoing comments on the Staedtler 134 yellow pencil. The 134 is apparently a standard pencil in many Asian countries, yet it is absent from Staedtler’s websites. The pencil is not sold in North America.

The name is just a bit odd – it is clearly a yellow pencil – so why call it “yellow pencil”? This somehow reminds me of “No name” brand products, and those establishments calling themselves “Le Café”, “The Bar”, and so on.

It’s a delight to finally get some of these pencils for my own examination.

Let me mention something as an aside – I’m well aware that this blog is only covering a fraction of the world’s pencils. Many countries have national pencil industries that don’t generally export their products. I wish there was an easy way to get pencils from Conté, Lyra, or the Hindustan Pencil Co., just to name a few.

Staedtler 134 pencil

So let’s start with the outside packaging. My pencils don’t say where they were made – just “Manufactured for STAEDTLER Nuernberg, Germany”. While no statement of origin usually means “Made in China”, the packaging version shown at PenciLog explicity says they are made in China.

Though the German says “Bleistifte” (pencils), and the French “Crayons grafite de qualité, (quality graphite pencils), the English says “School and office pencils.”

Uh-oh. “school” and “office” often mean “the cheapest we could get away with”. Why do people in schools and offices deserve the worst stuff?

The pencils actually look great, with black printing on a dark yellow base, black ferrule, and pink eraser.

They are marked:

Obverse: [logo] Staedtler yellow pencil 134-HB

After sharpening them, a mismatch is revealed. Though the finish is superior – the lead is just another not terrible, but not great, somewhat scratchy lead.

They sharpen easily in a Tombow longpoint sharpener. I don’t know the constituent wood.

Now some of the people who have commented on this pencil have also asked – what is the difference between pencils, and why are some pencils so much more expensive.

I’ll try and give a partial answer.

If your pencil use is sporadic – jotting down an occasional address or phone number, I think any old pencil might do. The 134 would be more than up to the task.

But if you’re using a pencil as a regular writing tool for work or school – the difference between a great pencil like the Tombow Mono 100 and the Staedtler 134 is remarkable and immediately apparent. (Honestly, you can still take advantage of a great pencil even if you’re just jotting down phone numbers.)

The lead is so smooth and applies in such a way that the pencil “gets out of your way”. You don’t have to think about the pencil, and can more directly think about whatever you’re really working on.

While writing, pencils last a long time. The most extreme example I can think of is someone liking a very soft pencil, in combination with a sharp point. This can result in using half, or even a whole pencil in a day.

Yet even in that extreme case, with the highest quality pencils, this cost is negligible compared to other typical office or school expenses – computers, printing, lighting, electricity, copying, paper, etc. If you work in a downtown office tower, the square footage consumed by your deskside blue bin probably costs more than an ongoing supply of Hi-Unis.

And also keep in mind – a Japanese pencil in North America has a very inflated price, but in Japan, they have regular pencil prices.

Now for an artist, the answer is much easier – smooth, dark, consistent, non-crumbling, non-breaking, high quality graphite is worth it. And being 10 or 15% better than an alternative may be worth a significant premium. In some cases, tools that are 1% better may be desirable.

So our Staedtler 134 looks great, but trying it side by side with Staedtler’s flagship Mars Lumograph 100, it is only so-so. The darkness of the 134 in HB is more like a 2B in many pencils – probably a bonus for writing.

I’m curious about the origin and history of this pencil.

Related Post: Staedtler 132 pencil

Pink Pearl erasers

Pink Pearl print, (c) Jordan Crane
Image used courtesy of Jordan Crane at reddingk

Last week’s eraser test didn’t reveal good results for the Pink Pearl eraser. But the Pink Pearl doesn’t have to worry, because it is more than an eraser. It is a cultural icon.

It is not unlike the pencil in Petroski’s The Pencil – mysterious and undocumented, yet pervasive.

Erasure is about the correction of one’s mistakes – a lofty goal in life. Yet like the Pink Pearl, the effort doesn’t always succeed.

Jason Crane’s portrait of the Pink Pearl pays homage to this cultural instrument. A limited edition of 53, it is a large print that occupies over seven square feet. It could be an inspiration to a writer, visual artist or anyone facing a creative struggle.

Apart from the Dixon Pink Pearl, I have a box of 36 vintage Eberhard Faber Pink Pearls:

Vintage Eberhard Faber Pink Pearl Erasers

They’re cool, but not as cool as Jordan Crane’s print.