Our fifth and final article on Faber-Castell perfect pencils.
This is the original silver-plate version that you’ve probably seen languishing in storefronts for some years now.
The set is all wood, with a heavy metal (brass?) silver-plated lid.
The inlay that surrounds the writing instruments is also solid wood, unlike the frosted green glass case.
The set includes four spare pencils, four spare erasers, and a sharpener.
The extender is the slimmest we’ve yet seen, as the cap doesn’t contain a sharpener.
The mechanism is like that of a traditional pencil extender, with a sliding ring. There is also a nice Faber-Castell clip.
Since there is no built-in sharpener, a sharpener is provided – maybe the nicest (and possibly the heaviest) compact manual sharpener ever made. Finished in fluting like that of the pencil, it matches a larger two hole desktop model, as well as the Graf von Faber-Castell erasers and the pencils themselves.
This case has since been updated to include the platinum-plate perfect pencil (no classic sharpener, though). I would recommend it over the frosted glass case based on construction and material quality.
It’s the only one of the series that I generally leave at home, probably because the ones with sharpeners are just a bit more practical.
This product started the line, and I think, was very important to the pencil industry, much in the way high end sports cars can stimulate overall car sales, though they themselves may sell in very small quantities.
Other Versions
There are at least three more perfect pencil versions. I can’t write about them from personal experience, and don’t know how their mechanisms might differ from the featured pencils.
– A sterling silver version. Still for sale as far as I know.
– A stainless steel with diamonds version. This was a limited edition. It shows up on eBay from time to time. I actually got an email a couple of years ago from a dealer who wondered if I wanted to buy one. My answer: maybe, but not at anything close to the full retail price. (No deal.)
– The famous white gold with diamonds version, a limited edition of 99. This was of course great marketing, getting immense amounts of publicity for being “the world’s most expensive pencil”. An article in The Economist detailed some of the marketing background. (This series was based on a management consultant’s recommendation that they create a premiere line.) These also show up on eBay from time to time, much reduced from their original price.
Overall, I am extremely impressed with what Faber-Castell has done in the perfect pencil series.
Hi there,
I’ve got the sterling silver version and it is exactly the same as the platinum version, perhaps a few grammes of weight difference, but I went to the store last week and had the both in my hands, but they don’t differ that much that I could feel it.
I like the fact that it is a sterling silver version. A lot of manufacturers these days produce “sterling silver” pens and fountain pens. Just when you hold them they are surprisingly light in weight and I always feel cheated. Not the Graf von Faber-Castell version, it is a real heavy weight. Perhaps as a pencil extender a bit hefty for some, but I more often just use it as a point protector, clipping-my-pencil-to-the-back-of-my-notebook-device and of course as a sharpener!
Nobody is likely to see the difference between a platinum version and a sterling, it is mainly for the owners that like it. As told before on this site there is an meticulous craftsmanship to be found in these pencils, caps & all the other stuf. I got several of the caps, a plated silver like the one on top of this page, two sterling and one with the twisty cap (I don’t use that anymore as I find it to cumbersome, I use the plated at home to extend the stubs I created while “on te move”) and all of them have not one production flaw. A flaw being a bit bent/not fully straight, I guess these things are made by hand for the larger part, but they look like they have been made on a CNC machine without ever being touched! Now that is some crafstmanship…
Alec, thank you for your thoughtful and detailed comment, which nicely extends this series.
I am glad to hear that the sterling silver version has so much merit.
The whole sterling silver line of graf faber is distinguished with the second ring on top of the caps. It also feels somewhat heavier than the platinum plated but may be its just psychological :)
Does anyone know where to find a sterling deskset with the sharpener in the extender? So far, I have only seen the sterling pencil sold in a small box with no extra pencils or erasers. Also, is the metal on the refill pencils sterling, silver plate, or platinum plate?
jackieblue, I did recently have some correspondence with Faber-Castell about their lineup, and was told that the current sterling pencil is only sold in solitaire format, as you’ve observed.
The metal on the refill pencil is none of the above – it is nickel or a similar alloy. Of course it is meant to be filled with an eraser and covered by the cap – which is in silver plate or platinum plate, corresponding to the set sold. (They don’t sell the silver plate version anymore either.) So what type of cap accompanies the sterling silver pencil? That I am curious about. I know a few readers own this item, so I’m hoping one of them will share this information with us.
This is the pencil that got us all hooked. The very pencil that I stared at for years in the shop windows wondering when I’d be crazy and rich enough to purchase one. Unfortunately, I still haven’t found one at an amount I’d be comfortable parting with. But thanks to this pencil I now have to have some version of the Perfect Pencil upon my person at all times, except for sleep of course.