By the way: Sometimes I have even five or more different erasers at the office which causes curious looks …

I appreciate the contribution on this topic.

Barrel, thank you – some interesting pencils are shown in those photos!

homepage3.nifty.com/JunOk/collect/ab02.htm

Tombow evidently believes there is a need to mark seats as well as sheets.

Thanks for your message. I have certainly learned something new. Yard-O-Led pencils use 1.18mm lead, and while older Caran d’Ache pencils used that diameter, I only just found that one can still buy 1.18mm Caran d’Ache refills, in both 33mm and 100mm lengths.

What you will notice, in comparison to the Caran d’Ache 0.5mm and 0.7mm refills, is that the leads are not labelled as ‘polymer’. Rather, they would be composed of the graphite-clay-wax formula used by traditional woodcase pencils.

Pentel makes polymer leads in 0.9mm and 1.3mm, but as far as I know, not 1.18mm.

The precise difference between the leads used by mechanical and woodcase pencils is a large and interesting subject, but the exact details are in the realm of proprietary industry knowledge, as far as I know. Those of us on the outside just observe the products. One observation is that a lead like the Pentel Ain 0.9mm in 2B – is extremely nice by the standards often used in the woodcase pencil realm!

So about pencils (woodcase pencils) – the Faber-Castell Castell 9000 has major European competitors in the Staedtler Mars Lumograph 100, and the Caran d’Ache Technograph 777, both of which perform similarly. Possibly others as well. I am guessing these firms aren’t as prominent in the Netherlands.

So about pencils from Japan – in North America (I am in Canada), it is the animation industry in particular (pre-internet) that became aware of and embraced these pencils. Different studios settled on different pencils, but the products of Tombow and Mitsubishi became known at the standards. Artists in particular (one linked in my ‘blogroll’) consistently confirm their view that these pencils are well beyond the quality of what one might find in most North American office and art supply stores.

Enter the world wide web – eBay vendors, small online Japanese shops, plus reports of overseas Japanese bookstores in San Francisco, etc. made these pencils much more accessible to a much wider audience, including myself.

No opinion I’ve heard or read doesn’t place Japanese woodcase pencil manufacturing at the peak of this industry, quality-wise. Everyone is of course welcome to decide for themselves.

If anyone wants to start exploring Japanese pencils, I would suggest starting with the two standards – the Tombow Mono 100, and the Mitsubishi Hi-Uni. One-Stop-Japan-Shop and bundoki.com will ship these pencils globally.

As to the why of it all – I can only speculate. With Staedtler and Faber-Castell pencils being $2.00 a piece where I live, and the cheapest no-name pencils being $0.08 or so – the business case to introduce a locally unknown (though acclaimed among specialists) pencil at the very high end, at a time when writing instruments are in decline, may be weak.

Thanks for your continued contributions to the blog!

There is no competition from any other pencil for the FC9000 and you really have to look very good to find those. Is there any way to get a hold on these Pentel’s in Europe?
I would really like to have some of them.

Luckly though my somewhat local art shop claims on their website to sell Tombow Mono Professionals. However when I went into their shop they didn’t have any in stock, I’m not even sure if they’ve ever actually stocked them either. I think they can order them for me if I want. It is of course possible to buy Tombows online which is what I’ve done in the past. I’d just be really happy to see these quality pencils somewhere were I could buy them in person. That would be sweet.

But a pencil’s graphite core seems to be more a matter of technology than design capability, and the Japanese manufacturers similarly seem to be in an elite category in terms of graphite quality. Or maybe it isn’t the advanced technology, and they are just willing to spend more on this component? i.e. others could make pencils that write as well as those of Pentel, Mitsubishi, and Tombow, but don’t choose to?