Comments on: Faber-Castell 33/78 four colour pencil

By: chhayanat

chhayanat — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 08:28:09 +0000

Four colour pencil mechanisms are reliable, often being found in good condition after 50-60 years. The mechanism is propel-only. The lead has to be pushed in slowly after twisting the tube in the direction opposite to that for propelling, till it can be turned no further.
The colour leads, sadly, are brittle and tend to stick in the lead tube. Some single-lead pencils have a method for pushing out the stuck lead from the rear with a fine pin or needle. Not so the four colour pencils. Stuck leads have to be gouged out, sometimes damaging the tube. This is the only real drawback with these pencils.

By: Kiwi-d

Kiwi-d — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:23:31 +0000

I’ve got a couple of these twist tip pencils and as you say they are not the most convenient. I haven’t got any instructions with mine, I think I’ll have to dig them out and check, maybe they are multi-colour pencils and I haven’t realised it before.

By: Alberto

Alberto — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:49:38 +0000

Pretty neat vintage product post. Considering how brittle color leads tend to be, it might be a more effective approach to get several leadholders with different color leads each rather than a multiple model where the colored leads are more likely to jam a single multi-pencil barrel.