In the far corners of pencildom’s taxonomy we have two extremely interesting (and very retro looking!) woodcased ink erasers with brushes.

Both round, they feature ink eraser cores and crimped ferrules that grasp brushes. The blue bristles of the Mars match that pencil’s finish and have an additional appeal.

The crimped ferrules with brushes harken back to typewriter erasers.

The Staedtler pencils are marked:

Obverse: Made in Germany Staedtler Mars erasor

Reverse: [bar code] EAN 40 07817 530948 Art. Nr. 526 61

And the Faber-Castell:

Perfection 7058 Faber-Castell

The font and finish of this pencil suggests it may be one of those marginal offerings where the value of updating to the modern branding wasn’t seen as worthwhile. On the other hand, the Staedtler pencil could fit in (apart from not fitting in at all!) in a modern product lineup.

Though I can’t replace either of them, I decided to try them out, on an Exacompta Bloc Faf (shown) , and also a Rhodia pad.

Lamy ink (fountain pen):

Neither eraser seemed to have any effect!

Pencil (Castell 9000, HB):

The Faber-Castell eraser seemed to have an advantage.

Ballpoint (Bexley labelled, probably from Schmidt – no ordinary ballpoints could be found.)

Here is where these erasers become useful – The Staedtler did a slow but good job of removing the ballpoint ink on the Rhodia paper. On the thinner Exacompta paper, both seemed to spin their wheels.

If you write on thick paper with ballpoint, the Mars rasor seems potentially useful. And if you just want a very unusual stationery accessory, both are high recommended!