Longtime readers may recall a 2010 post mentioning some very tiny pencils.
Matthias of Bleistift also received a few of these from Sean, and seeing my post, took pity on me and kindly redirected a few spares my way.
More recently, I learned of the limited edition (I have box no. 296) World Press Cartoon pencil.
Here they are:
The blue pencil is meant to fill out J. C. Penney surveys, and the purple (and hexagonal) pencil is a souvenir from an international cartoonist conference, and was made by Viarco of Portugal.
With a regular pencil for contrast:
I remain amazed that pencils can be manufactured at this scale. Have you encountered pencils like this?
It’s great to see pencil talk back in action!
Thank you for showing these special pencils – so far I have only seen vintage pencils of that size (e. g. these). – By the way, Eyeball have some tiny colour pencils.
Nice tiny pencils! I have not seen any that small since I was a child. I had a tiny thin red one I never wanted to use since it was unlike my big fat pencils for school or the normal pencils in the house.
Indeed, I used frequently to see such tiny pencils. I thought that they were very nifty, but never did come-up with much to do with them.
How about diary pencils?
http://www.letts.co.uk/principal-wooden-pencil-pack.html
Gunther, thank you for the greeting and that reference. The Eyeball pencils were mentioned here in 2008 – amusing but challenging to use.
Thanks you for the comments, Bill M and Daniel.
scruss, thanks for that link. I think Smythson sells something similar.
I remember similar pencils — perhaps even thinner, and always dark red — coming in the mail when I was kid. I think that they accompanied magazine-subscription offers.
Thanks Michael, that would make sense.
Yes, I have some of these. They are all older and came in with various mechanical pencils I’d purchased when adding to that collection. Mine are all advertising related I believe. I can’t check until I get back from my trip.
I have a set of 12 coloured pencils, each 55 mm long, 1 mm in diameter. They live in a small cardboard tube labelled’ “BEGOODY JAPAN”. Wish I could attach a photo to this.
And damned nice to see Pencil Talk back. I was worried there for a bit!
My parents also used to get these in the mail, in the 1960s, with offers for magazine subscriptions. Time Magazine was one of them, I think.
Go to item #220802907761 at eBay to see an example of the Time pencils.
Hello there!
I got some strange pencils from the opposite end of the spectrum.
S.J. Staedtler Tradition 3309 HB. Hexagonal, Red and black “paint job” and a white crown under the black top end. Comes in a red box.
240 mm in length and roughly 12 mm from edge to edge, 10 mm flat to flat.
Thank You for a great site and all the BEST!
/Magnus
Plase tell me where I could get these , really nice to see these tiny pencils
Please anyone