pencil talk has learned that the famed Mirado pencil has been discontinued.
From correspondence with Newell Brands Office Products:
[T]he manufacturing of our Mirado Classic Pencils are already discontinued and we do not have a direct replacement at this time.
The Mirado is a global classic. It and the predecessor Mikado have over a dozen mentions in the definitive pencil book, The Pencil by Henry Petroski.
The Mirado line has been the subject of several pencil talk posts:
Goodbye, Papermate Mirado Classic pencil (2009)
Mirado Black Warrior pencil (2008)
Last large American pencil factory to close in 2009 (2008)
Eagle Mirado pencil (2009)
Papermate Mirado Classic pencil (2010)
A blog reader, “B. Johnson”, sent some information about this several days ago, but I wanted to confirm the information with Newell / PaperMate before sharing.
The business logic is elusive. These pencils probably aren’t a revenue leader for Newell, but with such brand recognition, they must still sell. They have been regularly seen at big box stores for years.
[Update]
Please see these excellent posts at Orange Crate Art:
Yes, they’ve been available even in Wal-Mart — Naturals, Black Warriors, and the yellow Papermate Mirados. This is sad news.
Tomorrow morning I will pull out a Mirado to write with.
I found no Mirados at a local Wal-Mart this weekend past. I did find a box at Staples:
I just received 6 boxes from amazon. The box shows a pencil marked “Mexico” but the pencils have no such marking. Not sure what that’s about. These are dated 2012.