The lack of art and craft in the packaging of modern stationery is regularly lamented at this blog. A manufacturer who is bucking the trend is Viarco, who have launched a new carbon pencil that is beautifully housed.

A set of six pencils are wrapped with paper and tightly bound with string at both ends. This is historically accurate, but with a new design and product.

The cores constitute a large proportion of the pencil, with the wood slats being unusually hollowed out:

Sharpened:

“Carbon” can signify a range of ingredients. This pencil is very waxy – the core can be indented with a fingernail. If you think of the brittle characteristics of vine or willow charcoal, it is the opposite, while being in the same broad family. On Strathmore Charcoal paper:

I salute Viarco for paying attention to the little details that many of us treasure.

Poppin was kind enough to send a few samples this way.

Their pencils and erasers form a nice duo. (They also sent some ballpoints, but we won’t speak of those.)

The pencil is round and has black dyed wood and black finish with an integrated (black) eraser without metal ferrule. The lettering and trim are silver, and they list for $3 a dozen. The erasers are three for $2. Rather remarkable for the price. I know this pencil will appeal to a lot of people because black dyed pencils are a regular topic in the blog inbox.

The lead is dark and rich, yet scratchy and gritty. Almost right, yet problematic.

The block eraser is reasonable:

The black eraser mainly smears:

Poppin uses custom packaging. Air pockets:

Cardboard box:

Internal box divider:

At first, I couldn’t tell how they sold (or intended to sell) their product. My reading of their website suggests they love corporate accounts, but also sell directly.

I used one pencil and one eraser – I’ll send the other eleven pencils and two erasers via Canada Post to the first commenter who mentions that they would like to receive them.

It seems to have been a while since this blog has been so excited about a new stationery product. The notebooks shown here are from Design.Y, the brand of Mr. Hiroshi Yoshino-san, a bookbinder from Sendai, Japan.

The products are amazing because every aspect of the notebook is of exceptional quality – the cover, the binding, and the paper. I learned of these notebooks at the Fountain Pen Network, where many fountain pen users are claiming it is the finest paper they’ve ever used.

The two notebooks shown are the Record 216 and Record 336 models. These numerals refer to the page counts.

The covers are in brown goatskin. Black is also available. At first, I found the look stern, and perhaps conservative. But I’ve warmed up to the look, especially after starting to use the smaller notebook. The goatskin is luxurious and very pleasant to the touch. I am not aware of ever having seen anything nicer as a notebook or journal cover.

Ruled and plain paper are available, and depending on the model, elastic closures, bookmark ribbons, and dyed edges are available as options. The Record 336 shown here has dyed edges and two bookmark ribbons.

The notebooks do not lie perfectly flat, but there is no difficulty using the whole page.

There is a small notch exposing the ribbon:

The back has a small maker’s mark:

The goatskin covers and hand binding are beautiful, but the paper is what seems to have received the most online English language recognition. (The notebooks have been featured in several Japanese stationery magazines, but I’m not able to read those reports.) Of course, this praise is in the context of the fountain pen community, which finds most modern paper unsuitable for water based fountain pen inks.

The paper is exceptionally lightweight. It is called Tomoe River, and comes from the Tomoegawa Paper Company. This allows thin notebooks with 336 pages, for example. Yet the paper doesn’t bleed or feather. Being thin, it does show through to the other side. A Bruichladdich list taken with a medium 14K Lamy nib and Lamy blue ink:

An HB Mitsubishi Hi-uni pencil also works:

These notebooks are on their way to becoming cherished items, and I’ll join the chorus of those praising their quality. If the look is to your taste, you may want to try one.

It was a thrill to meet Mr. Draplin, a successful (by both conventional and unconventional measures) graphic designer, the creator of Field Notes, and a notable pencil collector. There was a brief chance to chat with him about pencils, and he said some kind things about this blog.

The talk was ostensibly about graphic design, but what came through for me were the themes of pursuing one’s dreams, being true to oneself, and the deep rewards that can come from doing work you believe in for people you like. I was quite surprised to hear prices mentioned. If you’re a rural clover farmer, you can probably afford him, and I bet he’d love to work for you. The talk was erudite, witty, and inspirational.

Some Field Notes news: – if I understood correctly, there is a strong “labour of love” element to many of the special editions, and they don’t break even. And Aaron is fine with this, happy to fund interesting projects via more commercial offerings.

There was what appeared to be a (not advertised online) limited edition numbered Field Notes edition for sale at Aaron’s “merch table”. Some (other) guy bought all of them!

Those of us north of the border have probably looked fondly at the County Fair Field Notes edition, a set of fifty featuring each US state. The Canadian provinces version is coming! I hope that a Canadian printer and/or designer will be involved.

It was a great evening, and I recommend attending the tour if it comes near you.

The company has introduced a “Blackwing 602″ pencil that takes the name of the Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602 pencil. The new pencil has been marketed with claims of association with Frank Lloyd Wright, Duke Ellington, and John Lennon. Each of these claims has been demolished, in succession, at Orange Crate Art and Blackwing Pages.

There are many historical figures who used the Eberhard Faber Blackwing – Sean has painstakingly researched and documented this over at Blackwing Pages for years now. Claiming the usage by these people as an endorsement of the replica pencil is somewhere between questionable and outrageous (and others would find that statement mild). But fabricating stories about Frank Lloyd Wright, Duke Ellington and John Lennon using (or even favoring) the Blackwing pencil is unbelievable, and I don’t follow or understand.

And that’s just the beginning. Each of these marketing deceits (except for Lennon, as I write this) was withdrawn after being revealed and challenged. It is a sort of “Liar Whac-A-Mole”. New nonsense sprouts up when the old nonsense is debunked.

Even further, this global company seems to have taken their marketing lessons from the Steve Martin/Eddie Murphy movie Bowfinger. To quote the IMDb synopsis, “When a desperate movie producer fails to get a major star for his bargain basement film, he decides to shoot the film secretly around him.” Many of the claims about famous writers, musicians, and artists using the Blackwing are clearly lifted without credit from the Blackwing Pages.

So, California Cedar, what’s going on?

Further reading:

Blackwing Pages

Blackwing posts at Orange Crate Art

One item that caught my eye was the Field Notes Brand steno book. To me, Field Notes is one of those “internet sensations” that is known to stationery aficionados, but which I don’t expect to see in “real life”. So, it was a nice surprise to see a small Field Notes display in a local store. I picked up a steno pad, and thought it might be fun to compare it with a “real life” item – a steno book that I’d find back at the office.

The office supply cabinet steno book was Staples brand.

A few notes: The Field Notes steno book is 80 pages, and the Staples steno book 350 pages. The Field Notes was $9.99, and the Staples book lists for $3.73. This makes the Field Notes approximately 12 cents/page, and the Staples 1/cent page. Twelve times more expensive per page is a significant difference. Is it worth it?

The two steno books in profile:

Both books are made in the US. The Field Notes has very strong cardboard covers front and back, and the Staples has a medium strength back. The Field Notes has brown lines which nicely match the covers. The Staples has green and red lines.

Green vs. brown:

With some steno pencils:

The Field Notes paper is thicker, and one gets a sense of sturdiness. The results with graphite are similar:

The Field Notes gets style points, but I wonder if it would really be the choice of anyone who just needs a steno book?

This visitor carries a Noris colour pencil:

The left foot has the Staedtler logo:

My thanks to Gail from Staedtler for sending this visitor my way.

From their website, it appears that Tohkin is a specialty pen clip manufacturer in Japan. This pencil holder seems to be a natural extension of their clip business.

The chromed unit has two extra features that distinguish it from other inexpensive pencil extenders – an adjustable spring loaded clip, and a giant eraser. The clip can be moved up or down the extender barrel. I suspect the eraser could be replaced.

Even the default included pencil is good quality. I would say it is a useful and usable accessory for three dollars and change.

From Berol México we have the Escolar. A part of the global Sanford empire, Berol México continues to use historically important pen and pencil brand names such as Blaisdell and Esterbrook.

Sanford products from México can be found at some small independent art supply stores in Canada. The appearance of these products suggests that they have been in a dusty corner of a warehouse for some years. But I have no specific information.

This particular pencil is hexagonal and unsharpened, with the sides alternately painted red and blue. The stamping of the name may be on either a red or blue side.

L to R: CPD 100, Bicolor 999, Escolar

From Caran d’Ache is the Bicolor 999. Unlike many better known Caran d’Ache products, this pencil doesn’t appear to be widely exported from Switzerland.

The pencil bears the FSC logo, and is hexagonal and pre-sharpened at both ends. The red end has a removable plastic cover embellished with a bar code.

Lastly, the Danish brand Linex (though the products don’t claim to be made in Denmark) offers the CPD 100.

The CPD 100 is an oversized triangular pencil, with the red end sharpened. A set of ten comes in a plastic wallet.

Trying them on paper, the Escolar does surprising well for a student pencil. It sharpens easily, the “red” is fairly red, the point doesn’t break under pressure.

The Bicolor 999 is a delight. Both ends leave truly smooth and rich lines. The “red” is slightly on the orange side. I want to keep using it. It is one of those pencils that demonstrates the merits of making and using quality pencils.

The CPD 100 is the disappointment of the three. The “red” is more on the pink side. The sharpening was tough, and the leads a bit on the scratchy side. It isn’t a terrible pencil, but there are better choices available.

Here is an unusual pencil that I know little about. An oversized woodcased chalk pencil, the Jass allows for a lot more precision than a typical stick of chalk.

On slate:

On a chalkboard:

See Bleistift for a nice article on writing with chalk and slate (and variants).

Are there any teachers out there who might recall using chalk pencils?

Though I imagined for a moment that Google might be judging the pencils.com marketing practices, the notice is merely about a possible malware infection.