Last week, I received a beautiful gift from a very creative person. It’s a collage which uses pencil shavings as material.

A glass frame made it challenging to photograph, but I hope that some of the essence is conveyed. In person, it is quite wonderful to behold.

Yuta Watanabe takes an interesting look at our favourite subject here.

Following up on the excellent contributed list of children’s books on pencils, we’re going to take a look at three adult-oriented books on pencils.

Marco Ferreri, Editor. Pencils. Mostre Georgetti, Milan, 1996.

Bill Henderson, Editor. Minutes of the Lead Pencil Club. Pushcart Press, Wainscott, NY, 1996.

Henry Petroski. The Pencil. Knopf, New York, 1992.

Pencils is a beautiful and inspiring tribute to the pencil.

Alessandro Ubertazzi writes in the introduction:

One of the reasons for the pencil’s appeal is a latent analogy with the human existence – it’s inevitable end. The pencil is used, it gets sharpened, consumed and disappears.

The volume is a catalogue of an exhibition that occurred in Milan in 1996/1997. It has not just beautiful prose, but stunning, amazing photographs of the pencils in the exhibit.

My favourite photo shows a set of 24 pencils, each made from a different wood. I would love to own this set of pencils!

Every category of pencil is given tribute as part of an exhibition that promoted the “minor arts”: note taking pencils, non-writing pencils, yellow office pencils, black pencils, pencils with rulers, pencils with names, Mussolini’s pencil, unfinished pencils, decorative pencils, advertising pencils, indelible pencils, working pencils, red/blue pencils, Marotte pencils, compass pencils, pencils with caps, mechanical pencils, precious metal pencils, 4-colour pencils, Mordan pencils, celluloid pencils, vulcanite pencils, mechanical pencils disguised as woodcase pencils, pencils that look like pens, aluminum pencils, and many others, all with beautiful photos.

The book mixes photographic tribute with contemplation of this everyday implement.

The ritual of sharpening is of paramount importance since it embodies the concept of regeneration. The point of the instrument becomes sharp once again, the wood dirtied by hands and time regains its natural colour and releases a vague but enticing smell of resin.

As essay in pictures, accompanied by words, Pencils is very adept at probing the fascination of these special bits of wood and graphite.

Title: Let’s Make Rabbits
Author and/or Illustrator: Leo Lionni
Age range: Babies and toddlers
Description: Scissors and a pencil “make rabbits”. The pencil draws, the scissors cut. When the rabbits are hungry, the scissors cut out a carrot from orange paper and the pencil draws a carrot.

Title: Simon’s Book
Author and/or Illustrator: Henrik Drescher
Age range: 2-5
Description: After going to sleep, a boy’s dip-pens and inkwell take a character he has drawn out on an adventure.

Title: If You Take a Pencil
Author and/or Illustrator: Fulvio Testa
Age range: 4-6
Description: A fantasy counting story, told by a pencil.

Title: Magpie Magic: A Tale of Colorful Mischief
Author and/or Illustrator: April Wilson
Age range: 4-8
Description: A child’s hands draw a bird and the mischief it gets into, using pencils including pencil crayons.

Title: Harold and the Purple Crayon
Author: Crockett Johnson
Age range: 4-8
Description: The classic and much-loved children’s picture book about a little boy who is lead on a grand adventure by his purple crayon one moonlit night. (Celebrating it’s 50th year).

Title: Grandfather’s Pencil and the Room of Stairs
Author and/or Illustrator: Michael Foreman
Age range: 5-9
Description: A pencil writes about its experiences and memories along with the house, floorboards and the table that all originate from the forest.

Title: I am Pencil
Author and/or Illustrator: Linda Hayword
Age range: 7-9
Description: How a pencil is made, distributed and used.

Title: The Good Luck Pencil
Author and/or Illustrator: Diane Stanely, Bruce Degen
Age range: 9-11
Description: A magic pencil brings a young girl more luck than she wants. The pencil helps her write a biography for a school assignment that she then must live up to. She trades her pencil in for a more apt instrument that truly reflects her life.

Title: Marianne Dreams
Author and/or Illustrator: Catherine Storr
Age range: YA
Description: Marianne’s drawings come alive in her dreams. Adapted into the film “Escape into Night” and an operetta by the author, reviews list it a bit on the scary side.

A recent trip to a local university provided a chance to visit their engineering supply store, where I picked up some Pentel 120 A3 DX drafting pencils. They were one of two brands sold, along with the competitor Staedtler Mars micro.

The pencils come in four versions, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9 mm. While I have various 0.5 and 0.7 mm mechanical pencils, the thin 0.3 mm and thick 0.9 mm varieties aren’t familiar to me, and seemed like they would be fun to play around with.

The pencils have a metal tip, rubber grip, plastic body and cap, and metal clip. The lead is advanced by clicking the cap. The cap also lifts off to reveal a very tiny eraser.

The internal mechanisms have some variations – the length of lead dispensed by a click corresponds to the diameter of the lead, with a click of the 0.9 mm pencil dispensing the most lead, and the 0.3 mm pencil the least.

The grip looked like a seasonally appropriate winter tire to me, and I liked it. It was comfortable and grippable.

After a few days of trying them out, I think they are a nice set, and a reasonable and inexpensive introduction to the category.

Round pencils were by far the least popular format in November’s poll. I had a look around my pencil box (okay, boxes) to see what I could find.

The pencils in the photo are (top to bottom): The Kita-Boshi Hit 9900, Nava pencil, Derwent Sketching pencil, Koh-I-Noor Hardmuth Progresso 8911, Mirado Black Warrior, and the PaperMate Primer Print.

Not everyday names? I’ve only referred to two of these in the past. The Derwent and Koh-I-Noor are specialty art pencils, the PaperMate a learning/children’s pencil, the Nava isn’t widely distributed and might be called a boutique pencil. The Hit is not widely available outside Japan, and only uses the round shape for the softer artist-oriented pencils. The Black Warrior is the only general purpose pencil in this lot.

Promotional pencils are usually round – but round is the cheapest format for printing.

So what gives? Is there really only one general purpose round pencil on the market, and why? Would people use round pencils if there were more choices? Or do we really, really not want our pencils to roll away?

“Caran d’Ache” is a rendering of the Russian word for “pencil”. It is also a Swiss art supply and luxury writing company named after a 19th century satirist who took Caran d’Ache as his editorial name.

The Technograph 777 is one of three graphite pencils currently made by Caran d’Ache, and their only woodcase pencil aimed at writing or drafting. (They make several very nice mechanical pencils.)

I’ve ordered these pencils from both Japan and the U.S. They seem harder to find than Caran d’Ache’s $500 fountain pens! Warning: a photo below shows unexpurgated graphite dust on a box of these pencils.

The pencils are yellow. Fortunately, not office supply store yellow – they are a rich, highly finished and distinctive bright yellow.

The caps are finished in black, and the pencils are pre-sharpened.

Using terminology we introduced last month in our review of the Castell 9000, the pencil is marked in gold lettering:

Side 1 (Obverse): TECHNOGRAPH [logo] CARAN d’ACHE SWISS MADE 777 HB
Side 2: blank
Side 3: blank
Side 4 (Reverse): HB
Side 5: blank
Side 6: blank

I like this sparse look much more than that of pencils with two or three sides filled with text. So where’s the ubiquitous barcode? Caran d’Ache has preserved the looks of the pencil by putting the barcode on a removable perforated plastic wrapper. It would be great if others would imitate them.

The pencils felt light to me. I put them on the scale. They ranged from 3.5g to 4.4g, with the mean being 3.8g. That’s identical to the reference Staedtler Mars Lumograph 100 mean weight, so I was wrong. My new theory is that the absence of markings on the pencil makes them easier to hold, with much less effort needed to get a comfortable grip, and that this may make them feel lighter.

As pencils – I note they come in a wide range, but I’ll just mention the HB here – I tried to compare them with the Staedtler Mars Lumograph 100 and Faber-Castell Castell 9000 on a variety of papers. Every time I thought that I might have found a difference, I found some variation in the testing conditions. Though I’d like to post “Pencil X makes lines like this” photos or scans, there seem to be a great number of variables that influence the line created, and the results can be faulty. Have you heard that in a stereo store, the loudest system will sound the “best” to most people, or that when the New Yorker blindfolded professional wine critics, simple distinctions like white vs. red couldn’t be discerned?

What I can say is – the HB versions of these three highly regarded pencils make relatively similar lines, and that’s a high standard – this is all good news!

So if you get a chance, do try them out!

I’d like to thank two other pencil blogs that have reviewed this pencil:

Blyantsiden (In Norwegian)

and

Kent’s PencilLog (In Korean)

Though I can’t read either, I still feel I’ve benefited.

Let’s start 2008 with some colour. International Arrivals of Boulder, Colorado has released an attention grabbing set of carpenter pencils in green, yellow, purple, blue, orange and red. And this isn’t just the pencil’s paint to which we’re referring – these pencils contain the corresponding coloured leads!

Made in Taiwan, the pencils are simply labeled “carpenter pencils”, and the package states: “Sharpen pencils with carpenter pencil sharpener or with utility knife.”

Though unusual, they are not the first in this category – Rexel Cumberland / Derwent in the U.K. have released artist oriented colour pencils in carpenter pencil format.

With a Gerber pocket knife, I set about sharpening this pencil. This proved to be quite challenging – which isn’t expected. It has some sort of tough, rough wood. An included photo shows the results. Two other artist-oriented carpenter pencils – a Derwent, and a General – were easily sharpened, while the International Arrival (blue) was pure trouble.

The final verdict: Nice as wide colour leads might be, they don’t make up for this being a pencil that can’t be sharpened with standard tools. Not recommended.

The Castell 9000 is a famous and iconic pencil. A flagship product of Faber-Castell, the world’s largest pencil company, the 9000 has over a century of history as an important working tool of writers, artists and engineers.

The dark rich green (“forest green”) has varied in shade over the years, but the current version is excellent. It makes for a very handsome pencil. It seems similar to the palette used by both Mazda and Land Rover in the automotive field.

Most 9000 pencils are sold sharpened, without eraser. (There is a variant with eraser.) There is a wide range of hardnesses offered, but today we’ll restrict ourselves to the HB version.

Following the methods mentioned in the Staedtler Mars Lumograph post, I weighed several pencils. The range was 3.6 to 4.1 grams, with the mean 3.9 grams. So it may be a sliver heavier than the Lumograph, our reference pencil. The length is the standard 175mm. The distance between opposite sides in 7.3mm, making it slightly narrower than the Lumograph. Being thinner yet heavier than the Lumograph is presumably due to the wood.

There is only one noticeable physical difference – the hexagonal edges are slightly less rounded on the Castell 9000 than on the Lumograph. I like this, and think it may slightly improve the grip.

Let’s introduce some terminology to describe the six sides of a hexagonal pencil. We’ve already used the ‘obverse’ and ‘reverse’ terms (borrowed from the numismatic field) in previous reviews.

Side 1: The pencil’s obverse – the pencil’s main markings – usually the manufacturer and model names.
Side 2: The next side, viewed clockwise, from the perspective of the pencil’s cap.
Side 3: Again, the next side of the pencil.
Side 4: The pencil’s reverse, opposite the obverse – often the location of a bar code or secondary information. (e.g. The full model number rather than just the marketing name.)
Side 5: Again, the next side of the pencil.
Side 6: Again, the next side of the pencil.

So with this terminology, the pencil is marked (in gold colouring):

Side 1 (Obverse): Castell 9000 Faber-Castell HB
Side 2: blank
Side 3: 4 005401 190004 [bar code] HB
Side 4 (Reverse): blank
Side 5: Water-based varnish Wasserlack SV Made in Germany www.Faber-Castell.com HB
Side 6: blank

I like pencils with clean looks – and this is just too much writing – three different sides of the pencil, each half covered with text.

It’s a great writer. Side-by-side with the Lumograph, the Castell 9000 is just a touch harder and lighter. The point seems unusually good at staying sharp. In B, right up to 4B, the pencil becomes buttery smooth.

I’d like to be able to better describe a pencil’s marking capabilities, but this is a challenging problem for which I haven’t found a satisfactory solution – the pressure used, the angle of application, the shape of the lead prior to use, and the paper are all important contributing variables. Paper can be standardized, but the other factors probably require special equipment to reproduce. I presume pencil companies have this type of equipment (a pencil gripping robot?) for their testing.

Perhaps the best endorsement is the century of commercial success experienced by the Castell 9000.

If you’ve somehow avoided this pencil – pick up a few to try. I doubt you will be disappointed.

Some additional reading:

November 2005 post at pencil talk

Faber-Castell pages on the Castell 9000

Leadholder.com page on these pencils, including links to historic catalogs. An excellent source if you’re seeking to date a particular pencil or learn more.

Michael Leddy’s essay on the 9000.

I’ve written before about the Lyra Ferby. I think it’s a great pencil that deserves more recognition. For a start, the artists who enjoy the Koh-I-Noor Triograph should give the Ferby a try.

But there has been a problem with the Ferby – as a short pencil, it won’t remain usable after a dozen sharpenings. Well, I just discovered that Lyra makes a pencil extender for the Ferby. (Shown above.)

The extender’s form is very simple – a wood cylinder.

While it was fun to discover this item, I’m afraid that I find this extender awkward and unwieldy. There also appears to be a better solution – Lyra makes a full length version of the Ferby, called the “Super Ferby”! Unfortunately, I’ve never seen them for sale. But I’ll keep my eye open!

An eBay seller sent me a few “bonus” items with some pencils I bought – vintage lead refills.

The leads are 1.18 mm in diameter. Though once the standard, this diameter is infrequently used today. Unfortunately, I don’t own a pencil that can use this lead.

What has kept me interested is the packaging – these quotidian items have some beautiful graphic design.

The instructions and charts are engaging. (“Rear Drive vs. “Front Drive” – are we conversing of cars or pencils?)

I’m hoping to get a pencil that could use this type of lead.

I ordered these pencils from the Forest Stewardship Council of Canada after learning of their new marketing initiative. The pencils have an imprinted slogan, “Saving forests one pencil at a time”, which I found intriguing.

I’ve enjoyed using the ForestChoice pencil, and had hoped this might be some sort of equivalent.

The pencils are round with a diameter of about 7.5 mm. They are unfinished, with a silver coloured ferrule, and a lime green eraser.

When I say unfinished, I mean unfinished. While there must have been some fine sanding or equivalent done, since there are no splinters, there is no obvious lacquer, paint, coating, wax, or any other type of finish on this pencil!

The pencil is also aromatic, much beyond typical pencils. Never mind “whiff of cedar”, this is more like “timber mill floor”. I haven’t decided if I like it, but it is strong enough to be distracting at times.

The feel is rough. I suppose this is the trade off for not using any finish.

The lead – it makes a mark, but it’s rough and scratchy, though not crumbly. It’s not going to be the choice of anyone who has ready alternatives.

One of the most interesting aspects of the pencil is it’s adherence to the FSC’s chain of custody policies. The pencil has an imprinted FSC serial number (SCS-COC-00287) which let’s one trace the pencil’s origins. To my surprise, the manufacturer is the venerable Musgrave Pencil Company of Tennessee!

In the end, I’m wondering how many would choose to use a pencil this raw.