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exploring the art and science of pencils since 2005
Here is an elaborately packaged single pencil from famous fountain pen manufacturer Pelikan. Perhaps the pencil is over packaged?
The cartoon Pelikan is looking quite friendly and relaxed.
Since Pelikan’s acquisition of Herlitz, I’ve been wondering if Pelikan would launch some new branded products. I’m not sure if this pencil qualifies.
It does look nice, but seems to be an average writer.
They work year round! Anyone enjoying some snow?
As mentioned last week, futural kindly sent pencil talk some other pencils in addition to the Mongols. Let’s take a look!
First, we have what appear to be more Mongols – except – the top pencil uses slightly different fonts than the Eberhard Faber Colombia Mongols, and is sold in unmarked packaging. Is it a fake? The second is imprinted “Made in Phil.” – a Philippines (Amspec presumably) Mongol that crossed the Pacific to Colombia.
The Mongol style is widely emulated in Colombia. Take a look at these pencils:
The Pointer (from China) is marked “Woodclinched” just like an Eberhard Faber pencil:
And the GEMA Chequeo red pencil, sporting a Mongol style ferrule. Here it is seen with a red Papermate Colombia Colorchek. (The Colorchek came to me via Argentina, thanks to blog reader dasmarians.)
Newell Rubbermaid also has a presence. The “Made in Columbia” PaperMate Mirado:
Unfortunately, yet another closed pencil plant. The ones marked “Colombia” are presumably older stock.
A familiar name, Eagle:
A Chinese manufactured Zeppelin whose ferrule is made to resemble a Venus Velvet:
Kores – a new name to me, yet a search reveals it to be an Austrian firm dating from 1887! This pencil was manufactured in Mexico.
Finally, a well known name, though not necessarily for woodcase pencils:
My sincere thanks to futural for kindly sending a number of really interesting pencils this way. So far, I’ve sharpened a Mirado, and am appreciating it very much.
Happy New Year to all readers!
In the lazy days between Christmas and New Year, a very interesting package arrived, thanks to frequent pencil talk commenter futural.
The former Eberhard Faber company had a complicated global footprint. We see that in the patchwork ownership of the name today. We also know the Mongol remains a popular pencil brand in the Phillipines.
Some news – the Eberhard Faber Mongol 482 pencil also lives on in Colombia! Produced by “Eberhard Faber de Colombia” (no references to Sanford or Newell-Rubbermaid on the packaging), futural tells me that the bar code reveals a Peruvian origin. How interesting – Woodchuck from CalCedar has said the Mongol has been made in Venezuela, and more recently by Marco in China.
Whatever the details, the Colombian Mongol definitely appears to be different than the modern Philippine Mongols.
The finish consists of a basic thin lacquer. The leads also seem somewhat smoother than the Amspec version. The eraser even works fairly well. All in all, a very acceptable pencil.
These aren’t the only Colombian pencils that arrived! Stay tuned for more.
See also:
Ninoy and Cory Aquino Mongol pencils (pencil talk: August, 2008)
The Mongol 482: New and Old (pencil talk: February, 2007)