Wow, it has been a decade since the last comparative eraser review at pencil talk. I think the reason is that erasers have generally reached an excellent quality level. There are of course differences, but synthetic erasers from the top manufacturers in Japan or Europe are usually excellent, and the motivation to review them is diminished.
The Technik is the lightest.
The Caran d’Ache block erasers are interesting because of the shared dimensions, but differing appearances and stated functions. Caran d’Ache is also regarded as a leader in art supplies, and these products come with a reputation to uphold.
The three erasers are:
Artist 0173.420. Description: “Graphite and charcoal extra soft plastic eraser.” Green.
Design 0172.420. Description: “Graphite and colour pencil eraser.” White.
Technik 0171.420. Description: “Non-abrasive pencil eraser, does not remove ink.” Slightly translucent.
Years ago I sometimes set up very complex erasure tests, and there is indeed a complex pencil/paper/eraser/environmental factors relationship, but I wanted to keep this simpler – these erasers tested with one pencil and one test paper. I though a Caran d’Ache Swiss Wood pencil (freshly sharpened in an El Casco) would be appropriate, and decided that the Biella Index Card would be a nice companion.
All three are much harder than erasers from Tombow, Seed, etc. They also produce fine granular residue, particularly the green Artist. The Technik probably did the best job at complete erasure, and the Design is the one that most veered towards aggregation of the residue in clumps.
The erasers are good, but I don’t find them compelling when there are so many outstanding offerings available today. Of course, these are from Caran d’Ache.
Do you have any guesses as to who might have made these erasers? Does Caran d’Ache have their own eraser production?
Hmm, they do not explicitly say “Swiss Made” or “Made in Switzerland.” I had not thought about this – their manufacture must be outsourced. The green Artist eraser resembles the Stabilo Legend, but I have no idea if there is a common supply chain.
I have been thinking about the mistery of CARAN d’ACHE erasers for a long time, but never got to publishing it in a weblog. My guess would be the Milan (Factis) company in Spain.
Similarities I have found:
CARAN d’ACHE Technik 171.420 ~ Milan Tecnik 920
CARAN d’ACHE Design 172.420 ~ Milan Design 6020
CARAN d’ACHE Artist 173.420 ~ Milan Artist 520
CARAN d’ACHE Extra Soft 180.000 ~ Milan nata negra 7024
(The last one is the black block eraser bundled with the Swiss Wood pencil sets. Also available as a single item in Switzerland.)
Even the names are similar in most cases! One can also wonder about markups of CARAN d’ACHE because the Milan items are one order of magnitude cheaper.
cgtb, very well spotted! Now we can wonder where Milan erasers are made. :)
I am fairly sure Milan is an OEM producer. They really do manufacture erasers, not just rebrand them :-)