Unfortunately, this isn’t a huge surprise. It looks like pencils are now on the list of items recalled due to unsafe lead levels. The ones in question are a novelty brand aimed at children.
Links:
Wrapup: New Zealand/Australia pencil month
Some thoughts about the pencils we’ve looked at this past month…
It’s great that Australia still has a pencil manufacturing plant (Staedtler). There were a number of pencil plants in Canada some years ago, but they have all since departed. Going way back, Thoreau’s pencils used Canadian graphite for a while. Today, the Pink Pearl eraser seems to be the only Canadian made pencil item I can find. Papermate sells a “Canadiana” pencil – but it’s imported.
All the branded pencils are offered by German companies – Staedtler, Faber-Castell, Stabilo. I’m not sure what that means, but I’m somehow surprised.
The Tradition 110 would easily be my choice as the best of the lot. Most of the pencils are average.
I like the idea of a series of reviews, but the average pencils were challenging to write about, so I’ll be more selective before trying this approach again.
And for anyone who has read this far – the server stats tell me the blog readership grows monthly, and it is among the top results in many Google searches – but the comments and discussion don’t reflect this. Would anyone be interested in either a mailing list or forum devoted to pencils? Another format might be better at preserving some of the accumulated knowledge and opinion, and encouraging discussion.
Generic Pencil
This pencil is a bit more challenging to describe than others in this series. It has no brand, no name, no markings. Still, it’s apparently the common generic pencil in New Zealand.
One thing I’ll say is that compared to a cheap no-name pencil that I’d find in North America, it’s just a bit thicker and more substantial. The paint job is reasonable. The wood is very pale – poplar? It’s a bit scratchy to write with.
Not recommended.
Announcement: August is New Zealand/Australia pencil month!
It’s with great excitement that I am able to announce New Zealand/Australia pencil month here at pencil talk. Thanks to Dave at Dave’s Mechanical Pencils, I have a nice assortment of woodcase pencils from Auckland, New Zealand. None of them are generally available in North America, so this will definitely be of interest to many readers of this blog.
This is the review schedule:
| August 1 | Stabilo Othello 282 |
| August 6 | Stabilo Schwan 305 & 306 |
| August 8 | Generic Pencil |
| August 13 | Staedtler Pacific |
| August 16 | Staedtler 132 |
| August 20 | Staedtler Tradition 110 |
| August 23 | Faber-Castell Goldfaber 1222 |
| August 29 | Faber-Castell 1111 |
Question: pencil for photo paper
I just received an interesting question. Can anyone help? The question is:
What type of pencil would be ideal for writing on the back of glossy photo paper?
The individual is hoping to avoid using a pen.
Thanks!
Bruynzeel High Grade 1605 Pencil
It’s always great to find a new pencil brand. Though I had heard the name long ago, it was quite a while before I found some pencils made by Bruynzeel in the Netherlands.
They came in a tin of the sort that’s found at art supply stores, with a range of pencil grades. There are eleven grades from 4H to 6B, with two of the HB included. The tin itself is generic, with a sticker as the only marking.
The pencils are a bright yellow, with stamping in gold or black. I couldn’t see a pattern in the stamping colour choice. The two HB pencils came with one in black, and one in gold. The hard pencils have blue caps, the soft pencils red, and HB in the middle gets black. Overall, the presentation and appearance of the pencils is sub-par. They also suffer from the adherence of graphite dust to the pencil. Having chosen a bright yellow finish, the dust stands out quite a bit.
Trying them out, it doesn’t take too long to make a judgement – they are scratchy, scratchy, scratchy! A Sanford Mirado is more pleasant to write with. Even the 2B and 3B are markedly less smooth than almost any quality pencil one would want to use.
Unfortunately, this 1605 isn’t a pencil I can recommend.