Category: pencils

Left to right: LYRA Dessin No. 2, Eberhard Faber Magazin, LYRA No. 92 Steinhauerstift

One thing about pencils is that they sure don’t make ’em like they used to. Oh, there are still excellent pencils to be had, like many of the ones I write about in this blog. But you can’t get them at a regular office supply store, or a department store. You can track down obscure Japanese stationers, or specialty online retailers, but even they often have limited selections.

But one other way to get some great pencils is to buy old pencils. Not used pencils, but pencils that have just been hanging around, maybe put out at a garage sale, or for sale on Ebay. Many (most?) of these pencils from a few years ago are of excellent quality, and some are outstanding. They’re not like today’s office supply store cheapos.

In Canada, a quality pencil like a Faber-Castell 9000 or a Staedtler Mars 100 ususally goes for $C1.75 at an art supply store. With 14% tax that’s $C2.00 even. (That’s $US1.75.) It’s a lot more than most people care to pay for a pencil. At a big box office supply place, that type of cash can buy two dozen no-name pencils! But the ten-cent pencil is usually scratchy, badly finished, and a poor writer.

I mention this because my spending limit for a good old pencil is the cost of a good new pencil. But they’re usually less. And this has to include any shipping costs, since I can walk to the places that sell the Staedtlers. I’ve usually been delighted, though occasionally felt ripped off. Someone who seems to be cleaning out an attic … often is, and pencils from them may be mis-described, and in a foul state – stereotypical Ebay junk. And packaging – it’s kind of amazing how shoddy the packaging often is, even though the seller is charging for this.

The good side is getting something like the LYRA No. 92 Steinhauerstift. This is some sort of carpentry or craft pencil, I suspect. It’s beautiful, and it looks like it stepped out of a history book. Plus it cost less than a modern Lyra, which I can still easily buy.

I don’t want to start “collecting” or buying more than I can appreciate and use, but an occasional older pencil is really a joy.

Anyone else out there enjoying some older pencils?

Here are two small pencil design elements that I like.

Removable Barcode
The scannable barcode seems to have become a required retail practice. For small objects like pens and pencils, there seem to be two approaches – place them in a cardboard and plastic package with the barcode, or directly imprint them.

For a nice looking pencil, the retailer’s step forward is the purchaser’s step backward. A pencil just doesn’t need a barcode. For some, using this simple and useful writing implement is a step away from rampant digitization. In any case, I think classic pencil finishes like Faber-Castell’s forest green, Staedtler’s blue, and Towbow’s glosssy black have been diminished by the addition of barcodes.

There does seem to be an innovative workaround. Caran d’Ache places a small perforated plastic wrapper around the pencil’s tip. The wrapper has the scannable barcode imprinted. After purchase, you remove the small wrapper, and you have a clean looking pencil. Well done!

Grade on cap
The caps of pencils may have an eraser, be unfinished, or as with most premium pencils, be eraserless with a finished cap. For pencils that might be offered in many grades, I like the imprinting of the grade on the cap. It really makes it easy to find the right pencil for a task. Maybe it would detract from a high-end pencil, but it seems like a good idea based on the few I have seen.

The first natural finish woodcase pencil I saw or used was the Blackfeet Indian Pencil. By “natural finish”, I don’t mean unfinished, but rather a pencil with a clear or almost clear varnish that shows the natural grain of the pencil’s wood.

The Blackfeet is no longer made, and wasn’t widely available even at the height of it’s production. It was the first pencil I wrote about on this blog, and clearly has a following. Today, there is only one (which is more than zero) natural finish pencil I can buy locally – the Papermate Canadiana. That’s not a completely accurate statement if I include carpenter pencils. But, for general purpose writing, the Canadiana is alone.

Thanks to the wonders of the ‘net, I have been able to acquire a few more.

The Musgrave (by Musgrave) was unknown to me until offered on pencilthings.com. The first thing I thought was that is was a really traditional style pencil. The pencil is wider than most modern pencils, and most noticeably, the edges of the hexagonal shaped case are sharp – not rounded. It feels quite substantial in the hand relative to most pencils – the larger circumferance and the feel of the edges make it unique.

The lead is quite dark for a pencil marked as an HB. The finish is a highly varnished, shiny clear finish, with gold markings. The ferrule is gold and maroon, and the eraser white.

The California Republic Prospector has the roughest finish and worst looks of these pencils. I have several of them, and can see that there is little attempt to hide flaws in the wood. The varnish is thin and the pencil is rough and slightly uncomfortable to the hand. As a writer, the lead is a bit scratchy, though not bad. The gold lettering and ferrule don’t seem to work as design elements.

The Forest Choice is a Thai pencil. The almost-URL printed on one side makes it appear as an advertising item (which I suppose it is in some ways, except it wasn’t a freebie at a conference.) It’s sharp looking, with black stamping, an unshiny finish, and a green ferrule and pink eraser. It’s also a nice writer, with a dark smooth lead. The finish is very slick – it looks quite polished, yet doesn’t aim for the varnished looks of the other pencils. The finishing method must have been a bit different.

To see how these offerings compare with my old standy, the Blackfeet, I sharpened one up. A No. 2, it’s not as dark as the other pencils. It writes very well – it’s a really nice, special pencil. The lettering, the dark woodgrain, the history – I wish I had a few more.

To me, there’s zero doubt about the best of these pencils. I love the Blackfeet, but the Musgrave writes so well, looks so sharp, and stands out so much that it’s a must have. Of couse, if you see a box of Blackfeet at a garage sale, don’t pass them up either.

The Eagle Reporter is a pencil aimed at professional stenographers and reporters. Though the Reporter is no longer made, the tradition continues with modern pencils like the Faber-Castell 9008, a round version of the 9000 aimed at stenographers.

The pencils are a shiny aqua-blue and are marked:”Made in U.S.A. Eagle “Chemi-Sealed” Reporter 300″.

The box has a four paragraph writeup on the pencils, which begins “Stenographers and Reporters have long approved the thin diameter and special lead of these superb pencils.” Two Eagle pencil patents are mentioned.

Apart from artists and carpenters, do any other professions today have pencils made for them? I can’t think of any. There are special pencils for marking film, x-rays and other surfaces, but they’re not graphite writing pencils.

Let’s get to a distinguishing feature: They were sold pre-sharpened at both ends. A very practical response to the need to sharpen the point, that I haven’t seen elsewhere. It does make the pencil quite pocket-unfriendly though. Only slightly less obvious is how thin these pencils are. Vintage woodcase pencils are generally thicker than modern pencils, but these are the opposite. The leads appear greyer than any modern graphite core – more about this later.

As a writer, the pencil puts down a nice dark line which seems unexpected from the delicate looking pencil. The core does seem very strong and can take all the pressure I would want to give a pencil.

The patents seemed like an interesting aspect of the pencil. Luckily, I’ve found that the U.S. patent office is online and searchable.

I looked them up and was delighted – they’re not written in legal gibberish, are quite readable and brief, and have some excellent drawings.

The first patent is 1,854,905, Pencil and Method of Making Pencils by Charles Kaiser, Sr., filed November 25, 1929. The essential idea is strengthening the pencil casing by varnishing the pencil slats with copal. I had never previously heard of copal. It is a tree resin with a significant cultural history. There is an interesting paper on copal here. The terminology is different than today – a pencil casing is called a “sheath”, and a slat is called a “blank”.

The second patent is 1,892,508, Lead Pencil and Method of Making the Same by Narciso Gonzalez, filed March 27, 1931. The patent mentions that pencil leads typically contain tallow or stearic acid, and are thus greasy. This in turn intereferes with glue used to bind the lead to the pencil case. The problem is solved by first dipping the lead in sulphuric acid, washing it with water, then a second exposure is given, this time to diluted sulphuric acid, while a salt solution is applied. The glue then has a much easier time bonding to the lead.

Tallow being a pencil lead ingredient is news to me. I have no idea how widespread these techniques were in the industry when the Reporter was on the market, or if they’re still around today, but these patents demonstrate some of the research that has gone into making these everyday items so functional.