pencil talk | pencil reviews and discussion

AI Spam?

The best way to describe this eludes me – is it impressive, or is it depressing or even scary?

The origin is the best clue – comment spam from accounts with links to “discount duct cleaning” or “vitamin supplements”.

The writing is coherent. The one thing that seems off is that pencil talk readers and commenters usually have a certain passion for the topic, while the spam is written clinically, dispassionately.

The content is the unsettling part – for example questions about whether the grade of a water soluble pencil dually refers the darkness of the mark and the solubility of the pencil. It’s a really good question, and something I’d like to investigate. But not today.

A WordPress Upgrade and other infrastructure matters

The blog runs on WordPress. It started with version 1.5, when WordPress was just one year old. Unfortunately the upgrade from 7.0 to 7.1 this year blew away the sidebar contents, and I haven’t figured out a solution.

There were links to other blogs (which we called a “BlogRoll” back when this started), a search bar, a link to the associated Instagram account, and a nice way to approach the almost 21-year old archive. Even a drawing. I hope to carefully revive this. I note that the list of other blogs is ever diminishing. I enjoyed Scription, yet even their provider TypePad has ceased business, almost all the Japanese pencils blogs have ceased, and others are inactive.

One other thing, this blog has been hosted by a large provider for many years, and the fees have gone up considerably. They have gone from a trivial amount to thousands per year. I want to move hosting to a local small business. The problem is that I have a lot of content outside the WordPress database, and that’s not compatible with the future format, which isn’t a virtual machine but just hosted WordPress.

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Hokusign Pencils

You can now buy these fantastic modern polymer pencils four ways:

Direct contact to sales at penciltalk dot org.

The pencil talk shop, more stock to be added.

pencil talk at Etsy

pencil talk on eBay, also pencil collectibles.

I do not have all products/all shipping locations set up in each sales web front, but anything can be arranged. Just ask.

The absence has been longer than I imagined.

I’m sometimes asked my plans, and I think the most honest answer I can share right now is that I’m twenty years older than when I started pencil talk and life’s challenges are rather different now. But I remain interested in pencils.

The blog celebrated a twentieth anniversary last year and is coming up on the twenty-first in just over a month.

And now for something unexpected. A few years ago I registered the name “pencil talk” as a business, just to make sure I had some additional control over the name. But I didn’t start a business.

Recently, I was discovered an opportunity to do something with a product I already love, the Kutsuwa Hokusign pencil. And I’ve now taken delivery of an initial shipment.

I have this pencil in these formats:
Boxes of 12 in HB, B, 2B, 3B, 4B
Plastic packages of all 5 grades (a set of 5 pencils)
Plastic packages of 3 in HB, B, 2B, 3B, 4B

I was struggling with figuring out how I might sell them, and someone smarter than me noted that I already know quite a few people with an interest in high quality pencils. So consider this an initial pencil offering. I can’t match the raw price of Amazon Japan, but international shipping from Japan can be double or triple the raw product price, and these would ship from Canada. Please let me know. sales at penciltalk dot org

Click to enlarge

When the Musgrave Single Barrel pencil came out, the blog noted that it was priced at $US10 a pencil. (Today it is $14.) This placed the Single Barrel in the same stratospheric market segment as the famous Graf von Faber-Castell Desk Pencil.

Recently I realized there are other very expensive woodcase pencils on the market, and thought it might be fun to take a look at them. I’m defining expensive as costing approximately ten US dollars or more. All of these pencils have a limited production aspect, and a special feature or two. Unexpectedly, I observe that the Graf von Faber-Castell is probably the most traditional and conservative offering here – a cedar wood case pencil with a standard lead, and widely available at retail for many years.

Graf von Faber-Castell No. III Desk Pencil

Official Website

This is one of pencildom’s icons. The fluted design, the beautiful and slightly oversized cedar, and the amazing silver plated cap have made this an instantly recognizable pencil for a quarter century. The pencil line has been extended with less expensive non-silver cap versions and guilloche versions in multiple colours. Something I do note is a current lack of retail availability. I’m not sure if the line is being withdrawn or perhaps refreshed.

Numen Design Unimina Flat: Birch

Official Website

This pencil hasn’t been mentioned at the blog yet, though there is a very popular photo at the pencil talk Instagram account. Handmade from repurposed plywood, it is a beautiful pencil. Numen Design constantly sells out. A few years ago I thought handmade pencils might take off, but there aren’t that many being made and I don’t believe commercial quality ones are easy to make.

Musgrave Single Barrel

Official Website

The inspiration for this post, the Single Barrel was mentioned in 2021. Let’s hope it inspires other manufacturers to dig into their archives.

Les Crayons Caran d’Ache Exotic Woods

Official Website

Mentioned a number of times at pencil talk, this series is now in it’s 10th edition, apparently with patchouli fragrance. There have been some marketing and description issues in the past; it seems quite amazing to have survived all these years.

Shown is the Grey Limba pencil from Series 7.

Caran d’Ache Nespresso Graphite Pencils

Official Website

There have been two editions of the Nespresso pencil, one in Swiss Beech and one in cedar. The least expensive of these six pencils – you might even get one for less than $10 – they’re interesting becuase of the quality construction, interesting lead, and of course the marketing and ability to push what is in some aspects an advertising pencil into the high street.

Shown here is a pencil from the Nespresso 2nd edition with a gold cap, apparently based on a Nespesso flavour called Volluto.

Bosco Woods Pencil

Official Website

A pencil talk favourite, we love this series. It is a tribute to pencil making and the beauty of pencils. After years of availability, it seems to be ending the retail run.

Shown here is Bosco pencil No. 1, made from Japanese Cypress.

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So who has some ten dollar pencils? Do you like them?