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.
That’s too bad. I like the look of the black and yellow combo. Thanks for the review.
Mirados aren’t actually that bad a pencil, for something that’s so widely available.
I agree with you. The Mirado is better than the no-name pencils (or those rebranded for supermarkets and such), and a good pencil. But it’s also the embodiment of bland design – it looks like every other cheap office pencil.
I’m not a big fan of the #2 Mirados these days but I really like the #1 Mirado Black Warriors. They write great and I’m a sucker for black pencils.
Unfortunately Bruynzeel closed down their manufacturing facilities in The Netherlands several years back and now outsource their pencils primarily from China. Bruynzeel is mostly known for it’s color pencil range rather than graphite. These are likely unwaxed Chinese cores used in these pencils.
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Just rummaging through my drawers and I rediscovered a tin of Bruynzeel 8615 design pencils which range from 9B to 2H. These are the real thing, made in Bergen op Zoom, no scratchiness. I remember buying them because of the name. Bruynzeel makes marine grade mahogany boatbuilding plywood which I was using a lot of ten years ago.
I hate to disagree with you Penciladmin, but I’ve just recieved a tin of these in the mail. Mine are not the least scratchy – in fact they have some Palomino feel to them. You must be very picky about “scratchyness” :-).
I see now that the original post is from 2007 – maybe some things has improved? I’ve heard the ownership has shifted to Sakura – maybe that could explain it?
regards
Henrik
Hi Henrik, I don’t think I was being too picky. :-) These pencils struck me as being distinctly sub-par. More recently, I looked at some other Bruynzeel pencils, and they all seem to have better leads than the High Grade 1605 – or at least better than the version I have. If you say it the pencil has a “Palomino feel”, then I suspect that there have been some (major) improvements made.
Hi Henrik,
I am using Bruynzeel Pencils and I am happy with them. After merging with SAKURA, they have improved their quality and they products look better now.
Meanwhile, we should remember that Bruynzeel is a world leader in FLET TIPS, and some of art pencils. As an example, I have purchased their Design series Pastel and Aquariel Pencils, they are more economic than Faber Castle Polychromus in price, but with same result.
Interesting to know that, now most of Pen and Pencil manufacturers have shifted to Far East! China is now manufacturing 90% of all types of Pencils of the world. Even for Sanford! Even China is manufacturing PEBEO products! So, the origin isn’t the matter, but the performance is.