I ordered these pencils from the Forest Stewardship Council of Canada after learning of their new marketing initiative. The pencils have an imprinted slogan, “Saving forests one pencil at a time”, which I found intriguing.
I’ve enjoyed using the ForestChoice pencil, and had hoped this might be some sort of equivalent.
The pencils are round with a diameter of about 7.5 mm. They are unfinished, with a silver coloured ferrule, and a lime green eraser.
When I say unfinished, I mean unfinished. While there must have been some fine sanding or equivalent done, since there are no splinters, there is no obvious lacquer, paint, coating, wax, or any other type of finish on this pencil!
The pencil is also aromatic, much beyond typical pencils. Never mind “whiff of cedar”, this is more like “timber mill floor”. I haven’t decided if I like it, but it is strong enough to be distracting at times.
The feel is rough. I suppose this is the trade off for not using any finish.
The lead – it makes a mark, but it’s rough and scratchy, though not crumbly. It’s not going to be the choice of anyone who has ready alternatives.
One of the most interesting aspects of the pencil is it’s adherence to the FSC’s chain of custody policies. The pencil has an imprinted FSC serial number (SCS-COC-00287) which let’s one trace the pencil’s origins. To my surprise, the manufacturer is the venerable Musgrave Pencil Company of Tennessee!
In the end, I’m wondering how many would choose to use a pencil this raw.
Well at least the eraser tip looks pretty cool. The green foliage on the tree top?
These pencils are produced from FSC certified Chinese Basswood slats supplied by us at CalCedar to Musgrave Pencil Company. It is not an Incense-cedar FSC item like our ForestChoice brand pencils.
What I find interesting here is that while promoting FSC Canada which has tremendous forest resources of it’s own the wood used is from China. CUrrently there is no commercial usage of Canadian grown timber in pencils FSC or otherwise that I am aware of.
Hi. My name’s Robert and I’m hopelessly addicted to pencils. I do not want to cure myself.
I’ve recently found this blog and I’ll be a fellow traveler here.
And here I thought that my wife was right: I MUST be neurotic, right?
I can tell you exactly when it started. As a kid in Miss LaPolla’s first grade class I always got the junked up pencils, had to get up and down to sharpen them and endured the scorn of my little colleagues. I swore a dark and bloody oath (if you can imagine a 6 year old kid swearing dark and bloody oaths) that when I became an adult I would have all the pencils I wanted and my very own pencil sharpener.
Which I accomplished. I got a lifetime supply at a farm sale a few years ago. They’re mostly cheapies that say Ganske for Senate but there are some great old advertising pencils which I use because they’re lovely.
Now, I want certain kinds of pencils. The smoothest writing one I have
is a United Pencil Co. Conqueror. I understand they’ve been out of business for a long time, but it is an exquisite writing instrument. It smells right when you sharpen it.
I wonder….has anyone reviewed pencil sharpeners?
Hi Robert, welcome!
i bought 2 dozen of these pencils after reading this article.
they are not bad pencils and i love the rough finish. the lead is not as good as forest choice, and nowhere near as nice as the palomino or the golden bear. also these pencils don’t smell at all like cedar.
i am supposing that my perfect pencil would be a rough unfinished pencil with a palomino lead in it. i’d love to see an unfinished palomino. i really would love that. i would also love an unfinished golden bear 2B. love the 2B.
Humdog, good for you. I hadn’t thought a finish this rough would be the preference of many.
These look almost identical to the Field Notes pencils. What do you think?
Economy Pens: good point; I hadn’t seen the resemblance until you mentioned it. Since these are manufactured by Musgrave, and Field Notes are big on their Made in USA origin, I’d be surprised if they weren’t the same pencil just rebadged. The lead performance mentioned above also chimes with what I’ve noticed in using the Field Notes pencils — the cores are not great overall.