Next in our “Perfect Pencil” series, we are going to look at the Design Perfect Pencil, which features an aluminum pencil extender.
It is typically sold in a paper and plastic box with the extender and three of the refill pencils.
The product is interesting in itself, and also an intermediate step between the plastic and precious metal versions of the product.
The pencils supplied are round, supplied in black or brown, and more recently silver.
The extender presents itself as a single rounded aluminum piece. It grips the pencil with a smooth tapered fit – no machinery to fiddle with. (Not that fiddling with machinery is a bad thing.) It is adorned with two black rubbery rings and a clip.
A silver coloured cap pulls out with an attached sharpener. The sharpener is the same model used in the Castell Perfect Pencil. However, the sharpener works magnificently! It is a wonder of concision, economically stuffing a first rate pencil sharpener into the extender.
It works well, and the extender matches the silver pencil very well.
I like it, and it is easy to use, though the supplied pencils don’t seem quite up to snuff. (Great design, but not half as smooth as the 9000 in B.)
I,ve been using this for some time along with the standard 9000 extender. I think they are close to the original slogan “the perfect pencil idea”. They are both great in use.
I prefer the green 9000 extender though. As i think the UFO has one little flaw: the rubber rings on the UFO allways came in the way, when I had to pull out the pencil quickly.
The cheaper version, might be the school extender (blue) – I have only seen it in their german website, yet.
regards Henrik
Henrik, thanks for your comment.
Thanks for the review. Just wondering if this would fit any standard size pencil, including hex sided pencils. Also, how does the extender actually hold the pencil in place (without any mechanical means)?
The extender grips the pencil with frictive force. It appears to my eye to be just an internal cone that slowly tapers, creating the grip. There might be some assisting rubber.
I would hesitate to claim it will work with any pencil, since there is considerable variation in the diameter of modern pencils.
Thanks for the review.
I’m using this extender with Lyra ArtDesign pencils. The extender doesn’t work so well with the supplied Faber-Castell pencil because it fits to tightly that it dragged the ferrule off the pencil. Also of note that the end-cap (for the sharpener) is a bit loose, there’s a small bump in the plastic-part providing the friction, so I’m bit concerned about the longevity of this product. The diameter is also so large that I cannot use it with my authentics pen clip (the latter work fine with regular pencils and the Pillot G-2)
Despite all this, I’m very happy with it. But, I’m still looking for the perfect pencil.
I had seen these on the Faber-Castell website and asked and asked for one in shops from Victoria to Montreal. But there they were in a store across the road from our hotel in Berlin, and it is now a constant companion !
This was the first version of the Perfect Pencil that I could get my hands on. It was a Christmas present from my mother many years ago when they first came to market here in the states, and I didn’t even know it existed when I received it. Ever since the mid eighties when the first version of the Graf Von Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil came out and was displayed in stores along with other items, like Monte Blanc and Pelikan fountain pens, which were far out of my economic reach at the time I had been mesmerized, enchanted and voodoo hexed under its spell. Every time I saw a Perfect Pencil displayed in a window I had to go in the store and stare at it close up. Oh don’t even think that I asked to touch one as I never had anywhere near the $400 necessary to place one in my very own pocket no matter how hard I tried to save up. I just knew that if I handled that silver plated marvel and those gorgeous collonaded pencils I would have been truly heartbroken. But unbeknownst to me Faber-Castell had created a version even an economically challenged individual such as myself could obtain so that I too could enjoy true Pencil Perfection, the UFO Perfect Pencil. For years I loved my UFO Perfect Pencil with only two nit picky thoughts on making it better. The first was the thing weighed so darn much that I could not keep it in my shirt pocket and the second being those darned extra grippy o-rings that had the skill of sticking to almost any clothing material that they came in contact with. Of course the o-ring problem was easily fixed by their ultimate removal, but the weightiness of the UFO was just too much to bear in a pocket on a daily basis for me as I also needed the space for my keys, pocket knife and life savings of assorted coinage. Yet I used this UFO version every day until I came in contact with the Perfect Pencil 9000 just five or so short years ago and it was time to semi-retire my beloved UFO Perfect Pencil. It has been one of the few tools that has seen use on a daily basis for many years but now for daily carry it is the Perfect Pencil 9000 for me. Or, when I am in the shop my new batch of red Perfect Pencil Juniors, for lack of a definitive term, shall probably become my new favorites as they are not so easily lost among the clutter. But I do so love the Graf Von Faber-Castell silver plated and platinum plated versions as well, even if they are as heavy as the UFO version. Let’s face it I love all the versions of the Perfect Pencil that I have been lucky enough to come across. Now I just wish I could come across some of those Children’s Multicolored Chicken Coop of Perfect Pencils like in Perfect Pencil Post Number 6. Any help in finding a few of those would be most appreciated and generously rewarded. Did you get that? Generously rewarded.
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