The post office recently delivered a small accumulation of lead refills. Accompanying pieces of sandpaper and specialty erasers indicated that a draftsperson was the likely original owner.
This person knew what they liked – 2.0mm drafting leads from Faber-Castell, model 9030 to be specific, were the majority of the items.
I was impressed at the historical breadth of this set. Four slightly different statements of origin were visible:
– Bavaria
– American Zone Germany
– Germany
– West Germany
A brief history lesson in a pencil case!
The older containers were essentially wooden boxes with holes for the leads. The newer formats were hexagonal plastic tubes, cardboard tubes, and more recently, rectangular plastic cases.
I’ll show some of the more interesting non-Faber-Castell items in another post.
Looks like you got yourself a nice lifetime supply of graphite leads and interesting lead packaging historical samples with that deal. Faber Castell 9030 leads were the standard back in drafting classes in Peru in the 80s. It’s rather easy to accumulate lead tubes, especially with the harder H grades since they last so long. Picked up a few 12 lead cases on a Pearl sidewalk sale years ago, and I still got quite a few leads remaining to this day. Of course lately I prefer to use Caran D’Ache Technograph and Mitsubishi Uni leads which to me feel smoother and less prone to smearing. So my own 9030 cases are also likely to outlive me.
Nice post! I also find Alberto’s comment interest too, because recently I’ve rediscovered my Staedtler Mars 780 lead holder and I love it! I’m using it more than my othre wood cased pencils now. I use Staedtler grade B lead with it and it’s the perfect sketching pencil for me. I would really like to try out Mitsubishi’s Uni leads because I love Japanese stationary, and the Mitsubishi Hi-Uni HB is the smoothest lead I’ve ever drawn with. Just money is tight right now.
I like getting a history and geography lesson from old leads.
I used to live in Stein, just down the road from the Faber-Castell factory. Lots of free pencils and pens floating around the place!
Do they call Stein “Bleistiftstadt” akin to Shelbyville in the U.S. being called “Pencil City”?
I like 2mm leads in ‘B’ the for best of both worlds – the control of HB and the softness of 2B. Unfortunately most B&M places skip ‘B’ and only sell HB and 2B – they don’t understand the subtlety of it all. And why do you have to buy ten or twelve at a time. My own remedy is to pare down existing Faber Castell 9000 leads which are 2mm and use those instead. This is in OZ which I’m afraid dosen’t win any prizes for stationery retailing.
I inherited some boxes from my grandpa (who introduced me to leadholders) and I still buy and use them