Author: Stephen

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Howard Koch’s favorite pencil

Howard Koch, a Hollywood blacklisted screenwriter who may be best known as a co-writer of Casablanca, paid tribute to the role of pencils in his work:

“On my desk, sharpened by my patient secretary, were a dozen brown pencils. Eagle Number One. I’d learned to have great respect for these pencils and use them to this day. Sometimes they seem to take off on their own with me merely holding them, like the marker on a ouija board. The pencil obediently wrote down the two words that open every screen play — Fade In.”

Howard Koch, Casablanca: Script and Legend, Overlook Press, Woodstock, N.Y., 1973.

Eagle was a pencil company and “Number One” is a grade, so the exact pencil being referred to isn’t clear. What is extremely clear is Koch’s appreciation for these tools. A pencil having it’s own life, to “take off on their own”, is an engaging line of thought.

My thanks to Gerald for providing the citation.

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Happy 25th Anniversary to The Pencil Pages!

Not many websites make it the age of twenty-five. Today, let’s recognize The Pencil Pages, one of the first websites devoted to the woodcase pencil. Author Doug Martin created a website with articles, an often cited (and still not surpassed) directory of pencil manufacturers, photos of pencils, and a classified section.

The classified section at Pencil Pages (still going) was the first online place I’m aware that fostered a basic conversation about pencils, with posters speaking to one another.

Congratulations on this significant anniversary.

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Biella Index Cards

Biella Index Card

Biella is a Swiss stationery company. Though 120 years old, they don’t seem to be engaged in much export activity as far as I can tell. Their one product that I’ve previously purchased is the Canteo Notebook, which we took a look at in 2009. It was a nice product – conceptually similar to Leuchtturm and Moleskine notebooks, but a step up in paper quality and design. And being sold with a pencil and metal page darts in a glassine envelope didn’t hurt.

Biella Index Card

Last year I was fortunate to be able to visit Zürich’s four story stationer Papeterie Zumstein, and came across another Biella product – their version of the index card.

I love index cards, and my favourite is the Exacompta Record Card. I have used them almost every day for over a decade!

A small detour – there was a blog titled “Pile of Index Cards” that served as an inspiration (I think it is now offline) and which recommended some very particular tools. In particular, the “Correct” brand index card from Japan. Their benefit was said to be rule placement – with a 5mm x 5mm square grid, the first vertical rule was 5mm to the right of the card’s left side, and the first horizontal rule 5mm below the card’s top side. i.e. – the grid ruling was printed to respect and match the card’s dimensions. Further, each card could be expected to match this pattern. This allowed marking the edges of cards to give them particular meaning and to visually convey basic information even before one reads the card. Years later, I can buy Japanese index cards locally. Unfortunately, even if possessing super deliberate ruling, they’re made from thin paper. In fact they seem to me to simply be small dimension pieces of paper. I do find that I like the thicker card stock of North American or European index cards.

Biella Index Card

This particular card is a small A7 size with a 4mm grey square rule. It looks great, but I noticed right away that the paper seems thinner and less smooth than the coated Exacompta. I’ll be sticking with Exacompta, but I’m glad to know that there are competitors around.

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Fabula Organic Pencil

Fabula Organic Pencil

Constructed from coffee, tea, and flowers, the Fabula Organic Pencil is definitely a challenger in the sustainable pencil category. It is also tactile, aromatic, and visually interesting.

The Fabula appears to be the sole product of a Croatian company of the same name. It has won a red dot and other design awards. I’m not sure of the company’s health after the pandemic – they have mainly marketed the pencil as an environmentally friendly corporate gift. At retail, it has sold for $US5-6 per pencil, so it is not cheap.

As far as I can tell, the pencil is not extruded, but rather baked around the lead. The “cap” of the pencil contains seeds – my particular pencil has Golden Forest Berry.

Fabula Organic Pencil

I was fearing that the lead would be “novelty pencil” grade, but it isn’t – it has a nice smooth slightly dark lead.

Fabula Organic Pencil

The pencil has some instructions, plus a warning. Sharpening can be done over a potted plant, as the shavings will be nutritious for the plant. When the pencil becomes a stub, that stub can be soaked in water for two days, forming a seed solution that can be planted.

Maybe you can guess the warning? Being water soluble, you’ll want to keep the pencil dry.

The pencil has a heft, and is imperfectly round – my pencil seemed a bit squished near the point.

The pencil is wrapped in a piece of paper containing environmental tips and further information about the pencil.

Fabula Organic Pencil

I like the Fabula, and am very curious about how it will wear over time.

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Sean Malone Pencil Bibliography

Sean Malone and Eberhard Faber IV
Sean Malone interviewing Eberhard Faber IV
Absinthetongue, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

This is an attempt to list Sean Malone’s pencil related film, online, and print citations and contributions. Corrections and additions are most welcome.

“For anyone who thinks this is about pencils, it’s not — they’re just pencils. It’s about caring for something very deeply.” – Sean Malone

Abramovitch, S. (2013) Why Is Hollywood Obsessed With This Pencil? The Hollywood Reporter. [online] Available at https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/blackwing-602-why-is-hollywood-600265 [Accessed 28 Dec. 2020]

Eby, M. (2013) An ode to the Blackwing 602, Vladimir Nabokov’s favorite pencil. New York Daily News. [online] Available at https://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/pageviews/ode-blackwing-602-vladimir-nabokov-favorite-pencil-blog-entry-1.1640869 [Accessed 28 Dec. 2020]

Faber-Castell. (2013) The Fan: The pencil blogger. Faber-Castell Topics [online] Available at https://www.faber-castell.de/~/media/Faber-Castell/press/employees-friends/Newsletter-de-en/Faber_HZ-1-2013_en.ashx 2013:1, p.8. [Accessed 27 Dec. 2020]

Faber-Castell. (2015) Sean Malone visits Eberhard Faber. Faber-Castell: Our Company [online] Available at http://www.faber-castell.com/~/media/Faber-Castell/press/employees-friends/2015/englisch_LR_F-C_HZ_2_2015.ashx 2015:2, p.8. [Accessed 27 Dec. 2020]

Komurki, M. (2016) Stationery Fever: From Paper Clips to Pencils and Everything in Between. [Berlin] Prestel.

Malone, S. (2010-2020) Blackwing Pages. [online] Available at
https://blackwingpages.com/ [Accessed 27 Dec. 2020]

Malone, S. (2010-2020) Contrapuntalism. [online] Available at
https://contrapuntalism.blog/ [Accessed 27 Dec. 2020]

Malone, S. (2010) Sean Malone: Clairfontaine Music Pad. The Goulet Pen Company. [online] Available at https://blog.gouletpens.com/2010/07/sean-malone-clairefontaine-music-pad/ [Accessed 28 Dec. 2020]

Moist, K., Banash, D. (2013) Contemporary Collecting. [Lanham, Maryland] Scarecrow Press.

No. 2: Story of the Pencil (2016). [online]. Directed by William Allen. USA: Abverbia Films [Viewed 10 November 2016]. Available from Amazon Prime, Apple iTunes, Google Play, Vimeo On Demand, YouTube Movies.

Stein, S. (2013) Secret Erotica, Jane Austen, and Other News. The Paris Review. [online] Available at https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/08/13/secret-erotica-jane-austen-and-other-news/ [Accessed 28 Dec. 2020]

Ward, J. (2014). Adventures in Stationery: A Journey Through Your Pencil Case. [London] Profile Books.

Weaver, C. (2017) The Pencil Perfect: The Untold Story of a Cultural Icon. [Berlin] Gestalten.

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Pencil People

The book Pencil People by Thomas Fletcher Smith

Pencil People: The Story of a Lakeland Industry by Thomas Fletcher Smith (2017. Bookcase, Carlisle, UK.) takes a look at the pencil industry that grew around the first significant commercial graphite mine. More focused on local history than the pencil industry, the book reveals the story of the families and small cottage industries that were based around the Borrowdale mine.

Smith calls much of the generally understood history of pencils “folklore”, a statement that definitely got my attention. The Borrowdale valley was once part of the Furness Abbey, and Smith mentions monastic records of a special substance the monks had for marking sheep. Alas, while this sounds quite plausible, there is no citation.

Pencil People has many sources that would be known to a regional historian, including birth, marriage, and death records, and local newspapers. And while works that would be of interest to researchers are cited, this is unfortunately inconsistent. The claim that graphite was known and used by the monks of Furness Abbey centuries ago is potentially important, but needs justification.

Most of the book focuses on many small Keswick pencil makers of the 19th century, and the families behind them. Smith argues that this is the foundation of the modern pencil industry. Keswick no doubt formed a cluster, and Smith does link these manufacturers forward to today’s Derwent, but Keswick is not compared with Bavaria or other pencil centres of the time.

It is fascinating to see how early the natural resources – graphite, lumber – were used up and had to be replaced with imports. The book has many interesting stories on the early practices of the pencil industry.

Pencil People is a welcome contribution, but would be much improved by consistent citations and the addition of an index.

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