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The Managing Intellectual Property website has a lengthy interview with Staedtler’s chief legal counsel.
Naturally, a lot of attention is given to Staedtler’s brands and trademarks.
Though Mars dates from 1900, Staedtler has two older brands: Atlas and Minerva. I wasn’t previously aware of Atlas.
A very interesting read.
In March, we looked at the Lyra Mega Liner highlighting pencil. The offerings in this category are few, but there is at least one alternative.
I just discovered that Staedtler Austria also manufacture highlighting pencils. The ones I found are packaged in a “blister pack” and are sold as “Bible Highlighters”.
The pencils are round, and finished in white with black text. The caps are dipped in a colour corresponding to the highlight colour – blue, green, yellow, and pink.
A couple of nice touches – each pencil is supplied with a protective plastic cap, and there is a sharpener included in the kit.
I tried them on a pocket Larousse French-English dictionary, and on newsprint. (The packaging specifically mentions dictionaries.) While they are definitely gentler than liquid pigment highlighters, and thus probably a better choice for finer papers, I wasn’t completely sold. The highlight looks more like a faint smudge than a “highlight” to me.
Overall, I suspect they could be useful with the right paper type, but weren’t great on the paper types I tried. They are also a standard pencil size, so sharpening should not be a problem.
The Staedtler Pacific is a very distinctive looking pencil, round in shape with a gold finish, a gold with blue band ferrule, and white eraser.
The pencil is marked:
Steadtler Pacific Germany 132 80 HB
Despite the great looks, it is unfortunately a scratchy office-grade pencil.
Now wait a minute. In 2007, we looked at another “Staedtler Pacific” pencil, made in Australia. No resemblance. And we also looked at another Staedtler 132 pencil from Germany. Also a different pencil.
Those two pencils were kindly provided by Dave, and purchased in New Zealand. Today’s pencil was kindly sent to me by Kent, and was purchased in Thailand.
Perhaps Staedtler has grown so large that their many offices are reusing product names and model numbers?
The camel is renowned as a hardy animal, able to persevere through challenging circumstances.
The pencil world seems to adore the camel, as there are a significant number of camel brands.
First, the Staedtler Camel. This brand has been aound for many years, and now appears to be made in Germany for export markets.
Second, an entire company named after the camel, the Camel Pencil Company of Japan. They seem to make mainly novelty pencils, yet do have a few nice looking adult-oriented pencils. (That CA-P4 pencil looks good.)
Camel Pencil, according to their website, was organized in 1939, and established in 1949. They now have a U.S. distributor, so I think we’ll be hearing more from them in the future.
Third, another company named after the camel, Camlin Ltd. of India.
Camlin dates from 1931, and their website states:
The “Camel” was chosen as a symbol due to its capacity to endure long periods of difficulty in the trips across deserts. “Camel” was also easy to write and pronounce in all the Indian languages and was acceptable to all the religions of the land.
This is remarkably forward thinking, and reflects ideas that are at least as relevant in 2008, when many brands are attempting to compete in global markets.
I have a few Camel of Japan pencils – but have never seen a Staedtler Camel or Camlin pencil.
Has anyone used (any) Camel pencils?
Staedtler is one of the two leading global pencil manufacturers. I thought it would be interesting to look further at just what their pencil offerings are.
I took a look at the twenty-two national sites referenced by staedtler.com.
Globally, Staedtler offers twelve pencils in four lines. Most European countries get the full range, and the rest of us are offered a subset.
The premiere line, Mars, is composed of the famous Lumograph, and ancillary Stenofix and ergosoft variants. “ergosoft” actually refers to the triangular shaped pencils with rubbery coating – there are other non-Mars ergosoft pencils (Noris, colouring pencils, etc.).
The second line, tradition, is especially interesting, because it is currently being made in both Germany and Australia. The Australian plant also makes a variant with an eraser.
The Noris is the student line, and has six versions.
Finally, the Minerva, whose country of origin isn’t mentioned, is the discount pencil. This is apparently Staedtler’s oldest surviving pencil brand.
I suspect these offerings reflect the importance of children in the marketplace.
Some national sites also show other pencils. Australia and Thailand both have large lists of additional pencils, while the U.S. lists non-repro and non-print pencils from Staedtler Austria. (Which aren’t on the Austrian site.)
While interesting, some pencils – the Norica, the Rally, the Cadet, etc., are not on the wesites as far as I could determine.
By model number, the pencils are:
100 – Mars Lumograph (hexagonal)
101 – Mars stenofix (round)
110 – tradition (hexagonal)
118 – Noris Club triplus (triangular)
119 – Noris Club triplus jumbo (triangular, oversize)
120 – Noris (hexagonal)
122 – Noris (hexagonal, eraser)
130 – minerva (hexagonal)
150 – Mars Ergosoft (triangular, rubber coating)
151 – Mars Ergosoft (triangular, rubber coating, oversize)
152 – Noris Ergosoft (triangular, rubber coating)
153 – Noris Ergosoft (triangular, rubber coating, oversize)
Overall, it is an impressive range. I wonder how many retailers actually carry all twelve pencils?
pencil talk has had ongoing comments on the Staedtler 134 yellow pencil. The 134 is apparently a standard pencil in many Asian countries, yet it is absent from Staedtler’s websites. The pencil is not sold in North America.
The name is just a bit odd – it is clearly a yellow pencil – so why call it “yellow pencil”? This somehow reminds me of “No name” brand products, and those establishments calling themselves “Le Café”, “The Bar”, and so on.
It’s a delight to finally get some of these pencils for my own examination.
Let me mention something as an aside – I’m well aware that this blog is only covering a fraction of the world’s pencils. Many countries have national pencil industries that don’t generally export their products. I wish there was an easy way to get pencils from Conté, Lyra, or the Hindustan Pencil Co., just to name a few.
So let’s start with the outside packaging. My pencils don’t say where they were made – just “Manufactured for STAEDTLER Nuernberg, Germany”. While no statement of origin usually means “Made in China”, the packaging version shown at PenciLog explicity says they are made in China.
Though the German says “Bleistifte” (pencils), and the French “Crayons grafite de qualité, (quality graphite pencils), the English says “School and office pencils.”
Uh-oh. “school” and “office” often mean “the cheapest we could get away with”. Why do people in schools and offices deserve the worst stuff?
The pencils actually look great, with black printing on a dark yellow base, black ferrule, and pink eraser.
They are marked:
Obverse: [logo] Staedtler yellow pencil 134-HB
After sharpening them, a mismatch is revealed. Though the finish is superior – the lead is just another not terrible, but not great, somewhat scratchy lead.
They sharpen easily in a Tombow longpoint sharpener. I don’t know the constituent wood.
Now some of the people who have commented on this pencil have also asked – what is the difference between pencils, and why are some pencils so much more expensive.
I’ll try and give a partial answer.
If your pencil use is sporadic – jotting down an occasional address or phone number, I think any old pencil might do. The 134 would be more than up to the task.
But if you’re using a pencil as a regular writing tool for work or school – the difference between a great pencil like the Tombow Mono 100 and the Staedtler 134 is remarkable and immediately apparent. (Honestly, you can still take advantage of a great pencil even if you’re just jotting down phone numbers.)
The lead is so smooth and applies in such a way that the pencil “gets out of your way”. You don’t have to think about the pencil, and can more directly think about whatever you’re really working on.
While writing, pencils last a long time. The most extreme example I can think of is someone liking a very soft pencil, in combination with a sharp point. This can result in using half, or even a whole pencil in a day.
Yet even in that extreme case, with the highest quality pencils, this cost is negligible compared to other typical office or school expenses – computers, printing, lighting, electricity, copying, paper, etc. If you work in a downtown office tower, the square footage consumed by your deskside blue bin probably costs more than an ongoing supply of Hi-Unis.
And also keep in mind – a Japanese pencil in North America has a very inflated price, but in Japan, they have regular pencil prices.
Now for an artist, the answer is much easier – smooth, dark, consistent, non-crumbling, non-breaking, high quality graphite is worth it. And being 10 or 15% better than an alternative may be worth a significant premium. In some cases, tools that are 1% better may be desirable.
So our Staedtler 134 looks great, but trying it side by side with Staedtler’s flagship Mars Lumograph 100, it is only so-so. The darkness of the 134 in HB is more like a 2B in many pencils – probably a bonus for writing.
I’m curious about the origin and history of this pencil.
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