pencil talk | pencil reviews and discussion
exploring the art and science of pencils since 2005
A recent traffic surge reveals a lot of people searching for Mongol pencils. What’s behind this sudden curiosity?
Apparently, a 17 year old graffiti artist took a box of Mongols from a Damien Hirst exhibit at the Tate Gallery. This was in retaliation for a past copyright dispute, which saw a collage piece from the 17 year old siezed.
The box of pencils is said to be worth £500,000.
Damien Hirst’s stolen pencils: the art world loves a stunt (The Telegraph)
L to R: Jelutong, Cedar, Basswood
Readers have often asked about the wood used in pencils. With the exception of an informative comment by Harshad Raveshia about the situation in India, there seems to be little authoritative information on the subject.
Incense Cedar (Calocedrus Decurrens) is the familiar source, with slats provided by CalCedar supplying much of the world. They have competitors in the slat business, but I don’t know much about those other firms.
California logs are sent for milling in Tianjen, China and transformed into the “slats” that pencil companies use as their raw input.
Cedar is aromatic, long-grained, soft, non-splintering when sharpened, and in most parts of of the world, associated with quality pencils. It has a pinkish/red appearance.
Basswood (Tilia), also know as Linden wood or Lime wood, is a widely used alternate species.
Basswood typically is pale white with little grain showing. While the wood can be treated to become softer and the colour made to resemble cedar, the pencils are for me typically tough and sharpener-challenging. The appearance is a matter of taste, but I find the absence of grain to be less appealing.
I’ve been ribbed about lack of success in using a pen knife to sharpen basswood pencils. One really needs a craft or X-Acto knife to take on this type of wood by hand.
Jelutong is a species mainly grown in the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. Closely related, Pulai seems to grow in Thailand (see Fantasia Pencil) and other Southeast Asian countries.
This species does sharpen easily, and I regard it as being as usable as cedar. Appearance wise, the wood has noticeable striations or pit marks. I don’t regard Jelutong as being as nice as Cedar.
A quick search reveals that many individuals and organizations have objections to the use of jelutong and pulai, as it comes from tropical rainforests. While the timber use (sometimes via illegal logging) is an issue – the disruption of the rainforest’s biodiversity is also often cited.
Of course shipping cedar logs across the Pacific ocean for milling can’t be good for the environment either.
LYRA uses Eastern White Pine and White Fir in some of their specialty pencils.
So, let’s ask – is a pencil’s wood species, and/or the source of the wood important to you? Is this based on a quality perspective, or an environmental perspective? Or maybe it isn’t important? Comments are most welcome! We also have a poll on this issue:
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Congratulations to Canadian stationer Papterie Nota Bene for being prominently featured on two pages of today’s National Post.
By Nathalie Atkinson, Move over Moleskine is a richly illustrated leisurely look at the fine notebooks and writing implements that many of us enjoy.
What the online article doesn’t show are the photos and prominence that the print edition gives to the article.
The front page of the “Weekend Post” is covered with seven photos and the caption, “Never too cool for school”. Shown are a Roots saddle bag, Hermès Ulysses notebook, Field Notes notebooks and pencils, Erinzam notebooks, Rite-in-the-Rain notebook (with Ticonderoga pencil), Faber-Castell Textliners, and Whitelines notepads. I was certainly surprised and delighted by the prominence given to pencils.
The fourth page of the section has a near full page article, and shows some more photos of stationery items: A Kikkerland Endangered Species eraser, Globus pencil sharpener, Rhodia pad, Very Best mechanical pencil, and Reused News colour pencils. Pencils clearly rule!
The article is a tour of today’s stationery trends, guided by an interview with Russell Hemsworth of Papterie Nota Bene. I’ve never been to his store, but I’ve spoken with Russell on the phone and via email, and can personally vouch for his great service.
We get the scoop: Moleskine has officially jumped the shark, with Field Notes being the new hipster favorite. Longstanding brands like Canteo, Rite-in-the-Rain and Rhodia are also in high demand. And pencils, pencils, pencils!
Thanks to the Post for the article and congratulations to Russell.
Sorry, the blog was offline for a while due to a local storm.
As well, we’ll be taking a break for a few days.
See you next week!
Some more pencil news:
Let’s navigate away from Lewisburg and head over to Mumbai.
The Hindustan Pencil Company was founded in 1958, and is now India’s largest pencil manufacturer. They state that they manufacture 5.6 million pencils per day! That would be over two billion per year. This would put them in the elite league of Faber-Castell and Staedtler.
Despite these enormous numbers, their pencils are unavailable in many regions of the world, including here in Canada. My thanks to hemmant for kindly sending me these pencils, and some other Indian pencils that we’ll soon see.
The pencils are red with black stripes, a black cap, and white cap ring. They ship unsharpened, and are marked:
HPL * Nataraj * 621 * HB * Bonded Lead
They sharpen easily enough in either desktop or handheld sharpeners.
What I first notice is the wood’s appearance. It appears to have the striations typical of jelutong or pulai, yet is also quite reddish. I’m curious if anyone knows what wood species is being used?
The lead seems quite strong – when I sharpen a pencil in the Carl Decade DE-100 using the acute setting – the point often breaks after ‘first contact’ with paper – but that didn’t happen with the Nataraj. The pencil seems average judged by smoothness or line richness factors.
The pencil box mentions the official price – 3 Rupees per pencil. That is $US0.06. Quite impressive.
The box also came with a sharpener and eraser. The sharpener boasts “with Japanese Technology”, and seems fine for a plastic sharpener. The eraser is a “Plasto 711”, and while creating a lot of crumbs, did a good job with this pencil on Rhodia paper.
Overall, the Hindustan Pencil Company seems to be doing a good job with this product.
Link: Official Product page.