Category: pencils

PenciLog (pencilog.com) is the new home of Kent’s PenciLog. Written in Korean, Kent examines pencils in leisurely depth. The right hand column has a link titled “Postings in English” which leads to some articles written in English. The navigation system doesn’t seem to allow linking to specific articles, but here are two posts I recommend navigating to: the California Republic Palomino, and the Graf von Faber-Castell pencil. The former shows some interesting new marketing of the pencil from California Cedar products, while the latter shows some pencils that don’t seem to be for sale anywhere I can find. Most interesting!

On the desk, at any time is by Kossy, and written in Japanese. I have previously linked to it as “???????”. I am flabbergasted by the blog’s energy and the range of stationery items shown. If you like train themed pencils (this may be a small club), Kossy shows many more varieties that I was not aware of. Updated at least once a day, it is a treasure trove of modern stationery information.

Finally, a video of an old Nataraj pencil ad at Youtube. Delightful!

Observing the blog “dashboard”, I noticed that a milestone was just passed – the 2500th comment. It was made by M-C, responding to a post on the pencils of France.

My sincere thanks to the many commenters for your contributions.

Regular pencil talk readers have seen a few train-themed pencils from Japanese manufacturers. Take a look at the kossy-RS4 blog (in Japanese) for even more examples!

The transportation theme continues, this time with destination signs from London buses used as the inspiration.

I like them!

(The post title is borrowed from the early 1970s hit British TV show.)

A recent trip to a large city didn’t allow for much stationery shopping. All I managed to bring back was this pencil.

The pencil has no markings, but was in a display that claimed the pencil was made of “recycled bamboo”, and the eraser of “recycled rubber”.

The pencil surface is rough – very rough. Yet I’ve learned through the feedback from a past post that some prefer a surface like this.

It writes well, though the eraser doesn’t do too well at erasing the pencil’s markings:

Overall, the pencil leaves a good impression that I can’t completely explain.

This is the first in a series on the pencils of France. The series is unfortunately a few years late, as France, like several other western countries, appears to have relocated most pencil production to China.

Maped (Manufacture d’Articles de Precision et de Dessin) was founded in Annecy, France in 1947, and their online history indicates that their product diversification started in the 1990s. Their office supplies at the inexpensive end such as staplers and erasers are commonly found in Canada. Every Maped item I’ve personally seen hailed from China.

We see here the Black’Peps pencil. An official product page doesn’t reveal too much. The name doesn’t quite register with me, but maybe someone has an idea about the reference?

Available in five grades, and the HB with an eraser option, the pencil is in the triangular shape. The edges are orange, and the main body and cap are in a grayscale, with the darkness of the paint corresponding to the darkness of the lead. e.g. The B pencil has a darker finish than the HB pencil.

The pencil sharpens easily, and while the HB version leaves a nice dark line, the smoothness seems to be in the average or mildly scratchy range. I’m not sure I really like the black/orange pattern, but it is different.

My thanks to blog reader Frank for kindly sending me this pencil.

Apologies for the downtime. An area storm knocked out server power for several hours.

Pencils were reported to have maintained service.