pencil talk | pencil reviews and discussion

Does anyone remember these? Or still use them?

Known as grease markers or china markers, these pencils have wax colour cores, and are wrapped in paper that one tears off link by link. I remember these always being around the house when I was growing up, yet can’t recall what they were used for.

Still manufactured, I’ve seen them used for traditional purposes such as marking glass and ceramics, but also for more modern tasks such as marking laminated calendars and restaurant seating plans.

These particular ones date from perhaps the 1980s, and are branded Blaisdell. The box says they were made by Eagle/North-Rite, a division of Berol of Canada. All these long gone names!

This article from Stanford credits Blaisdell with inventing this format of grease pencil.

Also shown is a cousin, the Klenzo Ink & Type eraser.

To reveal more lead, one pulls the string, breaking the top layer of the coloured paper. Then, the paper is uncoiled. A simple solution that works well! I think it would be very interesting if the paper had fortunes or small quotations printed on the coils, but that might be a bit distracting.

They come in bright colours, no subtle forest shades here!

The Paperworld trade show in Frankfurt am Main is a major international trade show and the venue for a multitude of product announcements from stationery manufacturers.

To my surprise and delight, the pencil industry is in focus this year thanks to some attending pencil bloggers.

First and foremost, a post from Lexikaliker has highlighted a really interesting new sharpener from Westcott. As well, the famed El Casco sharpener, and an entire new pencil category – an extruded woodcase pencil from Staedtler, the “WOPEX”. It seems the pencil layers – lead core, wood casing, paint varnish – are all extruded in a finished format. Quite amazing.

A second report shows the LYRA Colorstripe and Faber-Castell horsehair pen. This pen has already been discussed online. But a comment at Lexikaliker was the funniest – the 5000 Euro price should surely include the horse!

Stationery from our friends at Bundoki – has had eight posts on Paperworld.

Amusing giant pillar-sized pens, new finishes from Kaweco, and even more children’s specialty writing implements are among the items they mentioned.

Finally, Woodchuck at pencils.com seems to like the Lyra Groove and Colorstripe. We’ll apparently see more tomorrow. (Lexikaliker readers saw the Groove two months ago.)

[Update, February 4, 2009] A third post at Lexikaliker showcases some new Staedtler products.

[Update, February 6, 2009]< The Timberlines report on the show has appeared.

The last few days have seen some notable pencil blogging milestones:

The 100th post at Lung Sketching Scrolls! Also be sure to visit the rest of the site. The most recent post discusses the entire range of colour 3.8mm lead products on the market today.

The 200th post at Lexikaliker, and a most fascinating one at that!

Finally, the third anniversay of Dave’s Mechanical Pencils was yesterday! Congratulations on three great years!

As, well, here is an interesting How to draw with lead video at How to Architect. Several years of work must have gone into attaining that level of skill.

Fabbrica Italiana Lapis ed Affini S.p.A. (FILA) is a famous and longstanding pencil manufacturer, dating from 1920. Their name is synonymous with Italian pencil making.

Pencils, the book (a museum catalogue), features many fine examples of their productions.

The last few years for FILA have been highlighted by two major international acquisitions – the 2005 purchase of American manufacturer Dixon (who originated in 1795) and 2008 purchase of German manufacturer Lyra (who date back to 1806).

Think about this for a moment. The roots of this industry are quite incredible – a company in their eightieth (nearing ninetieth) year, buying two competitors, each over two centuries old. A New World company dating to the 18th century is especially noteworthy.

So what’s in store? Dixon’s US pencil production has ceased, having moved to Mexico and China. FILA’s modern pencil production appears to be Chinese based. And we’ve heard that Lyra will be moving production to China. (Most of it was already there, pre-acquisition.)

Yet the national brands continue – it appears that FILA/Lyra/Dixon intends on making their pencils in China, but continuing existing branding.

Some context set, let’s take a look at a few pencils from FILA. They are an “assortment” – essentially what a vendor had on hand and was willing to ship overseas. Probably not a complete line by any means – I was still happy to acquire them.

There seem to be two rough categories here – new (with colour and photo or CG images in the boxes) and old (with monochrome, line drawn images).

The new:

Temagraph

Two versions – with and without eraser. They are marked:

FILA Temagraph HB/2 Medium

Is that three degree indicators in total (HB,2,Medium)? And – are they exactly Dixon Tonderogas, or just similar? The unerasered pencil is certainly interesting – the metal cap seems to also be a uniquely styled degree indicator.

The box has a most intersting touch: a printed checkbox statement of origin:

Made by Fila-Dixon In:
Italy [] France [] China[x] Mexico []

I wonder what doesn’t get checked that way.

The box has markings in eight or more languages. I’m not sure if the pencil is sold in that many countries – they are very challenging to locate online.

Temagraph Soft Touch

A black-dyed wood pencil, I think it has some of the same rubberized surface as the Tri-Conderoga, though it seems a bit more subtle and refined. (A second generation?)

The old:

Studium

Marked “~Studium~ HB=2 FILA Florence Italy” in white on blue, they are a basic student pencil.

Temagraph

These appear to be an older version of the Temagraph. They have a distinctive look, with alternating sides painted yellow or orange and edges black. The cap indicates the pencil grade. And yes, we learn that 3B = 00!

The older Temagraphs are definitely the most interesting, as well as being the best writers of the bunch.

Do you know FILA?