Nearing the end of an ongoing series on the pencils of Korea, today we’ll look at the Munhwa Deojon hi-mic pencil.
Along with Dong-A and Hankook Sharp, Munhwa is an established Korean pencil manufacturer.
A box of twelve pencils has an unusual silver and purple design, with a classical musical instrument used as a symbol. A five-stringed harp?
The back of the box says, “Micro crystalline lead made by Munhwa in Korea.”
The pencils themselves are a mix of green and brown, with gold lettering, and purple and black cap.
The pencils read:
Obverse: Munhwa Deojon hi-mic HB
Reverse: Micro Crystalline Lead [Further text in Korean]
Sorry, I’m not able to offer a translation of the Korean text.
The pencils are also stamped “0708 Marco China”. Hmm, it suggests the pencils are made in China, with Korean lead cores.
And what lead cores they are. The Deojon makes a very smooth, rich, dark line – the nicest we’ve seen from a Korean pencil, and very high quality by general standards.
Definitely worth trying if you come across them!