Pencil Talk - Sun, 09/07/2008 - 21:12 By penciladmin

We are late by two years - the Musgrave Pencil Company’s 90th anniversary was in 2006. Yet, it was still a true delight to recently receive a box of Musgrave’s 90th anniversary pencils.
Round pencils, they have gold coloured ferrules, with white erasers. All have dyed wood - red, green, or yellow, with corresponding varnish.
The pencils are marked:

Pencil Talk - Sun, 09/07/2008 - 12:22 By penciladmin

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.
LINK: Interview: Thomas Schatz, Staedtler Group

Pencil Talk - Thu, 09/04/2008 - 18:02 By penciladmin

Here is a fascinating and mysterious pencil. Take a close look - it is a gold pentagonal pencil!

If this explanation has errors, please forgive me. Any errors are on my part.
Some Japanese-English vocabulary:
合格 - Goukaku - to pass an examination
五角 - Gokaku - pentagon
This pencil is thus a visual pun!

Pencil Talk - Wed, 09/03/2008 - 18:11 By penciladmin

This is a super-lightweight yet fun and practical notebook.
Made of cardboard with paper that is called “comic” (from comic books?), it has a bright removable elastic band.
It has that look of a found or reclaimed object, though there is clearly quite a bit of design is this functional notebook. It may be part of a larger movement that seems focused on used basic materials, yet incorporating design principles.

Pencil Talk - Tue, 09/02/2008 - 15:40 By penciladmin

Questionable habits rarely look this good.
The Eyeball “No Smoking” pencil, and the V-15 “Matchy” eraser.

Pencil Talk - Mon, 09/01/2008 - 13:33 By penciladmin

Finally - a modern design aesthetic applied to the desktop pencil sharpener!
The Bungu Ryodo BR-05 from Carl is a marvel - it costs less than some handheld sharpeners from Faber-Castell and KUM - and it performs amazingly well and has a compelling modern design.

Pencil Talk - Wed, 08/27/2008 - 18:25 By penciladmin

An online search inadvertently led me to a recently released report from the group ForestEthics.
They rate pencils/pencil companies in terms of friendliness to the Sierra Nevada forests of California. Some of the marks are for specific pencils, while others are for entire companies.
Here are their basic ratings (see the report for details):
ForestChoice: A
Greenline Paper Company: A
Green Apple: C
Paper Mate: C
Dixon/Ticonderoga: F
USA Gold: F

Pencil Talk - Tue, 08/26/2008 - 17:14 By penciladmin

We’ve seen special pencils aimed at optical and electro-mechanical mark recognition - the vintage IBM Electrographic, and the more recent Musgrave Test Scoring Pencil.

Pencil Talk - Sun, 08/24/2008 - 16:14 By penciladmin

This is the two hundred and fiftieth post at pencil talk.
The news is good. I once worried about running out of pencils to discuss. Don’t worry, that isn’t about to happen anytime soon!
There are also now many readers from around the globe, and I’ve been privileged to exchange notes with a number of excellent people.

Pencil Talk - Tue, 08/19/2008 - 17:38 By penciladmin

Though appearing to be a regular hexagonal pencil, the Tajima pencil is aimed at the construction trades - carpentry in particular. It is definitely a different interpretation of this pencil style than seen in North America or Europe.
The product website indicates that this pencil is highly humidity-resistant.