2017

Tiger’s Blackwing

You might have noticed that it’s been very quiet here on Bleistift. That’s not because I lost interest in pencils, but because my job has been keeping me more than busy. Just in case you wonder – no: I didn’t change jobs and didn’t get promoted. In the past, there were up to fifteen blog posts a month, but for now, probably up to and including January there won’t be many blog posts. I might also have to suspend the Pencil Pot of the Month series for now. A shame as it has been running continuously for exactly 24 months – the two years from October 2015 until September 2017. I will, however, try to give occasional life signs every now and then, like I do today, until blogging can resume again as usual.

Since we’re talking about the Pencil Pot of the Month: the one from August 2016 was from the Danish chain ‘Tiger’ [1]Outside our store is labelled Tiger, but the in-store newsletter refers to the company as Flying Tiger Copenhagen which has a shop in the city where I live. The last purchase I made there was Tiger’s version of the Blackwing pencil.

Tiger’s Blackwing

In today’s ‘life sign’ I want to talk about this new Blackwing copy. If you read pencil blogs, and if you are here you do, the Blackwing probably doesn’t need any introduction. CalCedar’s remake of the Blackwing doesn’t need any introduction either. Well, now it’s not the only remake anymore. As mentioned aboveTiger, also known as Flying Tiger Copenhagen, introduced one, too.

Tiger’s Blackwing

In the introduction I wrote that I am quite busy, so am not following what’s going on in the pencil fandom (with very few exceptions). That’s why I didn’t know that there seems to be some controversy going on about the new Danish Blackwing remake. I was told that apparently, some CalCedar/Palomino Blackwing fanboys are pretty upset about there being a copy of the Blackwing. I don’t know what arguments have been made or where they have been made, but here are my initial thoughts after having used the Danish Blackwing for a while.

Ship of Theseus

We could start by talking about the Ship of Theseus and what makes the CalCedar Blackwing [2]..which I will refer to as the new Blackwing a descendant of the original, but in reality I don’t see much of a link.

Well, what happened is: the Theseus sunk. Somebody else registered another ship under the same name.

Here’s why. There used to be a pencil called Blackwing. The company behind it stopped making this pencil. The owner of the trademark didn’t renew the trademark so it lapsed. An unrelated company took the trademark and manufactured a similar looking pencil, the main similarity being the characteristic ferrule. The lead recipe is different. It’s made in a completely different country. There is no continuity, nothing that links the original and the remake except the name ..and with me being German I am automatically reminded of the German saying “names are but noise and smoke” [3]apparently this saying is from Goethe.

A real Blackwing and Tiger’s Blackwing

The Theseus example doesn’t apply because the original Theseus sunk. There’s a new Theseus. There’s a new Blackwing. In the end York and New York have more of a link [4]They used to be ruled by the same empire than the Blackwing and the new Blackwing.

CalCedar’s contribution

My point here is: don’t complain that Tiger’s pencil is a copy of the Blackwing. The new Blackwing from CalCedar/Palomino is itself only a copy with no link to the original.

What CalCedar did do is bring a pencil (that was previously mainly known to pencileers, molyvophiles [5]Someone passionate about pencils (see this post) and molyvologues [6]A student of pencils (see this post) through anecdotes and the odd poem) to the mass market. In my 2010 blog post I wrote that the new Blackwing might become the new Moleskine. With its price tag I think it must have an even higher profit margin than a Moleskine – and like the Moleskine you can now buy the new Blackwing on the high street in the UK. Something the original Blackwing never achieved. I guess that’s the power of marketing – you create a link to something greater in people’s mind and make it a Veblen good. People who wouldn’t have bought 3B, 4B, 5B pencils in the past are happy to pay a premium and because of the characteristic ferrule it’s easy to show off that it’s a posh pencil.

 Tiger’s Blackwing

With that in mind, I think the Danish Blackwing is as much a modern Blackwing as the CalCedar one. Actually, I like it even more than the CalCedar remake, because it actually keeps the point. Something I don’t like about the Palomino Blackwing, as explained earlier. If you write small with Tiger’s Blackwing you don’t have to sharpen it every few words often. Ok, the wood on the Danish [7]..but Made in China one doesn’t look as good, but I can buy 4 for £1, so 12 are £3, whereas 12 CalCedar ones are £29.95 in the UK, nearly exactly ten times as expensive. For such a price difference I take the one that keeps the point ..and is therefore usable for my purposes [8]Your mileage may vary. If you are an artist you might be after a different pencil than me. any day.

PS: What a shame that Tiger didn’t put 602 in the item or barcode number, then I could have referred to the Tiger Blackwing as a 602.


If you want to find out more about the Blackwing and its history visit the Blackwing Pages.

 

References

References
1 Outside our store is labelled Tiger, but the in-store newsletter refers to the company as Flying Tiger Copenhagen
2 ..which I will refer to as the new Blackwing
3 apparently this saying is from Goethe
4 They used to be ruled by the same empire
5 Someone passionate about pencils (see this post)
6 A student of pencils (see this post)
7 ..but Made in China
8 Your mileage may vary. If you are an artist you might be after a different pencil than me.

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Pencil Pot Of The Month – September 2017

Description: An empty tea tin.

Price: Between £5 and £10.

Material: Tin

Further information: Comes with 200g of Orange [1]Orange Pekoe is a tea grade, not a desciption of the flavour. Pekoe tea.


My wife and I got the fountain pen from Amro and I got the red pencil from Lexikaliker (many years ago). Thank you.

References

References
1 Orange Pekoe is a tea grade, not a desciption of the flavour.

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Hobonichi Techo 2018

It’s been extremely quiet on my blog recently as my day job has been keeping me overwhelmingly busy.

To prove that I’m still alive I thought I show you what the postman brought yesterday.

It has (again) been an expensive luxury: after import fees, import handling and shipping has been added the final bill was eye-watering. In the end the cost of the actual diary was nearly exactly 30% of the total cost of getting it from Japan to the UK.

 

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My Sapelo Penvelope

You might have seen this already on my Instagram account, but I thought I also post this picture here, too: Last week I got my Sapelo Penvelope from The Pen Addict’s 2017 Kickstarter.

It looks absolutely beautiful.

Unfortunately customs weren’t kind (again), so after adding postage, fees etc, the $30 Sapelo was $62 by the time it landed on my door.

Other had similar fees to pay:

Good news is that I am now the proud owner of both The Pen Addict Kickstarter cases.

Here’s a reminder that the first one (300 were made) was nearly as good looking as the new one:

Nock Hightower Case and Notebook
Nock Hightower Case (outside) and Notebook. The Noris was not part of the Kickstarter.

 

Back to the topic of customs fees in the UK: Let’s see how much my 2018 Hobonichi will cost in the end. I will know soon.

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