Faber-Castell

My favourite eraser

16 Comments / Erasers, Faber-Castell / / , , , , , , , , , , ,

My favourite eraser is, without a shadow of a doubt, the Faber-Castell 18 71 20 Dust-Free eraser …or its little brother, the 18 71 30. There are many good erasers. I like Sanford’s Artgum eraser, I sometimes use the Staedtler Mars plastic stick eraser and also cannot really complain about some of the high end erasers I use, like the Graf von Faber-Castell Ersatzradiergummi…

…but none of them matches the comfort and softness of the 18 71 20 / 18 71 30. It does not smear and it does erase like a dream. It is made in Malaysia, like many of Faber-Castell’s erasers, and is suppossed to be dust-free, which refers to the fact that the eraser waste twists up into strands. There are similar erasers out there, for example Flomo’s Non-Dust eraser from Shanghai, but they are usually not as soft and do not erase as well.

Faber-Castell’s dust-free eraser is relatively new, it has only been introduced in 2004.The retail price in the UK is around the £ 1 ($ 1.62; € 1.14) mark, often a little bit higher.

I would be happy to hear what you think of this eraser. Is it only me or do others also think that this eraser is so much better than any other eraser? If you have a chance to try this eraser out, please give it a go.

Flomo Non-Dust (left), 18 71 30C (middle) and 18 71 20 (right)

In case you wonder about the notebook you can see in the photos. It’s a A4 spiral divider notebook with coloured index tabs, made from FSC paper (70 g/m²). It was sold in the UK through Lidl stores and is, as far as I know, made by Zebra Papierverarbeitungs GmbH. It should be available from ProNa.

Price and exchange rates: November 2010

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Two articles

Leave a Comment / Faber-Castell, Links, Staedtler / / ,

David O. just posted two comments with links over at pencil talk’s. They are linking to  great [1]great because they are about the pencil industry, I am not sure what to think about the content articles and it would be a shame to miss them because are hidden in the comments, so I thought I post them here.


One article is from the economist, focussing on Faber-Castell and our favourite nobleman.

The other one is from the Wall Street Journal and is looking at the rivalry between Staedtler and Faber-Castell. To be honest I always thought they get along perfectly fine: selling name rights to each other, having joint press statements, …   but the article portraits a much darker image. I am not sure whether they exaggerated a bit to make the article more catchy.


Thank you David O. for posting the links at pencil talk.

References

References
↑1 great because they are about the pencil industry, I am not sure what to think about the content

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Graf von Faber-Castell

5 Comments / Faber-Castell, Graf von Faber-Castell / / , , , , ,

I would just like to say thank you to Sean from Pencils and Music. He told me about several auctions where old Graf von Faber-Castell items were offered that are no longer available …and as you can see I managed to be the winning bidder for some of these items.

In case you wonder about the Castell-Bank paper block and paper clip holder: They are promotional gifts from the “Fürstlich Castell‘sche Bank”, a bank that belong to the Castell-Castell and Castell-Rüdenhausen branches of the Castell family. I had the paper block and the paper clip holder since the 1980s or the 1990s, so I doubt they are still available.

The Faber family, manufacturers of pencils, and the Castell family, one of Europe’s old noble families with roots going back to the 11th century, crossed paths in 1898. You can find more information about the Castell family in the Faber-Castell Topics newsletter 1/2008 and on the history pages of the Faber-Castell web site.

Links:

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A brief history of the pencil

Leave a Comment / Faber-Castell, Links / / ,

There is a very informative PDF about the history of the pencil on Faber-Castell’s web site. Many of the facts are common knowledge among pencil enthusiasts and with only twelve pages you obviously cannot compare this PDF to something as comprehensive as Petroski’s book, but reading this document would certainly be time well spent if you have a few minutes to spare.

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Graf von Faber-Castell Pen of the Year 2010

Leave a Comment / Faber-Castell, Fountain pens, Graf von Faber-Castell, Pelikan / / , ,

In case you were wondering about this year’s Pen of the Year from Graf von Faber-Castell: The pen itself has case-hardened metal parts and 24-carat gold inlays, while the barrel is made of Caucasian walnut wood and has a hand-carved fish scales pattern.

Graf von Faber-Castell’s Pen of the Year so far:

2001: Olive wood (at the time not yet called “Pen of the Year”)
2003: Snakewood
2004: Amber
2005: Galuchet (Stingray leather)
2006: Mammoth Ivory and Ebony
2007: Petrified Wood
2008: Indian Satinwood
2009: The Equus (horsehair fabric)

In October 2009 Pen and Co interviewed the Managing Director Premium at Faber-Castell. The post includes a paragraph on the history of the Pen of the Year and information about the Pen of the Year 2009.

According to an article from LZ-NET more than 10% of Faber-Castell’s turnover is generated by their premium products. Faber-Castell is manufacturing the Porsche Design pens as well, but only until the end of 2010. From 2011 Pelikan will be manufacturing the Porsche Design pens.

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