Staedtler

Staedtler’s sugar cane / corn / olive eraser

2 Comments / Erasers, Staedtler / / , ,
double pack of Staedtler's 526 83-5 eraser

Today: a look at a new eraser from Staedtler. I bought this eraser in August at Kaufland, a German supermarket-chain that is part of the same group as Lidl, on offer for €1.09 (~£0.92; $1.16). The normal price seems to be €2.20 (~£1.85; $2.33).

the back of the double pack of Staedtler's 526 83-5 eraser

The packaging advertises it as being made with a minimum of 56% renewable materials. This made me curious to find out more. Luckily Mr. Rüdel from Staedtler was able to provide some more details: the chalk that is typically used when producing this type of eraser has been replaced by olive pomace, i.e. the solid remains of the olives after pressing for olive oil. The eraser has been available since Autumn 2023.

Staedtler's 526 83-5 eraser

According to the official web page for this eraser, the plant flour that replaces the chalk can also come from corn. Additionally, the sleeve paper is made from by-products of sugar cane harvest..

This all sounds great, but the question now is whether the eraser performs well at erasing.

Luckily the 526 83-5 (that’s the official article number) doesn’t disappoint. Its performance is comparable to the well-known Mars plastic eraser, also by Staedtler.

eraser test of Staedtler's 526 83-5 eraser

My favourite erasers are still dust-free ones, but this is a nice performer with the added bonus of being made from renewable materials.

Price: August 2024

Exchange rates: October 2024

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The upcycled Noris in Germany

3 Comments / Pencils, Staedtler / / , , , ,
The old and new Noris together

After being able to observe the shift from the traditional, wood-cased Noris to the new upcycled wood Noris in the UK last year (see The new, upcycled Noris) I was able to experience the same transition in Germany now.

What I saw is, of course, only a small snapshot of the two countries as I observed the transition in a city in North West England last year and now in a city in North West Germany. Other parts of the two countries might have experienced the change at different times.

In March 2024, about a year after the switch in the UK, supermarkets here still had the wood-cased version. Here is an example from Kaufland in Ritterhude.

The wood-cased Noris

By now, only the upcycled Noris is available. I assume the old ones sold out and stock just got replaced with the new version. I am not able to find the wood-cased Noris in any other supermarket in and around Bremen anymore, but some pockets with old stock might still be available, especially in shops with low turnover.

The upcycled Noris

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Staedtler’s new Mars 502 Lead Pointer Tub box

5 Comments / Sharpeners, Staedtler / / , ,

I’m not sure why, but the most popular video on the Bleistift YouTube channel is a video explaining how to use Staedtler’s lead pointer.

How to use a lead pointer tub might not be that obvious. That must certainly a factor contributing to the video’s popularity, but it still doesn’t explain why the video remains popular to this day.

Many of the comments show that buyers of the lead pointer often don’t know how to use it properly and that they wish they had known about the video earlier.

Three years ago, one of the comments (see above) posted under the video said that Staedtler should point to this video. Well, a few days ago a follow up comment was posted (see below). It came from Bleistift viewer Björn who found the video because Staedtler is now printing a QR point on the lead pointer box, pointing to the Bleistift video explaining how to use the lead pointer!

What a surprise that was!! Björn also sent some photos of the new box with the QR code.

Thank you Björn for letting me know and thank you Staedtler for linking to the video.

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Staedtler x Star Wars

2 Comments / Pencils, Staedtler / / , ,

Merchandise from TV series and movies is all around us and is also pretty common in the stationery world, but a lot of the licensed stationery doesn’t actually show the manufacturer and quality is sometimes dubious.

In the Eighties and Nineties Staedtler used to produce quite a lot of licensed pencils with designs linked to TV series and movies. Most of these were unbranded, i.e. as a consumer you weren’t able to see these were actually made by Staedtler. It seems that this is down to the fact that in most cases Staedtler didn’t purchase the licence but produced the pencils according the customer specifications. This seems to be still common: the manufacturer is not the licence holder which might also explain the poor quality of a lot of licensed stationery as the company holding the licence might just get the cheapest factory to produce the pencils as the products get bought because of the licensed characters, not because of the quality.

I had a big collection of licensed pencils made in Staedtler’s Pontyclun factory in Wales but decided to let them find a new home as I just have too many pencils.

The printing on the pencils included some globally well known trademarks, like Lion King and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but also a lot of UK specific brands that are not well known outside the UK and Ireland, e.g. Beano and David the Gnome. To my surprise one type of pencil was particularly popular, the MASK pencil, based on an animation from the mid-Eighties. Even though I watched a lot of children animations in the mid-Eighties I was not familiar with this series and rather surprised by the popularity. The same is true for another series I wasn’t familiar with and that seemed to be very popular: Bravestarr.

The collector who took these pencils made me aware of Star Wars stationery that Staedtler used to produce and that I want to share with you today.

Image © “Star Wars Spanish Stuff”
Image © “Star Wars Spanish Stuff”

You can find the original information and more at Star Wars Spanish Stuff.

Thanks to Eberhard Rüdel and Andrea Plässer for additional information used in this blog post.

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