Faber-Castell

Monocle again

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Well, after having had a look at Japanese stationery in issue 81 the current issue of Monocle, number 88, includes a Bavaria survey. Quite a few Franconian companies are included as well and even though there are only five sentences in the magazine about Faber-Castell the editors must have thought pencils are sexy enough to put them on the cover of the latest issue.

Faber-Castell on the cover of Monocle magazine
Faber-Castell on the cover of Monocle magazine

They also have a paragraph on Gmund paper, the company that makes the golden envelopes for the Oscars and provides the paper for other big events and companies.

I believe that showing a photo of parts of the Monocle cover in this blog post falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.

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Small pencil notes

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Just a few things worth mentioning, wrapped up in a blog post. I have already mentioned most of these on Facebook and Twitter:

The latest instalment of Sean’s Franconian adventures are now on his blog.

He also featured in the latest issue of the Faber-Castell newsletter.

I saw that there’s an iOS game called balancing a pencil. I don’t have an iPhone, so haven’t tried it out.

There’s also more coloured pencil jewellery and wire sculpture that look like pencil drawings.

 

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Deutschland 83

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After The Game: Another TV series about cold war spies. Sean told me about this one. It’s called Deutschland 83 and its current IMDB rating is 8.5.

As the name suggests it takes place in 1983. Here’s a Castell 9000 in B you can see in episode 4, used by Professor Tischbier (Alexander Beyer) from the East German Secret Service.

A Castell 9000 in B (Image © UF Fiction)
A Castell 9000 in B (Image © UF Fiction)

Faber-Castell pencils from 1983 – sounds familiar, you might remember this previous blog post about the Castell 9000 pencils for their 222nd anniversary – that anniversary was in 1983.

Here’s a comparison of the modern Castell 9000, as seen in Deutschland 83 – with the water-based varnish side facing the camera, and the actual Castell 9000 from 1983. The green got even darker, the thick line on the end of the pencils changed from gold to silver/grey and the text printed on the pencils has changed.

Castell 9000, 1983 and now
Castell 9000, now (top) and 1983 (bottom)

The screenshot in this blog post has been taken from Episode Four of Deutschland 83. I believe that the use of the screenshot shown in this blog post falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.

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A Franken Noris

6 Comments / Faber-Castell, Pencils, Staedtler / / , , , , ,

See what I did there? I used the title of the previous blog post, but changed ‘Franconia’ to the German word for Franconia: Franken.

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The association is now with Frankenstein’s Monster instead of Franconia. Just a reminder, Franconia is the area in Bavaria the size of Massachusetts where most German stationery manufacturers are from [1]as well as some other famous companies like Adidas or Puma.

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…and what a monster I have created. Muah hua hua. An unholy mix of parts from Staedtler and Faber-Castell.

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You might remember my recent blog post about me losing my Perfect Pencil. Well, now I do have a new one – a very special one. It’s the black version of the ‘Castell 9000 Perfect Pencil’. I first read about it in a blog post from Pencil Talk in 2010. As far as I can tell this version was for sale in Japan, from 2009 onwards.

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I just hope I won’t lose it again, like I lost my green one after six years. The black version is much more expensive and more difficult to get. Including shipping the pencil cost nearly £30 (¥4644 for the pencil plus¥890 shipping) (~$45; €40), I wouldn’t have spend so much, as mentioned before I stopped buying expensive stationery, but I was in the lucky position to pick a gift I wanted.

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The black of this Perfect Pencil goes very well with the black of my favourite pencil, the Noris. I think I will try out the pencils that came with the Perfect Pencil before changing to Noris refills.

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I still have short eraser-tipped Castell 9000 pencils as well as official Castell 9000 Perfect Pencil refills, so next time I go to Germany, probably next year, I might also get a dark green Perfect Pencil again (which is only £5 over there).

 

Please click (or right click new tab) to admire the Perfect Pencil’s beauty in higher resolution.

Price: June 2015, Exchange rates:  July 2015.

I’d like to thank Sola for her advice that helped me get a black Perfect Pencil.

References

References
↑1 as well as some other famous companies like Adidas or Puma

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I lost my Perfect Pencil

8 Comments / Faber-Castell, Graf von Faber-Castell, Pencils / / , , , ,

It looks as if I lost my Perfect Pencil. My trusted companion since February 2009. With me nearly every single day since I bought it. I guess there is a small chance I will find it again, but that seems unlikely at this stage.

The Castell 9000 version is, in my opinion, by far the best version. I don’t like the look of any of the other Faber-Castell versions and the Graf von Faber-Castell versions are on the one hand a bit too ‘show off’ and they are also very heavy …which makes them feel unbalanced – plus I know from experience that if both of them fall from a meter or so on tarmac the Castell 9000 version will usually survive unharmed while the Graf von version will get a corner chipped off, because its weight made the fall so much worse.

 

Branches

The picture is from an old blog post about the Pencil Cedar – when I still had my Perfect Pencil.

 

The big question: should I buy a new one, the green one again? They got more expensive in the UK. I bought mine from Cult Pens where they now sell for 12% more (when taking VAT out of the equation). On the other hand the refills got nearly 50% cheaper! [1]I used to use the long eraser-tipped 9000 in B to save on refills. Letter colour is different (gold vs silver) and the layout is different, but otherwise they seem identical except length. Even though a 12% price rise seems reasonable they are only half of the UK price when bought at Müller, a German drug store chain.

In the past I was tempted to get the black version. The black version looks as if it would look good with a Noris as a refill, but the only place where I have seen the black version for sale is in Japan, so it does get quite expensive – and currently I shouldn’t really spent money on expensive [2]>£10 stationery.

I’m not sure yet whether I pay the more expensive UK price, wait for a one from Germany or pay the premium to get the black Japanese version.

References

References
↑1 I used to use the long eraser-tipped 9000 in B to save on refills. Letter colour is different (gold vs silver) and the layout is different, but otherwise they seem identical except length.
↑2 >£10

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