Made in USA

MAD about pencils

Leave a Comment / Pencils, Seen in the wild / / , ,

If you grew up in a Western country and are old enough then you probably know about MAD Magazine.

Many countries had their own versions, but the UK edition stopped being published in the mid-90s, so every time I went to visit Germany I tried to get the latest German version. Towards the end of German MAD’s life this wasn’t very easy: the only places I found that sold the magazine were newsagents in train stations of towns with at least 100,000 inhabitants. I happened to be in Germany when the last issue was published and I have to say no one in the German media made a fuss about it being the last issue. It might also not have been known that this is the last issue when it was published, as I don’t see any indication of that in the actual issue.

As is the case with news though, sometimes more relevant news are overshadowed by less relevant news. When the US version of MAD Magazine announced it would stop publishing issues based on mainly new content, this news spilled over the Atlantic and somehow was big news in Germany: on TV and also in popular newspapers and magazines. The news was usually presented as if MAD Magazine will stop being published, even though no one seemed to care when the German version stopped being published and even though the US version MAD is still being published, to this day, it is just mainly made up of reprinted articles, with the occasional new content sprinkled in between.

Why do I mention all of this? Because I want to show you a page form the current (June 2025), reality-TV themed issue:

MAD about pencils Read More »

A different use for Nock Co.’s Burton

5 Comments / Pencil cases / / , , ,

Hands up, please, if you miss Nock Co.

Ah ok, thanks.

You can lower your hands again, thanks for taking part.

I’m not surprised so many here miss Nock Co. It’s a real shame they closed down. Their products were well thought-out and of great quality. Luckily, I backed all Nock Co. x Pen Addict Kickstarters, so can still enjoy a few of their pencil cases.

The 2015 Hightower is just a great pencil case.

The 2017 Sapelo fits perfectly in my Lihit Lab A4 sleeve that I use to transport my laptop to work every day – and the quality of the Sapelo so much better than that of the Lihit Lab case.

The 2018 Tallulah is my dedicated Rotring case.

There’s one case however I never really could find a great use for: the 2019 Burton. The waxed surface made me (probably needlessly) worried that it will make items sticky or greasy if the outside comes into contact with them. The inside was somehow too big for my purposes. The look is great though. Outside it is unobtrusive, inside it is happily and very bright green – it’s the bomber jacket among pencil cases.

My new use is not really stationery-related. It’s now my case for an 8 inch portable screen I use for Raspberry Pis. It’s not quite the intended “A5 notebook and some pens” use, but it works very well for me.

A different use for Nock Co.’s Burton Read More »

Silver

8 Comments / BIC / / , , , , ,

When I bought the Chinese New Year pens from BIC I also put a few more items in the basket to get free shipping. One of them was the BIC Silver Set: Seven silver-ish pens and a silver-ish notebook. The official UK price is £16.99 (~$22.70; €20.50). I saw which pens will be included, but didn’t know what to expect in terms of material. Will some of them have a metal body?

In case you wonder: all of the pens are plastic-y, none have a metal body. The 2mm Criterium lead holder would have been amazing with a metal body – a bit like the Caran d’Ache Fixpencil 884. The American made marking pencil is quite interesting. You can use it to mark any(?) surface with nice, opaque silver-grey paint – good to label black plastic or metal.

I really like that the packaging shows where the different pens are from.

Price and exchange rates: March 2022

Silver Read More »

Trimline 3594

Leave a Comment / Dixon, Pencils, Uncategorised / / , , , ,
Dixon Trimline 3594

Discovered in our Scout group’s hut, this American-made Dixon Trimline not only made it into Europe, it also managed to survive several decades hidden between other pencils and kept in pristine condition.

Notice the slim and elegant font and the blind-stamped U.S.A., left of the writing.

A smidge of the beautiful orange paints seems to have made it’s way into some of the knurling on the ferrule.

The last photo ended up a bit blurry, but if you are using a computer to read this then please have a closer look at this pencil by clicking on the (other) photos to admire this pencil’s details.

Trimline 3594 Read More »

America Standards

8 Comments / Pencils / / , , ,

Earlier this year, in Spring, I imported some pencils from the USA.

It won’t come as a surprise that they are painted in yellow/orange and that they are eraser-tipped.

The whole look of these pencils, including the name, America Standards, and the way they are printed makes them look like a ‘big pencil’ that you’d imagine to be available and sold all over the USA…
…but as far as I can tell the company behind the America Standards pencil is a small-ish company that registered a few trademarks and uses them to resells goods made by other manufacturers.

In the case of the America Standards pencils there is a big emphasis on the fact that they are made in Tennessee. I assume they are made by Musgrave, but they might, of course, also be made by Wagner or Moon Products.

I ordered the pack of 24 in a wooden pencil box, which doesn’t currently seem available, but you can still get the pack of 100. Previously there has also been the America Standards Mammoth pencil with a jumbo grip.

Importing into the UK always attracts customs and import duties, but the pencils are beautiful and the wooden case seem really special, so the extra I had to pay seems well worth it.

America Standards Read More »