pencil Archives - Page 2 of 9

ippo! x MONO

3 Comments / Erasers, Pencils, Tombow / 7 January 2022 / eraser, ippo!, Kakikata, Made in Japan, Made in Vietnam, pencil, Tombow

Thanks to Shangching from East…West…Everywhere my family got a parcel with some nice stationery surprises and our son, and by extension I, were able to try out Tombow’s ippo! pencils for school children as well as the corresponding eraser.

My understanding is that the pencils from this set aim at being easily erasable, so they have soft leads that produced nice, dark lines and the special eraser makes it easy for kids to erase any mistakes cleanly and nice, making the page ready for the next attempt.

Like many other Tombow pencils, the ippo! pencils, this set came with two in red, two in blue, two in yellow, are all made in Vietnam. The eraser was manufactured in Japan.

Hats off to Tombow, this set definitely achieves what (I think) it set out to do.

The eraser performs very similar to other dust free erasers, but feels softer, so makes for pleasant erasing. The pencils, being (Japanese) 2B, are very soft. The softness of the lead will probably help in making the user press less hard, so the writing is more likely to be on top of the paper whereas a harder lead might have made the user press down more, resulting in compressed paper where the line was. No compressed paper -> no deep lines, which will still be visible after erasing as a sort of crevice on the page -> the erased area looks very clean.

I also like the fact that the eraser sleeve is perforated, so you can easily shorten it when the eraser gets used up.

Compared to another dust free eraser on paper from the Monocle by Leuchtturm notebook

Overall a very nice pencil and eraser set. Similar to other Kakikata pencils the pencils have an area for labelling with your name and are uncapped.

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Karandash Krasin

Leave a Comment / Krasin, Pencils / 17 December 2021 / Krasin, Made in Russia, pencil

This is a Russian-made Krasin pencil ^[1]Their web site has Karandash in the name. You might be familiar with the story of the Swiss company Caran d’Ache’s name who is named after a cartoonist who in turn named himself after the … Continue reading.

Two years ago I was lucky enough to have met the Pencil Talk editor in person. He gave me a set of six Krasin pencils and some other very nice stationery-related items. I thought I wrote a blog post at the time, but when I checked a few days ago I wasn’t able to find it, so am posting about the Krasin pencil now. Some of the other items were also very special, so I might show some of them in the future.

You can find out more about the Krasin pencils on the pencil talk web site.

If you are on a computer please click on the images to see them in full resolution.

References[+]

References
↑1	Their web site has Karandash in the name. You might be familiar with the story of the Swiss company Caran d’Ache’s name who is named after a cartoonist who in turn named himself after the Russian word for pencil.

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Trimline 3594

Leave a Comment / Dixon, Pencils, Uncategorised / 10 December 2021 / 3594, Dixon, Made in USA, pencil, Trimline

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.

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America Standards

8 Comments / Pencils / 29 October 2021 / America Standards, Made in USA, pencil, Tennessee

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.