Pencil Revolution

Loudstyle (ii).

Jeremy from Loud Style has caught the pencil blog even more than the last time we checked in.

My little collection has grown quite a bit in the past six months. Since my last blog post about pencils is the most visited page on this site (after the homepage of course), I decided to write about them again.

My favorite pencils are often the natural, unpainted variety of incense cedar pencils. A nice coat of varnish is fine — completely bare is even better. The details and my opinions of the pencils pictured are below.

Read on about natural pencils such as the Blackfeet Indian, Musgrave, Forest Choice, Mongol and more!

Once again, comments will go unmoderated, and email will be on hold until I return home late Tuesday night from my trip. Apologies for tardiness (again).

[Image and text, L.S. Used with permission.]

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I’m skeptical about the Mongol pencils cited here and also for sale at PencilThings.com. Maybe they are fine pencils, but they are manufactured in the Philippines by a company called Amspec Corporation. Their stamping of “EF” on the pencils and their inclusion of the name “Eberhard Faber” on the box is suspicious. Maybe they have a license to do so–I don’t know.

What may be a bit of irony is that Amspec itself has suffered from Chinese counterfeiters faking their Mongol pencils!

Don -
AMSPEC does indeed have the EF & Mongol Licenses for the Philippenes. They also have Crayola and other licenses for that market. If this pencil is sourced by PencilThings directly via AMSPEC or one of thier authorized distributors then it is likely under proper license agreement. Although I do not know if this license applies to exporting their products to other markets such as the US or not. Mongol and EF remain part of the Newell-Sanford owned marks however they are not used on their US produced pencils any longer.

You are absolutely correct that AMSPEC has been under lots of pressure from Chinese counterfeiters in the home market in the Philippenes.

The new Mongols are pretty sad, actually; I was very disappointed. Paint is bad, lead is bad, wood isn’t incense cedar. The #1 Mongols I have from 26 years ago are a totally different animal (good paint, great lead, definite odor of incense cedar), so I guess I’d better hold onto them.

I just got a box of these Mongols and found them to be identical to the ones my grandfather has been using for at least 20 years(he was a teacher so he has a bunch, gave me a box when i started school) except the erasors arent dried out. That being said they are still not high end pencils but are a major cut above the current Sanfor PaperMate American and Mirado’s IMHO
What i want now is to test out the ones currently made under the papermate brand for the latin american market.

Forgot to mention that I also want a version for the US market really badly because it twould be real easy for me, living half a mile from a CVS, to run and get some that way

Matt — That’s really bizarre. The ones I got are so different from the old ones I have — even the color is different (more orange). Interesting.

Slywy- I dont know what to tell you. There are probably explanations such as bad batches or tropical manufacturing conditions etc… i hope that you find a good batch somewhere because i realy like these. As for color other than the ones that were left out in the sun for long periods of time the new are identical. I wish you luck in finding pencil satisfaction. perhaps you can order from the Sanford Venesuela site, that is if you have enough patience to decipher the spanish. I am disapointed to learn of such discepancy in current production because it means that every order will be a gamble from now on. sigh, oh well one cant have everything…

Are yours incense cedar? My old ones definitely are; the new ones are definitely not, which really can’t be attributed to bad batches — it’s a different wood altogether. The paint is streaked on in places, and the 482 is rough and uneven. The paint color is more orange than the ones I’ve had in a bag in a closet for years (no sunning). (Those are the visible flaws; lead smoothness is probably more subjective.) I don’t really care because they didn’t cost much and I’m pretty happy with the ForestChoice and Musgrave natural finish pencils, and Palominos and Tombows, just surprised that there are such differences.

These are definitely Incense Cedar. No mistaking that sweet smell. Again i dont know what to tell you. That really is bizarre in the extreme. I can here a Groucho sound bite ” how do you account for that?” If, as you say, yours are not incense cedar i am confused and sorry. what the@#$%

To qualify my positivity as to the wood used i’ll say that if Forest Choice pencils are incense cedar then these Mongols are incense cedar. I’m still trying to think of an explaination as to why yours are not. So far i havent anything that even i think is remotely plausible. I truly am stumped. It seems an injustice although i realize that if you got Palominos( i love those) its unimportant. Hope you get a better batch at somepoint because i’ve really been happy with these.

Slwy’s pencils might be fakes. Amspec claims that they import cedar from California, and one of their complaints about the fake Mongols is that they are not made of cedar:

>>Cao was with their company lawyer, Cesar Lopez Jr. and two of their quality control officer in determining that the fake products seized during the raid were not the genuine Mongol products though their label and appearance were almost the same.

He said the genuine Mongol pencil is “sweet-smeeling” as it is made of Cedar wood imported by their company from California U.S.A. while the imitation is odorless as it is made from Palo-China wood.

Hinting that the fake Mongol products came from China though the Manila ports by alleged misdeclaration, Cao believed a company in Manila is importing and distributing the fake products nationwide at the expense of the genuine Mongol products solely manufactured and distributed by his company.

“Of course, it is affecting sales of our products. Our concern is to provide quality products to the people but this is being destroyed by the flooding of fake products in the market, Cao said.

Buyers of Mongol pencils with distinctive taste can easily determine the fake from the genuine by examining their wood. The fake product is white while that of the genuine is reddish.

Lopez said the ferrule (ring that holds the eraser, that is made of tin) of the genuine and fake Mongol pencil are different. The marking of the fake pencil is easy to erase, in contrast with that of the genuine which is difficult to erase.

Also, the eraser of the genuine pencil is colored red orange while the eraser of the fake product is pale red. Genuine Mongol pencil sells at P4.50 each while the fake pencil costs only P1.25.
http://pangasinanstar.blogspot.com/2005_12_18_pangasinanstar_archive.html

“By Dame thats to bad”
-Corcoran(Pinafore)

I admit to being mistaken about the incense cedar — I sharpened just now just to get a whiff and it’s there — it’s very, very faint but there. The wood looks good and isn’t white. The eraser is red orange, definitely. As for the paint job, I took a quick look at the rest of the box, and the rest looked better, at least at a glance. It may be my luck that there’s one in the box that isn’t pretty! I don’t like the lead as well as the older ones, but that’s possibly because I have come to prefer the ForestChoice/Musgraves.

So I’ll willingly eat a half crow. The Mongols aren’t quite what they used to be but aren’t as bad as I thought. :)

Please don’t think I am disparaging PencilThings or Don — he is THE BEST and I’m already planning my next order! :)

Whew…hey try another batch, i’ve gotten batches of Dixons that werent worth anything but then gotten batches that were great.(I say dixons because they took over the #1 pencil slot according to their site) enjoy your next order regardless and keep penciling. Viva La Revolution

P.S. I just looked at the unsharpened old Mongols I have, and they’re Faber Castell — must be pre Eberhard Faber. (I couldn’t tell from the specimen in use because it’s down to a couple of inches. :))

I think its post Eberhard Faber. didnt FaberCastell buy back the estranged family member back in the mid sixties or something? maybe 70’s? I know Blackwings were made with both monicers for awhile but were first under the EberhardFaber one so it would make sense if the same thing were true of Mongols. Didnt Sanford get the trade mark by gobbleing up FaberCastellUSA in the mid 90’s? This stuff is in my brain but I’m not positive about it. Help from a pencilexpert would be apreciated for verification.

Hi,

I recently bought some Mongol Pencils, The markings say EF Eberhard Faber MONGOL 482 2. The ferrule is greenish black colored (No gold band in center). It came in a blue box showing #10080 (model number?). It is stated as “made from subtained vield wood, with Pencil Makers Association (PMA) on the box. Does anyone know if these are fake pencils????

what is the black thing in the mongol pencil made of? just making sure. i love mongols before..probably not in the present

A few observations from PencilThings to add to this thread about our new Mongol pencils.

(1) Amspec’s intention is to duplicate exactly the Mongol pencils of old - in barrel color, ferrule colors, eraser color, leads, wood, imprint, packaging, and the quality of each of those items. Their license requires them to do so. Their license does not require them to stamp the Paper Mate name and logo on the barrel, and they do not. They also can vary the packaging details to include promotion information for their other products.

(2) The difficulty of obtaining an “exact” match, however, is that Mongol pencil specifications have varied significantly over time, as Mongol pencil collectors well know! So, if one has an “original” Mongol on hand, it is likely to vary in several observable ways from our new Mongol pencils.

(3) Our first, small, pre-contract shipment was batch-inspected. Among those pencils we found one severely warped pencil, and a handful with paint smears. There may be more imperfect pencils lurking about, but we have few pencils remaining from the first small shipment. Amspec has a standing order for us to overnight FedEx to them for inspection an example pencil from any batch we find unsatisfactory, and we’ll destroy the rest. They and we are serious about quality!

(4) Every Mongol pencil we now import — each one — is individually inspected, packaged and stored in a temperature & humidity controlled room until our carrier (presently FedEx) picks them up. This is a unique 100% quality control procedure. It was implemented for Mongol pencils exported to PencilThings for North American sales and distribution. The policy was reconfirmed early on by Amspec’s President in a personal phone call to me.

(5) To be commercially realistic, however, one must take into account the fact that Mongol pencils are not manufactured to compete with more expensive brands, particularly in lacquer finish and imprint. The market for Mongol pencils remains schools and offices.

Now, a sneak preview of a few of Mongol pencil things to come!

A. We have contracted with Mongol to make an unlacquered natural wood hexagonal Mongol #2 HB. Later we’ll add #1 and #3 hardnesses. Look for the natural wood #2 HB in late August.

B. In September or October we’ll also begin selling a regular size triangular barrel Mongol. We intend to start with yellow #2 HB — that’s not firm, yet — and thereafter add natural wood and all three hardnesses.

C. Here’s a strange twist. No one stocks replacement erasers for pencils, of course. But months ago, we figured out a way to have a removable eraser in our Mongols, so that offering replacement erasers can become an option in our store. Try pulling out an eraser from one of the Mongol pencils you’ve purchased from PencilThings.com. Reinsert it into the ferrule and vigorously erase a couple of lines of words. You’ll get the idea.

I am not sure what the ferule is made of. It’s kind of dark greenish on the outside and inside (after u remove) the earser (which comes of rather easily. There is no mentioned of the country of origin either.

Does anyone know if these Mongols are fake?
The markings say EF Eberhard Faber MONGOL 482 2. The ferrule is greenish black colored (No gold band in center). It came in a blue box showing #10080 (model number?). It is stated as “made from subtained vield wood”, with Pencil Makers Association (PMA) on the box. Does anyone know if these are fake pencils????

Well, if they write they are not”fake” pencils but they may be counterfiet. Either that or you have an incredibly old batch from before the Gold band was instated (pre 1900) which seems unlikely. I’d Check out Pencilpages picture gallery of Mongols which displays quite a few of the variations. Are you sure it doesnt say “sustained yield wood”? cause that would make alot more sense. Hope this helps a little.

Hi,

I am confused as this page says that the fake printing comes off easily, i tried to erase the print on my pencils, but it doesnt come off easily. The print on the back of the blue box says “MADE FROM SUBSTAINED VIELD WOOD” and not “YIELD WOOD” and has the PMA certified stamp.Only thing is that the eraser breaks rather easily.

You sure that the bottom of the Y didnt wear off. I’ve seen pencils made from Sustained Yield Wood. Meaning that it was grown from a managed forest and the wood renewed,they planted more trees. Vield just doesnt make sense or mean anything. I dont even think its an English word.I can see your confusion

The box says “VIELD WOOD”. Its either a printing error or the manufacturers can’t spell.

OK i’m stumped.

Just looking for some pencils for my grand/child starting the new school year and found the one Mongol pencil #482 that I have been using for some time and it does have the cedar aroma. I wish I had found this site last week before buying several boxex of a different brand for her.Maybe I can return these and find the Mongol.Thanks

Hi Matt,

You mentioned about pre 1900 mongols with no gold band. Do you know of any sites I could go and view a photo of such pencils? I tried to google…but couldn’t find any such examples

What? Now i am stumped cause thats where i got my speal(google search) maybe i’m wrong or the site went down. One way to tell if your pencils are older is if the erasers are rock hard and dry. are yours? Mine were(the old ones) and they were only about 4 years old at the time.

Hi Matt,

The erasers are quite dry and breaks off easily. I searched “no gold band mongol pencils” on google but results only showed what i had written here. Any suggested search terms?

Hmm. Try pre gold band Mongols or vintage mongols kohinor or the like I cant remember what i used to search, and my computer doesnt have it in the recent searches.

All in all they sound counterfiet or older than dirt. I saw some Mongols today at my stationers with gold on the outsides with a back band. But these were EF’s and were a LIMITED EDITION. Does anyone know wether the gold can wear off?

Hi,

Sounds like mine are fake :(… I searched “pre gold band mongols” on google but didn’t see any references for 1900s mongols :(

Hi Matt,

Can i email you the photos of the Mongol pencil for you to take a look? What’s your email?

Pat

stratplayer57@yahoo.com

Wow, I remember using and LOVING Mongol pencils as a little girl. I recently had to buy some pencils and walked out of so many stores because I couldn’t find MONGOL! Now I bumped into this site, and I think I’ll never get the quality I had back in the 4th grade!
Sad Grad Student in NY

i just bought a dozen #1’s and 2’s from pencilthings.com,and i have to say…these feel like the real deal!…..i am a commercial artist,and i used mongol #2’s for like 25 years and these seem to be very close….at any rate, they are FAR superior to those crappy sanford mirados!!!…brian postman…

I have been searching the internet for any info on some pencils my father gave me quite some time ago. They are “EF Eberhard Faber Mongol” colour pencils with the colour name and number imprinted in silver. There are no erasers but instead are capped silver. I have about 40 different colours and they appear to maybe be water colours.
I am an artist and would seriously like to know what they are, i.e. what quality… Any idess? Thank you

Heyy,
Me and my best friend is sooo OBSESED about pencils and we started to collect them last year at our school and save special ones with different brands. So far me and my friend have collected about 600-1000 each and continue each day at our school. We have seen brands that we have never heard of and cant wait to find more. I have googled pencil collections and cant not find other brands so we can see how many brands there are out there. Do you no any brands that you can send me??? So far for diffrent brands we have together 40 diffrent kinds. If you do no any could you please send them to me please and thank you so much for takeing the time to let me write this to you it has been a plesure.

Love,
alie

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