This is the first post about what we will call “Revolutionary Reading,” i.e., books that have some bearing on pencils and the Revolution. All Revolutions need their pamphlets, chapbooks and other volumes, even if such poetry or prose is not necessarily akin to some sort of doctrine.

It is only appropriate that the first such post be on Professor Henry Petroski’s The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance. This book is widely available in trade paperback, and the current edition is actually a very well-designed book itself, with a durable cover with very nice graphics. The height is actually longer relavtive to the width than more books, and this gives it a pleasing grip and span.

The Pencil is a book about engineering told through the sustained example of the pencil. What you get is the story of the pencil, from its origins in England in the sixteenth century to the pencil industry of the late twentieth century and everything in between. Professor Petroski covers graphite discoveries, the production of pencil “leads,” wood, erasers — and there is even an entire chapter devoted to my personal gadget, the pencil sharpener.

The text is extremely engaging, even though we non-engineers might be tempted to be wary of reading a book about engineering. In my own field (philosophy), I can certainly spot a boring book. But take my word for it: this is an exciting book for anyone who uses, likes or admires pencils. Far from being boring, it reads like an epic novel, with the protagonist and hero being the pencil, with other heroes that help the pencil along the way.

While it seems that pencils are simple objects at first glance, Professor Petroski shows that they are anything but simple, as he details the technological advances and engineering geniuses who have brought us our wooden warrior. Do you know why, for instance, Incense Cedar is the preferred wood for making quality pencils? Do you know what people used for erasers prior to rubber ones? Or just how long it took for sharpeners (as we know them) to appear on the scene? If you give The Pencil a good read, you will know all this and more.

Certainly, having some understanding of what forces, minds and inventions have brought us pencils affords us a much greater appreciation for the humble tool that many us take for granted. If you are intersted in learning more about our graphite champion and/or in reading an enlightening and entertaining book, then The Pencil is for you.

[Photos, J.G.]

David sent us a great article about carpenter pencils:

Comrades, it seems to me that the Revolution has been a little silent on an important front, namely carpenters pencils, which even today still quietly carry out their traditional function in the workplace. I thought that these photographs and a few words might inspire some Revolutionary activity around carpenters pencils. As an engineer, I am perhaps the black sheep of my wood-working family –- son of a boat-builder, nephew of a wood-turner, brother of a carpenter, etc. Architects, engineers, inventors and the like have increasingly turned away from graphite, conducting their business on computer screens, but when it comes to actually making their designs a physical reality, the pencil still plays its important role. Whether you can see the marks or not, there’s every chance that your house and furniture, some of your most important possessions, were marked with pencils by the people who made them.

The photograph above is of a couple of my father’s old pencils; they’re at least 30 years old. Sharpening is of the “rough and ready” kind, usually done with a chisel. You can tell that my dad’s an old school type of craftsman: don’t throw your pencil away until its far too short to actually hold; the saw is fine Philadelphian steel engraved that its properties “…can not be Excelled,” and the ruler is in inches. He works in inches, his children work in millimeters but know inches.  His grandchildren don’t even know what an inch is. For those of you not familiar with the ways of the wood, the “vee” mark drawn against the pencil line indicates which side of the line you should cut with the saw, to leave the wood the correct length.

Modern carpenters pencils here in New Zealand seem to come in grades hard, medium and soft, and cost about US$1 retail for a name brand like these Rexell’s, and US 80 cents for a “no-name generic” pencil with absolutely no markings whatsoever. But “trade” and “volume” discounts could easily be in the 50 – 90% range. They have a rectangular core, which allows sharp or wide lines to always be drawn by simply turning the pencil through 90 degrees. Of course the rectangular body is to stop your pencil rolling or blowing away when you put it down. So that’s my carpenter pencil primer. Over to you!

[Text and images, D.P.  Used with permission.]

I’ve searched and searched and searched, but I can’t find information on whether Mr. Poe ever used pencils to fashion his tales of the macabre. (If anyone has any, we’d appreciate it!) It really looks like he was an ink man. So I know; this post has little to do with pencils, then. But Mr. Poe is one of the patron writers of my hometown, so much so that they named their football team after his most famous poem. And I just plain like him.

But even if wishing Mr. Poe a Happy Birthday is not really “pencil related,” it can’t hurt to stop and think about the idea that all that separated him from the stories in his brain and posthumous fame was paper and something to write with. Pencil collectors, fanatics and casual users always have these on hand, since pencils usually come by the dozen or so. What if Mr. Poe had no ink or quill?

Besides, who among us has not read Poe with a Black Warrior of Dixon Black in hand, or written a scary story or grizzly poem without fancying her or his self to be in cahoots with the Master of Dark Writing in English?

For more information about Mr. Poe, visit the website of the famous (or infamous, lol) E. A. Poe Society of Baltimore. Great editions of Poe’s work can be found by the Library of America series, and you can get them at a very good price (comparable to less authoritative editions with typos, etc.) on Amazon or Overstock. They are based on the authoritative (but out of print) Harvard University edition. The Library of America also makes a great collection and analysis of Poe’s poetry in their American Poets Project, and the Everyman Library’s Pocket Poets edition is also excellent.

And finally, for a bit of fun, check out the adventures of Li’l Edgar (requires Flash) at Accoutrements, makers of the Poe action figure, Li’l Edgar figure and the Poe bobble head.

[Image, Joe Kubert. Found here.]

Since this is the year in which the Faber-Castell Castell 9000 turns 100 years old, it’s only fitting that we end the first calendar year of the Revolution with a piece about this great green pencil. This piece is from pencil Comrade Michael Leddy.

Serious pencils indeed.

My love of “supplies” — pencils, pens, notebooks — goes back to Saturday morning trips with my father and brother to Alan’s Stationers in Brooklyn. My dad was (and is) a meticulous artist, and his affection for tools and materials was something I picked up on very early. I remember my own early “supplies” very well — a series of miniature Carter’s dip pens, which came packaged with miniature bottles of ink; a Scripto mechanical pencil; dozens of Venus coloring pencils; and a gray “T-Ball Jotter” (I never thought of it as a Parker) with thick, fragrant blue ink.

As I’ve gotten older, the fascination of “supplies” has fused with my deep affection for the artifacts of what I like to call “the dowdy world” — modern American life before it was refigured (or disfigured) by certain forms of technology. My affection for supplies has become, of necessity, an affection for what is largely past. As I’m writing these words, I’m looking at a Mongol ad from the 1950s, framed on the wall to my right:

Your Best Buy’s
MONGOL
2,162 words
for
one cent

In the dowdy world, people took their pencils seriously.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s I found some wonderful traces of the dowdy world in Warner’s, an old-line office-supply store in downstate Illinois. Warner’s has long since moved to an emphasis on office-furniture and “gifts,” a necessary choice for economic survival. But back then, the store featured an entire aisle of typewriter ribbons, most of them for machines already extinct. The ribbons had long since dried out, as I discovered after buying a supply for my Olympia manual. But other stuff was still as good as new, more or less — Listo pencil leads, gummed airmail labels, card pockets for library books. O Warner’s!

My ultimate Warner’s find (in 1991) was a cache of A.W. Faber Castell 9000 pencils. I came away with two-dozen pencils in tins, and a few loose pencils in a third tin. I’ve sharpened and used up a few of the loose ones over the years (down to the bittersweet end, with a pencil extender), but the dozens remain untouched. These are serious pencils indeed.

Consider the box, which suggests the sort of presentation more frequently associated with fine cigars. (The box came along for free with the pencils.) I like to imagine an arrangement of these boxes, perhaps in a store window, eye candy for the pencil connoisseur.

The pencils are packed twelve to a tin, each tin complete with a seal. (I’ve seen photographs of Vladimir Nabokov at work with this kind of tin at his side.) The lead is dark, rich, smooth. The wood, so far as I can tell, is red cedar. Yes, red cedar. Simply sharpening one of these pencils is a delight. The shavings are smooth and papery. The fragrance brings back dim recollections of closets and clothes chests. No other pencils I’ve used have smelled like these.

And now for the most remarkable feature of these pencils. Their history is inscribed, a bit blurrily, on their sides:

LEADS IMPORTED FROM
AMERICAN ZONE GERMANY

Which is to say that these Castell 9000s were made between 1945 and 1949, when post-war Germany was divided into four Allied sectors. And these Castell 9000s were still sitting on a shelf in 1991 (and selling for 1991 prices too, about seventy cents a pencil, I think). I said something in the store — something vaguely articulate, like “Wow! These are really old!” “They never sold,” was the plainspoken American-gothic reply. And now here I am in 2005, vaguely articulate once again.

Michael Leddy teaches college English and has published widely as a poet and critic. He blogs at Orange Crate Art. Many thanks to our hard-working Comrade!

There are two other great articles about the Castell 9000 on the web for your reading pleasure. Faber-Castell has a great article in English on the German site (here), and there is a very very fine piece at Paper and Pencil (here) on our green Comrade.

[Images and text, M.L. Used with kind permission.]

The popular myth is that NASA spent millions of dollars on developing a pen that would write in outer space, while the Russian Cosmonauts simply used pencils like the Russian and American spacemen used before the introduction of the Space Pen to Apollo VII in 1968. As is now widely known, this is not true. Paul Fisher produced the Space Pen with millions of his own dollars. Nevertheless, it does speak volumes about Americans that we would invent a special pen for space, rather than using pencils — whether it is an example of our ingenuity, wastefulness, inventiveness, etc.

The joke is that the Soviets used regular pencils and saved their comrades millions, so we have what is one of the funniest dang geek gift items you’re likely to find: The Russian Space Pen.

This is from NASA’s site:

“Fisher developed his space pen with no NASA funding. The company reportedly invested about $1 [I’ve read that it was $2 million] million of its own funds in the effort then patented its product and cornered the market as a result. Fisher offered the pens to NASA in 1965, but, because of the earlier controversy, the agency was hesitant in its approach. In 1967, after rigorous tests, NASA managers agreed to equip the Apollo astronauts with these pens. Media reports indicate that approximately 400 pens were purchased from Fisher at $6 per unit for Project Apollo. The Soviet Union also purchased 100 of the Fisher pens, and 1,000 ink cartridges, in February 1969, for use on its Soyuz space flights. Previously, its cosmonauts had been using grease pencils to write in orbit.”

Stay tuned next week for the first pseudo-heretical (some would say) and post-hypocritical act of writing about a pen on Pencil Revolution: the Fisher Space Pen.

[Image, JustWrite.com.au. Thanks to Lindsay for the link!]

We received word from pencil Hero Doug Martin that the Classifieds on the Pencil Pages are up and spam-free:

“I would like to let your visitors know that I have taken measures to reduce the spam entries at The Pencil Pages classifieds. Over the past several months the pages were hit with large postings that crowded out the legitimate posts, and a number of my visitors have complained. As a result, some people may have stopped using them. The spammers may hit again, but I now have the ability to tweak my filters and fight back. Also, some may have noticed that The Pencil Pages haven’t changed very much in a long time. Updates are in the works…..”

If, for some mysterious reason, you haven’t been to Doug’s Pencil Pages, you owe it to yourself to check it out. It is — by far — the most comprehensive pencil site on the internet, and one of the oldest (if not the oldest). The classifieds are a great place to find rare or antique pencils, and to share yours, too. Check out the Classifieds here.

“Scientists at The University of Manchester have discovered a new way to test Einstein’s theory of relativity using the ‘lead’ of a pencil…Until now it was only possible to test the theory by building expensive machinery or by studying stars in distant galaxies, but a team of British, Russian and Dutch scientists has now proven it can be done in the lab using an ultra-thin material called Graphene.

The group, led by Professor Andre Geim of the School of Physics and Astronomy, discovered the one atom thick material last year. Graphene is created by extracting one atom thick slivers of graphite via a process similar to that of tracing with a pencil.”

Read on.

(Thanks to my very good friend Bowman for the link!)

In an article from 2003 entitled “No more pencils in high-tech world? Think again,” John Schmid of the International Herald Tribune writes about our favorite tool:

“The world’s oldest word-processing and graphics system has no memory and no spell checker. It needs constant maintenance and cannot be upgraded; it could not be more analog and less compatible.

And folks keep using it.

For over four centuries, the classic wooden pencil has defied obsolescence — a feat that generations of laptops and palm devices cannot match. Even in the aftermath of the great technology bust, worldwide output of basic black-lead pencils has continued to grow and now reaches an estimated 15 billion a year.

‘Twenty years ago, I really worried about what will happen with the wood-cased pencil,’ said Count Anton-Wolfgang von Faber-Castell, the chief executive of Faber-Castell, the world’s biggest and oldest maker of pencils.

‘Yet I still believe in handheld writing,” said the count, the scion of an aristocratic family that has run the closely held Bavarian company since 1761. “If I had listened to my advisers 20 years ago, who talked back then about computer-aided writing and whatever else, I would be bankrupt’….

….In terms of raw numbers, the pencil is mightier than the PC, whose estimated 140 million in sales last year is dwarfed by pencils’ billion. Production of black-lead pencils across Europe rose 12 percent in 2001 from 2000, according to the most recent figures from the European Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association. In developing countries, demand has grown even faster, Meller said.

And in the $220 million United States market for black-lead pencils, sales have held steady or risen, according to the A.C. Nielsen agency. A torrent of cheap, unbranded Chinese imports, which have tripled since 1996 to $30 million last year, led to anti-dumping duties against Chinese companies starting in the mid-’90s.”

It is a very well-written article which is definitely worth reading, especially considering that the Faber-Castell 9000 turns 100 years old this year — an even which will surely not go unnoticed at Pencil Revolution. We’re at work on a story about this centenary milestone for the near future! Read the rest of the article at the IHT archive.

[Image, Count Anton-Wolfgang von Faber-Castell, CEO of Faber-Castell, copyright, F-C.]

With the recent discussions about the environment and wood, it seems very appropriate to mention some great recent posts by our good friend Woodchuck on why Incense-Cedar is such an excellent wood for pencils:

“Incense-cedar originally began to be used as a substitute wood for Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) which was the premier wood for US produced pencils and some European pencils dating from the mid 1800s through the early 20th century. It is commonly thought that the main purpose for the shift to Incense-cedar was due to dwindling supply of Eastern Red Cedar and there is some relevance here, but primarily from a comparative economic standpoint only. ERC is still widely used for commercial purposes today for products which most benefit from the technical characteristics contained in the natural cedar oil extractives of this species. Products such as closet lining, shoe trees, coat hangers, storage chests and natural oil extractives used in the essential oils industry for perfume and other cosmetic and scent purposes.
So what is the full story for the transition to Incense-cedar?” (Read on to find out!)

“Unlike species that occur in groves, Incense-cedar can be found scattered among Douglas-fir, Jeffrey Pine, ponderosa pine and other species that dominate the mixed-conifer forest. Within the state of California, Incense-cedar generally comprises about 5% of the trees in a stand while just 1.5% in it’s southern Oregon growing range. Despite it’s popularity in a range of uses, Incense cedar has never become a mono-cultural plantation species as with other commercial western softwoods. As a prolific seed-cone producer it readily regenerates and proliferates throughout it’s growing range aggressively repopulating any available site on the forest floor. It’s germination and survival rate are excellent relative to other softwoods….there is more Incense-cedar growing in California forests today than at any time during the past 50 to 70 years based upon data from the US Forest Service mandated Forest Inventory and Analysis Project.” (Read on!)

[Excerpts, Woodchuck at Timberlines. Image, Oregon State University.]

I love pencils. I give them to most of my friends, family, colleagues and really just anyone I like at all. Some people don’t use them, citing imperfections of pencils in general, such as the fact that they can be erased, that they need to be sharpened, that they don’t fit in your pocket, etc. These are certainly legitimate concerns. There are times when I use ink instead of pencil, for a few things. I know, graphite is a higher calling, but what can you do?

While pencils are a gift from the universe, there are some things that I’d personally like to see done with pencils in general, specific kinds of pencils and certain manufacturers. I have a feeling that I’m not the only one, so I’d ask that the People share here what they’d like to have changed about or added to the pencil world.

Visit the home of the Big Black Pencil for one of the coolest-designed websites around.

“Big black pencils are as much a part of Leo Burnett as that ever-present bowl of crisp apples. Why? Because Leo believed big ideas come out of big pencils.”

I sat here for a half hour playing with the pencil and the links. Who is Leo Burnett? Check out the Wikipedia article about him:

“Leo Burnett (October 21, 1891 - June 7, 1971) was an advertising executive famous for creating such icons as the Jolly Green Giant, the Marlboro Man, the Pillsbury Doughboy and Tony the Tiger.”

[Thanks for the link, Armand!]

Have a terrific weekend! Hopefully, we’ll be able to review the new Dixon Tri-Conderoga next week sometime.

Fans of Henry Petroski’s The Pencil most likely the remember the chapter on pencil sharpeners and how we can now use tiny metal doo-dads, hand-cranked gadgets and electrical appliances to sharpen our pencils. There is a great page the the Early Office Museum with some excellent photos of antique pencil sharpeners and on the history of the mechanical pencil sharpener:

Antique mechanical pencil sharpeners can be divided into three categories based on the cutting medium or mechanism. Some machines rely on abrasive media such as sandpaper or a steel file. Other machines use a steel milling cutter with multiple raised cutting edges. Yet other machines use from one to a dozen or more blades. A few used two of these methods. For example, the 1900 Challenge pencil sharpener simultaneously used a blade to cut the wood and sandpaper to sharpen the lead.

Be sure to click the links at the top for even more information from this treasure trove of sharpener lore. And the Museum Store even has some vintage sharpeners for sale!

This link was sent to us by Nuno in Estoril, Portugal. View some of Nuno’s pencil photos here. Muito obrigado, Nuno!

[Image, Early Office Museum.]

Talking with a new gent in my department last week, the topic of pencils came up. Turns out that he loved Mirado Black Warriors as a student but hadn’t used them in years. He was taking notes with an Eberhard Faber American Naturals pencil, which is of course no longer produced but is the PaperMate American Natural now. We were talking about the demise of certain beloved pencil models, and I gave him a PaperMate Mirado Black Warrior, shiny and new, from my pencil cup. His reaction was, “What is this thing?” because the PaperMate hearts just ruined his favorite pencil. I saw him a week later and asked if he had sharpened the Black Warrior I had given him yet, and he said he in fact hadn’t. I don’t think he really liked it anymore with the hearts on it.

Woodchuck has a great post at Timberlines about the acquisitions of Newell Rubbermade of several brands of writing instruments and art supplies in recent decades. At first, I was glad that Newell bought some brands from Gillette (who at the time tested on animals) and decided to sell them under Sanford (who does not test on animals). If you’re concerned about animal testing, this must have been good news to you, too.

There have been some nice improvements. The PaperMate Flair has a better tip, and the classic Write Bros. pens are clear, come with grip options and have much better ink and more colors now. Prismacolor has been revamped a bit, and Parker makes gel refills now — not to mention the veritable revolution in the Sharpie line recently.

But there are some downsides that weigh heavily against the positives. Gone are Mongols (at least in the US), the Blackwing 602, and some nice pencil models were relegated to being the budget models sold under the PaperMate brand, like the poor American Natural.

But what I find more pervasively strange than the ups and downs of the Newellization of some of my favorite pencil gear, is just the weirdness of the changes. My beloved Pink Pearl says “PaperMate” on it and is sold with children’s erasers called Foohy. The Mirado pencils I personally love have the same name on them as pens that sell for $0.50 for a pack of ten at some stores, and the PaperMate logo itself has been changed (though I do really like the new lettering). The (formerly) Eberhard Faber Design pencils that I learned to draw with long ago have no cap on them anymore. As my colleague shows, small things like the addition of vertical hearts can cause an aversion to a beloved writing instrument like the Black Warrior.

It just goes to show how we get attached to our tools and that small changes like the addition of hearts or a different name on an eraser can jolt the way we look at them, at times to the point where we look for something different.

The Revolution is not passing judgment on the Newellization of some brands. If nothing else, being acquired by a large company might be good for some products, which might become easier to get. I’ve noticed that I can find Mirado Classic pencils any and every where now, which is not something I could always claim. But we’ll have to see what happens to the quality of the pencils and pencil gear.

This was sent it this week from Dave in Virginia:

“Greetings — My Wife was cleaning around a homemade desk that was left in a home we recently purchased and found a box of pencils. The pencils were in pristine condition and never used. We thought it was pretty cool and decided to contact Faber-Castell. They responded quickly:

You have found a very old pencil box. It dates back to about 1860 and was produced by A.W.Faber in Stein near Nuremberg. The combination of pencils in different degrees was a very successful idea of Lothar von Faber, the owner and manager of the factory.

Sincerely

Renate Hilsenbeck, Faber-Castell, Archives

I hope that those who enjoy pencils, enjoy this brief post. Remember, always dig deep in ‘empty’ drawers, you never know what will turn up.

-Dave — Richmond,VA”

Thanks are due to Dave, and we certainly encourage The People to send us your stories and pictures. We cannot guarantee that we can publish everything, but we can try.

[Photo copyright Dave N. 2005. Used with permission.]

“Those of us in the pencil industry are all quite proud of the origins and traditions of our companies. Many of us like to tell our historical tale of product innovation and organizational development. A number of us even claim to have produced the world’s ‘___est’ pencil. Pick your adjective.”

(Read on.)

These are some vintage pencil ads that Don P. sent us as a “blog-warming” gift last week. He tells me that he inherited them from his grandfather, along with a love of office supplies. Thanks, Don, for the images and the blog warm wishes.