Kevin Kelly famously writes about his favorite pencil, the Derwent 3B:
“A pencil can generate megabytes of text, needs no batteries, and has no user manual. It is comfortable to hold, it smells good, and it is relaxing to turn around in your hand as you try to think of the right words. Pencils don’t need ink; all they need is a sharpener. They are warm and friendly; they have souls.”
Thanks, Kevin!
[See Why pencils? (i).]
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.]
This is both very good and very interesting news from Japan:
“Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) and Tombow Pencil recently announced that they have jointly developed mechanical pencil ‘leads’ recycled from generator brushes used in TEPCO’s thermal power plants. Generator brushes are made from highly pure graphite (over 97 percent), and are crushed to form graphite particles. Generator brushes transmit electricity to rotating shafts and must be replaced on a regular basis because they get worn out from friction with the rotating shafts. Discarded brushes used to be disposed of as industrial waste in landfill.Having examined the cost and effectiveness of recycling generator brushes, TEPCO decided to recycle the brushes into mechanical pencil leads in collaboration with Tombow. TEPCO estimates that about 300kg of used brushes are replaced in its thermal plants annually. Recycling all these brushes could produce 24 million refill leads (1.5 million packages of 16 leads each). Tombow plans to put the recycled leads on the market during 2005.”
See article here. Thanks for the link, Armand and Mari!
[Image Treehugger.]
There were a number of accusations levied against the Revolution last week, and since a few hundred people read them before we were able to take them down, I suppose it’s appropriate to address them here, in a non-belligerent spirit, since we are a peaceful Revolution.
First, no, this site was not created as a joke, and many hours a week do not go into it as a joke. If some folks do not like pencils and prefer pens or computers, they are perfectly free not to be a part of our community.
It was suggested last week that we are promoting the killing of the planet’s trees through promoting the use of pencils. This is completely false. None of the manufacturers that we recommend go out and cut down trees for pencils that are not grown for that purpose and are not replaced. This is akin to claiming that meat comes from cows shot down in the forest. The fact is that some companies (like Faber-Castell and Staedtler) grow their own wood for their pencils on land where there were no trees before. Our friends at Cal Cedar are the largest pencil slat manufacturer in the world, and one would be hard-pressed to find a more responsible grower. Plainly, a pencil company that did not replenish its supply of wood would be committing corporate suicide. What some manufacturers did in the 19th and early 20th centuries is irrelevant.
No, Thoreau would not roll over in his grave because we promote the killing of the planet. Most Thoreau fans are aware of his innovations in pencil manufacturing and the fact that his family’s money came from making pencils and superior graphite. He never loved pencils but viewed them at best as tools, and usually as a way to make money for his father’s company. He didn’t sit around thinking about how great pencils are, so we could not “justify” the deforestation of the planet by how Thoreau felt about pencils. Besides, Thoreau never ventured far enough from Concord to actually see any wood that was made into pencils anyway. He never went to the South to see Red Cedar or to the West to see Incense Cedar (which wasn’t being used yet). And his ethic of simplicity would surely not shun pencils and probably not even blogs and gel pens.
No, we will not be promoting products from the likes of Proctor and Gamble, etc. First, they don’t make pencils. Second, we do not promote products from any company that engages in animal testing. California Republic doesn’t. Dixon doesn’t. Sanford doesn’t. The Germans don’t. Promoting pencils from companies that test on animals (parent companies, too) is not an issue now that Gillette no longer owns PaperMate and Parker anyway. Even Bic has a moratorium that has been in place for several years.
Our editor (me) was called a “corporate goon” and “a sad, sad corporate sellout.” While we very happily promote products we like and very gladly accept samples to review, we do not take money for our reviews. Period. This site is run out of my own pocket and never from any company. We would be very foolish indeed to take money from the manufacturers of what we review if we coupled this with the expectation that anyone trust what we say. Yes, we promote some pencils like the Palomino moderately aggressively, but that is soley because it is such a great pencil, made by great people, that more pencil lovers should try. We are spreading the word, not lining our pockets. Name-calling is just mean. If I am a sell-out because I freely promote pencils that lots of people think are great and not well-known enough, then sell-out I am.
A thousand apologies if we offend whoever anonymously posted the original list of reasons why Pencil Revolution is “stupid”; that is not our intention. However, the record must be set straight, and every effort has been made to be straight forward and not vindictive. We have no intention of being contentious.
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.
Johnny writes about childhood pencils in MungBeing magazine:
“When I first arrived at Kindergarten, we all had little boxes that we put onto the top shelf of our cubbies, standing on five-year-old tiptoes. In my little blue box that day was a Faber-Castell GOLIATH - a thick, red pencil with soft-feeling lead and a nice pink eraser on the end. Of all the goodies in my blue box - scissors, paste, a ruler, etc. - I was most excited about my big pencil. There were boxes and boxes of markers and wax crayons at the pre-school and even more at home that my parents provided for my brothers and I.. But one pencil, only one. And so grown-up looking! I had just turned five and suddenly felt immensely important that I had been given a single pencil that would allow me to do so much. My introduction to pencils was thus to a quality German pencil, and the rest of my childhood pencilship was tainted by this….
….But I think that what people love about pencils is not necessarily something akin to childhood innocence. I don’t think it’s possible to recover the naivety of the sandbox, nor is it desirable to do so. The responsibility that comes with knowing what we know that we did not know as children - whether we know it from education or worldly experience - is not something that we can shirk off just by using pencils or any other magical tools. The reason pencils resonate with adults is that they remind us of the sense of wonder that we had as children. Only, as adults, this wonder is armed with some degree of practical wisdom in that pencils put us into a position of wonder that is coupled with power and freedom. We look at the world differently when we remember being kids, and we have the freedom to explore our world that we might not have had as school children with homework and parents and curfews. Most importantly, we have the power through what we already know to look in the right places for what we still wonder about as adults.”
Read the rest of the article here.
[Image, J.G.]
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.
If I may wax personal, I want to admit being more than a little upset to learn that a certain pencil I previously enjoyed is made of rainforest wood, not Incense Cedar. I know, this should make no difference. It was hard to sharpen and had no smell before I knew what it was made of, too, and I ignored it. I think I’m upset that it’s maker flaunts it as a great quality pencil (and charges a lot for it) but then won’t pony up and make it out of cedar. There are probably even reasons for this, like a $3 a pencil price tag result, etc. I won’t pretend that I know much about wood or about what works best for what.
But it’s weird that something so small can shake my faith in a pencil. It’s like when you have a pencil you love but then realize that it’s core smears all over or that you have a near-perfect pencil that comes with a terrible eraser that ruins the whole affair. Or, worse, that you have a pencil you love above all others but cannot obtain anywhere.
Is there some implicit search for the perfect pencil, or do we just get jolted when we learn that our favorites could use some evolving? Or do we delude ourselves into thinking we’ve already perched on the perfect pencil and then find out that there’s a glaring design flaw, upon which we get shaken up again?
Forbes ranked the “20 Most Important Tools” recently, and the pencil scored #4!
“Writing may be one of the most important discoveries in human history. But it was easy-to-use writing implements–including the pencil, pen and brush–that made mass education and literacy possible. Cheap, reliable and convenient, the pencil represents these tools at their best. And because the sword came in at No. 8 on our list (more about the sword), we can now say for sure that the pen is mightier than the sword…
….In 1662, the first mass-produced pencils were made in Nuremberg, Germany, and in 1795, a French Chemist named Nicolas Conté invented a technique to make pencil leads out of powdered graphite and clay. In 1770, Edward Naime, an English engineer, created and began selling the first rubber erasers. The practice of painting pencils yellow began in the 1890s. Pencil manufacturers wanted to advertise that they were using high-quality Chinese graphite, so they painted them a color associated with Chinese royalty. Today, 75% of the pencils sold in the U.S. are still painted yellow. “
Thanks for the link, Doug!
[Image Dave Klug.]
If I ever step into ink, I usually like to use something a little seasonal, especially in the autumn. Pilot makes a new burgundy G2 now, and the brown Le Pen is an equally great color — sepia with a purple-wine tinge.
But Ashley writes in with a very good question: What are we pencil folk to do when we are bored with graphite grey?
“I love the Pencil Revolution! I am still happily scribbling away with my awesome Cretacolor Monolith woodless graphite pencils, but I have a new urge to write in color. Can someone at the Revolution suggest any colored pencils that are suitable to write with? I have a lovely Stabilo aquarelleo in blue. This has a thick waxy core and is meant for glass, plastic, etc. I enjoy writing with it because it is smooth and fluid, but the thickness has two problems if you just want to writ. It makes it hard to get a nice point on it, and needs too frequent sharpening to keep any point. That said, I would appreciate any new reviews or ideas about colored pencils specifically for writing. Thanks! Vive la Revolution!”
I have some All-Stabilos that are water-soluble china markers, but Ashely’s right. They are not good for writing on paper unless you want to sharpen an already dull point every other line. And trying to write with an artist-type colored pencil will only waste a nice tool.
Some companies used to make indelible pencils in different colors — non-erasable pencils that contained aniline dyes in different hues. But, with the advent of portable pens that don’t make a mess in one’s pocket, those went the way of the manual typewriter. The only ones I can find for sale in the United States are the NoBlot ink pencils, “A Bottle of Ink in a Pencil.” (We’d greatly appreciate info about any others!)
Prismacolor makes Verithins: colored pencils with a very fine core. However, the lead is the same soft formula (?) as the Primacolor colored pencils, so they will probably dull extremely quickly.
Another item to try might be something in the new line of Erasable Checking pencils that Dixon has out. I have only tried the red, but I can vouch that they are very nice checking pencils and that you might be able to write with them as well.
Does anyone else have any ideas?
The publicity that this gets in the United States these days is getting better every year, but did you know that it is Banned Books Week? And did you know that some serious pencil heroes are frequently on the list of banned authors? We’ll just mention two: Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck.
Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea, and In Our Time are all on the list of the top 20th century American novels (even though the last one is really a short story collection). The first three have been challenged or banned in the United States, because characters drink, shoot each other and promiscuously sleep around. While it is certainly one’s prerogative to boycott these works and to forbid one’s children from reading them, it is no one’s right in a country with free speech to ban them for the rest of us, to decide what’s fit or decent for everyone else to read. Perhaps it’s idealistic, overly academic or politcally callous to declare, but banning books in the United State is just a contradiction of the entire idea of freedom of speech.
Picture a world without the novels of John Steinbeck, for instance — another pencil user whose works have been challenged or banned in this country, most notably The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. Would we really presume to tell everyone else what they can and cannot read, as if we have the ultimate moral perspective and know what is best for all of our fellow citizens?
True, any connection between these banned authors and the pencils that they used to create their contraversial and, some would say revolutionary, books is tenuous or symbolic at best. But just imagine that the books these writers are most known for were written with ordinary pencils. We all certainly have pencils, as well as paper (or walls) to write on. Combine these with a true freedom of speech, and there’s little to stop us all from writing great novels, poems, essays or short stories. And the more revolutionary, the better.
Several folks have asked us to post something about pencil degrees, especially since those of us in the United States have pencils which have plain numbers to write with, while we have confusing degrees on our art pencils and drafting pencils. We have some terrific articles to link to which explain the various hardnesses and softnesses of pencils extremely well, so we will not try to out-do them, which would probably be impossible.
Here is a great piece from the Pig Pog Creativity Wiki on pencil hardness:
“In the UK, and (I think) most of Europe, pencils are always labelled with one scale - H for Hard, or B for soft, with a number to say how hard or soft. HB is the middle of the range, and by far the most common type. For sketching, though, a softer lead is usually preferred, often 2B or even 4B. For more technical drawing or very light lines, a harder lead works better, like a 2H. The scale goes up to 9 at each end - 9B to 9H, with the extreme ends of the scale being a bit too extreme for most uses.Sometimes, you’ll also find an F pencil - Firm - between the HB and the H (the 1 is missed off).
And Doug Martin has a great article about pencil grades as well, which explains the American system and the strange fractions and decimals we find on this side of the Atlantic:
“At the same time, a number-only system was in use, particulary in the U.S., which is still in use. The table below indicates approximate equivalents between the two systems:#1 — B
#2 — HB
#2½ — F
#3 — H
#4 — 2H
While it can be confusing — and even frustrating — when pencil manufacturers cannot find some single standard, even within their own product lines, it does allow for wonderous variety. I personally have an army of HB pencils that vary from ink-dark for creative writing to relatively light-marking pencils for writing in books. With nineteen (or more) grades to choose from, dozens of manufacturers producings multiple models, it is certainly possible to find a pencil for every use.
Or, at least, we can get pretty close. And looking for the perfect pencil for writing our grocery lists or dissertations on world peace is really part of the fun, anyway, no?
The roses, among other things. Ruby writes about taking the time to enjoy little things that go too often ignored:
When we think of things that we check out when we slow down, why is it that we tend to think of pencils? Because they are worth the extra time, like French press coffee, or is it something more?
[Image J.G. 2005.]
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.
We are pleased to announce the arrival of the Pencil Revolution group on Flickr, started because of some good advice from a friend and blogging champion.
In case you are not sure what Flickr is, it is a place where one can upload one’s photos to the internet and then share them with other people. Flickr Groups are communities that one joins and can then participate in the group photo pool. Photos submitted to the pool are still part of one’s own photostream. The pool is really a grouping, not any sort of proprietary selection. You keep the right to edit, delete and own your photos.
For the time being, membership is open to anyone with a Flickr account, and these accounts are both free and easy to set up. All you have to do is sign up, sign in, and join up.
Let’s stick to photos that are actually pencil-themed: ones that are of pencils or related pencil gear, of sketches or finished work done in pencil, etc. Let’s not include photos of fountain pens and vintage Mustangs. There are tons of other pools for that.
Fine Print: Anyone engaging in hate speech, pornography, posting photos to the pool that have nothing to do with pencils or generally being a jerk to other members in the group will have his or her membership in the Pencil Revolution Flickr group cancelled without warning. We have no intention to censor things, so please use your best judgment.
From At One Remove:
“Mars Lumograph EE. Great pencil. Discontinued. Why do they do this? Last remaining stub. The tonal range would put a silverprint to shame, with a dmax darker than charcoal. The EB version at least, is still sold as 8B. Why did Staedtler make this pencil?”
[Photo copyright AOR.]
We’d like to welcome to the Revolution our friend Woodchuck at Timberlines. Woodchuck comes from honest-to-goodness Pencil Royalty (the only kind allowed in a Revolution). His great- grandfather was the legendary Heinrich Berolzheimer, who immigrated to the United States after 40 years of pencil making in Germany. Heinrich “founded the Eagle Pencil Company, which introduced the famous Eagle and Mirado brands.” It was Woodchuck’s grandfather Charles who ventured west to bring us CalCedar. Royalty indeed!
To boot, Woodchuck is the President of California Cedar Products Company, the manufacturer of Forest Choice pencils. And, despite his position otherwise, he seems to us to possess considerable artistic talent, which we certainly hope he will continue to share with the readers of his new blog.
And it turns out that we each played a role in the birth of one another’s blogs. The timing of the births of The Revolution and Timberlines could not be more fortuitous.
In only a week, we already have some great posts from Woodchuck about pencils and the pencil manufacturing world. Here is a post about pencil certification, and here is another highlighting the ways in which we use pencils. To be sure, Woodchuck is an ambitious blogger and is as passionate about pencils are we are — maybe even more so! And we are lucky to be have such a great source of not only information, but also a source of inspiration in our own pencil adventures.
From the Direct Help Foundation:
It seems that we share our name with a wonderful organization!
It’s telling that the pencil is a symbol of literacy and the power that comes from the communication that literacy makes possible. And people say that the pencil is just wood and grapite!
[Photo property of Direct Help Foundation.]
I’ve always noticed that my writing looks better in pencil than in pen. And I know I’m not alone in noticing this. Didn’t most of us, after all, learn to write using pencils?
The fact that my own writing looks better in pencil is probably from eight years of handwriting classes at Catholic school. I remember using some jumbo black pencils with thick lead to write with in the first grade. Our pencils had no erasers, and they were just…unpleasant to hold, let alone write with. And there was that thin newsprint-like writing paper that Sister Theresa Mary insisted we use, since it had huge lines to write on, with the centers being dotted lines — all in pale blue on puke-tan colored paper. It performed like compressed toilet paper and would instantly tear if you tried to erase anything you had written on it, especially since the eraser-free pencils required six year olds to attempt to wield something like a Pink Pearl to erase an accidentally-crossed L or some such. And no one wanted to deal with a nun who had a temper but was recently no longer allowed to spank us when they ripped a page. So we learned to write perfectly in pencil in fear of Sister Theresa Mary’s considerably loud yelling.
By the second grade, when we learned cursive writing, we were allowed to use whatever wooden #2 pencils we wanted to. I honestly can’t remember what brand I had, since my mother would have provided me with ample pencils that I would never have even seen in the box (probably G.I. Joe pencils or something like that). But I remember that we all had to learn to write perfectly and uniformly and according to those charts and the perfectly scripted two-feet-high letters our teacher put on the chalkboard. I remember that my handwriting went downhill in the third or fourth grade (don’t remember which) when we were allowed to use the shoddy mechanical pencils available in the 80s. And I remember that it went further downhill in the fifth grade when we were allowed to use ballpoint pens.
I kept up with my handwriting a little, however, since our sadistic (don’t ask) principal in middle school required even all middle schoolers to take handwriting lessons when she felt that the school’s penmanship was being neglected. These lessons, of course, required yellow #2 pencils and pink erasers.
While no longer in fear of ill-tempered nuns (the only two mean ones I ever had taught me to write), my handwriting still looks best and most uniform in pencil. Whenever I ditch the gel pens and the markers and the keyboard, my own natural penmanship comes out in wooden pencil, freely and fearlessly. Or is it just Charlie and I?
Why use pencils?
So many of us are pencil people below the pressure to use pens. “Pencils are for kids,” we’re told. “At least use a mechanical pencil,” we are urged. You can erase them, so you shouldn’t use them, right?
The first and best reason to use pencils is because you like them and enjoy writing/drawing with them. Because you feel better connected to the paper you’re writing on (or the wall, etc.) and the earth from which the clay, the graphite and the wood all came. Because they smell good. Because sharpening them can be a sort of meditative process. Because you can chew on them. Or for reasons we can’t explain.
The point is that it’s best to write with what we like best, no? I’ll admit to enjoying taking notes and writing papers and poems with pencils better than pens. That’s the biggest reason that I use pencils at all.
But there are many others, and they will be seen here soon and regularly.
