This Old Pencil 2

My mom brought me a bunch of old pencils; here are the highlights:

You Done for Safety Today?

This pencil clearly originally said: "Hammermill Paper Company / What have you done for safety today?"  But now the provocative slogan has been truncated.  Try reading it the way a diner waitress might ask you: "You having any more coffee today?"  And if you're done with safety today, does that mean you're ready to get dangerous?

Truncate it further: "done for safety today?" suggests that Hammermill Paper is through being safe.  Further: "safety today?" suggests that modern standards for safety are a joke.

But these truncations are caused by the fact that the pencil is shortened as it is used.  What if we printed the message going in the other direction?  Eventually, the pencil would ask: "What have you done for" (who? one wonders) and "What have you done" which is perhaps the most disturbing. But the company name fares pretty well, being shortened to "Hammermill Paper Co," "Hammermill Paper," and "Hammermill."

Hammermill Paper was acquired by International Paper in 1986.  Hammermill and the paper industry in general are responsible for lots of water and air pollution from chemical delignification and chlorine bleaching, much of which went into lakes and rivers that me and my family got their water from.  Thanks Hammermill!  What have you done TO safety?  Maybe I'll name my first tumor after you.

File this along with the "Too Cool to Do Drugs" pencils printed by a school; which reversed their meanings when they got slowly shortened to: "Cool to do drugs," "Do drugs," and "Drugs."

Paul's Special

I'll say he is!  I suspect that this came from the "Paul's Teacher's Pet" teacher supply store, which also had "Paul's Teacher's Pet" pencils.  I don't know how their "Paul's Special" is special compared with their other pencils.  Insofar as I can determine, "Paul's Teacher's Pet" is no longer in business.

Beaver Hollow Conference and Training Center

We've all heard of those team-building exercises at corporate retreats to the woods, which kind of amount to summer camp for office workers.  Apparently Beaver Hollow hosts these.

http://www.beaverhollow.com/

Choice by Empire

An extruded pencil with plasticky lead.  I've tried worse, I've tried better.  Empire is well-known for developing and improving these plastic pencils.  The Empire Pencil Company seems to no longer exist.

CanvasDealer.com

This dot-com had everything going for it, but then they used Comic Sans on their promotional materials.  Now CanvasDealer.com is no more.  Yet another reason to STAY AWAY FROM COMIC SANS for official signage and any literature where you want to project an impression of respectability.

Bison Brand

These pencils say: "Bison Brand TL 67969 No 2" and: "Imperial - Bison Brand - #439 - 2".

I asked my mom about these, and she reported that these were promotional items from the Bison Brand dairy (still in operation, but now known for chip dip and cottage cheese) in the old hometown.  She opined that they were excellent pencils, and I am also fond of them.

http://www.bisonfoods.com/

This Old Pencil

No, I don't plan to refinish these wooden pencils, just use them and review them.  I found most of these pencils at the bottom of someone's desktop pencil cup.  They are very short, and so old that the erasers are either worn away or dried out.  "Take them, or I'll throw them away; I never use pencils anyway," the pencils' owner commanded.  How could I resist?

Venus Spectracolor

The Venus Pencil Company Spectracolor line was discontinued around 1999, after being bought by another company.  Very soft and smooth, very dense pigment.  But it's a coloring pencil, not a writing pencil.

3 120 Staedtler Noris Germany

I have heard that Staedtler Noris pencils are officially unavailable in the USA (I have recently purchased a box of Staedtler "Norica" #2 pencils at a nearby Staples; I wonder what the deal is here).  I suspect that this sample was a pencil used by a student decades ago in Germany.  There is a 3 in a silver box (barely visible in the photo) at the left end; presumably this is a #3 pencil, and it is unpleasantly hard for my American tastes.  Note that the painted "cap" at the end is blue, rather than the signature bright red.

Blackfeet Indian Writing Co. Sundance 2

The Blackfeet Indian Writing Company was part of a tribal-owned economic development project for the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Browning, Montana.  The company eventually went under.  You might expect that this (tribal) government effort to stimulate growth was a well-meaning but misguided effort that was incapable of producing a decent product, but in fact Blackfeet pencils are very highly regarded and treasured by many.  Many 20th Century pencil lines and manufacturers have disappeared despite quality output, and the free market fundamentalist assumption that any governmental attempt to start an economic venture only results in misery and failure is clearly hogwash.

This is a fine pencil and a joy to write with, in spite of the animal bites on the barrel, which I'm sure are not factory features.

You can find vintage Blackfeet pencils online at exorbitant prices; a testament to their esteem.

U.S.A. Wallace Excellence No. 2

Feels like a decent pencil.  I have heard negative things about them.  The paint job has not held up against the rigors of time, but as with people true beauty lies within, and for pencils this beauty must be expressed onto paper in order to be truly appreciated.  It glides smoothly on the paper and it writes a dark line.  The eraser is worn away, so the eraser must have been at least usable at some point.

FaberCastell Balance SV 210 3

Looks like a standard-issue office/school pencil, but it's a #3, so I have to press too hard and it writes too pale for my tastes.

Eberhard Faber Mongol 482 #2 HB

I actually don't know where I got this pencil, but I found it in my drawer, and it fits with the general theme of the old short pencils, so I'm including it here.

The "Eberhard-" on the label has been sharpened away, leaving only: "Faber Mongol 482 #2."  The eraser has been worn down to the ferrule.  The ferrule does not resemble a yellow brass, but is very shiny.  The paint on the ferrule is peculiar in that a "signature" element of the Mongol is the pair of black stripes at the ends of the ferrule, whereas this ferrule has one black stripe in the center.

As I understand it, in the United States, the Eberhard Faber brand was bought by Faber-Castell USA in 1994, then sold to Sanford, and then sold to Paper Mate, which is now part of RubberMaid (yes, RubberMaid!  And the RubberMaid and Paper Mate websites indicate that they don't know what to do with the fact that they manufacture pencils).  You might hope that the venerable Mongol 482 #2 pencil would be preserved--even championed--during all this corporate reorganization, but instead it became a casualty, and nobody in America manufactures the Mongol 482 any more.

The Eberhard Faber Mongol 482 is still very popular in numerous countries around the world; in the Phillipines, the word "Mongol" is synonymous with "pencil", and has been featured on postage stamps to promote literacy.  I have heard that the Mongol 482 is still manufactured in Venezuela.

The Mongol is known for its smoothness; Eberhard Faber encouraged you to attach a large paper cone to the end of the pencil like a megaphone and listen to how smooth it is compared with other pencils.  Indeed, it feels much smoother than many of my other pencils.  It certainly writes a nice and dark line.