Extruded Pencil Showdown: WOPEX vs. BIC XTRA-FUN

First, a little history

The first extruded pencils were introduced by the Empire Pencil Company around 1969.  They produced a substantial number of them, so they must have been somewhat commercially successful.  I have since used other extruded pencils, featuring a barrel made of some kind of plastic mixed with diverse fibers such as shredded paper money, shredded blue jeans, and shredded newspaper.  All of the extruded pencils I have used in the past have been unpleasant to use.  Their leads are too hard, or the barrel has been too bendy, or both and the barrel snaps in your hand while you're trying to write with it.

BIC has had a strong foothold in the USA for many decades now, and their BIC Cristal ballpoint pens are ubiquitous and iconic--the pencil of pens.  BIC also manufactures and sells mechanical pencils in the USA, and they have had an extruded pencil for some time now: the Ecolutions Evolution pencil.  I haven't seen the Ecolutions Evolution pencil for sale in the USA, and I assume that this is because the Ecolutions Evolution pencil is as unpleasant to use as all those previous extruded pencils.

WOPEX vs. BIC XTRA-FUN

Both of these pencils came pre-sharpened, but I used them and ran them through a burr sharpener for testing purposes.  Here you can see them on 1/4" grid graph paper for scale.

If you're keeping up with pencil news these days, you're probably familiar with the Staedtler WOPEX.  If not, the WOPEX is an extruded pencil made of plastic impregnated with various materials; the lead is plastic mixed with some kind of pigment (possibly graphite), the barrel is plastic mixed with over 70% wood, and the "paint" is a thin layer of colored plastic.  The WOPEX packaging claims they are "eco pencils," but it doesn't specify how these pencils loaded with plastic are significantly eco-friendly, or more eco-friendly than another PEFC wood pencil (which gets turned into biodegradable sawdust as it is used); although the plasticky lead is more wear-resistant and therefore lasts longer than a traditional graphite pencil.  The ferrule is metal.  The package claims that these are made in Germany.

I had been tempted by BIC XTRA-FUN pencils in the past.  I finally bit the bullet and purchased a blister-sealed 8-pack of them.  The package claims that the pencils are fun because of their "two-toned color barrels," that they have "break-resistant leads," that they have "long-lasting leads and erasers," and: "Sharpens First Time, Every Time(TM)"--whatever that means.  Because the XTRA-FUN was introduced after the WOPEX, one might assume that the XTRA-FUN (with its all-caps name and prominent "X") is a response to the WOPEX.  One might also expect that the XTRA-FUN is an improvement over the BIC Ecolutions Evolution pencil.  The ferrule is plastic.  The package claims that these are made in France.

The WOPEX is significantly heavier than a wood pencil, but the weight has never felt onerous in my hand; I have not noticed the extra mass making it more difficult to manipulate.  If anything, maybe the extra weight drives the pencil lead against the paper harder as I write with it.  I mentioned the plastic "paint" on the barrel, which has kind of a gummy feel to it and actually makes it easier to grip the pencil.  The lead feels a little plasticky, but it glides across the paper and still writes a nice dark line.

Tragically, the XTRA-FUN is anything but fun to write with.  There are 3 major issues I have observed, which work together to make the pencil a trial: first, the barrel is really bendy--like writing with a wet noodle--so you need to grip the pencil extra tightly to get the tip of the lead where you want to write.  Second, the lead is too hard and slides off the paper without leaving a line, so you grip more tightly in order to press harder to leave a mark; but then the tip grabs the paper like rubber, and bends the bendy barrel instead of transferring your hand motion to the tip.  Thirdly, the paint on the pencil is very slippery, so you need to grip even more tightly in order to press harder to overcome the first 2 problems.  It's a compounding of pain which reminds me of the feedback loop of inflammation which creates an agonizing gout attack.

Here I used both pencils on thin recycled loose-leaf paper with significant tooth.  The XTRA-FUN grabbed this toothy paper a lot, the line is paler, and a careful examination shows that my loops are smaller and my writing is more angular with the XTRA-FUN.  In contrast, the WOPEX felt slippery on the paper, like a graphite pencil should.

One benefit of either extruded pencil is that their plastic-infused lead leaves a line that is very smudge resistant.  It you've ever noticed the words in your carry notepad getting smeared around by the motion of being carried everywhere you go, or mashed into adjacent pages by the "carbon paper effect" when you use both sides of the page, then I recommend you give extruded pencils a try.  Either extruded pencil has a flexible, wear-resistant lead, so it should require fewer sharpenings in the field and snap less often.  Unfortunately, the nature of these leads makes these pencils poor choices for subtle lines or shading effects which limits their use for artistic drawing.

With this smooth copier-friendly heavy letterhead paper, the XTRA-FUN leaves a darker line, but my loops are still smaller with the more grabby XTRA-FUN lead.  At the right side, I deliberately tried to smudge the word "aid" with my finger, and both pencils fare better than a standard graphite pencil (not shown).

Each of these pencils sound pretty rough going through my burr pencil sharpener; the plastic barrel materials do not shred easily nor quietly.  In contrast, I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that each of these pencils sharpens easily with a blade sharpener; the blade carves either pencil's waxy plastic barrel smoothly and easily.  The shavings have a lot of static cling and stick to my brass wedge pencil sharpener, as you might expect from handling plastic materials.  The blade sharpener reveals that there are tiny tiny bubbles in the XTRA-FUN's plastic barrel material; I don't know if these contribute to the bendiness of the barrel.

Each of these pencils have decent white rubber erasers on the end.  They erase the lines of their respective pencils quite well, perhaps even better than a typical pink eraser does.

You might think that the XTRA-FUN could at least compete with the WOPEX in terms of fun.  After all, according to the XTRA-FUN packaging, the color of the XTRA-FUN makes writing fun; however, the WOPEX is also available in rainbow-like packages of "neon" colors which are even more vibrant than the XTRA-FUN, as this photo indicates:

I gave a pack of these neon WOPEX to my dad and my sister stole the purple ones.  

Conclusion

There was a lot of hype about the WOPEX pencil when it came out, and about the fact that it is an extruded pencil.  Gosh!  An extruded pencil!  Amazing!  But as I mentioned earlier, extruded pencils have been available in America for over 45 years--since the year Nixon became President.  What all the hype doesn't report explicitly is that the WOPEX may be the first extruded pencil that isn't lousy.  The WOPEX is a tolerable pencil.  It isn't as nice as a cedar woodcase pencil with a soft graphite lead, but it is serviceable and should work well in rough and/or wet environments which would be harmful to a wood pencil.  At $0.33/each ($3.99 per neon dozen), they are a little more expensive than the XTRA-FUN, but only a little more.

Unfortunately, with the XTRA-FUN, BIC has not really shown a need to compete with the WOPEX on quality.  The XTRA-FUN seems to have all the problems that extruded pencils have ever had.  Please avoid these, even if they only cost $0.25/each ($2.00 per 8-pack).

One last thing about extruded eco pencils

I have seen many "eco pencils" introduced with recycled materials and so many of them have been so bad that I have to wonder why pencils are given the onerous task of being the dumping ground for recycled materials.  It's as if the pencil user must suffer for all the other ecologically unfriendly manufacturing processes in the world.  Consider how infrequently we have seen other products touted as made with recycled materials; I've never seen a car, a house, a cell phone, or a computer advertised for its recycled content; and these products represent a significant disposal problem.  There are some forms of artificial lumber made of recycled materials, used in public park benches and in maintenance-free decking; and recycled paper is everywhere; but recycled pens are few and far between.  Why must manufacturers extrude out so many terrible recycled pencils?  I don't understand the logic connecting the problem: "we have lots of trash" to the conclusion: "let's put it in pencils."

I understand that pencils are ultimately disposable, and that using them means slowly throwing them out by sharpening them, but a pencil is a creative tool held in the bare hand, and should be pleasant to the touch.  It should ideally convey the user's thoughts to paper transparently and with so much ease that one need not think about it nor be burdened with its shortcomings.  In an era of personal data recorders and handheld computing devices, it should be expected to compete with these alternative ways of recording information.  Because pencils are so important for schoolchildren, a pencil should be a joy to use and encourage the child to write rather than add to the toil and distraction suffered by a healthy energetic child.