Stabilo

Stabilo is another European brand that is very difficult to get here in North America. I guess I should qualify that their pencils are hard to find, but their pens are everywhere (and not very good). For this haul I relied on Amazon.de.

Their wood-case pencils are very nice, though. Not proudly displaying their made-ins like other German brands, likely because they have plants all over and want to resource at-will. I emailed their customer service and somehow got two different answers on where they make their pencils. Someone from Germany replied that their pencils are made in Czechia, and someone in Montréal at their Canadian distributor (who probably rarely sees the pencils anyway) said that the Othellos, specifically, are made in Germany. Only the coloured pencil set I got had an origin mark at all, indicating only “Made in the EU”.

Their website is also non-specific, indicating “most of” their wood pencils are made in Czechia and “most of” their pens are made in Germany, and “some” of their products are made in Malaysia.

Like other companies that make test-scoring pencils, Stabilo’s Exam Grade are probably their best, with wonderful matte varnish, clean foil stamp and a beautiful dark mark. Their remaining offerings are better than average, and I really like the feel and weight of their eraser-tipped Othello.