Euroboy

Eager to avoid another mistake on my next shopping spree, I have started to verify the origin mark of what I want to buy before I commit. At least as much as possible. I realize global supply chains mean it’s likely that anything that says “Made in Germany” has parts from a dozen or so other countries, but the label still has to be worth something, and I wanted my consumer choices to focus on that.

Being a semi-regular practitioner in the vile art of learning German, I had an Amazon.de account already, from which I order the occasional book or DVD, and this time figured it would be a reliable place to find a broader selection of actual Made-in-Germany (or Europe) pencils.

I focused on finding items that specifically stated Made-in on the box or the stick, rather than just the name of the country itself on the stick. This showed Staedtler and Faber-Castell to be the leading available brands. I chose a couple different grades on the Staedtler, and both were well-suited to my writing and paper. I couldn’t tell a huge difference between the 2B and 4B, nor between the Lumograph and Tradition.

The Faber-Castell were sold individually, and each came in a nifty plastic tube. At 3b they were again almost identical in feel to the three Staedtlers I bought, but significantly more expensive.

I also found Cretacolor pencils. More famous for their woodless graphite sticks which I remember using in high school art class, these looked great for writing too. Only sold in artist variety packs, but one aimed specifically at the (usual) writer grades. I hoped a higher quality pencil would mean harder grades would be OK, and I was right. The F, hardest in the writing pack, was quite pleasant for me.

Finally, I got a tin of Conté artist pencils. I remember trying jumbo pencils many years before, which are typically round rather than hex, and did not like them. These Conté sticks were also round, but not the jumbo size, and felt really nice to hold. I tend to grip round pencils harder though, so my hand fatigues more quickly. It reminded me of why I so quickly grabbed up and started writing my life away with that copying pencil a few weeks earlier though. That round shape just feels great in short bursts.

In the case of both artist packs, from Cretacolor and Conté, I was successful in putting the harder grades to use in my extra toothy sketch pads that my husband just bought for me, but they are not great for writing.