Jump to content

The Mythology Of The Blackwing Pencil


Recommended Posts

Was it ever true?

 

I honestly believe that had I the funds several years ago, in the early- to mid-2000s, that I would've bought some of these pencils for tens of pounds or dollars, just to test the claim.

 

Now that Palomino has generated, or iterated, the 602, and they're sort-of affordable, even in Britain, I'm tempted again.

 

But here's my big question: Surely darkness of line and hardiness of durability are always mutually-excluding properties of graphite.

 

And another thing: I would've thought that the polymer leads in mechanical pencils were in the vanguard of strength, durabilty, and darkness (and the optimal combination of those three things). Viz. Pentel Ain Stein. (I use 4B, and they're yabba.)

Edited by lurcho
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 44
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • FarmBoy

    4

  • LamyOne

    4

  • Icywolfe

    3

  • setriode

    2

Yes it probably was. However, among true Blackwing 602 fans, the Palomino is thought of as cultural vandalism: http://blackwingpages.com/facts-fiction-and-the-blackwing-experience/.

 

I suppose it is like trying to compare the modern Moleskine notebooks to the real historical article which is the stuff of legend. In many cases the modern substitute can't match the original for quality and craftsmanship.

 

Do please explore the links to the article: For want of a Blackwing. A woodcase pencil has a very different feel to a mechanical one, has a different working milieu and is more organic. There are some excellent Japanese woodcase pencils out there.

Edited by setriode
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes it probably was. However, among true Blackwing 602 fans, the Palomino is thought of as cultural vandalism: http://blackwingpages.com/facts-fiction-and-the-blackwing-experience/.

I suppose it is like trying to compare the modern Moleskine notebooks to the real historical article which is the stuff of legend. In many cases the modern substitute can't match the original for quality and craftsmanship.

Do please explore the links to the article: For want of a Blackwing. A woodcase pencil has a very different feel to a mechanical one, has a different working milieu and is more organic. There are some excellent Japanese woodcase pencils out there.

"True" fans? I'm a fake fan I guess.

 

I like the new Palomino pencils. Of course they can never be the exact same pencils that were made decades ago, but I appreciate their attempts to recreate them. They are good pencils in their own rights.

 

Frankly, that link is a bit over the top in their "concerns".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was and still is true. The new 602s seem to have a different formulation of graphite.

 

Try a Eberhard Faber Microtomic 4B (another vintage pencil) which had the same writing core. You can also try a modern Turquoise 4B which is about the same.

 

I think I have enough to last until my end and leave a few for FarmKid. He already chooses a Blackwing over the Ticonderoga options when given the chance.

San Francisco International Pen Show - The next “Funnest Pen Show” is on schedule for August 23-24-25, 2024.  Watch the show website for registration details. 
 

My PM box is usually full. Just email me: my last name at the google mail address.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good pencils are hard to find. I've never used a Blackwing, but am happy with my Ticonderoga Tri-Write. Between that and the Staedtler Wopex,I'm all set for pencils.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay, I'll bite. I saw this thread and read it for the curiosity factor. What's so special about these pencils anyway? I say this as a person who only uses "regular" pencils when at choir rehearsal, to mark dynamics on scores. Normally, I use lead holders (Berol Turquoise and Mars-Staedler) instead -- have for years (since probably sophomore year in college) because I prefer them for getting really sharp points without wasting all that wood trying to get a good point that's actually *centered*.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You need to Google Blackwing 602, Ruth. It's a legendary pencil, preferred by many writers back in the day.

 

I bought a box of Palomino Blackwings in May while on vacation (not the 602's) and have been using one lately. I gotta say, it's a heck a pencil.

Sun%20Hemmi2.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh my gosh. How could I have overlooked the fact that I wasn't obsessing enough about pencils. Too busy obsessing about FPs, the firehose leak in the hot water line under my bathroom sink, taxes, and other more trivial stuff, I guess. Thanks!

 

Oh, and by the way, here is a picture of MY pencil. You cannot get this pencil anywhere on earth no matter how much money or cleverness you have. You can see that it has gotten a lot of use over the years from the wear marks on it's wooden case. :)

 

http://i62.tinypic.com/14910ut.jpg

Edited by sotto2

http://i59.tinypic.com/ekfh5f.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh my gosh. How could I have overlooked the fact that I wasn't obsessing enough about pencils. Too busy obsessing about FPs, the firehose leak in the hot water line under my bathroom sink, taxes, and other more trivial stuff, I guess. Thanks!

 

Oh, and by the way, here is a picture of MY pencil. You cannot get this pencil anywhere on earth no matter how much money or cleverness you have. You can see that it has gotten a lot of use over the years from the wear marks on it's wooden case. :)

 

http://i62.tinypic.com/14910ut.jpg

:lticaptd:

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

http://i62.tinypic.com/14910ut.jpg

That pencil is more "Buzzard Wing" than "Blackwing". My father, machinist and engineer in that order, introduced me to mechanical pencils and lead holders long ago. When it came time to think and work out problems he would pull out a Blackwing. As he explained it to me, there is no substitute for a real pencil when you have some thinking to do. Just holding it and listening to it knock on his cup seemed to free up his thought process.

I could have any of his writing instruments I wanted, with the exception of his Blackwings. "When you get old enough to understand I'll give you one." I have kids, grandkids and luckily him too, but he still hasn't given me a Blackwing. Is he trying to tell me something?

"Nothing is impossible, even the word says 'I'm Possible!'" Audrey Hepburn

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a person who happens to have one stub of an original 602 and one never sharpened (and may never be,) there is a huge difference between the new palomino pencils and the original. I bought a dozen of each of the pencils when they first came out. It tried them both. Ech! Not that much to write home about. I had the luxury to be able to compare them and neither met the standards of the original! I gave the box of the Palomino Blackwing 602's to a friend and haven't looked back on it. Just did nothing to ring my chimes.

 

However, of the three new versions I would say that the Palomino Blackwing model is a better pencil than the new 602, but I have not spent the money to buy one of the white ones which I believe is a different level of "hardness/softness." I would love to find a box of a dozen of the old ones at an easily digestible price! I'd snap one up in heartbeat if one came along.

Fair winds and following seas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WARNING: Inflammatory opinion ahead. If you have a sensitive disposition please move to another thread immediately.

 

Blackwings are good pencils, no doubt about that, but the hype around them is almost entirely artificial. They were not the be all and end all in their day. That is a perception that is being pushed now. My father was an artist, a very good artist actually, and his preferred medium was pencil. He wouldn't use the Blackwings because he thought they were not 'all that'. Unfortunately I cannot remember what he did use, and I cannot ask him because I do not know of any good mediums.

 

In fact if you look around art sites for discussions of pencils you see remarkably little discussion of Blackwings. It's become a boutique name among those looking for cachet in tody's world. There are a few good makers today. Tombow, Caran D'Ache and Koh-i-noor spring to mind, and of course Berol Turquoise are very nice to use.

 

Anyway I see the hype around Blackwings as being eerily similar to the hype around Moleskine.

 

Of course, your mileage may very well vary.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

However, of the three new versions I would say that the Palomino Blackwing model is a better pencil than the new 602, but I have not spent the money to buy one of the white ones which I believe is a different level of "hardness/softness."

I think the white (Pearl) ones are in between the 602's (hardest) and the standard Palomino Blackwings (softest, and thus darkest line). I passed on a box of the Blackwing Pearls when I bought my standards. A white pencil just looks funny to me.

Sun%20Hemmi2.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That pencil is more "Buzzard Wing" than "Blackwing". My father, machinist and engineer in that order, introduced me to mechanical pencils and lead holders long ago. When it came time to think and work out problems he would pull out a Blackwing. As he explained it to me, there is no substitute for a real pencil when you have some thinking to do. Just holding it and listening to it knock on his cup seemed to free up his thought process.

I could have any of his writing instruments I wanted, with the exception of his Blackwings. "When you get old enough to understand I'll give you one." I have kids, grandkids and luckily him too, but he still hasn't given me a Blackwing. Is he trying to tell me something?

Patience Grasshopper. Patience.

 

Good things are worth the wait.

San Francisco International Pen Show - The next “Funnest Pen Show” is on schedule for August 23-24-25, 2024.  Watch the show website for registration details. 
 

My PM box is usually full. Just email me: my last name at the google mail address.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was it ever true?

 

I honestly believe that had I the funds several years ago, in the early- to mid-2000s, that I would've bought some of these pencils for tens of pounds or dollars, just to test the claim.

 

Now that Palomino has generated, or iterated, the 602, and they're sort-of affordable, even in Britain, I'm tempted again.

 

But here's my big question: Surely darkness of line and hardiness of durability are always mutually-excluding properties of graphite.

 

And another thing: I would've thought that the polymer leads in mechanical pencils were in the vanguard of strength, durabilty, and darkness (and the optimal combination of those three things). Viz. Pentel Ain Stein. (I use 4B, and they're yabba.)

 

I still have a couple of boxes of the original EF Blackwing pencils somewhere.

 

They had very soft lead, and wrote nicely. The little marketing slogan on the box and pencil was "half the pressure and twice the speed."

 

But I think it's like a lot of stuff that isn't around any more. They were manufactured with unobtanium, a material no longer available, and therefore must be better than the current stuff...

 

I don't think so. I use really soft lead in pencils I use - 2B (widely available) or even 4B (harder to find in the us - available from Jetpens, among other places), and thick (.9, 1.1, or even 1.3mm.)

 

Or, I use Japanese wooden pencils - Mitsubishi for one. Blacker, smoother, and softer than the EF Blackwing. No eraser, but I always thought the Blackwing eraser was awful and just used a vinyl eraser.

 

 

 

.

 

 

.

Edited by markh

...

"Bad spelling, like bad grammar, is an offense against society."

- - Good Form Letter Writing, by Arthur Wentworth Eaton, B.A. (Harvard);  © 1890

.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mark

We need to talk.

How does it go? Let's make a deal.

I only have 19 virgins and a stash of stubs.

 

A must for the NYT crossword.

San Francisco International Pen Show - The next “Funnest Pen Show” is on schedule for August 23-24-25, 2024.  Watch the show website for registration details. 
 

My PM box is usually full. Just email me: my last name at the google mail address.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And turd 51 pens. Your bowl runneth over with turd 51 pens.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All this talk about pencils set me to searching through my wife's art materials in search of a Blackwing. I found half a real one, but I also ran across something which I found kind of astonishing: wooden fountain pencils (not the ones with a mechanical pencil on one end and a fountain pen on the other). I'm going to start another thread about it called "The Fountain Pencil".

Edited by sotto2

http://i59.tinypic.com/ekfh5f.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

The guys who run that site are really passionate about Blackwing pencils- so when they heard a company was capitalizing on the name/fame, you can understand the controversy, especially when Palomino tries to alter history to sell pencils

 

It's just like the Moleskin hype

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33501
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26627
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...