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When a pencil—such as the Blackwing—enjoys a decades-old lifespan, I wonder about the consistency of its manufacture. Are the formulas for the leads written on the back of envelopes and napkins, then spirited away to the company vaults never to be updated? In other words, once the approved and definitive formula goes into production, is the book closed on that particular model? Perhaps when a change is made, by default it becomes part of the formula for the “next” pencil.
Given the Teutonic heritage of A.W. Faber, I’d wager that order and consistency were the touchstones of production. This would preclude “adding a pinch of wax” to the batch every now and then just to see how that run would turn out. But, if we could take for granted that lead formulations—and their extrapolation into large production runs—were exacting, wouldn’t it be reasonable to presume that pencils made at different factories might have palpable differences due to slight variations in measurement?
With today’s high technology it hardly seems plausible, for the same reason why every Pizza Hut pizza tastes the same no matter where you eat one.
But what about age? No matter how fine the wine, it will one day eventually become vinegar, so-to-speak. Do pencils suffer an analogous fate? If so it’s probably only noticed among the softer leads; I can’t imagine a 6H lead becoming much darker with age. But I can’t help noticing the difference between the older Blackwing pencils and the newer ones: they are consistently darker the older they are. Presuming the pencils remain dry, does the pressure over time contribute to this darkening, or is it that the formulas were just different? I’ve noticed an even more dramatic difference between a current Staedtler 2B and one made in the 1950s.
If it’s true that their chemical makeup changes over time then I guess that’s good news: only a few more million years under several metric tons of pressure and I’ll be the proud owner of Blackwing diamonds.
That first photo of the original box full of the earliest Blackwings is just exquisite…
While we wait for the Cal Cedar Blackwing, I wonder if they will make any changes to the original lead formula?
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Thanks for the kind words.
Re: CalCedar — the lead is probably what I’m most curious about. I doubt that they got their hands on the original formula. Is it a new formula, or is it the same as the Palomino? Would it be easy to test a Blackwing to determine the formula? Will it be offered in more than one degree?
Are the fine folks at CalCedar trying to replicate the original Blackwing, or is “Blackwing” just a by-word for “great pencil” being applied to one of their pencils?
Last but not least, even if the Blackwing was no longer viable (for whatever the reasons) why wouldn’t that lead formula be incorporated into something else? Since the form factor was shared by other pencils, doesn’t the experience of using a Blackwing come down to how it writes?
I wonder if experienced pencil makers can write with a pencil and know exactly what goes into the lead.
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If it is the shape of a Blackwing with Palomino lead, I will not be too disappointed. In fact, it will still become my one and only pencil. To my senses, the leads feel pretty close, with the Blackwing winning by a small margin (that impossible to describe waxy fleet softness). I have to admit that I am as enamored of the Blackwing shape as I am of the lead. ( I love the Microtomic for the same reason!) I imagine, though, that Cal Cedar will try to come as close as possible to the original formula, which I assume can be broken down and reconstructed by a chemist or metallurgist from a vintage model.
It may seem foolish to most normal people to be so excited by the advent of a new pencil, but this as if Steinway or Boesendorfer pianos had been discontinued for over a decade and were suddenly being brought back…
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602 thanks for your blog and enjoyable readings.
As Adair said It´s a Delightful Photograph with all the Blackwing “Legend” readable. It´s adorable how Pencil vintage advertising could be so descriptive about all benefits of their products.
Adair again “like joining facebook”, good to be informed, Pencils.com said that the waiting will end this week. I hope so. I want to know their new release WINGED BLACK HORSE????
I think the aim is to replicate the graphite formula if It will bear the brandname Blackwing otherwise there’s no point. (no pun intended)
I could be fool, no matter, am I normal?
Continuing with metaphor this new Pencil could be a new Stradivarius if we were commenting on violins.
Finally I want to apologize if my english is not the best, It’s not my mother tongue.
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Regarding the aging: I was told that the glue is the only component of the pencil that is prone to aging. By the way, it is also the one that is changed quite often.
I had the chance to compare different generations of a pencil (e. g. the LYRA Robinson). To me, the quality and the processing of the raw materials (e. g. the graphite’s source and its grit size/degree of grinding) have a much stronger impact of the pencil’s quality than the aging.
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Thanks, Gunther, for this interesting information. I may attempt to contrive some kind of objective test for the various versions.
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Pencils.com renovated has emerged as they told, but I cannot even seen a point of a Blackwing. Most wait…
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Regarding the lead formula: I read sometime ago over at Leadholders, that the lead formula in the 603 Van Dyke (later Microtomic Drawing pencil) would be the same as in the Blackwing. I can’t find the article again though. But it would seem that the lead lived on in the Microtomic for a while?
regards Henrik
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Yes, I’ve wondered the same thing. I have one 601, but it’s unsharpened and I can’t bring myself to sharpen it just yet.
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The microtomics lead definitely changed over the years. My yellow 3b’s are smoother than the later ones. They do feel very similar to my Blackwing but not exact.
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