Of all the people associated with the genuine Blackwing 602, one name rises to the top of the list: Eberhard Faber. I recently had the privilege of paying Mr. Faber a visit at his home in Pennsylvania, and while there were very few pencils on the shelves, there were three 1/2 gross boxes of Blackwings.
We spoke a great deal on the phone and in person about the origin of this pencil, and to what degree it was directly advertised by the company:
“The original Blackwing was introduced in 1934. The lead was a formula that my father developed [Eberhard L. Faber, 1893-1945]. He was a chemist, and in fact he developed most of our lead formulations at the time. The Blackwing, I think, was the first wax-impregnated lead, which is one of the things that gave it its smoothness. It was popular among people who did crossword puzzles because it wrote well on newsprint.”
I was curious to learn how the company viewed this pencil, because compared with the campaigns for the Mongol, Van Dyke, and the Microtomic I have come across comparatively little in terms of advertising:
“There was an advertising campaign in the New Yorker Magazine [1965], and my mother was responsible for that—she was at that time in charge of public relations. That [ad] reawakened a certain amount of interest in the Blackwing, but it always had its fans, who would not use anything else.”
I learned more in an afternoon than the past several years of research. Now, the work begins to write it all down and fill-in the rest of the story.
Special thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Faber for their hospitality and generosity.
Interesting interview Sean; can’t wait for any updates you plan to post!
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…especially if he had any insight into the original lead formula and where it is??? 😉
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Thanks, Ted. Actually we did talk about the formula and how the pencils were made. His father invented the lead formula and this pencil was, if not the first, one of the first to have wax added to the lead. But it’s not as simple as adding the wax in a bath, and this is likely why there will never be a genuine Blackwing pencil made again — from what I was told, there was a special machine that impregnated the lead with wax rather than it being dipped in a bath. He also mentioned that the diameter of the Blackwing lead is special too — not what you would usually find.
All of those things add up to the Blackwing’s one-of-a-kind lead…
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When the book will be ready, let us know…
At least, I want to buy an Author’ signed copy…
I look forward to hearing from you
Nat
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Glad to see this site is active. The Blackwing was indeed a special pencil, both in appearance and function. I can’t help but wonder though, if it was the introduction of a 4B into a world of #2 pencil users that caused people to be impressed as much as they were. Graded drawing pencils were available when the Blackwing was first introduced, but if you look at the marketing of the former they were squarely aimed at artists and draftsmen (Venus was the pencil “round which the world of art revolves”; the Dixon Eldorado was “the master drawing pencil”, etc.). For writers, stenographers, mathematicians, etc, all used to mass-produced #2/HB writing pencils, the soft lead and dark line of the Blackwing (and all that eraser!) would have been unusual and appealing.
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That’s a good question, Pablo. Although it’s highly subjective, I wouldn’t grade the Blackwing’s lead at 4B. Other Eberhard Faber pencils such as the Microtomic are darker at 4B to my eyes. And there used to be a lot more special-use pencils around for writers, editors, and stenographers, etc., so they weren’t necessarily stuck with a No. 2 for their work.
But those times had gone for the most part, so my guess would be that perhaps the 1965 ad campaign for the Blackwing might have (re)introduced people to the idea of a special-use, monograde pencil, which (as you said) was so unusual and appealing.
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