Double standards

Ok so in the last post I wrote that I don't like pencils made from bad wood, but I realised I had made an exception to this rule for the Crayola PRO 6B. Now this is where pencil aficionados and me part ways as many will think that the Crayola PRO 6B is a child's pencil and has no place in a blog about pencils but I have had this particular pencil for many years, I think my gran gave me a box, when indeed I was a child and all have been thrown away, discarded for others to pick up, broken or lost, except this one. The main problem being that the pencil cannot be sharpened easily and therefore is a massive pain, this said it is a great pencil to draw with and has a lovely dark velvety texture that I cannot resist. It is such a good pencil to have at hand when you are out drawing because of the ease of laying down big areas of tone, but still with the ability to define areas after. So sorry for having double standards and sorry for liking a pencil made by a manufacturer of childrens colouring ephemera.

  

Novelty?

Every now and again certain pencils end up in my collection and I have no idea where they came from, possible I have picked up your pencil by accident, if so sorry. This is the 'milk & more' promotional pencil, we have never used the milk & more service so I am almost sure this must be somebody else's pencil. Nevertheless, although I would categorise this pencil as a 'Novelty' pencil, and being made of an unknown white substance that maybe congealed milk, (although isn't congealed milk, cheese?) and therefore ridiculous to sharpen (The board meeting possibly going a little like: "you could have the pencil made from this white substance", "is that congealed milk?" "we are not sure", "well does it sharpen?", "No, in fact it kind of annoyingly crumbles, much like congealed milk might - but it is white, you know, like milk." "so people wont actually be able to use it properly" "that's correct","wow, were in! where do we sign") In Fact when you do sharpen it, the lead bleeds in to the white substance, making a kind of dirty grey, and so therefore their plan of making it look like fresh milk backfires. But it is a nice pencil.

The lead has got to be a 6B or deeper which is odd for a novelty pencil, and has a lovely velvety feel as you draw, again it's round so it gets my top mark for that, It is also made from recyclable material, so that has to be good and the eraser works a treat. I just wish it would sharpen. This is a running theme I notice - maybe I should try another sharpener.

Regrets (volume 1)

Now, you can't go around picking up discarded pencils without ending up with some bad pencils, how you can make a pencil that you cannot sharpen with out it ripping the wood apart is beyond me. The first of this volume is the Rowney "Victoria" No.804 2B, I don't actually want to put this pencil in with these other so called pencils, as the Victoria is beautiful and is a good draughting pencil, nice dark lead which flows nicely staying sharp for quite a while, but that's where the pencil becomes pointless (excuse the pun)  They stay in my collection as I wrongly assume pencils are like wine and will age well, changing there composition over time. The other two aren't worth talking about except to say I often don't get on with pencils that are below 2B, so being made of shody wood is probably least of there worries.