Blackwings, an addendum: The Tiger HB Squared-Ferrule Pencil

At long last, I have found some truly interesting specimens.

When I read bleistift.blog’s coverage of the Tiger Blackwing, and its shocking conclusion that Tiger’s contribution to the square-ferrule pencil category is preferable to Cal-Cedar’s, I knew I had to try them.

So I bought them. 152 of them: eight found serendipitously on etsy, another gross of them found the same day on eBay (I had meant to order thirty-six pencils, I ordered thirty-six packs of four).

And.. they’re fine.

Well, let me qualify that. They write fine, they make a consistent HB mark, they’re a bit scratchy, but that’s not what’s fascinating here. What I find delightful is that, well, these exist, they appear to have emerged while the Palomino Blackwing-type pencil already existed, and I can only find speculation about why they disappeared.

If you want some, buy from here, they’ll come reasonably quickly.

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