Pencil Review: Camel Pencils and the Joy of the Integrated Eraser

While Camel Pencils were added to the shop yesterday, they’re not new to me: I’ve used them for years and other than a short piece to discuss how I seriously stocked up during C.W. Pencil Enterprise’s closing sale back in 2021, I’ve never reviewed them. Why do I like these pencils so much? Because you have a stationery company known for doing one thing very well, and the one thing is a delightful twist on something as “standard” as the woodcase pencil. I love this sort of single-purpose excellence.

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The eraser makes the Camel pencil. There is no ferrule (the metal sleeve that holds the eraser on most woodcase pencils), and instead the eraser is fitted to the end of the barrel like a “cap”, where it sits flush. The end result is an extremely well-balanced pencil that combines the lightness of an eraserless, capped pencil with the utility of an integrated eraser. I’ve noticed very few tradeoffs with this type of pencil: other than the one instance where I deliberately removed the eraser, I’ve had no issues with it coming lose, nor have I had the eraser “run out” before I use up the entire pencil. Camel uses high-quality eraser material, which removes marks efficiently without a lot of residue.

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The eraser attaches to a notch on the barrel. It’s glued, so it will stay put. I pulled this one off “for science”.

I’ll admit, part of my interest in Camel is the intrigue surrounding the company, which has remained a bit of a mystery outside of Japan despite the popularity of their products. I understand that the company is a very small, family-owned operation that manufactures a handful of products under their own name, and I suspect contracts with other brands and independent stores on a “white label” basis. (I know they have done this for Craft Design Technology). Camel’s website contains only basic information about the company, which dates back to the late 1930s/early 1940s.

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Will I ever get through all of these? Probably not, but I’ll try.

The clear lacquered pencils that I currently stock, and which are shown here, contain standard Japanese HB graphite, which leaves a dark line while still erasing well. While a 2B pencil is, generally speaking, my “perfect” grade of graphite, I’ve found that with Camel, the difference primarily lies in the feel. I purchased a half-gross of the 2B C.W. Pencil Enterprise store exclusives, and they aren’t much darker than the HB but definitely have a smoother, waxier feel to them. Both grades are pleasant to write with, and I don’t really prefer one over the other here.

[Note: When I discuss the difference between grades of graphite, such as HB, B, and 2B, it will differ significantly across brands. In general, I’ve found Japanese and American pencils tend to write a darker line for their designation than European equivalents. For example, a Camel HB is roughly similar to a Caran d’Ache or Staedtler 2B.]

Takeaways and Where to Buy

I love Camel pencils - they’re among my favorite everyday writers, and frankly you get a much higher quality writing experience than you pay for. At roughly $2 per pencil (purchased individually), and under $10 for a pack of six, you get excellent Japanese graphite, a cedar barrel, and a good eraser with the cool design. Plus they’re gorgeous to look at and make excellent office conversation pieces. For some reason I always get more comments about my pencils than my fountain pens….

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A selection from my Camel Pencils over the years!

As I mentioned above, you can now purchase Camel pencils directly from the T.G.S. Curated Shop in two different lacquered wood tones. At some point we will have more options, and some are currently on order with an indefinite arrival time. Stay tuned!

The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program.

Curated Shop Updates: Keith Haring from Caran d'Ache, plus the Rylsee "Creative Nomad" Fixpencil Set

I love the fall, not least because it’s always time for another round of Caran d’Ache collaboration releases! This year’s offerings feature a line of products inspired by pop artist Keith Haring, as well as a special edition Fixpencil set developed in collaboration with the Swiss lettering artists Rylsee. The latter is a truly special release, as it includes not only the Rylsee signature Fixpencil but a set of 3B leads, eraser, plus a set of Fibralo brush and fibre-tipped pens along with access to an online lettering course!

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Shown here is the Caran d’Ache Keith Haring Colour Set, which includes 10 water soluble colored pencils plus a Fibralo brush pen. Use them with the Keith Haring A5 Colour Pad, featuring 20 different prints.

In addition to these limited quantity releases (more of which will be coming in the next few weeks), we’ve added to our selection of Caran d’Ache woodcase pencils (as well as our wide selection of pencils in general) and at customer request, expanded our line of Fixpencil replacement leads to include 12-packs. You can view the full selection of Caran d’Ache products, including all the new arrivals, here.

The Gentleman Stationer is an authorized retailer of all brands sold, including Caran d’Ache.

Why Clutch Pencils Are So Versatile: The Kaweco Sketch Up Clutch Pencil

When I decided to stock Kaweco, it wasn’t necessarily to carry their iconic Sport fountain pen (though it’s a favorite). It was the “Sketch Up” clutch pencil. While I’ve previously written about clutch pencils / leadholders like the Caran d’Ache Fixpencil - which is geared toward writing and originally designed as a wartime replacement for the standard woodcase pencil - the Sketch Up uses thicker 5.6mm leads intended for drawing. How can you use one of these pencils, if you’re not an artist or sketchnoter? Let’s take a look.

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The brass version of the Sketch Up is shiny when new, but will develop a cool patina as it ages.

Intended Use No. 1: A Sketch Pencil for Drawing

As mentioned, the first use for a clutch pencil like the Sketch Up is as a drawing tool. Each pencil ships with one 5.6mm 5B lead, which is very soft and very dark, perfect for blending. What it’s not great for is writing, unless you write very large, but again that’s not the intended use. I’ll take this opportunity to discuss the main question people have regarding this pencil and its refills: Whether you use it for drawing or writing, how do you sharpen a lead this big? Use the excellent integrated sharpener inside the cap, which unscrews. While I don’t really bother with sharpening when I’m using clutch pencils for highlighting because I like a broader edge, the cap contains a good lead pointer. For a demonstration of how the clutch mechanism works, and how to sharpen using the cap, I thought it would be easier to do short videos, which I’ve linked to here.

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The Kaweco Sketch Up loaded with a pink highlighter lead.

Intended Use No. 2: A Highlighter/Drylighter

My own primary use case for the Kaweco Sketch Up is as a highlighter. I’ve long favored so-called “drylighter” pencils over traditional liquid ink highlighters, since they don’t dry out, don’t bleed through thinner paper, and work better with less-waterproof inks like fountain pen ink and gel ink. The Sketch Up serves as a nice, compact refillable highlighter that’s a more sustainable option than woodcase drylighters or plastic highlighter markers. Most brands sell highlighter refills for their clutch pencils in addition to standard graphite, and Kaweco highlighter refills are sold in packs of three.

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I wrote pretty hard here to try to get it to smear, and was only able to get the slightest smearing on the still-wet gel pen. For everyday highlighting I’ve found these to be great.

Not-So-Intended Use No 3: A Dip Nib Holder

I may get into a bit of trouble for promoting an “off label” use of the Sketch-up, but what had me the most excited about this product was the ability to use it as a holder for my Kakimori Brass dip nib. I love the idea of carrying a dip pen with me to meet-ups and pen shows, but longer handles are inconvenient and portable versions such as the Drillog are expensive and perhaps don’t lay enough ink on the page. Many people use dip nibs for drawing as well, adding to the versatility of the Sketch Up as an art tool. To see how the Sketch Up works as a dip nib holder, check out this short video.

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The Sketch Up is handy for sampling fountain pen inks, such as the Kaweco Palm Green shown here.

A couple of people have asked whether or not the Sketch Up will fit dip nibs other than the Kakimori conical-style nib. I’m not a heavy dip pen user other than this particular tool, but I did experiment with a Zebra G and it seems to work. I make no representations otherwise, YMMV. Also, I do feel a need to issue a disclaimer: The clutch mechanism on the Sketch Up is made of metal. When using this pencil as a dip pen, be sure to clean and dry the mechanism after use, and try to minimize any ink or water leaking into the interior of the pencil. Otherwise you may see some corrosion.

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The Sketch Up fitted with a Zebra G dip pen nib. (And that crazy grey ink in the bottom right is Pilot Iroshizuku Kiri-Same. I just realized how good that looks….)

Takeaways and Where to Buy

I plan to keep the Kaweco Sketch Up in stock alongside other clutch-style pencils such as the Caran d’Ache Fixpencil and perhaps a few other styles. I’ve long carried one of these as a key highlighting and annotation tool, and the added versatility of using this particular model as a portable dip nib holder for playing around with inks at pen club and pen shows is an added bonus. I may even break out the 5B lead from time to time when I’m drawing with my daughter.

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The Sketch Up fitted with the Kakimori Brass dip nib.

The Kaweco Sketch Up starts at $21 for the “Softfeel” black and yellow model (which I chose for my own carry and which is shown in most of the photos here), and runs $38 for the brass version, which will develop a nice patina as it ages. As mentioned, the T.G.S. Curated Shop carries both the pencils and the Kaweco lead refills in both the 5B graphite and the highlighter versions. We are now authorized Kaweco retailers and look forward to stocking more of their pens, pencils, inks and accessories going forward!

The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program.

Mini-Collections: Fancy Pencils are a (Relatively) Inexpensive Guilty Pleasure

We’re inching towards the close of 2022, and soon I will have to take stock of my progress on a major personal goal from this year: thinning out my stationery accumulation. And I’m not talking about adopting a “one-in, one-out” stance, where I have to get rid of something to buy something new. I started this year with the intention of significantly reducing the footprint my collection/accumulation occupies in my home. As I worked my way back through “the stash,” it wasn’t so much the fountain pens that shocked me, but rather the paper and the pencils.

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Why So Many Pencils?

For starters, they’re easy to accumulate. I got back into pencils shortly before the Blackwing relaunch back in the early 2010s, when I picked up a dozen blue Palomino HB pencils based off the recommendation of Johnny over at Pencil Revolution (which is, by the way, no longer a blog but now a publisher and bookbinding company - check them out). To be fair, I do use a lot of pencils - just not at the pace at which I purchased them, especially before prices started to rise. I had a Blackwing Volumes and/or a Baron Fig subscription for a couple of years, and between the quarterly subscription deliveries and regular visits to C.W. Pencil Enterprise, it started to add up. Remodeling my office this past summer forced me to pull everything out of storage, get it into the open, and see how bad the problem was.

I have a “healthy” stash of jumbo pencils, but honestly probably not as many as I could use. Good ones are rare and hard to find.

So What Pencils Do I Actually Use?

• Highlighter and Annotation Pencils. By far the type of pencil I use the most is the highlighter pencil (or “drylighter” or “dryliner”), either as a stand-alone pencil or as a double-ended highlighter/graphite combo. I also use a lot of the red/black double-ended annotation pencils and go through these at a fairly good clip while I’m working or reading. I prefer highlighter pencils over the liquid-ink version because they smear less, don’t bleed through thin paper, and you don’t have to wait for them to dry.

• Capped Pencils with No Erasers. I’ll discuss this a bit more below, but I’ve come to appreciate the lighter weight and balance of “capped” pencils without erasers, and I especially love the aesthetics of a finished pencil cap. Of course, I still use pencils with integrated erasers, but at the end of the day I think I enjoy the classic round ferrule over the Blackwing.

• Jumbo Pencils. They’re not just for kids. Like an oversized fountain pen, a quality jumbo pencil offers increased comfort and control over your writing. If you find a good one, there’s nothing quite like a smooth jumbo graphite core.

• Natural Wood Pencils. Probably the most “elemental” writing experience you can get, a natural wood pencil (finished or unfinished) puts little more in your hand than wood, graphite, and sometimes a little varnish. When I want to get back to basics and write with something that’s not distracting, I’ll pick up one of these.

Do you know what I don’t find myself writing with frequently? Blackwings. This is not a knock on the quality - they’re very good pencils, but so many of the special editions I have include the “Pearl” that’s too waxy for my taste. The Blackwings I prefer are either the original extra dark or the extra-firm. Plus I’ve come to feel that the larger ferrule throws the balance off on the pencil, but again it’s all personal preference. For that reason I’ve sold off the bulk of my stash over the course of the past year.

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Highlighter pencils are just as legible, in my experience, as their liquid-ink counterparts.

Why I Probably Won’t Stop Buying Pencils

Even though I have more pencils than I personally could ever use in a lifetime, I probably won’t stop buying them. Why? Well, for at least the next few years I have an elementary school-aged child, who churns through them at the pace of two or three a week (either from use or loss). If I need to thin the herd, I’ll simply give them to her, or alternatively donate a bunch of pencils to local school-supply drives. The second reason I won’t stop buying woodcase pencils is that they tend to be a relatively inexpensive luxury, that doesn’t take up space forever. Even the most expensive pencils, such as Blackwings, Caran d’Ache Swiss Woods, or the Crayons de la Maison Caran d’Ache, cost $3 to $10, and due to the quality of the wood and graphite they will give you a lot of mileage for your money. When you use them up, they’re gone, and they don’t leave behind waste to go to the landfill. Therefore, if I see a well-done pencil that’s either of high quality or seems super unique or creative, I’m probably going to buy it without thinking much of it if the package costs $50 or less. (Of course, I’m talking new pencils. Some people pay crazy per-pencil prices for vintage stock, and that’s an entirely different calculation.)

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Back before prices started rising, I was not immune to stocking up on some relatively rare vintage pencils.

Pencils Should Not Be Thought of as a Cheap Commodity

Sustainably sourced wood, quality graphite, consistently good construction and an attractive finish (often in small-batch production) cost money, which is why today the price of good pencils is inching upwards, and due to the added impact of inflation and supply chain constraints, in some cases skyrocketing. That said, I don’t necessarily understand why the some people will pay $30-50 for a single bottle of fountain pen ink yet balk noisily at paying similar prices for a pack of good pencils. Both are luxury items, both are consumables, yet the pencils are more apt to be derided as an “overpriced” “cash grab” than the ink, despite the fact that the manufacturer’s profit margin on the 30-50ml bottle of liquid is almost certainly higher. Today’s consumers have been trained to think of pencils as an inexpensive commodity item that shouldn’t cost more than $0.25 per pencil, which is a key reason why so many of the school pencils readily available in stores are so cheap - and offer such a terrible writing experience.

Two favorite jumbo pencils that sadly aren’t made anymore: the Caran d’Ache “Black Wood” and the “Klein Blue” Maxi. While Caran d’Ache has released a jumbo pencil set in their current “Colour Treasure” limited edition series, they’ve sold out and I’m scrambling to get more.

Takeaways and Where to Start

As for me, I plan to keep buying and selling quality pencils. If I stopped purchasing today, I would have more than enough good pencils to last me for the rest of my life, but we all know that’s not going to happen ;) For those of you looking to experience a good pencil for the first time, you can absolutely do so with out spending a lot of money. We stock a range of woodcase pencils, mechanical pencils, and lead holders in the T.G.S. Curated Shop, ranging from classic yellow Tombow office pencils that cost around $1.50, to higher-end Caran d’Ache Swiss Woods and house specialty pencils geared towards enthusiasts and collectors.

The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases through the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program. This post does not contain paid third-party affiliate links.

Thursday Drops: More Pencil-Related Content

As I mentioned on Tuesday, when I noted that we had restocked on M+R pencil sharpeners and replacement blades, one goal of mine has been to establish a small curated retail outlet that continues to stock specialty pencils and high-end pencil accessories. While you can always read more in the “Resources” section of the blog, and specifically the “Best Pencils” section, I thought I’d take some time this morning to talk about five of my favorite pencils that I enjoy so much I want to continue to offer them to you directly.

1. Caran d’Ache Swiss Wood Pencil. Sure, some people call it the “Stinkwood,” but I actually enjoy the smell of the classic beech pencil, which to me isn’t overpowering or unpleasant. (For an unscented Swiss Wood experience, you can always opt for the lighter pine version instead of the beech.) This is a pencil that I think every stationery enthusiast should experience at least once. It’s pricey, but the point retention on this pencil is beyond exceptional - I have a few Swiss Wood pencils in rotation that have lasted for years. You can read my full review here.

2. Tombow 2558 Pencil. If you forced me to declare loyalty to one yellow office pencil for the rest of my life, it would be this one. Whether in the HB or B grades, this Japanese pencil works quite well with nearly all long-point sharpeners and holds a reasonable point while leaving a dark (but non-smeary) line. (I actually need to do a stand-alone review of this one. I can’t believe i haven’t already.)

3. Caran d’Ache Fixpencil. Do you enjoy the larger core of a woodcase pencil, but still appreciate the feel and convenience (no wood shavings!) of a mechanical? Consider trying a leadholder. Originally conceived as a replacement for woodcase pencils due to wartime materials shortages, the Fixpencil features a hexagonal barrel and a clip for convenience. We highly recommend pairing with a dedicated M+R lead pointer, which will give you a much finer point than the integrated in-cap version.

4. Caran d’Ache Edelweiss 3B Pencil. Typically 2B is as low on the “dark” scale as I can go, but given Caran d’Ache’s generally harder graphite, this 3B pencil hits the sweet spot. Exceptional value for the quality here.

5. Full Pencil Sets. Unsure of your preferred hardness and looking to explore the different grades of graphite? We currently offer two separate options: One pencil set from Midori MD featuring 6B, 4B, 2B, B, and HB pencils (plus a sharpener and pencil caps), and another from Mitsubishi, featuring 22 high-quality Hi-Uni Pencils in all grades on both the H and B scales. We also sell certain grades of Midori and Mitsubish Hi-Uni pencils individually.

We currently have both the standard matte black Fixpencil and the colorful Fixpencil 884 in stock, along with leadholder refills.

If there are specific pencil and pencil accessory brands that you feel are not adequately reflected at retail, and you would like us to stock, please reach out and let us know. That said, we can only continue to stock them if you spread the word among other enthusiasts and let us gain visibility (pencils are a very niche market, as you all know), so we greatly appreciate anyone spreading the word in forums, Facebook groups, on social media, etc.

The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of all brands sold.