While the standard Ticonderoga sold in stores has been on and off my “favorites” list over the years, depending on quality control at any given time, recent iterations have been on the lower end of the quality spectrum and it’s fallen out of favor. Fortunately, I have a “healthy” stock of vintage pencils, including a few dozen of the coveted Ticonderoga “Woodgrain” pencils.
I took mainly pencils with me while I was away this week, including the Ticonderoga Woodgrain and Blackwing 10001. (As an aside, I’m not sure I’m digging the five sides on the latter. It’s weirdly uncomfortable.)
I’m not a pencil historian, so I don’t know exactly when these were sold, but since mine are marked “U.S.A.,” I’m going to assume they’re well over ten years old. (Dixon ceased production in the U.S. sometime in the 2000s.) If I had to guess, these pencils likely date from the late 1990s, early 2000s, and have aged well. The erasers remain soft, and the wood sharpens better than many of the more expensive pencils in my collection.
The Ticonderoga actually sharpens better than this particular Blackwing Volumes edition (maybe due to the odd shape of the latter?). Point here is done with a M+R Castor.
While the graphite on this pencil is a touch harder than I prefer, the finish is absolutely beautiful. To think that not so long ago, you could get a pencil like this in an office supply store for a few bucks a dozen makes me sad (and a little angry, honestly), given that the closest equivalent I have in my collection now costs more than $3 per pencil.
Both of these pencils felt oddly locale-appropriate.
Since the Ticonderoga Woodgrains are no more, you’ll need to resort to scouring eBay. While standard vintage U.S.A.-made Ticonderogas are fairly easy to find (you can still get a half gross for around $45 shipped), the Woodgrain variant is rare. I actually received these as a pleasant surprise, when I purchased a larger eBay lot and found that it included three dozen of the pencils shown here.
Further Reading
I don’t have a massive vintage pencil collection, and what I do have isn’t really valuable, but over the years I have stashed away a fair number of pencils I enjoyed when I was in school and therefore have personal significance. Other favorites I’ve reviewed include the Blackfeet Indian Pencil, which has a similar finish as the Ticonderoga Woodgrain. I plan to review more of these “vintage gems,” such as the Faber-Castell American, Mirado Black Warrior, and several Mongol variants, as I go along.
Disclaimer: All pencils discussed in this review are from my own personal collection and purchased with my own funds. This post does not contain affiliate links.