The Blaisdell Ben Franklin 500 – Medium Hard – # 3

Recently I acquired some Blaisdell-made Ben Franklin 500s in a No. 3 grade, medium hard. This pencil is one of those quality yellow pencils of yesteryear. No such thing, anymore, if I even need to tell you. In the green stamping of the number 3, it’s near kin to the Dixon Ticonderoga. I have another blog post that features the Ben Franklin 500 made by Berol.The Blaisdell Ben Franklin 500 is the predecessor to the Berol.

The paint job is excellent on the Blaisdell Ben Franklins. One of the things that surprises me about pencil paint jobs is how it maintains its luster over numerous decades. So long as they’re in a box, an old pencil will look as good , if not better, than a contemporary pencil. Better because they don’t make them like they used to.

The Blaisdell Ben Franklin sharpens well, writes nicely — clearly there was a tradition of quality that carried on from company to company. The newer Berol made pencil is actually a nicer pencil, though, which surprises me. Going strictly on the trusty principle of “everything was better in the past”, I struggled to understand why the newer pencils were beating out the older ones. I guess, some things do improve with time.

The paint job on the Berol-made pencil is superior. The layers of paint are thicker (probably with more coats), glossier, and smoother. The die pressing of some lettering onto the Berol is actually covered over by a later coat of paint.  Another feature: the ferule is not attached through what’s called prick punching –the dozen or so little punctures that grip the eraser and wood as on the Blaisdell. I’ve always regarded this technique as a cost-saving call. On the Berol, the ferule is clamped (squeezed) onto the shaft so there’s no punctures to detract from the trademark white band design. The edges of the Berol’s body are smoother, too; rounder, more semi-hex as opposed to hex, which make for a more comfortable long-term writing experience. A pencil is a simple tool and every decision, subtle as it may be, is meaningful.

Oh well, this has turned into a further appreciation of the Berol Ben Franklin. I couldn’t help it. Berol and Blaisdell, both, were good pencil manufacturers. Berol edged out Blaisdell with improvements to an already good pencil.

Eagle Verithin No. 2745 – Carmine Red with Eraser

The Eagle Verithin No 2745 – Carmine Red with Eraser is an old, no longer manufactured hard colored pencil that was made in the U.S.  I suspect mine came from some time around the late 1970s and early 1980s, based on the box design. In spite of having a hard core (lead), the pencil is not brittle. You can sharpen it to a long point and it won’t crumble under reasonable pressure. The 2745 is the eraser capped version of the old Verithin 745, which instead has a small metal cap — I think the eraser makes it more beautiful, personally.

I’ve used the 2745, now, for drawing and for correcting printed documents. It’s similar in appearance to the Eagle Black Warrior. Both are premium pencils, with the exact same brass ferule with painted band. The 2745 has a dark burgundy paint job, alluding to the red inside but not trying to duplicate it — it’s there for looks. When I throw together a bunch of pencils, the 2745 stands out. Contrast this to the Verithin of today, which has been stripped down to the basics — the paint job more closely matches what gets laid down on paper and there’s less ostensive design — there’s just letters, not even a metal cap. Hey, every penny counts and finishing-touches cost money.

I use the 2745 for both pre-drawing (which will later be finished with graphite) and for finished drawings where all I use is the red. This is an excellent hard colored pencil and I hope I have enough to last me for a while. I don’t know if I’ll ever catch another 2745 auction. Thankfully, the old 745 is common on eBay and if I ever need some, I can get them for cheap.

Berol – Blaisdell Ben Franklin 500 pencil

First of all, this pencil’s no longer made. However,  through the magic of the Internet, you can buy them online from auction sites like eBay. Amazing. In the pictures below, any warping is a result of my elite photography skills and high-end equipment –or lack thereof. I bought them new (NOS – New Old Stock) but couldn’t help myself and sharpened them all.

  

So far, I’ve purchased two grades of the Berol – Blaisdell Ben Franklin 500, the Medium Hard (3) and the Medium (3/6). In my pictures, the No 3 is more orange-yellow and has a plain brass colored ferule; the 3/6 is a lighter yellow and has a white stripe around the ferule. I’ve seen different styles, different lettering, color, No 3s with white stripes. There are pre-Berol Blaisdells… Here’s my review of the Blaisdell No. 3. You get the point. Your experience will vary.

I discovered that my pencils with the white paint on the ferule have only a golden/brass paint job. Rub off the bright yellow with an eraser and underneath there’s a dull, oxidized brown. I’m sure the metal was fine when they were new. I get it. No one’s fault. The yellow of the solid yellow ferule is yellow all the way — whatever the metal is. I have no clue. So sometimes beauty is only surface deep, after all. That’s the lesson for today, folks. I do like that white on the ferule, though…so disappointing.

Both grades have a thick lacquer coat of paint. The paint shines and, on most of the pencils I have, completely conceals the grain underneath. On pencils with thinner coats of paint, you can see the roughness of a cut or the contours of the grain.The thicker paint on the Ben Franklins gives the pencil a rounder feel along the edges of each face of the pencil. One of the Ben Franklins had a mean-rough cutting, though, and no amount of paint — short of a pouring a can of paint — would hide its raised ridges.

I would regard the 3/6 and the No. 3, both, as excellent writing pencils. In fact, I’m having a hard time using up the lead, it’s so long-lasting. Both pencils sharpen very nicely and have a nice cedar smell to them. Overall, an excellent pencil. I’ll definitely be picking up more Bens as they become available on eBay — and a gross would make my day.

I was surprised to not find any reviews or kinds words on the Internet for the Ben Franklins — plenty of quotes for some jolly, bald, white guy…but nothing on the pencils. It’s a shame, really, that such a nice product should go so quietly into the sunset of writing tools with nary a eulogy.

Here’s someone marking your passage, Ben Franklin 500. May you live forever is New Old Stock (NOS). And I’ll be seeing more of you in my future, I guarantee you. You were a fine pencil and you have a life-long admirer over here.

Eagle Black Warrior

The Black Warrior has a long history and has undergone a few name changes. Eagle, Berol, Paper Mate Mirado. It’s still being made — but do I have to say it? The new ones ain’t like the old ones.

The Black Warriors I got came in a Berol box, but the pencils themselves have the old Eagle brand on them. I saw them on eBay and wondered at the number of bidders vying for them. I did a search on the Internet and found out about the myth. I think only the Blackwing has more written on it. Turns out the Black Warrior is one of those fetishized pencils writers and would be writers dream about. Of course, once I figured it out, I was more than willing to fork out 90 bucks for a half gross — 6 boxes, a dozen each — still sealed in plastic. Instant writer cred, after all.

Or maybe they were once dreamt about — they’re old pencils and fewer and fewer people write with any pencil, nowadays. The writers I quote below talk about the Black Warrior as mostly existing in the past. This pencil made an impression on the writers, enough to be featured in their books. But who else but an artist would mind the memorableness of an object like a pencil or talk it up to the point that it’s transformed into more than its components — wood, graphite, metal and eraser. For the writers below, the Black Warrior is many things, from a good-looking pencil or valuable tool to a symbol that completely transcends the writing instrument.

I found the Eagle Black Warrior to be a great writing pencil. A writing pencil is a pencil that has writer friendly features, in contrast to an artist pencil or a general pencil, which have other properties.

Here are the writer-friendly properties of a Black Warrior:

• has an eraser
• sharpens well
• is a hard lead (retains a point and lasts a long time before needing resharpening; smudge resistant)
• glides smoothly on paper
• no coarse graphite irregularities
• chemically treated (Chemi-Sealed) to withstand lead breakage

And here are some general signs of a good pencil:

• no warping even after 30+ years
• well-centered lead for good sharpening
• quality paint and stamp job — no over-paint at the unsharpened end
• neat ferule attachment–seamless, no hole-pinched crimping

Stephen King and many others. will frequently refer to the Black Warrior in terms of a collection of them. It’s not about one pencil, it’s about a bunch of them, an army, an assault squad, or a box, a half-dozen, or four. They’re exhaustible ammunition, bullets in the writer’s arsenal. And they’re mentioned by first and last name — the manufacturer and the model and even the hardness.

 

From Misery by Stephen King:

“She sharpened his half-dozen Berol Black Warrior pencils, he wrote them dull, and Annie sharpened them again. They shrank steadily as he sat in the sun …”

From Zak’s Dream Machine By Michael Murphy:

 From The Lincoln Lawyer Novels: The Lincoln Lawyer, The Brass Verdict, The Reversal by Michael Connelly:

Janet Neipris makes the clearest statement about what a Black Warrior is to a writer. It’s THE pencil.

From: To be a Playwright by Janet Neipris:

Melissa F. Miller reaches poetic heights in her descriptions–while remarking on an idiosyncrasy of the pencil –it’s roundness; you have to position it just right or it rolls off the table. This is no mere tool at the service of a person. This object makes demands on you, too.

 From Critical Vulnerability By Melissa F. Miller

From  Pinkerton Waltz: The Oral History of Sadie Albin Aka Etta Place By Michael Thessen:

From Save Me A Place In Heaven By Jerry Deriso:

Finally, here’s Gerald Ribeiro, who treated the Black Warrior as more than just a mere pencil. Gerald doesn’t even use it for writing but it’s there for him when he’s writing, presumably with other pencils or maybe pens. Gerald was a social activist who co-founded and led a drug treatment organization until his death in 2002. He identified with the Black Warrior at a deeper more significant level than anyone else quoted here. And so to him goes the last quote.

From This Path I Took By Gerald Ribeiro:

I’m glad I got the chance to discover the Black Warrior. It meant a lot to many people and I’m glad I was able to find as much as I was able to.

Update (2019-12-6):

Here’s a comment from a post on pencils.com: