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German Pencil Wars

There is an interesting story today in the Wall Street Journal about the "pencil wars" between two historic German companys in our industry. Who's the oldest? Who's the best? Who's the most innovative? Interviews of Count Anton (Toni) Faber-Castel…

New Product Update

We are pleased to inform you that the new Palomino Blackwing will officially be available for purchase exclusively at Pencils.com on Friday, October 1st. If you are a registered user/customer at Pencils.com you will be receiving the first of…

Reviving the Blackwing: Sales Launch Update

Rather than continuing on schedule with previously planned posts about our design and development process I thought I’d respond to all the inquiries we’re getting about when we’ll actually begin taking orders for the new Palomino Blackwing. As…

Reviving the Blackwing: Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed

Honestly, there was indeed a debate about whether to include this phrase long associated with the Blackwing on our new pencil. Many Blackwing fans seem to feel quite strongly that this slogan should have been used and do associate this slogan…

Reviving the Blackwing: Eraser Performance and Design

Ultimately, as we all now understand the story, the breakdown of the specialized ferrule production equipment and the costs to repair or replace the machine factored in the decision by Newell Rubbermaid (Sanford) to discontinue the Blackwing.…

Diane Wright- The Queen of Landscape Pencil Art

Visit 'Featured Artist' Diane Wright's personal website at www.dianewrightfineart.com. She also frequently posts updates on her blogs: dwrightart.blogspot.com featuring works in progress and dwrightsketches.blogspot.com featuring sketches and…

Reviving the Blackwing: Lacquer Finish and Imprint

This feature set was considered the fourth most important across our six features ranked by our test groups. Here there is a clear allegiance among traditional Blackwing fans to the historic charcoal or graphite gray gloss finish and imprinting…

Reviving the Blackwing: Graphite Performance

Overall, in our Palomino Blackwing bench test graphite smoothness and graphite wear came out as the first and third most important features of the six specific product features our survey groups were asked to prioritize. The second most important…

Reviving the Blackwing: Understanding the Traditional Blackwing Fan

Welcome back. I hope that you’re enjoying this series of posts as we explore our company’s journey to revive the Blackwing. (To catch up if you’re new see Post One and Post Two) As promised today is the day I’ll begin focusing on our…

Reviving the Blackwing: Why take on this Challenge?

In Part One of this Series, I introduced our current process of gathering initial consumer response to our new Palomino Blackwing pencil. While we’re completing our evaluation of responses today I answer the question “Why is CalCedar reviving…