How Blackwing Pencils are Made [video]

A couple of months ago, I went with my daughter and six-year-old grandson to the Kita-Boshi Pencil factory in eastern Tokyo [1]. He is a first-grader at a public elementary school in Yokohama, and he is learning to write using wooden pencils.

We had watched many times a similar video [2] showing pencils being made at the Kita-Boshi factory. The production line wasn’t operating the day we went, but we still got a full introduction to the history and manufacture of pencils from the company chairman [3], who is very enthusiastic about the pencil business. The other attendees were all elementary school children and their parents or grandparents.

There used to be dozens of pencil factories in Tokyo, but Kita-Boshi is one of the few remaining. The larger Japanese pencil brands, such as Tombow and Mitsubishi, now source most of their production from places like Vietnam or China.

We came back home with a bag full of Kita-Boshi pencils that I bought there. I don’t use pencils much myself anymore, but when I tried writing with them they felt smoother and easier to write with than the wooden pencils I used as a child in the U.S. sixty years ago.

[1] http://www.kitaboshi.co.jp/pencil-lab/

[2] https://youtu.be/Lk_57TP6RFk

[3] https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/local/tokyo23/feature/CO100007/202...

Wait they didn't show how they insert the graphite into the wood. That's the only reason why I was watching this.

I have a box of 120 Blackwing pencils of all types. They look nice, expensive, but a bad tool.

(review -> https://www.instagram.com/p/CrD5KRnuLnh/?img_index=2&igsh=cD... )

They are not suitable for fine drawing (too waxy and soft) - those are either STAEDTLER, FaberCastell, or Tombow (Japanese brand).

The fancy tip eraser is also not very useful. The metal around it is so soft, it can't hold any pressure. Also extremely not child friendly, as the small metal part inside just fells out.

Tombow Mono - de-facto standard eraser.

I like how-to videos—restoration videos even more.

I find something "restorative" (ha, ha) for the soul watching a thing made, restored.

I can't help thinking of David Rees. This guy is hilarious https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KabOfnbS4TQ&t=139s

More companies should do this kind of advertisement.

This stuff is everywhere lately. They are spending some good money.

I remember using these when I was young, and being quite disappointed when the local store quit carrying them.

Glad to have them back for note-taking and sketching.

They aren't the same since they were brought back.