Pencils

I’ve been really into stationary lately, and my latest exploration is pencils. Current battle is between the Palomino Blackwing 602 and the Musgrave Pencil Company Tennessee Red.

The Blackwings are pretty well known and you can find a bunch of stuff online about them, so I won’t linger on them too long. With my testing so far they definitely live up to the hype (at least in my opinion).

The Tennessee Reds on the other hand seem to fly under the radar. The company is based out of Shelbyville TN (not too far from where I live) and they’re made out of Tennessee Red Cedar. The result is a pretty sturdy pencil that smells amazing when you sharpen it. The graphite looks similar to the Blackwings but I’m not sure I would say they write as well.

There is something wonderful about the tactile feel of the graphite on some good paper, the sound, and the motion of sharpening it as it dulls. I can’t say it will replace my daily writing pens, but I do plan to use them at my desk for meetings and perhaps for sketching if I get back into it.

Thanks for coming to my pencil talk 🤓