Musgrave Pencil Company Tennessee Red Pencil, Wood-Cased Graphite #2 HB Soft, Un-Sharpened, Eastern Red Cedar Pencil, 12-Pack in Box

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The Musgrave Pencil Company, like the General Pencil Company, is one of the last independent American pencil makers. Headquartered in Shelbyville, Tennessee, the famous “Pencil City”, Musgrave has been in business since 1916. Tombow 2558 “For General Writing”. I had to have one yellow No. 2 on here, right? Over the years, I’ve used this pencil in B, HB, and H grades, and frankly, they’re all excellent. Even Tombow’s “H” graphite maintains legibility without sacrificing point retention. The eraser is also ridiculously good, and the ferrule firmly attaches to the barrel to the point where I’ve never had one come loose, much less fall off. I note that just like Mrs. Strong, Musgrave has found a way to sell a pencil at the price point of the Graf von Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil. I’m not a professional marketer, but I salute Musgrave for this breakthrough. The 9852 is a great all-round pencil with a classic look despite coming from Mitsubishi Pencil Co., who doesn’t tend to include erasers on many of their pencils. This is a nice pencil for general writing with a very good eraser and a deep bronze-colored ferrule that just looks plain cool. I really enjoy the writing on the side as well, saying “Master Writing” and “* HB *” prominently on three sides.

Inside the box is a dozen natural finish Tennessee Cedar pencils with gold ferrules and bright white erasers. The branding is printed in red foil on the natural, hex pencils. Musgrave is a family-owned, 100-year-old pencil factory located in Tennessee that prides itself on making a pencil that is simple, utilitarian, and yet the starting point for creativity, education, and human connection. The cedar is covered in some sort of polyurethane or similar coating to give it a little shine and to protect the wood. This coating looks great, but it does wear over time, particularly where the pencil is held and any little damage spots, such as where a sharpener hit the wood body. This isn’t a problem but can cause some unsightly spots where the coating starts to flake.To summarize, there are some challenges, but I really like the story of this pencil. Telling me that the slat is 90 years old grants a lot of forgiveness.

Buyer's Note: Because of the nature of the wood - the delightfully aromatic Eastern Red Cedar - some cores may be slightly off-center and wood may have modest visible wear. The Musgrave Bugle 1816 is a round, eraserless, light toned (Bass wood?), natural finish pencil with an HB/#2 graphite core. The body of the pencil is coated with a clear glossy lacquer and has a white text imprint reading “Musgrave Pencil Inc. Shelbyville Tenn.” and “Bugle 1816,” flanked by an image of a bugle on either side. This pencil feels light weight in my hand, and the graphite seems a mite softer and darker to me than a standard #2. You can see some indications of grain and natural striations in the wood, and while the base color of the wood is lighter, the Musgrave Bugle 1816 is otherwise very similar to the basic pencils made by Henry David Thoreau and his family, as CW Pencils notes. Musgrave 909 Ceres Musgrave 909 Ceres Their pencils aren’t generally available in Canada – at least the ones they make in their own name. Home Depot carpenter’s pencils and other private label products they manufacture seem to be more common. I’ve written previously about some Unigraphs that I once found.There is one physical difference apart from the eraser – the hexagonal shape is much less rounded than the Castell or Mars. You can feel the edges of the pencil quite clearly. I really like this. Vintage pencils had similarly unrounded edges. So how were these slats made? Perhaps pioneer fellow Tennessee manufacturer Wagner Pencil, who process American timber into pencil slats, gave assistance. Or perhaps Musgrave engaged with a wood processor not part of the pencil industry to create these slats. In any case, it is very interesting. It isn’t a good pencil. Yet, it is unusual and compelling in multiple ways. I hope it will continue, perhaps with gradual improvements. In an unusually transparent act, the manufacturer has noted that the pencil has issues. Avoiding a single supplier is just good business sense. And finding a local supplier is additionally beneficial for the environment. Finding a way to make more of a pencil locally is a breakthrough. The pencil writes very nicely (the lead seems to be a step up from that of the Tennessee Red), with a dark line, nice glide, and minimal crumbling.