u/dwasifar

A new friend gave me these in exchange for a bit of handcraft work. I clearly got the better end of the deal. Look at them. Just LOOK at them. Every one of them a literal work of art. (Well, except for the Natural, but that's still elegant in its simplicity.) Even my wife, who views my pencil hoarding with bemusement, agrees that these are simply the coolest. Thanks! (You know who you are.)

Part of the fun of Musgrave seconds is looking up the businesses and institutions they were made for. In the most recent batch, I found the company for every one except this one.

I've googled every search I can think of, with no luck. So I'm throwing the question open. What company or institution was it intended for? Who can track it down?

It's a windsock. No words. The image is on both ends, so I think it was intended as a golf sized pencil.

I was hoping this last one would be a little different than the others and I was not disappointed.

• 8 round teachers' pencils with messages about achievement and leadership.
• 3 round foil sports themed (basketball and soccer).
• 23 round smiley face theme. Some of them have blank space that seems intended for later custom imprint.
• 36 round black LA Metro. These are a cool minimalist design, I like them a lot.
• 1 hex natural "To Bed or to Sleep," which I know to be from an Outlander-themed set.
• 1 hex blue Athreya Lab.
• 1 round blue Peach State Lumber Products.
• 39 hex black D&D pencils with the various messages described earlier.
• 10 hex dark green with slight finish flaws.
• 3 hex dark blue with various finish and wood flaws.
• 19 hex mint green with various finish and wood flaws.

I found where they sell these D&D pencils.

That's all, folks! Local schools get a windfall.

This one has a lot more of those weird quotes in it, and I realized DM doesn't stand for District Manager as I assumed; it means Dungeon Master. These are for D&D players. It all makes so much more sense now.

• 31 round natural Home Depot, with wood flaws, a few too serious to really use.
• 31 round teachers' pencils, mostly multiplication tables and Do Your Best On This Test!
• 14 hex black "Use your words / You don't have to kill everything."
• 15 hex black "Move it along, pal / Don't wait until your turn / To get ready for your turn."
• 7 hex black "The DM isn't actually out to get you / So if the DM asks, 'Are you sure?' / Maybe think again..."
• 4 hex black "Don't split the party / Nobody wants to play with a jerk."
• 1 hex black "Not everything is trying to kill you / But definitely check for traps."
• 1 hex black "Do the voices / You put the RP in RPG."
• 10 round Books of the Bible in various garish colors.
• 1 hex black CA State RR Museum - All Aboard.
• 15 hex blue Athreya Lab.
• 5 hex mint green plain with various wood and finish flaws.
• 4 hex dark blue plain with various wood and finish flaws.
• 2 hex white plain with wood flaws.
• 1 hex natural plain.

One box to go.

Here we go with box 6. Mostly like box 1.

• 13 round natural Home Depot with wood flaws.
• 17 round foil teachers' pencils, mostly Drug Free and Happy Valentines Day.
• 1 round baby blue Songwriter with wood flaw.
• 7 round STEM (2 black, 2 blue, 2 green, 1 red).
• 2 round natural Hanson Sure-Point Finishing pencil.
• 1 round dark green Kuiken Brothers.
• 2 round black Eskenazi Museum with wood flaws.
• 1 hex cream Gallery at Wehner's.
• 1 round hex windsock illustration.
• 1 hex baby blue Westford Kumon.
• 1 hex blue Kellenberg Memorial High School.
• 1 round black Holt & Bugbee.
• 1 hex black "You're not done until you have checked your work."
• 27 round white plain with various wood and finish flaws.
• 17 hex aqua blue plain with various wood and finish flaws.
• 16 hex dark blue plain with various wood and finish flaws.
• 14 hex pink plain with various wood and finish flaws.
• 11 hex dark green plain with various wood and finish flaws.
• 7 hex mint green plain with various wood and finish flaws.
• 3 hex baby blue plain with various wood and finish flaws.

Two more boxes to go.

A lot like the first box.

• 10 round natural Home Depot with wood flaws.
• 20 round foil teachers' pencils, mostly Happy Valentine's Day.
• 4 round STEM (2 green, 2 black).
• 2 round natural Hanson Sure-Point Finish Pencil.
• 1 round baby blue Songwriter with wood flaw.
• 2 hex cream Gallery at Wehner's.
• 1 hex copper Calvert Hall.
• 6 round white windsock illustration with wood flaws.
• 2 round black-on-black Spyscape Technical Ops.
• 27 round white plain with finish flaws.
• 12 hex dark green plain with various wood and finish flaws.
• 4 hex pink plain with various wood and finish flaws.
• 12 hex dark green plain with various wood and finish flaws.
• 32 hex aqua blue plain with various wood and finish flaws.
• 1 hex mint green plain with wood and finish flaws.
• 16 hex dark blue plain with various wood and finish flaws.
• 2 hex canary yellow plain with wood and finish flaws.
• 1 hex natural plain.
• 1 hex natural Harvest.

More to come.

Oh, some fun ones in this box.

• 32 round natural Home Depot with wood flaws.
• 35 round various teacher's pencils, mostly multiplication tables and Do Your Best On This Test!
• 16 hex black "Use your words / You don't have to kill everything."
• 2 round dark blue Pasadena Hotel.
• 16 hex black "Move it along, pal / Don't wait until your turn / To get ready for your turn."
• 3 round day-glo yellow Books of the Bible. (Finally something the schools won't take. Don't know what I'll do with these.)
• 11 hex blue Athreya Lab.
• 10 hex black "The DM isn't actually out to get you / So if the DM asks, 'Are you sure?' / Maybe think again..."
• 3 hex black "Don't split the party / Nobody wants to play with a jerk."
• 1 hex black "Not everything is trying to kill you / But definitely check for traps."
• 1 hex dark red Ms. Basile's Forest Friends.
• 2 hex white plain with finish flaws.
• 1 hex green plain with finish flaws.
• 6 hex mint green plain with various wood and finish flaws.
• 4 hex dark blue plain with minor finish flaws.
• 1 hex natural plain.

The black ones with the weird sayings on them look like they're all part of the same set. Never seen anything like these.

I looked up Athreya Lab, and I found that the lab is actually Atreya Lab, but is run by a Dr. Athreya. So I imagine there's a full run of this misspelling spread across boxes of seconds.

Speaking of things one has never seen, my apologies to anyone who had to look at my bare feet and bathrobe before I fixed the last post.

So far, nothing the schools won't take, which is good.

• 13 round natural Home Depot. A lot of these HD ones are just capped on the wrong end, nothing else the matter with them.
• 24 round foil teacher's pencils, mostly Happy Valentine's Day from Teacher or Drug Free School. (Kids today have it so easy. When I was in school, we had to PAY for our drugs.)
• 1 round natural Hanson Sure-Point Finishing Pencil.
• 1 round baby blue Songwriter.
• 9 round STEM (3 red, 3 green, 2 black, 1 blue).
• 3 round white windsock illustration, with wood damage.
• 2 hex dark red Riverdale Country School.
• 1 hex baby blue Westford Kumon.
• 1 round black Eskenazi Museum with wood damage.
• 1 hex blue Kellenberg Memorial High School.
• 1 hex cream Gallery at Wehner's.
• 20 round plain white with various finish and wood flaws.
• 7 hex plain dark green with various finish and wood flaws.
• 28 hex plain aqua blue with various finish and wood flaws. One of these has a deep crack that I'm going to put a little bit of wood glue in.
• 18 hex plain dark blue with various finish and wood flaws.
• 6 hex plain pink with various finish and wood flaws.
• 2 hex plain mint green with finish and wood flaws.
• 2 hex plain canary yellow with finish flaws.
• 1 hex plain cerulean blue with wood flaw.
• 3 hex natural Harvest.

Stay tuned.

This box is much like the first.

• 11 round natural Home Depot, most with minor wood flaws.
• 1 round black Holt & Bugbee 200, capped on wrong end.
• 4 round natural Hanson Sure-Point Finish Pencil.
• 15 round foil teacher pencils, all but one are Happy Valentine's Day from Teacher.
• 6 round STEM (3 black, 2 green, 1 red).
• 1 round white dog paw imprint (wife will want that).
• 1 hex blue Kellenberg Memorial High School #691 (boy, that must be really hard lead).
• 1 hex copper "They're writing in their notebooks over there," which is probably intended to teach the difference between they're/their/there (a losing battle).
• 2 hex white "The effect of good penmanship can greatly affect legibility," which is ditto for effect/affect, though the sentence is grammatically questionable.
• 1 hex cream Gallery at Wehner's, which I hope is not pronounced Weiners.
• 1 round black-on-black Spyscape Technical Ops.
• 2 round white windsock illustration with wood flaws..
• 31 round white plain, with finish and wood flaws.
• 25 hex aqua blue plain, with various wood and finish flaws.
• 6 hex mint green plain, with various wood and finish flaws.
• 11 hex dark blue plain, with various wood and finish flaws.
• 11 hex dark green plain, with various wood and finish flaws.
• 6 hex pink plain, with various wood and finish flaws.
• 1 hex lilac plain.
• 1 hex baby blue plain, with wood flaw.
• 1 hex natural plain.
• 1 hex yellow Ceres with wood flaw.

I suspect some of these pastel colored plain ones were supposed to be pastel Ceres and never made it to imprinting.

Ordered 8 boxes this time because that's where the shipping cost sweet spot is. Here's what came in the first box.

• 12 round natural Home Depot. Some have wood flaws, most are perfect.
• 1 round Songwriter with wood flaw at the end (cut for tip)
• 2 round natural Hanson Sure-Point Finish Pencil. These are sold at home centers like Menards.
• 12 round foil teacher pencils. Most say Happy Valentines Day from Teacher.
• 4 round STEM pencils (2 red, 2 black).
• 3 hex dark red Riverdale Country School.
• 1 hex powder blue Westford Kumon.
• 1 hex yellow "For top secret notes," which is way cool.
• 1 hex black "You're not done until you've checked your work."
• 1 round black Eskenazi Museum of Art, with wood flaw at the end (cut for tip). (What's an Eskenazi? An Inuit Hitler?)
• 1 round white with artwork of a wind sock.
• 5 round black-on-black Spyscape Technical Ops.
• 34 round white plain, mostly with paint cracks along the glue line.
• 9 hex mint green plain with various finish and wood flaws.
• 14 hex aqua plain with various finish and wood flaws. One has a hole right through into the lead, and no paint on the lead, which is interesting.
• 8 hex dark green plain with various finish and wood flaws.
• 21 hex dark blue plain with various finish and wood flaws.
• 11 hex pink plain with various finish and wood flaws.
• 1 hex sky blue plain with finish flaws.
• and finally, one hex natural Harvest, which I didn't even know was a thing.

Thankfully no Angelo's Fairmount Tavern in this box. A good assortment and nothing the schools won't take.

Since it was so well received yesterday, here are more writing samples, again from just the pencils I happen to have on my desk at the moment. 31 pencils. I think I may have a problem.

No cracks about my handwriting this time. :D

For no good reason, I did a writing test with the ten different pencils I have on my desk at the moment. The ones that have random imprints came from Musgrave seconds boxes.

Out of the bunch, the darkest line came from the Musgrave Harvest Pro. It's very smooth to write with. Mitsubishi is also very smooth, and more comfortable, but not quite as dark. Of the Musgrave seconds, I like the Kerrisdale one best. It seems smoother than the others, which all mostly feel like the Ceres. Smoothest is probably the Mars Lumograph, no surprise, given its price. Wopex doesn't deserve to be called an HB2.

If I were picking things to buy more of, it'd be the Mitsubishi and the Harvest Pro.

(Edited to clarify Harvest Pro rather than regular Harvest.)

Been making pencil cups out of scrap wood.

I paid $19 shipped.

Mostly from my recent Musgrave order.

• Harvest, which I really like. Oddly, they have the wrong ferrule. Should be a brown band.
• Ceres in pastel. I like the Ceres a lot too, so the pastels are fun.
• The James Webb Telescope commemorative set. Not even going to open these, it's just to have them.
• Yellow Special. Actually quite nice for a budget stick.
• Staedtler Wopex. Wanted to try them. I don't like them. Writes very light.
• And finally, black Ticonderogas, just because I don't have any, and they were three bucks to fill out an Amazon order and get overnight delivery.