Staedtler erasers

Many times we read books by their covers, and when we see made in ... we immediately catalog things.

I got two erasers, both from Staedtler, both very similar looking, similar in size, shape, not so much in color or country of origin

On the left, in pink it is the Staedtler 526F C53 and on the right in yellow the Staedtler 526 35. One born in Germany while the other in Thailand.

Both erasers came in a plastic wrap, while the protective cover of the pink one can be used as a protective cover. Both erasers have the Staedtler logo on them, even though it's more visible on the pink one as it is a deeper embossing.

The simple test consists of erasing a softer 4B lead and a more standard HB polymer lead.

And here are the results of the test. Both did a good job, especially on the polymer lead. The 4B was a little bit trickier. The German is more prone to smudging and feels a bit sticky. And this is seen on the eraser as it gets dirty, especially after using it on the 4B lead.
On the other hand, the Thai is crumbling a bit more while erasing, keeping it cleaner.

I can not say that one is a clear winner, as they both did well in certain areas. The German was a hair better at writing and lines, but because the Thai crumbles more it was more effective in the areas where there were a lot of pencil marks.

 Taking a look at the eraser dust it's clear that the German sheds less, and usually in finner dust that the Thai.

Congrats to both fighters for doing a good job. On the left the Pink German Staedtler 526F C53 and on the right the Yellow Thai Staedtler 526 35

Staedtler Mars Lumograph in the movie Click

Adam Sandler playing the role of an architect in the movie Click is using a Staedtler Mars Lumograph, one of the best looking pencils on the market.
The Mars Lumograph is available in blue and black. It comes in a very large spectrum of hardness from 10H to 12B.

I guess they could have added to the scene some Mars Matics technical drawing pen to make it more immersive.

Gutberlet manufacturer of mechanical pencils for Rotring and Staedtler?

Fact: In 1995 Gutberlet GmbH acquired the rights to the Kaweco name.
Enter the Gutberlet site and you are welcomed by an outdated, plain looking site of an unknown manufacturer.
If you look at the products you are up for a treat
"Components for pens – technical components – decoration foils / heat-transfer-foils – packaging – OEM-production for pens."

"Push pencil aluminium with 0,3/0,5/0,7 und 0,9mm leads"

rOtring Tikky T (first version)

rOtring Esprit

Staedtler 925 25 03

Staedtler 925 05 and Staedler 925 65

Staedtler and Rotring

All of the images were taken from the Goultberg presentation portfolio link


Related post: kaweco OEM

Noris pencil in a digital world

On the 30th of March 1858, the first patent for a pencil with an eraser at the end was issued to Hymen Lipman
What is next? Well, the Staedtler Noris has a stylus ...

from Staedtler Catalogue 2017

of course, if you think that merging to items into one is the way to create a bad product you can stick to the Noris HB and get the new Noris Digital, launched in 2017

Stadtler Tradition pencil seen on screen

Seen on the screen comes back. Now with a pencil, Tradition 110 from Staedtler. According to Staedtler website, the Tradition is a High-quality pencil for writing, drawing, and sketching has an unbelievably break-resistant through special lead formulation and super-bonded lead. The wood is from certified, sustainably managed forests (I don't know what to say about this, we all heard about VW). Well, who knows let's give them credit until proven wrong.
The pencil comes in 12 degrees of hardness

Made in Germany.


In the movie The Numbers Station (2013) a bunch of Staedtler Tradition pencils can be spotted, apparently, grade B. The movie is poor - ok-ish but I'm not going to make further comments on the movie quality.
The main actors are John Cusack and Malin Akerman.
Note: I want to mention if by chance you see in the rest of the post the name Tom Cusack it's the same actor John, it's just I like to call him Tom :). He looks like a Tom for me.
Now that Tom is out of the way:

Right in the first scenes when the two are in the bunker receiving/sending numbers the pencils can be spotted.

With very good eyesight and zoom, you can actually see Tradition B written on the pencil in the middle.

In this first two images, John Cusack is picking up the pencil from the bunch and plays with it.


In the picture above Malin Akerman is holding the pen, taking notes

Spot the Staedtler.
Apparently, it is also good for holding your hair, not only for writing. Who knew?!

As I said before the movie is, how it is, but I have learned that Staedtler Tradition is good for playing when bored, good for writing, and good for holding your hair (if you have long hair)
Also, the movie made me aware that a number station is a real thing, not a made up bunker for John/Tom Cusack and Malin Akerman.

According to Wikipedia:
"A numbers station is a type of shortwave radio station characterized by unusual broadcasts, reading out lists of numbers or incomprehensible coded messages. The voices are often created by speech synthesis and are transmitted in a wide variety of languages. The voices are usually female, although sometimes men's or children's voices are used. Some voices are synthesized and created by machines; however, some stations used to have live readers. Many numbers stations went off the air due to the end of the Cold War in 1989, but many still operate and some have even continued operations but changed schedules and operators."

How does a number station work?
A number station provides a way to communicate in plain sight, transmitting a series of characters or numbers over radio waves. Everyone can listen to the transmission but only those who have the decrypter can understand the message.
The people decrypting needs a one time pad which is provided in advance.
More about one-time pad -The Laws of Cryptography