![]() ![]() A Japanese pencil manufacturer was commissioned to try and duplicate the look and feel of the genuine Blackwing 602, and rights to use the “Blackwing” name were acquired by California Cedar Products. There is no material connection between the Palomino Blackwing and the genuine Blackwing 602 pencil whatsoever. Question: Are Palomino Blackwing pencils the same thing as the Blackwing 602 pencil? “The Blackwing is Back”), capitalizing on the genuine Blackwing’s established reputation among pencil fans.Ģ. From the beginning, aspects of the advertising campaigns have blurred the distinction (e.g. Instead, two lookalikes of the pencil bearing the name “Blackwing” have been launched by California Cedar, and are manufactured in Japan. California Cedar Products has used the word “revival” to suggest that production of the Blackwing 602 has begun again. It was a product of the Eberhard Faber Company (U.S.A.), though for a brief time it was also made by Faber-Castell (see my portrait for more about the Blackwing’s history). The Blackwing 602 pencil was discontinued in 1998 after being manufactured for more than 60 years. No, but California Cedar Products would like for you to believe so. Question: Is the Blackwing 602 being made again? The Palomino “Blackwing Experience” as Cultural Vandalism:ġ. is now in danger of being re-written-including the intriguing true story of one of America’s last great pencils, the Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602. Over a half-century’s worth of writing culture in the U.S. I have nothing against California Cedar or their right to make pencils and profit from them, but I think the way they have gone about doing it vis-à-vis the Blackwing has been questionable and at times, even contemptible. In other words, should a pencil advertisement even require clarification? But don’t be drawn into parsing whether something they claim is ‘completely’ true or ‘partly’ true-arguing the finer points is to lose sight of the larger, much more important issue-that simply having to argue at all about how “true” it is tells us a great deal about the advertisement to begin with. I think that the Blackwing deserves an advocate, regardless of whether it’s me or not decide for yourself whether they have been forthright and honest in their dealings. It’s taken years for me to research, document, collect, photograph, and present what I’ve been able to discover about the history of the Blackwing 602-which has in part served as an involuntary source of reference for California Cedar-and to see what California Cedar has further done with it has motivated me to document the distortions. This history is even more prone to disappearing and being forgotten if the pencil is no longer being made, like the Blackwing. Those of us who have an interest in pencils know that one of the hardest things to do is to document a particular pencil’s history, because little of that information is shared outside the manufacturer. Pencils are one of life’s simple pleasures, and the Blackwing 602 is a special one at that. But things have gotten so out of hand I felt it was important for there to be an account which enumerates how the PR campaign for the so called “revived” or “re-introduced” Blackwing has distorted and possibly tarnished the Blackwing’s story and legacy. It grieves me for my site to have a page like this one. ![]()
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