Schreibbleistifte Nr. II

The Schreibbleistifte Nr. II from Graf von Faber-Castell was a kind of transitional version; they were still desk-length but the design for the eraser housing and eraser cap was improved. At some point, desk-length pencils with the eraser housing were discontinued.

The original version featured a brass screw which is where the two-piece eraser housing attached:

This second version allows for the eraser to be placed inside the metal housing, then the cap is screwed on rather than simply being pushed on:

My guess is that this change may have come as a result of the original caps attaching in a less secure manner, though I’ve never had one slide off on me; the tolerances are incredibly tight. The only problem now though is that the old erasers and old cap would no longer fit the new pencils. Not to worry—a silver-plated replacement could be found inside the box:

These older pencils have leads that are darker than the current ones, but I don’t know exactly when or why the change was made. I think the older leads were as close to perfect (for my needs and preferences) as you can get.

In a future post I will try and put together examples of each of the Graf von Faber-Castell pencils (or at least of the early ones).