How many times has this scene played out in your house? You are running late, someone is missing a shoe and at the very last possible minute someone says, "I need pencils for a test". Being that we homeschool and I am a complete freak for school supply sales, there are literally ten to twenty packs of unopened pencils in the house at any given time. That does me no good when we are out the door, the alarm is set and there's no time to go through the routine to get a pack of pencils. That is what happened about a month ago and the only place that was open at eight in the morning was my local grocery store. Not being thrilled that someone waited until the last possible second to tell me that he needed number two pencils for a standardized test [those annoying fill in the dot tests], I rounded everyone up and we made our way to the pathetic school section. That's when I saw these for .99 cents. You can't even get a coffee for .99 cents and I was getting a dozen primo pencils. Not a bad price but I was convinced that these would flat out suck, the points would break or the erasers would fall apart the first time you used them.

PaperMate American Natural Pencil No. 2 Lead

PaperMate states: "Natural wood pencil with no plastic fillers or lacquer. Made from 100 real wood. Contains no rainforest wood." Does any of that really mean anything to me? Not really. It's not that I don't care about the rainforest or conservation but pencils have to be made and until they come up for something to use as a substitute for wood [and I am not talking about automatic or mechanical pencils], we are stuck chopping down trees. One thing that I do like about these is there is no coating or paint on the outside of the pencil. When I get nervous I do one of three things; eat, smoke or chew on things. Straws are usually my first pick but I have been known to gnaw through pencils in about ten minutes. How disgusting is it to reach for a pencil from someone's desk and it has all those tiny little bite marks in it. If that's you then these are pencils that you can [obvious pun here] sink your teeth into without worrying about ending up with paint chips all over your face. They also feel a little different from pencils that have a coating or finish to them, it is a little hard to explain but if you see them in an office supply store and they are in the sleeve instead of the pouch, pull one out and see how they feel.

The lead is a standard number two so they are acceptable for taking standardized tests; professors, instructions and proctors all stress that in order for the machine to be able to read the answers on the sheet, you have to use a number two lead. Even though mechanical and automatic pencils have number two lead, it isn't the same as what you get from a wooden pencil. They sharpen nicely and hold a point for a longer time than other number two pencils. It doesn't matter if you are using an electric sharpener or a hand held manual one, as long as you have a good grip on the pencil, you are going to get a nice point on the end. Erasers are something that I am generally not impressed with; most of the rubber erasers leave behind a grit that needs to be cleaned up or they ruin the surface of the paper. Not true with these; there is a minimal amount of grit but not what I would call an excessive amount. It removed the lead evenly and neatly without putting a hole in the paper or wearing it thin.

You can get these in two different packages; both of them have a dozen pencils but PaperMate offers them in the usual plastic package or in the cardboard sleeve. They are really trying to push the whole 'save the environment' issue so the ones with the cardboard sleeve are the ones that you will come across most of the time if you are shopping at office supply stores. I paid .99 cents for the package at the grocery store and was amazed that they were selling anything for that low a price. You usually end up paying top dollar at grocery stores; I even asked one of the clerks if they were priced wrong as the other packages of pencils [regular, wooden, yellow pencils] were almost twice as much as these. He shrugged his shoulders and gave me a look so I didn't press the issue. Granted, we have tons of pencils at home and I don't need to buy any for another two or three years but if I even find myself in a situation where I need to buy them, I will most definitely get these at the grocery store.

The Bottom Line

Most of the time I can't be bothered with regular wooden pencils. I like to have a nice sharp point all the time and that is something that you can only get from an automatic or mechanical pencil; with that being said, I do like writing with these. The lead doesn't smear even when writing on paper that lacks a thick grain and it erases evenly. They are suitable for all standardized tests given in schools and because of the price, if they get lost [or chewed up], it's not a bug deal. I wish I would have known about these a couple of years ago. I could have saved myself the embarrassment of having chips of yellow paint on my face. Sure, go ahead and laugh but the next time you are stressed out and find yourself biting on a pencil, make sure you take a look in the mirror and do a quick 'lip check' so people won't be looking at you like you need to be committed. Two freaky thumbs up for these all natural pencils from PaperMate, how long will it be before they branch out and make colored pencils from all natural, non-rainforest harvested wood?


As always, thanks for the visit…

~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~

© 2007 Freak369


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Recommended: Yes