Blackwing Volume 6: The Small Business Pencil

 

 

The latest Blackwing Volumes has arrived! Volume 6 is the Small Business pencil. We are here for it. Two colours of pencils, inspired by the neon lights of shop signs. Soft graphite, and a matte finish. What a great Final volumes edition of the year.

 

 

 

Here is the wording from the box:

 

“In 1912, French engineer Georges Claude installed the world’s first neon sign above a barbershop in Paris. His vibrant, tubular lights soon adorned the storefronts of small businesses around the world, and symbolized the entrepreneurial drive that formed the backbone of their communities.

 

Today, the spirit of “Main Street” is more resilient than ever. It can be found in urban cities and rural towns, bookstores and coffee shops, boutiques and restaurants. It’s one of the many things that make our homes feel special. And it’s worth preserving.

 

The Blackwing 6 celebrates independent businesses and their entrepreneurial spirit. Each set comes with six neon red and six neon blue pencils inspired by the iconic neon “Open” sign. Each pencil features a black ferrule, black imprint, and our soft graphite. The number 6 is a nod to the six Noble Gases which give neon lights their distinct colors (colours).”

 

 

 

We’re a fan of this pencil. We are, after all, a small business. While it may perhaps be pushing it a bit to claim we are the backbone of Toronto, we do maintain the garbage bins in front of our shop that are used by various businesses and pedestrians who walk along Clinton Street, and that is no small investment in time, as people, at a shocking frequency, leave furniture, toilets, bags of garbage, unbagged garbage, boxes of recycling, mattresses, refrigerators, once an entire dining set, etc. We are the backbone of the organization of garbage on our small strip of Clinton, the maybe 50 metres extending north from College.

 

We are thrilled to join in the celebration of small businesses. And it’s also always a delight to open a fresh box of these luxurious, extra long pencils. A full box before it’s raided by children, the first sharpened one.

 

 

And as a special, unrelated bonus, we also have these new eraser caps from Faber-Castell. I feel like I have been waiting a long time for them, because I have kids at home who are constantly trying to erase things. The small erasers on the end of my pencils, both Blackwings or some of Mitsubishi pencils or various others, are all completely demolished, and often those jumbo pencils for kids don’t have erasers on the end. I have grown weary of providing erasers and then having to spend my limited life’s minutes finding them for the helpless children I’m apparently raising.

 

They are good for either end, and couldn’t we all use something multi-functioning these days. Erasers for pencils that don’t have a wide ferrule and eraser on the end, or as a cap on the pointy end to prevent your lead from breaking, or from leaving graphite on the inside of your pencil case or bag.