Getting ready for the start of play in Pool A, the talk was all about second place. The pundits were expecting Japan’s Pentel to be the winner, with America’s Parker and Germany’s Staedtler putting up a good fight, but ultimately being left to battle it out for second place. Wildcard entry and rank outsider Student’s Choice from China was expected to be completely out-classed.Pool play went largely as expected. Students Choice was completely out-classed in the all important strength tests, but did finish a creditable second in the blackness test. Parker put up an outstanding challenge in the strength test but was ultimately piped at the post by Pentel. Perhaps these efforts then left Parker exhausted because they finished last in the blackness test.
The individual event placings were, from first place to fourth:
Blackness – Staedtler, Pentel & Students Choice (2=), Parker.
Smear Resistance – Pentel & Parker (1=), Staedtler, Students Choice.
Erasability – Staedtler, Pentel & Parker (2=), Students Choice.
Strength – Pentel, Parker, Staedtler, Students Choice.
So with an overall score of 7, Pentel was the clear winner of Pool A, followed by the quiet achiever Staedtler on 10, Parker on 11 and Students Choice last on 18 points. The poor showing in the blackness test really hurt Parker as they would otherwise have beaten Staedtler into second place.
Attention is now turning to Pool B where the competition is expected to be intense and even.
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10 comments:
*looks for the betting window*
Ladbrookes and the other major betting agencies foolishly decided that they wouldn't offer odds on The Lead Cup. They felt there wouldn't be enough interest. How silly are they looking now! Similarly ABC, NBC, BBC and the other major TV networks wouldn't part with enough money to purchase the live broadcast rights. There's always next year!
saw this link and thought - "Oh, that's a cute name for a blog... very clever sorta play on "writing" and all... oh wait.... it seems to actually be a blog about mechanical pencils??"
nice.
It would be nice to see pictures of the result of leads on paper.
I am waiting the next pool to compete.
Best regards
Vincent
Yes I would like to show photo results. I have actually tried but I can't really get the photos to show up the differences. For example the difference in blackness between best and worst isn't an awful lot and photos just can't show it. I will try something for the "finals". I guess I'll write a bit of detail about the two finalists.
On the outcome of this I have bought some Pentel AIN 2B leads. I didn't think they were quite black enough, and looking back at this review I see that the Staedtler won the blackness test over the Pentel AIN - how much blacker is the Staedtler over the Pentel?
And thanks for such a great review!!
Hello Kirk. Well I'm glad someone got something out of this. I don't have any Staedtler 2B so I can't compare them directly with AIN. In HB there isn't a huge amount of difference in the blackness, although there is some. But if AIN 2B is a bit light for your liking I'm sure AIN 3B would be a great lead, and as dark or darker than Staedtler 2B
Thanks Dave. While I am also a Kiwi, I am living in Melbourne.
It is very difficult to find a shop in Australia with a decent range of pens and pencils. In Palmerston North I could always go to Bennetts and find anything. Bookshops here don't sell pens, only books!
There are some specialty pen places, but they only sell MontBlanc, Parker etc.
Unfortunately the best place I have found only has Staedtler leads in HB, and Ain down to 2B.
I read you import your own pencils - where is the best/cheapest place you have found?
Hello Kirk
I'm happy to recommend a couple of places, but email me direct at the address up in the blog header. I don't want to publish a public retailer guide site.
Yeah, my Staedtler leads seem to be kind of brittle, at least in my .3mm pencils. It isn't really a problem when I'm drafting, but when I'm doing math or writing I use the pencil at a greater angle. I actually came here searching for a less brittle lead, and now I have some options to look into, thanks!
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