A while ago I wrote about the
Penol expedition that made its way halfway around the world and into my letterbox. Well, a follow up arrived a while ago.
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Shiploads of Viking Skjoldungen 400’s, numbers 1 through to 4. Not sure why these Vikings would use the (American) number system in the (European) HB system heartland.
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Lots of information on the box.
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Treesort high quality wood.
Also the Viking Bylanter 029 yellow number 2 office pencil.
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Made from cedar trees.
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Phew, here’s a big one. So heavy you just about need the strength of Thor to lift it.
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Penol PL56 eraser. At 27 x 14 and 72mm long it’s a bit of a jumbo, nearly twice the size of Staedtler Mars Plastic 526 50, and it weighs a ton. Well 48 grams to be slightly more accurate. I had to put my nice new digital cailpers to some use so a quick bit of measurement and calculation tells me Penol PL56 is over 20% more dense than Mars Plastic. Heavy stuff. The texture makes it feel like there are plenty of fillers or additives in the compound.
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6 comments:
Hi Dave,
hey, I'm the first to comment for once. As usual a nice post - keep it up.
Good to see the Vikings have landed safely. It is of course our intetion to take over the country little by little - but don't tell anyone. :)
The Thor's hammer idea isn't far from reality. In school we drilled a hole in the eraser, put the pencil in it and you had a Thor's hammer and an eraser catapult in one. If you missed the guy in front of you - the hammerhead might just continue and hit the guy in the next row - lots of fun.
As far as I know Danish pencils used numbers for the grade - don't know why.
heil ock sæl
Henrik
A nice article.
It is great to think that Denmark has retained their own pencil making capabilities in these modern times. Or am I jumping to a conclusion - did the pencils say where they were made?
If I remember correctly, Henrik told me there was a Viking pencil factory in Denmark but it closed long ago.
Viking is now a brandname of Esselte, and they have recently reintroduced Viking brand pencils. My English reading eyes can't see anything that looks like a country of origin amongst all that Danish. I assume they are just made at some contract factory somewhere a long way away from the land of the Vikings.
with so many cool mechanical pencils, why would anyone want to use such outdated technology.... :) heheheh
just kidding guys. would actually like to get some wooden pentel pencils and a blackwing.
Hi Dave, your memory serves you right. The Viking factory closed many years ago – and Esselte is the current distributor of the brand. But who’s the manufacturer? My guess is Stabilo, because the Stabilo Swano pencil is such a look- a- like. Imagine it with a Viking imprint – and you have a red Viking pencil:) No evidence anywhere though.
Regards Henrik
I checked out the various Esselte pencils at the big department store today. All of them "Made in Indonesia" on them in the fine print.
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