#2, pink eraser

December 5, 2013 7:44 AM

Count Anton-Wolfgang von Faber-Castell has been known to hurl wooden pencils from the tower of his castle to the stone courtyard below.
posted by Chrysostom (16 comments total)

It would be awesome/awful if Count von Faber-Castell had a habit of impaling his enemies on a field of freshly-sharpened #2s. #PencilVania
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:01 AM on December 5, 2013 [11 favorites]

I thought everything in that post description was made up until I clicked on the link.
posted by furtive at 8:25 AM on December 5, 2013 [2 favorites]

My kid brother and I would throw pencils down the basement stairs, eraser-first, in hopes that the axis of the pencil in flight would coincide with the angle of attack at impact on the basement floor, believing the eraser deflection and rebound would propel the pencil many feet into the air. We were too stupid to play with matches.
posted by klarck at 8:28 AM on December 5, 2013 [4 favorites]

Can't decide which is cooler, that there really is someone named Faber-Castell or that his first name is Anton-Wolfgang.

Oh, who am I kidding? He's a real count and pencil magnate who looks like a cross between Peter Cushing and Jack Palance. In a fucking castle.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:38 AM on December 5, 2013 [12 favorites]

Meh on the name. If the von Battenberg-Sachsen-Coburg-und-Gotha retook their proper name, that would be awesome. Go for it, Wilhelm!
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 8:43 AM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

“The biggest challenge for Faber-Castell will be how writing will develop with the advent of digital technology,” said Hermann Simon, a management consultant who coined the term “hidden champions” to describe the highly focused, midsize companies like Faber-Castell that drive the German economy. “Will children still write? But Faber-Castell recognizes this challenge.”

and yet when I search their online store there is no capacitive touch screen stylus available for purchase. You'd think that with all their years of researching how writing tools fit into hands they'd be all over releasing a Faber-Castell-branded stylus.
posted by komara at 9:02 AM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

(preferably the triangular body with little grippy dots ... and now I find myself wanting to purchase something that doesn't exist and that I had never even considered until a few minutes ago)
posted by komara at 9:06 AM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

It's pretty telling that, as the article points out, 60% of German jobs are at midsized companies. The US has a dearth of midsized companies. Here it's almost impossible to end up in the middle; if your small company is successful enough to grow, Conglomo, Inc. is ready and poised to snap you up. And send those "expensive" Jobs elsewhere.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 9:19 AM on December 5, 2013 [3 favorites]

Neato. I almost didn’t click because I was thought this was another 8 bit indie video game.
posted by bongo_x at 10:39 AM on December 5, 2013

I fell in love with this guy SO FAST.
posted by theredpen at 11:22 AM on December 5, 2013

Count drinks glass of ink.
posted by stbalbach at 12:40 PM on December 5, 2013 [3 favorites]

The definition of a 'mid-sized company' includes businesses with over 7,000 employees, most of whom are overseas?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faber-Castell
posted by ZaneJ. at 1:20 PM on December 5, 2013

I fell in love with this guy SO FAST.

And that was before I found out that he likes to wink and drink pink ink, stbalbach!
posted by theredpen at 3:28 PM on December 5, 2013

And now hear the roar that none can ignore / The thunderous clatter of splintering wood and lives that are claimed / And none who have witnessed all / Can speak of a nobler cause than perishing in the pencil rain
posted by polymath at 7:19 PM on December 5, 2013

Oh yeah, I have spent way too much money on Faber-Castell products, I have boxes full of their pencils. And I have spent way too much time watching videos of the Faber Castell production line, I especially love watching them being sharpened on the belt sander. But lately I have been using a lot of Staedtler pencils too. Nothing beats German precision. Well, actually, yeah, maybe one thing does, Japanese mechanical pencils.

My current lust object: the Faber-Castell GRIP pencils, with a triangular cross section and little rubber dots on the sides. I will buy some, as soon as I can justify spending $1.75 on a pencil, plus shipping. Which will be like never. I bet they are a bitch to sharpen. I use a pen knife and do it by hand. Sometimes it's so perfect, it looks like a machine sharpener. you can't tell it's a handmade point, but that mostly depends on the wood grain, rather than my skill. Yeah, I have to find some way to put that BFA to practical use.
posted by charlie don't surf at 9:55 PM on December 5, 2013

oh! The sound of lots of pencils clinking together! I love that sound!
posted by you must supply a verb at 1:40 AM on December 6, 2013