Thank you for sharing your Noris experience! (Of course I have used that pencil in school too.) It is interesting to hear that the Noris has been the standard pencil for schools in the UK – I have a UK-made Noris with the imprint „Noris School Pencil”.

The wood is also treated with waxes and other substances so that it can be cut easier (I assume this is the most important reason for treatment). I have heard that the wood is impregnated in pressure vessels but I can’t even provide bitty knowledge.

Regarding the 9000: You’re welcome!

The Noris is “the” pencil that comes to mind when I think about learning to write and primary school in general.  They were (maybe still are?) the standard pencil for school use in the UK.  Right up until she retired from teaching recently my mother would only buy Noris pencils and Rasoplast erasers for her class.  (Around age eight I defected over to Bic Matic mechanical pencils.)

Identifying the wood used is a difficult one, because the Tradition uses cedar and I believe the Noris uses… something else, but they both look the same most of the time (sometimes the Tradition has darker wood).  I hadn’t really considered that the wood could be dyed or scented to make it more pleasing, but it makes sense.  I’ve tried several no-name pencils in the office that were definitely not made of cedar or anything close to it — they were either very pale and hard or pinkish-red and smelled “soapy”.  I can’t even hazard a guess as to what they were.

I’d be thrilled to try a 9000.  Thank you!

I don’t know which wood Mitsubishi has used for my 8900, and when it comes to identify wood properly, I am totally lost. It’s just too difficult to me, especially in view of all the possibilities to treat wood with dye, aroma, waxes etc.

Regarding the 9000: I will be happy to add a few to your package!

The 9800s I have are barcoded stock (I had to check to be sure), and they’re definitely a little bit thicker than a Faber–Castell or Staedtler, so I find them more enjoyable to hold. They just feel more substantial. The wood mine are made from is more reddish than the wood in your photos, and smells different, so I don’t think the ones I have are cedar. Perhaps they switched to another wood in later production runs?

I’ve never come across the Mitsubishi 9000, but googling them found me a source, PencilMeIn.jp, which appears almost identical to Pencils.jp (perhaps another storefront for Bundoki?). Strangely, they have different stock than both Bundoki and Pencils.jp, so they may actually be a different company. I’ll have to place an order some time, and get a few of the varieties I haven’t previously tried.

I wonder if the newer ones with the bar code have a slightly thicker diameter too. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mitusbishi – like many other manufacturers – have decided to cut ten pencils from a sandwich instead of nine (as far as I know this is the common reason for the smaller diameter).

Have you tried the Mitsubishi 9000? Very good lead, great design, thicker barrel, no bar code :-)

You’re right, the leading quote mark is typographically incorrect – I have overlooked that detail.

The 9800 is a very nice pencil on the cheap, and the quality of finish, even with the unfinished butt-end, is very good for such an inexpensive pencil. There are numerous knockoffs of it here in Taiwan by companies like Liberty, but they always lack the quality finishing that goes into the Mitsubishi.

The only real complaint I have of the design and typography is that the quote marks in „Mitsu-Bishi” are both end quotes.

Apropos Zaunlatten: Laut dieser Quelle (die Du ja schon kennst) hat Musgrave in den frühen Jahren Zaunpfahle aus Zedernholz für die Produktion von Bleistiften wiederverwertet.