Der Bleistift-Klassiker STAEDTLER Noris 120 wurde mit Beginn des Jahres für den europäischen Markt auf „Upcycled Wood“ umgestellt.
STAEDTLER hat „Upcycled Wood“ als Schaftmaterial für Blei- und Farbstifte bereits im vergangenen Jahr präsentiert (auch pencil talk berichtete)1. Bei diesem handelt es sich um den auf der Paperworld 2009 mit dem Bleistift WOPEX vorgestellten Verbundwerkstoff, der zu etwa 70% aus Holzspänen besteht, die bei der industriellen Verarbeitung von Holz hauptsächlich deutscher Wälder anfallen. – Auch der neue Noris 120 wird durch Coextrusion aus drei verschiedenen Granulaten (Mine, Schaft und Überzug) hergestellt.
Die fünf Härtegrade bleiben erhalten, ebenso die Gestaltung mit den typischen farbigen Kronenkäppchen; lediglich die Kennzeichnung „Upcycled Wood“ kam hinzu. Aufgrund des Fertigungsverfahrens hat der neue Noris 120 keine glänzende Oberfläche mehr, sondern eine matte, wie sie schon vom WOPEX bekannt ist.
- Zum „Upcycled Wood“-Sortiment gehören schon der Bleistift Noris 183, die Farbstifte Noris colour 185 und Noris colour 187 sowie der Noris digital (Classic und Jumbo).↩
Thank you for highlighting this very interesting development. I wonder what will be next.
Stephen, thank you for your comment. I’m also curious about what is to come!
Interesting to see that they’re moving the Noris over to ‘Upcycled Wood’. I wonder if there’s a cost-saving to doing so? Perhaps this is a market-segmentation move? Noris made from WOPEX material, Tradition made from wood, Lumograph made from cedar?
It’s a shame to lose such an excellent quality and affordable wooden pencil – there’s nothing else on the market in the UK that matches the price/quality combo of a Noris. I was bitten by the WOPEX bug a couple of years back, but I came back to preferring wooden pencils in the end.
Koralatov, thank you for your comment. I don’t know what’s behind that move. We pencil aficionados may not understand it but manufacturers and customers look at the pencil in completely different ways. I assume that both want high and consistent quality, very good availability and a low price. However, manufacturers also look at production technology, supply chains, environmental regulations, market requirements, profit, operating costs, etc. – aspects that the customer fortunately does not have to care about but which influence the manufacturer’s decisions considerably. – I find the Wopex technology impressive, and STAEDTLER’s “Upcycled Wood” pencils are undoubtedly the best extruded pencils ever made. However, I still prefer woodcased pencils with ceramic leads (or burned polymer leads like in the Pentel Black Polymer 999). Besides that, I grew up with the wooden Noris 120 so I find it a bit sad that it will soon no longer be available. But fortunately the iconic design remains, and who knows – maybe one day it will be made of wood again …
Oh no, I hope this doesn’t mean having to hoover up NOS Noris pencils. I have been using some as my daily pencils and I’m not keen on WOPEX. I saw some of these Upcycled Wood Noris in my local Morrisons supermarket. Off to Sainsbury’s I go, they still have the old wooden version.
Stationery Traffic, thank you for your comment. I’m afraid that the wooden Noris will soon be gone, at least in Europe; anyone who still wants some should hurry. I hope you find enough of them!
Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful reply, Gunther. I agree that the Wopex/“Upcycled Wood” pencils are the best extruded pencils ever made, but also share your preference for graphite/clay and graphite/polymer combination leads in woodcased pencils.
I’ve always thought it was a shame that these sort of things aren’t discussed or explained more by Staedtler. I think there’s a place in the market for that kind of information and openness. It would certainly satisfy the curiosity of their most enthusiastic fans.
My feeling on this is that it’s the result of a years-long process of investment and research that, combined with increasing raw materials costs, has led to Staedtler choosing a high-quality and consistent Wopex product over cutting quality or raising prices. Overall, it’s probably not a bad decision – though I do share Stationery Traffic’s sadness at the coming scarcity of the classic wooden Noris!
It makes sense from a marketing point of view, and from a business point of view, too. You still have the Mars Lumograph as the flagship range with top-of-the-range materials; then the middle-tier Tradition with only a few compromises in materials but still high quality; and finally the „entry-level“ Noris using materials that would otherwise have been waste. For its intended market, it probably makes no difference if the pencil is wood or a wood-like material, since most children in school would use whatever is available for class and homework.
With progress always comes a slight pang of regret that Staedtler has stopped using wood for the Noris, though. I have some old Noris, some of which were used by my own children for school, and which I was going to use as EDC pencils. Comparing those to a couple of packs I bought yesterday in a supermarket, I see those older pencils have nicer-looking wood (some kind of cedar? not sure) than the modern woodcased Noris which have rather grey wood, albeit PEFC certified. So there has been a change in specification going on for some time, as is Staedtler’s way of working.
For now my beloved Tradition pencils have not seen that much tinkering with the formula. So if anyone from Staedtler’s operations or marketing teams is reading this – please don’t change ‚em!
Koralatov: STAEDTLER once had very good documents about their products which were available for download as PDFs. They described wood-cased and mechanical pencils, products for technical drawing, compasses, etc. and were very detailed; unfortunately they are no longer available. I think that these documents would still be very well received today, not only by enthusiastic fans. Perhaps it would be good to offer such a document (or a web page) with technical details – if they want to disclose them – on “Upcyled Wood”!
I also think that STAEDTLER has examined everything very thoroughly and made a very good decision in several respects, but I too will miss the classic Noris.
Stationery Traffic: From the manufacturer’s point of view this switch really makes a lot of sense (at least for some pencils) because it brings numerous savings and simplifications.
The material for the lead must be laboriously mixed, kneaded and then pressed through nozzles to get it into shape; this is very energy-intensive. After that, the leads are fired for many hours at 1000 °C, but not only that costs a lot of energy, but also the fact that you can’t just turn off such an oven on Friday evening and turn it on again on Monday morning. The oven must run almost continuously, even on holidays, which also requires personnel. After firing and cooling, the leads must be impregnated.
If the wood does not have the desired quality or is not sufficiently available it may be necessary to take another, more expensive one to continue production (this may be only a small problem, but it is one).
With colored pencils something else comes into play. For many years, for pencils not one but two glues are used, one for wood/wood and the other for wood/lead, because the two combinations have different requirements, especially because of the impregnation of the lead. In the case of colored pencils the problem is even bigger because in order to make a really reliable bond, you need, strictly speaking, a different glue for each color because the composition of the lead depends on the color and this must be taken into account when choosing the glue.
Lacquering is also complex. It requires protection from the vapors; moreover, the components must be cleaned and residues disposed of. However, I think that the new Noris is lacquered too.
And scrap can occur in all steps, although I can imagine the scrap is much less with extruded pencils.
Due to the larger number of raw materials and machines for the production of wooden pencils, the dependence on other companies is also likely to be greater than for the production of extruded pencils which certainly also plays a role.
This switch will probably be mostly insignificant to the target group but for me it’s a loss. Yesterday I bought a few more woodcased Noris (all the store had left) because I think it won’t be long before you don’t see them anymore, at least in Europe.
Zufällig jetzt im Geschäft entdeckt. Wopex kannte ich, aber „Upcycled Wood“ noch nicht. Hab die also mal mitgenommen und durch etwas Recherche und Tests dann herausgefunden, dass das auch Wopex ist.
Schick finde ich, wie gut man die rote Kappe am Ende hinbekommen hat. Das hatten die Wopex bisher ja nicht. Sehr sauber und erstaunlich, wie man das haltbar hinbekommen hat, weil auf dem PE-Material ja kein Lack wirklich hält. Auch sonst ist die Fertigungsqualität sehr gut.
Schreiben tun die für extrudierte Bleistifte wirklich gut. Aber trotzdem gibt es Unterschiede. Ich greife oft doch lieber zu Holzbleistiften.
Wer mal einen schlechten Extruder-Stift probieren will, sollte mal BIC Evolution testen. Wie man sowas verkaufen kann, ist mir unverständlich.
Interessant bei Wopex: Die kann man auch bei Regen draußen liegen lassen, das Material nimmt nahezu kein Wasser auf.
Ein gravierendes Problem gibt es noch: Wopex/Upcycled Wood lässt sich nicht sonderlich gut spitzen.
Winfried, danke für deinen Kommentar und die Details.
Ja, die Verarbeitung und damit auch das Kronenkäppchen sind wirklich sehr gut. Die Gebrauchseigenschaften sind für einen extrudierten Bleistift hervorragend, und so ist der Wopex/Noris eco/neue Noris zweifellos der bisher beste extrudierte Bleistift. Der BIC Evolution markiert das andere Ende: Er schreibt nicht nur grausig, sondern riecht auch furchtbar (zumindest hatte ich mal Exemplere, die ein grausiges Chemie-Aroma abgegeben haben). Auch ich kann mich nur darüber wundern, dass man so etwas produzieren und auf den Mark bringen kann.
Interessant, dass der neue Wopex nicht feuchtigkeitsempfindlich ist! Da müsste man ja auch mal testen, ob (und wenn ja, wie) er auf nassen Oberflächen schreibt. Vielleicht kann man ihn ja noch als Outdoor-Bleistift bewerben, z. B. für den Gebrauch mit „Rite in the Rain“-Notizbüchern.
Die vergleichsweise schlechte Spitzbarkeit war von Anfang an ein Problem. Kurbelspitzer kämpfen mit dem dichten Material, und bei manchen führt das dann zu Schlupf im Zahnenkranz. Abhilfe schafft der Griff zu den Spitzern von STAEDTLER, die für diese Bleistifte ausgelegt sind und eine etwas größere Spandicke haben.