I worked at a pen and pencil factory for 35 yrs. In m
Manhattan and later the Bronx. For the pencils, we bought blanks (wood/lead/painted) and we put the metal ferries on them with erasers just like General shows. Brought back fond memories of our machinery running. We chose to do it that way because we were focused on the pen manufacturing. We manufactured the pencils the way we did because we offered customized selection to customers that was favored at that time. We then imprinted them with Clients customer logos. We’ve even purchased some pencil blanks from General. I thought they had sold out,guess not. We closed the business which had been open since 1945 in 2015 due to the owner’s illness. Just wanted to share my memories of the pencil business. General is, BTW, not the only pencil company still manufacturing pencils in the USA. I am on very good terms with the owners of the other manufacturer. Sad that so many people sold out to China. When we closed down we sold our machine to another company that does not use the pencil machine by here most other machines. We were a unique company that catered to customers desires. We were one of the originals to make custom colored pencils with custom ferries and erasers. Some of you might even have them in your offices even today!
Interesting to hear an inside scoop on the pencil industry. This is why FR is so cool. You just never know what kinds of interesting things people will have to say around here.