Item: Helix Oxford Premium Grade no. 2 HB P36
Finish: Navy blue lacquer with gilt lettering and white UPC
Wood: Something reddish, probably dyed so. Is it cedar? I don't know
Ferrule: Highly polished brass
Eraser: White plastic and excellent
Price: $0.32 per pencil
Vendor: PencilThings.com
Primary Strength: Fucking awesome eraser, cool finish.
Primary Weakness: The lead could be better, plus it's not cheap (compared to the last two pencils reviewed, anyway).
Verdict: Good - well, just OK, really - and also the most expensive.
Caveat: This review was written several weeks ago, and I had photos for it, but they seem to be lost to the ether now and I can't be bothered to take new ones. So I stole an image from another reviewer and the pencil retailer. Sorry for the half-assedness. I'll have a more complete review for next week's pencil.
Details:
After two weeks (has it really only been two weeks?) of self-imposed exile among natural finish pencils, I was quite excited to be using a painted pencil again. Normally, I choose a pencil just by whim (sometimes by application, if I'm doing anything but general writing), and confining myself to a single brand for a week at a time takes some discipline. Having two weeks in a row of pencils that look (superficially) similar was even more difficult.
This week's review is going to be short and sweet for several reasons. First, I don't know anything about the history or specifics of manufacture of this pencil, so no preamble. Secondly, this has been a shortened week for me, as I lost a day to the date line. Thirdly, I didn't get to spend all that much time with this pencil. However, the quality of this pencil is obvious early.
First things first: The look. OK, the association with Oxford University and the OED, etc is deliberate and obvious. And maybe hackneyed. And I don't have any problem with any of that whatsoever.
This pencil fairly shouts its British origin from the rooftops, and just as the Musgrave HB appealed to an American pride in old-fashioned manufacturing quality, the Oxford appeals to the aspirational "colonial complex" to which no American is immune and suggests all sorts of British upper class stereotypes.
Fig. 1: I shamelessly ganked this image from Pencil Things. Please go to their site. And if any PT folks are reading this and want me to take this down, just let me know and I'll comply immediately.
Going even a step beyond this "I say, old boy" and "What-what, cheerio" imagery, the last imprint on the obverse side of the pencil is the suitably mysterious "P36". I haven't been able to find any source for what this might mean, but it is more than sufficient to make this reviewer believe that this is, in fact, the very brand of pencil that James Bond uses.
The blue is deep and rich and hard for a rank amateur such as myself to photograph. The gilt stamping is crisp and survived a week in my pockets mostly unscathed. The high shine of the brass ferrule is a nice touch, and the white eraser was even able to resist getting dingy during this time.
My only complaint is the bar code. Other pencil reviewers have mentioned barcodes as significant pet peeves in many other reviews, and I always wondered what the big deal was. So what, it's a barcode? This is the 21st century, every product has a barcode, right?
Well, yeah, but these suck. A barcode on a pencil is huge, relatively, and a major design element, whether intended or not. Clearly in this case it was not. It was tacked on because EU regulations or something required it, and the makers of the Helix Oxford did their best to keep their vision for this pencil in tact....
The lead is what I'd consider a true HB, but it's not as wonderful as I'd like it to be, and surely doesn't live up to the promise of the pencil's finish. The scratchiness is quite noticeable, but not so much so that you'd mistake this for a cheapo promotional pencil in a blindfolded test. The Oxford has good smudge resistance, it's about as dark as I'd expect from an HB, but doen't hold a point quite as well as I'd like. The erasability is top notch, however.
The Oxford's eraser is incredible. It somehow managed not to get dingy in a week's time in my pocket, and it erases the lead's marks completely. It's a much smoother eraser than the Musgrave's, which has a significant amount of grit. The Oxford's is much more like a true Mars plastic eraser. Plus, after erasing, the Oxford's left much less residue than the Musgrave's.
The Bottom Line: A good pencil all around, just not as good as it appears at first glance. You can do just fine with a Prospector for a significantly lower price
Second Opinions: The Helix Oxford has also been reviewed over at the Pencil Things blog.
Previews: The next three or more weeks will feature premium Japanese pencils. None will have erasers, so I'll be using a standalone eraser for testing. The timing might be a bit erratic, but there should be some mini-reviews of some other pencil accessories along the way to keep y'all happy.
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