I hope that the spammers haven't made the regular members give up on this sub forum.
Perhaps I should not attach this picture, a quick sketch that I did this morning. It's very rough, and I didn't want to put it the regular art forum. But note the pencils, on top a vintage Eagle 314 draughting pencil, which hasn't been made in some years, and below it a General G314, which I believe is still being made. At any rate, it's still being sold.
I have a supply of the vintage pencils (some sold under the Berol trademark) that should last me for quite a while, particularly since I don't use them for everything. A while ago, I also bought a two pack of the Generals to see if they were an equivalent. I quickly concluded that they were not; they seemed noticeably less smooth. So I put them aside.
Recently, though, I took one of the G314s out to try it again, and found that I couldn't distinguish it from the classic Eagle when used on the same paper. I wonder if my previous experience had been due to using them on different paper without thinking about what I was doing. The attached sketch was done alternately between these two pencils in a Maruman Mnemoyne notebook, which has a lovely smooth paper. On the other hand, when I try them both on news print paper, which I use for a lot of practice sketches, neither one is at all remarkable.
I suppose I could do a more exhaustive test across a range of different papers, but that seems like too much trouble just now. But the prices for the vintage pencils are getting out of hand, and if I do burn through all of mine, I'll have to consider stocking up on the Generals. Unless those are also "vintage" by then.
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