Pencil Review: Red & Blue Pencils

Red & Blue Pencils

I can’t think of anything more patriotic than red & blue pencils. And boy, have I amassed a collection! I just love these things. Some red/blue pencils were originally designed to be “copying pencils” in that they could be wet to transfer writing to a copy like a mimeograph. Others were for copy editing, colors denoting specific changes. I’m sure there are other arcane uses for them that have been lost to the annals of time. I like them as a way to carry two colored pencils in one stick, for portability.

Red & Blue Pencils

All the red/blue pencils I tested out were purchased in the past year or so meaning that these are not all that hard to find. The prices range from about $1 to about $3 with the average price for a red/blue pencil being around $1. The Caran d’Ache BiColor 999 was the most expensive, as was to be expected at about $2.80 but worth every penny.

Red & Blue Pencils

I tested each of the pencils by doing a little test scribble, an erased scribble and a wet scribble to see if the pencil was water soluble for both the blue and red leads.

The Artesco Bi-Color pencil was notable for being a rounded triangular shape which was comfortable in the hand. It was slightly water soluble but not too bad. Sadly, I don’t remember where I found this particular pencil. If someone else knows where to find purchasing information about this model, please let me know.

There were only three of the pencils that were very water resistant: The Tombow 8900 VP ($6.84 for a dozen), the Charles Leonard, and the Pedigree Empire. All three are smooth round barrel pencils. The Charles Leonard ($4.99 per dozen) was the scratchiest of all the red/blue pencils that I tried. The Pedigree Empire was a decent performer overall but was another pencil that I’m having trouble tracking down where I purchased it. If you want a non-water soluble red/blue pencil I would recommend the Tombow 8900 VP. The color is smooth, rich and dark. The finish on the pencil is fabulous too. Being able to purchase the Tomow 8900 VP via Amazon for under $7 per dozen is totally worth it. Grab a box and share the love with friends, family and kids in your neighborhood.

The Mistubishi Colour Pencil 2637 ($1 each) is also a beautiful Japanese pencil. I got what is known as the 70:30 which is 70% red and 30% blue. Why? Maybe its used mostly as a correction pencil so the red color is used most often and the blue is the STET part?… if you ever worked in newspaper, you’ll know STET is the shorthand for “nevermind, don’t make that change” in a Latin abbreviation I can no longer remember. All you copy editors out there leave a comment if you remember what it means. I’m just guessing here… Anyone know?

The Mitsubishi is also available in a standard 50:50 split ($1 each).

The Harvest Thick 725 and the Pedigree Empire 603 are the only red/blue pencil still made in the USA by the Musgrave Co. though I think the Pedigree have since been discontinued. The Harvest Thick 725 ($0.50) and the Musgrave Hermitage Thin ($0.40) are still available. The Harvest Thick is a good, durable red/blue pencil at a very reasonable price. It does not react to water that much so it would be good for base drawings and its made in Tennessee so it doesn’t have far to travel for most US pencil enthusiasts.

Then there’s the Brevillier Urban Copying Pencil Nr. 1925 ($24 per dozen) which, when wet, gets that lovely aqua color in the blue that is common of indelible pencils. The red end does not seem to be water soluble however. The blue also erases pretty easily which is pretty nice if you wanted to use it for sketching. Overall, it is a unique pencil and worth squirreling a dozen away in your collection, if you are a pencil pack rat like I am.

Red & Blue Pencils Red & Blue Pencils

And finally, the king daddy beaucoup of them all, the Caran d’Ache BiColor 999 ($2.80 each) which is the most water soluble, most luscious AND also most expensive of all of the red/blue pencils. I love it but because it literally melts like a watercolor pencil with water, I treat it more like a watercolor pencil than a regular colored pencil.

So, if I were to recommend three red/blue pencils to try, I’d tell you to get the Tombow 8900 VP, the Harvest Thick 725 and a Caran d’Ache BiColor 999. Even if you bought a dozen of the Tombow and one of the Harvest and the Caran d’Ache, you would still only be spending about $10 and you’d be a very happy, very patriotic camper. Don’t forget a good pencil sharpener. Because these pencils are a bit wider than your average #2, I’d recommend a sharpener with a wider opening or one specifically designed for colored pencils.

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11 comments / Add your comment below

  1. So.. here comes the nerd!

    ‘Stet’ is not an abbreviation, it’s the fully-conjugated present jussive subjunctive tense. Translated it means ‘Let it stand’, the original verb ‘stare’ meaning ‘to stand’ or ‘to remain’.

    See Mom? I told you my bachelor’s degree in Latin would be worth something someday 🙂

    1. That’s what it means! Thanks so much for clearing that up. I feel like I will be extra useful at the next trivia night now.

      A friend suggested that the blue end would be for and additions added to a document.

  2. Thanks for this very informative, well written review. You are certainly the goddess of everything pencils. I never imagined that all of these diffteterences existed between red and blue pencils.

    Regarding, stet and the readers comment, I don’t think that the latin grammar here changes anything about the point you make. You brought it across correctly to your readers. Maybe that reader should stick to just reading and proofing reviews that are written in Latin.

    Keep up the great work, Ana. As always, your doing an excellent job.

    Robert

  3. I would order boxes of these (the Mugrave thick, the Charles Leonard, and sometimes the Mitsubishis, depending) each year and give one out ceremoniously to my biology students in October. Most texts use red to represent Female sex and blue to represent Male sex in genetics, and so I would have them use it to illustrate their pedigrees at first, then drawing chromosomes in mitosis and meiosis. Very especially helpful in illustrating crossing over, linkage, and recombination. Later, when we got to Mendelian genetics, we could use the colors to represent paternal and maternal contributions to zygotes and it was a lovely color-coded way to emphasize the concepts.
    It was all my master plan to get them hooked on biology, genetics, and… the right stationery tool!

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