Musgrave Variety Pack

[flatline]

I've been super impressed with the Musgrave Harvest Pro that I received from Zookie, so I decided to order the Musgrave Variety Pack to try out the other pencils from Musgrave. And I'm glad I did. The pack comes in a round cardboard tube that is intended to be used as 2 pencil cups. It's cute and was perfectly adequate for shipping the pencils in. I haven't decided if I'll actually use the halves as pencil cups (I already have a system that works and am resistant to change...).

 

When they say "Variety Pack", they mean it. There are 6 hex pencils and 6 round pencils. There are eight 7.5mm pencils, two 8.25mm pencils, and two 9.4mm pencils. And a good variety of hard, medium, and soft leads. All 6 of the hex pencils have nice sharp corners on them which feels really different than the rounded corners I'm accustomed to from just about every other pencil company out there. I like that. Lead centering was visibly off a bit on the Bugle and Tennessee Red, but not by enough to cause problems sharpening or to force me to sharpen more frequently. The wood does ride up a bit on one side of the point, so if that bothers you, now you know. I do not consider it an issue.

 

I haven't used the pencils enough to really give a good review of any of them, but here's a quick summary of the 12 pencils in the pack.

 

Choo-Choo and Tot: The CC has an eraser, the Tot does not, but otherwise I think these are the same pencils. 9.4mm thick with 3mm lead that feels like HB to me. These are big thick pencils with big thick leads like what I remember using in kindergarden. The leads are smooth and pretty dark. Darkness is about the same as a USA Gold (a little darker than a Dixon Ticonderoga).

 

My-Pal and Cub: The Cub has an eraser, the My-Pal does not, but otherwise I think these are the same pencils. 8.25mm thick with, I think, the same 3mm leads as the Choo-Choo and Tot. These are bigger than regular pencils, but not so big that I, as an adult, feel ridiculous using them.

 

Bugle: Round, 7.5mm pencil so it feels bigger than a USA Gold or Dixon Ticonderoga, but doesn't look like a big pencil. The pencil is marked as "No 2" and it makes an acceptably dark line, but the lead feels harder and the point lasts longer than I expect from a No 2 pencil. Pretty nice if you like a slightly harder lead.

 

Unigraph: full-hex 7.5mm. This is marked as "F" and feels like it might be the same lead as the Bugle. Edit: upon further use, the F lead is harder and longer lasting than the lead in the Bugle.

 

Harvest Pro and Tennesse Red: full-hex 7.5mm. I think these have the same lead which is marked "No 2", but is darker and softer than I normally expect from No 2. The TN Red is made from TN Red Cedar and smells wonderful when sharpened.

 

Ceres: full-hex 7.5mm. Lead feels a bit different than the Harvest Pro, but it's very close. Maybe a little softer. When looking at the individual prices, the Ceres might be the best bang for the buck pencil in this pack.

 

Test Scoring: full-hex 7.5mm. Softer lead, probably 2B.

 

News: round 7.5mm. Even softer lead, probably 4B or maybe even 6B. Lead is 3mm.

 

Hermitage: full-hex 7.5mm. Red lead.

 

I'm really impressed with all of them. The full-hex bodies feel substantially wider than standard pencils without looking much bigger. It's a nice effect. And the leads that Musgrave uses are all very nice. For about $13, this is an excellent way to sample the different pencils made by Musgrave.

 

Anyways, hope you all find this interesting.

 

--flatline

 

 

 

[flatline]

Having played a bit more with them, I think my initial impression that the Bugle and the Unigraph F had similar lead was wrong. The Bugle lead is softer and darker than the Unigraph F but I still think it's harder than the other pencils marked as "No2" like the Ceres and Harvest Pro.

[derivativegal]

Thanks for posting this review. I've looked at it on the Musgrave website and thought about ordering.  Now I might take the plunge. 

[flatline]

The leads in the jumbo and mini-jumbo pencils are bigger than 3mm. I removed some wood to expose more lead and it measured 3.6mm. Probably too big to use in any of my holders (and too small for a 5mm holder).

 

Oh well.