I found a Perfect Pencil for sale very soon after reading about Matthias’s and John’s. The name is confusing – the Perfect Pencil is not a pencil but a pencil cap, extender and sharpener rolled into one. Mine is the cheaper “Junior” (had no choice there, there was only this available for sale at the university shop), but again, there’s no product name to be found anywhere on the packaging. How are we supposed to know?
I wanted to try this because I’ve become dissatisfied with my other pencil caps. I never liked simple plastic caps (too childish, too cheap, too fragile) or conical metal ones (too tight, leaves scratches on the pencil surface), but my cap of choice, the leather sleeve, has not been delivering good results lately. I find that leather works satisfactorily as a protector only when it is new and tight; as the pencil settles into it, the leather gradually loosens up and the pencil starts to move around (especially with longer sleeves). The other day I caught a pencil tip peeping out of the far end! I needed another solution.
The Perfect Pencil fits snugly, and seems quite capable of doing the job (if handled gently). The Faber-Castell factory-sharpened tip is amazing, as always – but it remains to be seen whether the Perfect Pencil itself can replicate that result (I think I already know the answer).
pencils and other things 
I hope you’ll like yours. There are so many different versions available – even children versions that look like toys, but my favourite is the Castell 9000 shape. The Graf von version looks even better, but is very heavy. Too heavy for my taste.
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I’ll keep an eye out for them – I haven’t really been paying much attention to this part of the stationery world until now ;) They will have more models available in Korea for sure. I like your Castell 9000 too (both the black and the green), I hope to spot one in the Canadian wild :)
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Lovely colour! I’m with Matthias, in that I like the cap/sharpener of the 9000 best, but the pencil that comes with this version is, I think, very good.
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Yes, the pencil was surprisingly good too. The only problem with this cap is that the color is difficult to match – if I get a second I’ll definitely go for the blue!
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Wonderful pencils!
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Thank you for your kind words Betsy! :)
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In case you missed it, Sola, you’ve made “Extra Staples” on the Three Staples blog; http://www.threestaples.com/blog/extra-staples-0013
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Yes, I’m a regular reader and I am delighted to make Jinnie’s list! She has a really cool blog. BTW what is your opinion of the Mitsubishi Penmanship pencil? Do you think it works for drawing (as opposed to writing)?
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My experience with the Perfect Pencil III (its the one that goes from a circular shape to a rectangular one at the other end) has been mixed. On one end, it works well as a cap, but only feels balanced with the proprietary FC pencils or those that are mid-way thru or smaller. With brand new pencils (specially American ones) it makes for a huge contraption that just won’t fit many pencil bags or roll-ups.
As an extender many eraser-plugged pencils just won’t fit in it, unless you want to risk damaging the inner ring, and when pencils do fit, it results in an odd-feeling writing experience. Not really a bad experience, just odd. The cap itself has a good ergonomic design, even the fixed clip is non-intrusive but I really prefer the grip of my aluminum Derwent extenders to this one.
As a sharpener, it’s not a bad sharpener, but nothing to write home about either. Then again, as many of us pencil fans out there know, it is always good to have sharpening alternatives at hand, since not all pencils work great in every single sharpener.
So, what has been your opinion of this after all this time Sola?
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Guillermo, I was not familiar with the Perfect Pencil III, and had to look it up. It looks alarming – and very clunky, and off-balance. Is the Perfect Pencil II no longer available? My current situation is that I have since bought a Castell 9000 Perfect Pencil in addition to this raspberry model, but have not broken out the former for fear of scratches. But this particular model sees a lot of action as a pencil protector. I agree, you have to match it up with a shorter, used pencil, but I like how snugly it fits. I don’t use the sharpener much because I think life is too short to waste on less than sublime sharpeners ;)
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LOL! Agreed, it looks alarming! I’ve seen the Perfect Pencil II on Amazon. My guess is that since they’re not big sellers, they tend to appear in the most unexpected places from time to time.
Also agree that we don’t need to spend time on run-of-the-mill sharpeners. But once or twice, this sharpener has helped me turn a pretty nice point on some pencils that my KUM or Staedtler just won’t like.
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You can buy refills for the perfect pencils, a shortened version of the CF 9000. I have a cap for the point of a Palomino, I use that until the 9000 is short enough to us the Perfect Pencil cap.
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I’ve seen those refills, but locally we only get the premium refills for the metal Perfect Pencil and for the even more expensive Graf von FC, which means those are upwards of $50 USD per package.
Then again, I might better follow up on buying 9000 units and waiting for them to be the right side! ;oP
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Yes, the more expensive refills are for the top quality Perfect Pencil, but it’s too expensive for me. Those refills are metal tipped. I get mine from Cult Pens in the Uk, you could see the complete range there, to get an idea of the prices and what is available in Europe. Cult Pens are a reliable seller, but the postage to USA maybe prohibitive.
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