Why O'BON pencils last longer....

Why O'BON pencils are round?

The real question to us is why aren't all pencils round. We have been trying to research this question and would like comments on our hypothesis. First, our pencils are round because that is the best way to make them. We use the exclusive "roll-on" method. Why sand them into hexagonal or triangular shapes? Do they fit the hand better? No, not really. What the hexagonal shape does is prevent the pencil from rolling off the table or desk. This is bad for wood pencils because the graphite easily snaps. But, O'BON don't (very rare event) break. Drop them, step on them, put them under dad's car tire - they won't break. In another writing I'll explain why. So, at O'BON we don't worry about the pencil graphite snapping as it just won't happen.

But wood pencils are different. They break easily. One little drop from the desk to the floor and your pencil graphite can snap 3 times inside the pencil. So, when you sharpen, the graphite comes out and you have to sharpen some more. No fun.

The interesting part of our research is that the hexagonal shape came into being in the late 1800s. The round pencil manufacturers discovered that in the slat of wood that they would grind the groove for the graphite, if they chose the hexagonal shape, then they could make 9 pencils from one slat of wood. Before, with the small length of slat, they could only make 8. So, hexagonal became the preferred shape - and the shape of most pencils today. Any comments on our opinion backed up with some limited research? We want to know why they are hexagonal? Let's solve this riddle.

Say "No" to Wood Pencils

O'BON has launched a new Google Ad with Adwords that is a little aggressive: Say "No to Wood Pencils." When you consider that 18 billion wood pencils are being made every year, you can get an idea of how many trees would be involved with this. Alot of people think that sustainable forests solve this problem, but they don't! At the pace we continue to destroy primary jungle and forests to create these "sustainable" forest, you can see the problem. We started this campaign theme as so few people actually know there is such a thing as a recycled pencil. And the big pencil gaints spend a lot of money trying to convince us that wood pencils are ok as they come from sustainable forests. Well, excuse me - we beg to differ. Sustainable forests have extremely limited diversity. How many cute tree frogs live in a sustainable forest?
So, we have up the rhetoric with our Say "No" to wood pencils.

Buy on Line

O'BON products (pencils, pens, file folders, erasers, art pencils, etc) can be now purchased on line. We are excited about opening this avenue of selling our recycled products as we can deal directly with our customers. Click on www.school-obon.com and see our products.