Musgrave Pencil Co. & Billykirk

Years ago scores of US pencil manufacturers were competing for your business.  The big four were: Dixon Crucible Co., Eagle Pencil Co., Eberhard Faber and the American Lead Pencil Co. Beneath these Goliath’s of the pencil industry were a lot of smaller firms trying to get some of the market share.  One of those smaller outfits was Musgrave Pencil Co. whose operation was nestled amongst the red cedars of Shelbyville, TN. Musgrave Pencil Co. was founded by Colonel James Musgrave in 1905. Mr. Musgrave was in the sawmill business and when a huge lot of old, weathered red cedar fencing came available he snapped it up with the idea of turning it all into pencils. So, off to the sawmill the fencing went and out of that spawned his pencil making empire that has now stretched past 100 years.  Shelbyville would eventually be declared “Pencil City, U.S.A.”  At one point there were 6 pencil manufacturers just in Bedford County, TN alone.  Besides the old machinery that Musgrave uses to churn out their pencils they also continue to make their own pencil boxes next door to their pencil factory.  They are also one of two US pencil manufacturers with production history pre-dating 1920 who still trace current ownership to descendants of company founders. General Pencil Co. in NJ is the other one.

When we were developing our new, smaller hand-stitched journal we designed it with “locking loops” so you could slide a pencil or pen through the loops to hold it shut.  We do a lot of sketching so we felt a pencil was appropriate.  After some research Musgrave proved to have all the elements we were after.  They offer silver ferrules when most pencil companies only offer gold, they could print on hex shaped pencils, and, more importantly, they are one of the last pencil companies in the US that offer old style line-type embossed foil printing (not just flat printing.)  This gives the pencil a vintage look.

Study a vintage pencil sometime and you will notice line-type embossed foil printing in multiple fonts and type sizes + unique ferrules and erasers. Many of these older pencils are little works of art and like Bullet Pencils, lunch boxes, match books and tape measures of the past, pencils represent yet another basic commodity that used to be made with pride and have amazing detail.  Sadly, there are very few pencil makers in the USA, like Musgrave, who are still willing to take the time to make something the customer wants and takes great pride in doing it.  Dont’ take my word for it, give Robin, in their art dept, a call.  She will make sure you get what you are after and not nail you on high minimums + her Southern hospitality is refreshing.  If you are in the market for your own custom pencils be sure to get her to send you a catalog and some samples because their web-site does not show their complete range.

During the production process I had the nice people of Musgrave take some shots of our pencils being produced which you can see below.

Musgrave then

Colonel James Musgrave circa 1930’s

Musgrave now

Preparing the dies for printing our pencils

Printing our hex pencils

Hex printing machines

Tipping machine spitting out our pencils

Erasers & ferrules being added

Cutting our pencils down to size

Preparing for the boxes

Gross counter

Boxing up our pencils

Boxed and ready to ship

Our new No. 231 Hand-Stitched Journal with 3.5″ x 5″ Moleskine & Billykirk Pencil being assembled in our Jersey City studio.

Brand Name Pencils has some great images of early pencils.  The detail in some of these is astounding, especially the “oversized ferrule” examples.  Note the “no metal” ferrules on the WWII pencils.

Pencil Pages is another collectable pencil site to check out.