Pencil Caps
Jan. 4th, 2019 06:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grayestofghostsAnyone who knows me personally knows that I’m kind of obsessed with stationery, and people who like stationery know that Japanese stationery is some of the best stuff. So, when I went to California over Christmas, I just had to go to Daiso and Muji and wherever else I could, and I found an item that I have been unable to find in American stores and only last year did I learn that most Americans have no idea what these are.
Let me introduce you to pencil caps.
When I was in elementary school, my mother bought some of these from a Sanrio store and it took me about 20 years to figure out what they were actually for.
Pencil caps are caps you put on wooden pencils so you won’t mark up the inside of pencil cases and bags and get stabbed by them when you reach into these bags or cases by sharp pencil points. If you like wooden pencils, especially ones with soft leads, these will definitely keep the insides of cases and bags from getting disgusting and coated with graphite.
I remember going to a Dick Blick about a year ago looking for them and I eventually asked one of the clerks if they had them and she had no idea what I was talking about. She recommended I get a plastic travel toothbrush case for pencils if I was concerned about them marking things up in a backpack, which isn’t a terrible idea if you're desperate, but that’s when I realized that these are, as far as I am aware, nonexistent on the American market and you pretty much have to get imports if you want them. They’re not hard to find at retailers that sell Asian stationery like Daiso, Jetpens, and Aliexpress, and they’re usually only a few bucks for a big set. For a short while I thought they were just a “weird foreign thing that, once you get what they’re for you wonder why we don’t have them”, but according to the blog Pencil Revolution they used to be sold in the US a long time ago. I guess they’ve become a difficult-to-find niche office product, like blotting paper.
Let me introduce you to pencil caps.
When I was in elementary school, my mother bought some of these from a Sanrio store and it took me about 20 years to figure out what they were actually for.
Pencil caps are caps you put on wooden pencils so you won’t mark up the inside of pencil cases and bags and get stabbed by them when you reach into these bags or cases by sharp pencil points. If you like wooden pencils, especially ones with soft leads, these will definitely keep the insides of cases and bags from getting disgusting and coated with graphite.
I remember going to a Dick Blick about a year ago looking for them and I eventually asked one of the clerks if they had them and she had no idea what I was talking about. She recommended I get a plastic travel toothbrush case for pencils if I was concerned about them marking things up in a backpack, which isn’t a terrible idea if you're desperate, but that’s when I realized that these are, as far as I am aware, nonexistent on the American market and you pretty much have to get imports if you want them. They’re not hard to find at retailers that sell Asian stationery like Daiso, Jetpens, and Aliexpress, and they’re usually only a few bucks for a big set. For a short while I thought they were just a “weird foreign thing that, once you get what they’re for you wonder why we don’t have them”, but according to the blog Pencil Revolution they used to be sold in the US a long time ago. I guess they’ve become a difficult-to-find niche office product, like blotting paper.
