Pencil Review: Musgrave Tennesse Red

Okay, I talk about Chicago all the time but what you might not know about me is that I went to high school and college in Tennessee. I appreciate my varied upbringing and that I can relate to urban life as well as the smaller, Southern towns. As a result, I’ve always had a soft spot for Musgrave pencils. When I heard about the release of the genuine Tennessee Red cedar pencils ($9/dozen), I knew I needed to get a dozen ASAP. The pencils come in a beautiful matchbox-style box with the Tennessee Red lettering emblazoned on the sleeve in white on bright red.

Inside the box is a dozen natural finish Tennessee Cedar pencils with gold ferrules and bright white erasers. The branding is printed in red foil on the natural, hex pencils.

For Tennessee natives, you’ll recognize the red circle with three stars from the Tennessee state flag.

The pencil sharpens to a good point and don’t let me fool you, I ripped this package open and sharpened these pencils as soon as they arrived. I love a crisp hex pencil and the variations in the tones of wood made these pencils covet-worthy even if they wrote terribly.

Which they don’t. They are actually some of the smoothest Musgrave pencils I’ve used. They are a rich dark graphite but don’t actually smudge that much which is a big deal for a lefty like me. I was even using Rhodia paper ($13.75) which is super smooth and therefore more inclined to smudge but… no, not so much.

The built-in eraser works better than most on-pencil erasers but do yourself a favor and get a foam eraser like the Pilot Foam Eraser ($1.65). The different is amazing.

If I could have tweaked the design of this pencil at all, I might have gone for a silver or dark pewter ferrule but otherwise, I think this is an exceptional pencil at a great price.

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.