An Entire Store Dedicated to Pencils!

I’ve always loved office supplies, notebooks, pens, highlighters – you name it I go crazy for it.  If you’re an organizational nerd like me you probably can identify. But for some reason pencils, in particular have always been my thing. I write with pencil pretty exclusively and only use pen when I’m writing a check or filling out a greeting card.

The main problem with being such a pencil fanatic is that it’s hard for me to find the perfect pencil. Typically I use mechanical pencils but I’m very particular  because I’m a lefty and we have a smudge problem when we write.

Imagine my excitement when my mother told me that she heard about a pencil only store on the Lower East Side of Manhattan called CW Pencil Enterprise. Given my affinity for pencils I was intrigued and had to visit.

I walked in and it was like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory except with colored pencils! It was a bit sensory overload for such a tiny shop. All neatly arranged by color there were hundreds of pencils on display. There was even a testing station where you could sit down and try out a few different types of pencils. Great if you’re fussy like me!

I told the woman in the store I was specifically looking for a pencil that was smooth to write with and made a dark mark, but wouldn’t smudge. I ended up getting a few Japanese pencils and a left handed pencil sharpener. I haven’t had one of those since grade school and I realized quickly I forgot how to use one! I’ve been acclimating to a right handed world so long that I had to use my right hand to even use the left handed sharpener!  

I’ll be back to check out more pencils, who knew there were so many? .  They have over 200 different variety, from all around the world, as well as a ton of different accessories. They even do custom made pencils, if you want something totally unique. The store was opened in 2014 by Caroline Weaver, who describes herself as amateur pencil collector, but lifelong pencil lover.

She was inspired to open the store because she believes that as simple as it may be, the pencil is something which despite advances in technology will never become obsolete. Whatever you may use them for, Caroline wants to make sure that you can have any pencil your heart, hand, or collection desires.