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Comment by j0e1 | Hacker News Reader

Growing up in India, all the pencils I used were red and black striped made by Nataraj. I remember seeing yellow pencils in western movies though.

https://cwpencils.com/collections/nataraj/products/621-hb-pe...

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Probably the most common colour in New Zealand is that red and black stripe as well, but usually made by Staedtler[0]. Some other brands also copy the same style[1].

Seems like we need another article on Why Pencils Are Red And Black.

[0] https://i.imgur.com/AMbEQzT.jpg

[1] e.g. https://i.imgur.com/mmN943m.jpg

Yep same in Australia

South Africa is another antipodean country where pencil means Staedtler in black & red

This article already addressed it: red and black paints are used to cover up imperfections in the less-than-high-quality wood being used .. red and black both being inexpensive paints.

I live in the UK and always since I can remember (27yrs) pencils have always been red or the red/yellow and black striped ones. In fact the only yellow ones I remeber seeing have always been the packs of very cheap poor quality ones.

Same in Switzerland. The good default pencil was the red one by Caran d'Ache. The yellow ones (with an eraser on top) where super cheap and would always break or get dull very fast.

Grown up in China and most popular pencils were coded in dark green made by Zhonghua.

https://img3.doubanio.com/lpic/s9122591.jpg

Yellow ones are rare there.

Does the color green have a meaning in China?

For Han people, it doesn't mean anything specific. Here I think it's just refering woods.

You can see bamboo leaves in the zoomed-in version:

http://g.search.alicdn.com/img/bao/uploaded/i4/i1/740891439/...

Sure, "cuckold" (as applied to hats, not in general).

But I doubt that's what they're going for with the pencils.

Same in South Africa. No yellow pencils here: most are red and black striped.

In Italy, quality in everyday pencils used to be associated to Staedtler, and their pencils were striped black/yellow.

What you are describing are Koh-i-noor pencils. Staedtler pencils are blue, with the black top.

Not all are: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0644/8811/products/Staedtl...

Search for "staedtler matita" (italian for pencil) and look at images: https://www.google.com/search?q=staedtler+matita

The overwhelming majority is black/yellow. Maybe they geo-segment.

Apparently, several types exist. The high-end ones are the blue/black I was describing (Staedtler Mars Lumograph), while the black/yellow ones (Staedtler Noris) are the most common ones.

In Australia and New Zealand they're red and black[1].

[1]: https://i.imgur.com/AMbEQzT.jpg

In Japan there are yellow pencils but green pencils are more common. https://www.tombow.com/products/writing/pencil/

I practically grew up eating that thing, though I also find mitubishi's maroon pencils to be popular too.

Here in Brazil growing up most of them were green, with the occasional cartoon character-branded pencil in the mix.

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