Wopex (Wood Pencil Extrusion) from Staedtler is an great pencil in terms of its innovative manufacturing process. The body is 70% wood, 30% plastics and additives (a wood polymer material), the coating is special thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) that can bind with the wood polymer easily with the benefit of great coloring alternatives. The resulting pencils are beautiful to look at and non-slip to grab.
Why do I tell you this? Since sawing it in Paperworld 2009, I've been using it from time to time, despite admiring its good look and the effort put into making it, I found that it is not a pencil I would use more often. Simply because it doesn't feel like a pencil to me. The kind of vibration you get when you write using it is like writing with a mixture of crayon, wax and plastic. Something is weird with the lead. It also has no big difference in blackness and hardness for the 3 models (2B, HB, 2H).
But it sells not bad in our stores. While Staedtler can make more Wopex pencils from less wood, now they released a new buy 3 get extra 2 economy pack so you can get more Wopex pencils from less money :)
Check out Pencil Talk's review of Wopex here.
