Jim Weissenborn

Jim Weissenborn is one of the last of his kind.

The 79-year-old longtime resident of Monterey County is the CEO of General Pencil, the last remaining American pencil manufacturer. General Pencil was started in the 1860s by Weissenborn’s great-grandfather Edward Weissenborn in New Jersey, one of the first pencil factories in the U.S.

Weissenborn became CEO in 1979. He expanded the product line and increased distribution, turning General Pencil into a worldwide supplier of fine art and craft products. He taught the trade to his three children; his daughter Katie is now president of the company and her daughter works on the sales and marketing team.

General Pencil products can be found around Monterey County at Imagine Art Supplies in Pacific Grove, Beverly’s Fabrics in Monterey and Aaron Bros.in Monterey. Around the world, Weissenborn’s family’s pencils are sold everywhere from art stores in Australia to gift shops outside the Louvre in Paris. The company has a factory in Redwood City where it produces many accessories and headquarters its marketing.

While General Pencil produces the commonly-known No. 2 pencil, the company mainly focuses on fine art pencils. The company also fills custom orders for election pencils on strings and pencils for florists and nurseries with script that doesn’t wash away with moisture.

Weissenborn calls the company the “the craft brewery in the pencil industry.”

He spoke to the Weekly about the importance of keeping production domestic and his love of Monterey.

Weekly: What was your first job in the factory growing up?

Weissenborn: Around 5 or 6 years old, I would be picking the bad pencils as they came down the lineup. At the end of the day I got 25 cents in the early 1940s. I was always fascinated by machinery. It was fun to see the raw materials – cedar, graphite and clay – turn into a finished product.

What makes a good pencil?

The manufacturing and the ingredients. There is no lead in our pencils. It’s all graphite and clay. The Cedar is from Northern California.

How many pencils can the factory produce?

We can make a million pencils a month. It takes 117 steps to make a pencil.

How many products does General Pencil make?

We have 500 products, everything from basic pencils to charcoal and watercolor pencils and pastel chalk.

Does keeping manufacturing domestic help the quality of General Pencil?

It keeps the quality up, because the quality control overseas is not as consistent. We know where every part – from erasers to the dyes for the colored pencils – comes from. We fluctuate between 45-60 full-time workers in our factory. We like contributing to the arts. We play by all the rules, because all component parts, from the paint to the foil to the stamps, need to be certified and approved by a toxicologist. Anytime we can, we buy in New Jersey – we try to stay as close to home as we can to have complete control over our products.

Do you draw in your free time?

I like to draw, but I have more fun making the product.

What’s your favorite pencil?

A nice 6B, which is a bold, soft-tipped pencil. We produce 22 different degrees of hardness of pencils.

How did you end up in Monterey?

I grew up on the Jersey Shore and always loved the ocean. Our wood came from California and our goal was to bring the company to Redwood City, but we kept the [primary] factory in New Jersey. I came to Monterey because of my love for motorsports and to help guys like Roger Penske race cars at Laguna Seca. My wife Jean was running the timing sheets for the cars. My wife does plein air oil painting locally as well. We first moved here in 1977.

Why do pencils still matter?

The pencil has been around for hundreds of years. Technology now, like the tablet pencil, is gone in months or a few years. People want to have control in their life. People want to feel part of something and drawing with an electronic tablet is neat, but the user doesn’t understand where all the colors come from and how it’s made. We’re like a restaurant with an open kitchen – people want to know how things are made. They like the process of creation.