National Rubber Eraser Day

RUB IT OUT!

It’s National Rubber Eraser Day. On April 15, we honor the humble, indispensable invention that gave humanity permission to be wrong — to draft, to revise, to rethink. Edward Nairne’s 1770 discovery that caoutchouc could ‘rub out’ pencil marks changed how the modern world writes, draws, and designs.

Staedtler Mars Plastic

The professional drafting standard. White plastic vinyl; exceptional at erasing without smudging. Fine architectural, engineering, and illustration work. Under $3 each; lasts months.

Tombow Mono

Japanese-made, superb quality, elegant black-and-white design. Widely considered the best eraser in the world by stationery enthusiasts. Lives up to its reputation.

Pink Pearl (by Dixon / Papermate)

The classic American school eraser since 1916. Pink rectangular, slanted-edge design. Nostalgic, inexpensive, still functional. The eraser Americans over 50 associate with their childhoods.

Prismacolor Kneaded Rubber

A malleable, putty-like eraser — shape it to a point for fine work, or lift it against paper to remove pencil without abrasion. Essential for charcoal, pastel, and graphite artists.

‘Rubber’ was named after the eraser.
Joseph Priestley coined ‘rubber’ in 1770 to describe the eraser material. The substance — previously called ‘caoutchouc’ (from the South American Tupi language) — got its English name from the tool that popularized it. A reverse naming that still shapes English vocabulary.

Hymen Lipman’s patent was voided in a Supreme Court case.
Reckendorfer v. Faber (1875) is a foundational US patent-law case. Lipman’s 1858 pencil-with-eraser-top patent was voided because it combined two existing items without creating a new function. The ruling: ‘aggregation is not invention.’ Still cited in IP law today.

Before erasers, they used bread.
For 300 years (1400-1770), breadcrumbs and stale-bread crusts were the standard tool for erasing pencil and charcoal marks. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Joshua Reynolds, and countless others used bread. The rubber eraser’s dominance began only 254 years ago.

The Pink Pearl is an ‘acid-free’ success story.
Dixon Ticonderoga’s Pink Pearl has been continuously manufactured since 1916 — over a century of the same product. In 2016 it celebrated its 100th anniversary. Few product designs remain unchanged that long. Stationery’s longest-lived success.

The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance

Henry Petroski · 1990

Petroski’s definitive book on pencils — and by extension, erasers. Engineering, design, history, and cultural context. Accessible, deeply researched, beautifully written. The starting point for anyone interested in writing tools.

Object Lessons: Pencil

Carol Beggy · 2022

Part of the Bloomsbury ‘Object Lessons’ series — short (150 pages), accessible, culturally-attuned meditation on the pencil. Includes extensive discussion of erasers as essential partner tools. A lovely modern read.

Japanese Stationery: The Art of Meaningful Utility

Joseph Mason · 2018

A visual-heavy book documenting Japan’s extraordinary stationery culture, including its world-leading erasers. Beautiful photography, thoughtful writing. For design enthusiasts and stationery lovers.

Blackwing 602 (Palomino). Ticonderoga #2. Staedtler Mars Lumograph. The eraser’s natural partner; choose a good pencil to complement a good eraser.

Rhodia, Leuchtturm1917, Midori. The pencil-eraser experience is elevated on good paper. Fountain-pen-friendly papers are excellent for pencils too.

Quiet instrumental music for thinking-by-hand. Keith Jarrett’s ‘The Köln Concert.’ Nils Frahm’s ‘Felt.’ Perfect pencil-sketching accompaniment.

Henry Petroski’s ‘The Pencil’ — erudite, readable, genuinely interesting engineering history. A perfect evening read about humble objects.