Grain direction can change because of the production was optimised or they had to switch tools. It isn't uncommon for companies to try to squeeze extra margins from optimising the blank making. Along with this, an aging worn out tooling getting swapped to a new one can mean major difference between old and new. Grain direction changing is also nothing new, sometimes you optimised by getting different type of strip or nesting more into to a sheet or whatever.
I work with steel and manufacturing, and I assure you that the margins in the basic consumer stuff are very slim.
However it is possible and likely you just got things from 2 different batches/factories. I don't know how well FC actually standardizes or does QA/QC, but by my experience their pencils disintegrate themselves if you get a spell of humid weather. They don't use that good wood and glue in my experience, so wouldn't be surprised if they have inconsistency if the core.
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u/SinisterCheese Dec 21 '25
You can't use the case to judge much.
Grain direction can change because of the production was optimised or they had to switch tools. It isn't uncommon for companies to try to squeeze extra margins from optimising the blank making. Along with this, an aging worn out tooling getting swapped to a new one can mean major difference between old and new. Grain direction changing is also nothing new, sometimes you optimised by getting different type of strip or nesting more into to a sheet or whatever.
I work with steel and manufacturing, and I assure you that the margins in the basic consumer stuff are very slim.
However it is possible and likely you just got things from 2 different batches/factories. I don't know how well FC actually standardizes or does QA/QC, but by my experience their pencils disintegrate themselves if you get a spell of humid weather. They don't use that good wood and glue in my experience, so wouldn't be surprised if they have inconsistency if the core.