Because Dixon Ticonderoga pencils are no longer being made from Eastern Red Cedar, they've suffered a serious decline in quality.

According to the Wikipedia article, the new Ticonderoga is being made from "an unspecified American cedar"; however, not only is this claim untrue, its only source is the Dixon company's website itself!

Dixon hasn't manufactured the Ticonderoga Pencil from within the U.S. in over two decades. The pencils are being mass-produced on a world-scale as another throwaway novelty for a wasteful consumer culture; their manufacture has been outsourced to the lowest bidder, and the lower quality is a reflection of that change. The pencil is now being made from multiple species of wood, all of which are inferior. I have personally encountered three different types of non-Cedar Ticonderoga pencils over the last five years: two of these were far too hard, and the other was too soft. And the pencils from the soft wood package even had misaligned lead! Without Cedar, a pencil will be much more difficult to sharpen, and the graphite WILL break. Don't be fooled: the Dixon Ticonderoga is no longer "the world's best pencil."

Once a precise writing instrument, the Ticonderoga was emblematic of the pinnacle of engineering development: for decades, it showed us not only that consistent, affordable quality could be achieved, but also that one simple product's optimization was chain-linked to an entire nation's industrious spirit. It wasn't just a simple pencil. It was an acheivement of design that was symbolic of a pragmatic people. What was the proud refinement made of the efforts of a myriad scrutinous Yankees, now, instead, is just one more piece of dollar-store garbage.

DIXON: shame on you for the change; you've abandoned a beautiful tradition that could have been sustained indefinitely if not for your greed. You've cursed your product's legacy, insulted its history, and slighted your supporters with dishonesty. Rather than the pleasantly nostalgic scent of aromatic Cedar, now your flagship product smells like slash & burn lumber, musty freighter pesticide, and corporate artifice. ✏️