Blackwing Natural Pencils - 12 Count, Nautral Wood Design, Premium Japanese Graphite, Long lasting Extra-Firm Lead

These are hands down my favorite and potentially one of the best doodle/all around sketch pencil out there.While they are certainly pricier, they are worth it. I’ve had my original set for years and I still have 6 pencils I haven’t even touched yet. I knew these would be my go tos for years to come so I bought another set. Different style, but same lead quality as the previous ones I have with the black eraser.Reasons why I live these:1 lead does not break easily in any sharpener. I only had the lead break once and that was because I really screwed up the angle of the blade to the pencil and was really rough with it. I have been able to sharpen these in electric, Long point, and metal sharpeners along with an X-Acto knife2. They feel good to hold. Like seriously I feel my brain and hand are more in sync with these pencils and they just help with the work flow of my drawing getting it from my mind to the paper. Easy to hold and control the pressure. Not to mention the way the eraser end is made, it still allowed me to draw with a semi awkward grip even when it was a literal stub (ie no more pencil left and just the pointed part). This allowed me to use it until the last possible moment3. The lead glides so nickels on all paper types. I’ve drawn in Bristol and papers with tougher textures and the pencil glides so well but still providing enough friction for control. A great all rounder based on the pressure you use allowing you to lightly doodle to drawing darker outlines to even basic shading. All with one pencil. Makes it great as a traveling tool when you want to practice or get tough ideas out.4. It erases pretty cleanly. The erasers work reasonably well given not as well as my kneadable or vinyl erasers, but for use with just this pencil, they get the job done. The shake of the eraser allows for more control in the size of the area you want to erase and you don’t need to use a lot of pressure. Not to mention you can pull it out and extend the eraser when you have rubbed it down too much. Though depending on how much you erase, they don’t feel they will last the full life if the pencil itself.

Very easy to write with and has a well balanced feel, for a pencil, in your hand; perhaps the "gold" eraser end is heavier than a typical pencil's eraser thus, whilst holding the Blackwing 602 in hand, it feels more substantial, or for the serious minded. The lead writes easily. Perhaps it is just knowing the history of the Blackwing 602 and all the brilliant artist of the 20th century who used the original Blackwing that makes the 602 seem special, or maybe its just the outrageous price for a pack of pencils that convinces the mind that this is a superior pencil in order to justify the cost. Note, these pencils do not last long as the soft lead transfer to the paper so quickly and you have to sharpen more often than you are accustomed to do with other pencils. Therefore it is suggested to buy their plastic sharpener that has two sharpeners for the 602: one to remove the wood; the other to hone and actually sharpen the lead as the first hole leaves the lead in tack, which is a thick end too awkward to utilize for your work. This seeming drawback of constantly sharpening not once but twice per sharpening is a corporate committee's nightmare of inefficiency and seemingly wasted time management, however, for the artistic type, the artists, composers, writers, or simply those brave enough to think outside the box of all the zombies of the world, that is, all the followers who never think for themselves and simply believe what they were told and never question their cherished and most likely outdated beliefs, this constant sharpening is the mother's milk of creativity because it becomes a ritual, the two times sharpening every time you sharpen, and this ritual makes the artist feel like a) he is doing something that must be done other than actually creating, b) whilst sharpening she gives her unconscious mind the rest and space that it needs to dredge up the new, the unconventional, the original ideas that creativity is all about, that is, the time spent sharpening is the time that the creative mind requires to do its work, c) every time the artist has to sharpen it means that he or she went through so much lead, that is, the artist is actually doing so much creative work, therefore the artist subconsciously knows that he is getting a lot of work done because the lead is constantly running low in its attempt to keep up with the artist creative productivity. Lastly, a pencil is a lost art and gives a quiet serenity and focus to a work that it is more difficult to achieve with the laptop simply because there is no email or facebook on the pencil where there is on the laptop/computer screen. The 602 is NOT the original Blackwing from yore, HOWEVER, the Blackwing 602 is designed almost identically to the originals so much so that you need not sift through ebay to pay $200 plus dollars per pack just so that you have bragging rights, the pencil itself is not art though it lends itself well to creating art. This is to say that the Blackwing 602 is the clone of the original out of production Blackwing. Note there are Blackwing pencils being sold but they are NOT clones of the original Blackwings, thus be sure to purchase the Blackwing 602. The now in production Blackwing have a harder lead and slightly different color. Again, there are three Blackwings: the original out of production Blackwing purchasable on ebay for $$$; the now in production Blackwing that is NOT a clone of the original; and finally the now in production Blackwing 602 that is a clone of the original with the soft lead and the benefits as described above.