Palomino Blackwing Wooden Pencil - Pack of 12 in Black Gift Box

THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT Palomino Blackwing pencils! This one (in matte black) is the first, which has a soft lead and writes with a dark line. Customers expecting a pencil more like the original EF Blackwing wanted the shiny not-quite-black finish, the Half the Pressure slogan, the pink eraser, and a harder lead that wouldn't dull so quickly. A year later, CalCedar issued the Palomino Blackwing 602, which is closer in appearance and performance to the 90's era EF Blackwings (40's era Blackwings reputedly had softer leads). The Palomino Blackwing 602 doesn't write as dark a line as the Palomino Blackwing, but it holds its point longer. In my opinion, both write better than the original late-era EF Blackwings I've purchased off of eBay. As penciltalk.org's admin wrote in his 7/22/09 EF Blackwing post, "...the past achievements are acknowledged and celebrated, but decades of engineering advancement just can't be overcome."

I can't relate to what kind of pencils they manufactured 60 years ago, but I can tell you that these ones are beautiful to work with, depending upon what your requirements are. The pencil quality itself is extremely good, and the eraser design pure simplistic genius.

So here are the pro's and con's:

Pro's: Beautiful quality pencil, smart (replaceable) eraser design, very rich, black stroke (pencil marks on paper)

Con's: Very soft lead, and as the other reveiwer noted, this requires frequent sharpening. Also, due to the lead being so soft, it also smudges a bit more easily.

I use them for making general notes when working at my desk and love them for that purpose. I've never owned or used a pencil that generated such a deep, rich, black line. They're unusual and I always get comments when people see them. If I'm drawing or sketching, I use mechanical clutch pencils that were traditionally used for drafting purposes, and in those I can use whatever range/grade of lead hardness I need to fit the purpose.

These are wonderful pencils - incredibly smooth. Like writing with butter!! They are great for both general writing and for sketching/drawing. Well worth the money.

I find the 602 to be harder and less dark than regular Palomino Blackwings. The 602 series are more faithful to the original Eberhart Faber Blackwings in lead content as well as design. I really like these for sketching where I use the darker Blackwing more for shading or life drawing they’re both very smooth pencils. I was surprised that the eraser works very well and is removable on a lot of pencils I find the erasers more of an afterthought and I need to carry a separate one. Over all there a great pencil all the ones I’ve tried had nicely centered lead cores.

Received this after reading much fanfare in the press and blogosphere. The 602 is a well-made quality pencil. Lead centering is near perfect, all pencils in a dozen are perfectly straight, the finish is fantastic and well done, and the erasers actually work well. Who would know you can extend them quite a bit over the life of the pencil. It's a surprise the balance is not affected with the big eraser on end, and the cores are smooth, dark, and hold a point well. Will definitely get more. The only problem is choosing amongst some pretty fantastic stuff like mono 100s and hi-uni's.