Blackwing 602 (Set of 12)

I've been sketching with blackwing for years and they never fail. Whether you're sketching or fine drawing they'll come through every time. 602 for sketching. The Pearl, 602, & Matte for range and that's all you need.

Worth the cost

I'm a writing teacher and a pencil geek. I give my students pencils when they write excellent essays. I use a tiered system. First excellent essay gets a selection from one box: Mongol Incense Cedars, Forest Choice, Golden Bear Palominos. The second excellent essay gets a selection from a second box: Tom Bow, the range of excellent Mitsubishis, and General Cedar Points. Maybe a Mirado Black Warrior. But for a truly superlative piece, I offer my students Blackwings. The 602 is by far their favorite. It's the Cadillac of pencils. Handles well and looks pretty cool. You can tell a lot about a pencil when you sharpen it by hand. You can smell the fragrance of the wood and feel the smoothness of the graphite. Blackwings are a pleasure to sharpen, even more fun to write with, and feel inspirational because of the long line of Greats who used them in the past. (I'm a huge Steinbeck fan. ) I tell my students that Toni Morrison wrote Beloved on yellow legal pads with a Ticonderoga at 4 in the morning every day. In other words, it's the wizard, not the wand. But I like nice tools and I enjoy giving my students nice pencils as a way to inspire them and bring some magic into the process. Blackwings are three times as expensive as any of the Mitsubishis, which are a very close second, in my opinion, but I'll happily splurge a couple extra bucks to have something special in my hand.

60+years and there is no going back.

Blackwing 602 have been my choice since college. because they work. Create and then glide it to the paper.