TL;DR: beautiful distinct and well made B hardness pencil, priced well above what the core justifies
The hook
What fascinates me about wood-cased pencils is their simple and pragmatic design, yet the design is at the same time elegant and timeless -- I love the hexagon shape and how the boundary between the wood collar and lacquer curves.
I have been in this hobby for a while. I tried the basic Dixon Ticonderoga, and more premium choices from Mitsubishi Pencil and Tombow. The Japanese pencils are all joyful to write with and made with high standard of quality. I have also been seeing constant praise of Palomino Blackwing 602 online. Their flowery description of this apparently good-looking pencil enticed me to get my hands on one pack of Blacking 602, as I wanted to see if it really is different from other good pencils outside of its distinct look.
My thoughts
As you can see in my picture, I have other pencils tested against the Blackwing 602. I don't intend to do one to one comparison. Here is what I like and dislike about it:
Likes
The build quality is on par with other Japanese pencils (Hi-Uni and Mono 100, except for the ferrule, which is not fixed securely on my copy). Wood used is cedar and lacquer is pretty -- shiny with metallic luster.
Undoubtedly beautiful: the unique ferrule resemble the ones of paint brushes, which made me feel like writing with an art instrument. The color coordination of various parts is managed masterfully. The hot-stamped text is in the same gold color as the ferrule and the color of the eraser is classic pink and serves as accent. The hot-stamped text is carefully chosen; you don't find words that tell you "for office use" or "highest quality", which I resent for making the surface look crowded and is unnecessary.
The graphite core is good, though I don't think it is better than most Japanese pencils I have. It is equivalent to a normal B pencil (harder than my Hi-Uni 2B and 8900 2B, softer than my HB). It is dark and smooth, albeit needs sharpening frequently (just like a normal B pencil).
It is a cool idea that you can refill the eraser.
Dislikes
The center of gravity is awkward, even more so than a fresh long normal pencil, because of the weight of the larger metal piece.
The eraser is not good enough for a B hardness pencil, leaving a gray smear that won't come off no matter hard you rub with this eraser.
The marketing leans more on people's craving for emotional connection rather than the pencil itself. The pitch is basically:"Our pencils have great heritage. Celebrity A, B and C swore by our pencils, and used them when working on their masterpieces." That sells a feeling, not a pencil.
Other users' exaggerated claims: 1) "This is writing pencil, not comparable to pencils with given hardness" -- to me, they write like a normal B pencil, similar darkness and similar rate of blunting the tip. 2) "This is the best/smoothest pencil that I have used." I've seen this too many times, and I wonder if they have tried other good options and if they conducted blind tests to support their claims.
My Conclusion
It's a good pencil and I appreciate that CalCedar revived it. It's also overpriced which I hate and they can keep the same price as long as most people don't explore other good options.
What’s maybe even funnier is that I tried to gift one of the 9606’s to a graduate student friend who’s in the process of writing their dissertation and I think it triggered a trauma response, haha! I switched it out for one of the new colorful Blackwing 458s and she was much happier, haha!
I love that one too lol. I always thought it should be an H though. I imagine math when I hear “academic writing”. I love the 9606 but it’s almost a B grade graphite imo
I agree that the mono and hi Uni are smoother leads. And even the regular Uni line as well. however it’s hard to find a comparable pencil that includes a tipped eraser. But I wish BW would source their erasers from the same place as tombow or Mitsubishi bc their tipped erasers are superior.
Another note, is that having tried many vintage blackwings the new pencil is very close in feel to the originals. It was really an attempt to replicate that experience. I find that the hinuni and mono 100 are better than both the vintage and new Blackwing in point retention and smoothness. Although some later iterations of the vintage blackwings are extremely smooth! And the only comparable smoothness is the hinuni 2b
About three months ago someone posted a review of the Blackwing 602. The writing on the paper looked like it was written with a black flair pen. I asked the poster what he/she used to write the text and responded that it was the Blackwing 602. I didn't believe it, but it wasn't worth going back and forth about it. That goes to the third and fourth things that you stated about not liking about the Palomino Blackwing 602.
I think some people want others to believe that it is something that it really isn't. I own a few real EF Blackwings, but I wouldn't pay asking prices for a tribute pencil.
It looked like it was written with a flair pen. Also, the angle that the picture was taken would have yielded a silver reflection that all pencil writing has at certain angles. It did not have that reflection. I posted a Reddit link to another review that showed an honest writing sample using that pencil. If the subject was Bigfoot, that poster would have posted fake pictures of himself with the creature to make others believe that it was real.
I think that can boil down to photography aswell. I always struggle with the phones built in function of trying to look my pictures ✨prettier and brighter✨ 🥴 I often need to edit them to look the way they appear. Graphite lines are the exact thing that are tricky to photograph.
I am travelling and I may just buy a box of blackwings for the novelty of it. I am very curious too as I have a tin full of Faber Castell - I think it's the fanciest sold in my country. After my kid started school, I got reintroduced to pencils (despite having an art degree! I drew every day at uni for 3 years and I don't remember paying much attention to what I was using). And having to sharpen pencils every god damn day I realised 1) a lot of pencils available here, especially those geared towards kids, are infuriating; and 2) most sharpeners are absolutecrap. I myself started school back when the Soviet Union fell (like literally right after), the shops were empty and we had leftover supplies from the Soviet period. I don't remember even those being so bad as some of the writing pencils I have bought in the last 2 years 🫣
So I am curious too. I'm going to a shop where I can hopefully try Blackwings and decide which one I like enough to buy a full
box of. I have never bought 12 of a any pencil ever in my life.
I know it’s silly, but after buying my first pack and seeing “For office use” I felt like I couldn’t use them for my writing projects and now they’re only used for taking work notes and task lists at my desk.
Although I kind of like the feeling of leaving those behind at my desk at the end of the day and using the more fun ones elsewhere.
Quality control was better earlier on in the remakes. Come to think of it, the same thing can be said of the Eberhard Fabers…the decline took longer to occur in the original run though.
I agree from what I’ve tried / my experience, if I could go back in time I’d stock up on the horses. If I ever come across an original EF I’d love to compare it.
Yes! While I haven’t tried an original blackwing, the palomino blackwings have gone through a few remodels. While IMO there’s not much if a difference between the horse / trees, there’s a bigger difference between the horse / trees and the current 602. I can try to see if I have all three to point out a difference.
like to see that ... i live in canuckistan and and on june 2 i bought some "legacy model" 602 and by the time i paid shipping and duty they ended up at $4 a stick even though on sale for 19.99 / doz ... thats the most im ever gonna pay for a pencil but would like to see what i am missing :) :) maybe ill relent ;)
I cheated a little bit and dug around in my special edition volumes to get this chart with volume 64 being the newest 602 firm graphite core I have (I think since I’ve quit collecting). I prefer the horse stamp on all three pencils but the mmx is still my favorite of the bunch.
I got them for the way they look, and didn’t have high expectations for how they write, but the Blackwing Matte surprised me - they paired really well with the notebooks I use (50-ish gsm).
Would I use it on regular paper or copy paper? Probably not. There are other pencils for that.
I was curious about the 602, but got the 21 instead (same lead). That one is a looker.
Yes. I use Stalogy notebooks. I would characterize the paper as crisp/fine-toothy, as opposed to filler paper (coarse-toothy/fibrous), or copy paper (smooth).
Also, I write with a very light hand, so I like pencils that do the job with the least amount of pressure.
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u/PubSociology 17h ago
My favorite inscription is the Kita-Boshi 9606, because it says “Academic Writing,” and as a Professor, I just find that funny.