Paper MateMirado Black Warrior Pencil, Hb (#2), Black Lead, Black Matte Barrel, Dozen

Awesome; nice soft, dark lead. Wood of pencil is good and solid. My first choice in a pencil, would recommend this pencil over any other,great for drawing. Sharpens well, erases well. Only experienced broken leads with pencils that were dropped, drummed with,(my fault), etc…

Nice smooth lead, no scratchiness, and very consistent. The real wood is top notch for a pencil and combined with the round profile it leaves them a little stiffer than the average hex-sided ones, so they flex less and won't crack the lead in the shaft long before you get to it. The black is also very macho. This is not a sissy pencil, with sparkles or flowers or bunnies on it. It's a real writing tool that wears its name proudly. (It does roll off your desk pretty easily though. Not such a tough actor when it comes to fighting gravity on a sloped surface.) It's about as good as a plain wooden pencil gets, at least in the "normal person" world. It's not a collectors item, and not an aficionado's pencil made in some monastery in Japan using wood from hand-raised 1000 year-old cedars grown only on the eastern slope of some mountain. It's just a good honest pencil that doesn't cut any corners, and delivers what a pencil should. If you like good tools, this is a good pencil for you. If to you a pencil is a pencil is a pencil, then go to the back-to-school sales and buy a gross of those compressed paper and sawdust yellow ones for buck. They'll sharpen funny and off-center, break a lot, get hard-scratchy spots in the lead that make it feel like you're writing with sand, have lead which cracks and falls out as fast you can sharpen them, and have erasers which smudge more than erase, but that won't bother you. They'll be cheap, and you'll be happy. If you are however even a little persnickety, and those things I listed bother you, even a little bit, buy these. Life is short. Splurge a little. Get yourself a nice pencil. They write nicely, they erase cleanly, and they don't break or flex too easily. What's not to like (other than that rolling away from you thing)?

Love Love Love these pencils. For the past years I notice that my #2 HB yellow pencils were very light when writing and the harder I press down I couldn't get a darker line. I'm old school and still write with pencils for notes and monthly bills. With the quality of consumer merchandise these days have become cheaper and smaller. I am happy to find these well made pencils. Just received them and will touch back when I get back when I get half way through the pack.

So my son is doing his homework and about every two minutes he stops to sharpen his pencil. . . I'm thinking he is just procrastinating and losing focus so I get on him about it and he shows me that his pencil keeps breaking and the lead just falls out. I tell my wife we need to purchase Dixon pencils because those are the best . . . surprise, surprise all his crappy pencils are Dixons. They just don't make them the same anymore.So I do a little research on what the best pencils are and not to my surprise I find a bunch of posts by school teachers saying they lose so much time because Dixon pencils along with so many other poorly made pencils force the kids to keep sharpening their pencils when the lead falls out frequently. Most of them had similar recommendations so I decided to purchase a few different brands to see which ones worked best for us. And so far we have been really happy with the quality of each of the following types that we tried.-Write Dudes USA Gold Premium Cedar No. 2. (Great all around pencil)-Write Dudes USA SIlver Wooden #2 (Great all around pencil)-Staedtler Rally Graphite #2 (Top notch)-General Pencil Company Cedar Pointe No. 2 Pencil (Very well priced and still great quality)-Paper Mate 12 Count #2 Mirado Black Warrior Lead Pencils, Medium Soft (Great pencils, nice darker color)I'd purchase any of the above again as long as they continue to make them the same way. I found a few other reviews by teachers who recommended others, but those few were in a much higher price range. Keeping it in a realistic price range the above 5 pencils are awesome. They write well and the lead does not break every two minutes. Perfect for keeping kids focused while doing their school work.

I bought 4 packs of these pencils strictly on the basis of how they looked. I'm kind of strange in needing everything to match so these fit in well with my black pens and office supplies. That said they were a little more expensive than the typical yellow 12 packs at the store. But they are comfortable, sharpen nicely and the eraser works well. The pencil shaft is round but has a slight textured feeling (not a coating, but more of a flat paint) that helps to grip it.

Writes smoothly, nice black lead, I was able to erase satisfactorily. Sharpens without breaking. The round barrel is easier on arthritic fingers. I’m using for card making.

Love Mirado pencils, best quality

I was a die hard Dixon Ticonderoga user but recently the quality has been poor. I really like these for drafting music. The barrel is a bit smaller an not hexagonal & feels better for prolonged periods. Very smooth.