Cool, I just bought a box of Blackwing 602 after months of reviews (and even discerning buyng for years), may it mark wood, plastic and metal well for the projects. I was thinking of buying the box of Matte ones but I researched the 602 was the smoothest pencil in existence which I'd love to try on the most buttery paper on the planet (aside from onion skin), Tomoe River. I'd reuse the cool eraser mechanism and Frankestein build it into another pencil that's less expensive but has the same performance almost :-) God bless, Rev. 21:4
G’day from Australia. You can also purchase a pencil holder when you reach the nub, to use all of the pencil, you remove the rubber replace with holder. Hope this is helpful.
The blackwing matte actually is the softest pencil in the blackwing line, and the softness might be the reason that the unusual graphite quality is not immediately evident; most people have little reference point for the texture of a soft pencil. If you try out their firm graphite, it will be much clearer why they make such a fuss over the high quality japanese graphite.
