This is the Palomino Blackwing:
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Ain't it a beauty?
For this article, I decided to try out the best pencil in the world; or what I thought was the best pencil in the world. I first came across the Palomino Blackwing while I was perusing the New York Public Library's gift shop near Bryant Park: this was during the summer. I decided to hold off on doing a review until school started back up again because the timing seemed too appropriate and good to ignore. I used it for roughly a week during and outside of class.
I have heard of these pencils via a YouTube video on them a long time ago, so when I saw them and recalled the video in the gift shop it was an insta-buy for me. Little did I know that it was not the best pencil in the world. The actual pencil is called the Palomino Blackwing 602 :
The gift shop didn't actually sell the Blackwing 602 (at least not that I saw), just the pencil with the white eraser, not the black eraser/602. The point is, the Blackwings are the Cadillacs of pencils. So here is my review of what I'm calling the second best pencil of the world.
1) The Feel
Compared to the cheaper traditional yellow #2 pencils you would get at Staples (or even the Dixon Ticonderoga pencils), the Blackwing feels much softer to the touch. This means that I did not feel the discomfort that I would feel with a harder pencil that would painfully dig into my finger when writing. Although the pencil is still too long for my small hands when brand new, the Blackwing did a good job!
2) The Quality of Writing
Honestly, I didn't notice any incredible difference between the Blackwing and my regular mechanical pencil. The tip of the Blackwing was not sharpened to a super sharp point, so that's why the Blackwing's writing looks slightly thicker. And if you think that writing with the second best pencil in the world will make your handwriting any better...
3) The Convenience
This is the point of no return. The point when I have to say, I was slightly annoyed by this pencil. This pencil made me appreciate the invention of the mechanical pencil even more than I possibly thought I could. Let me be all first-world problems about this and say that I dislike having to sharpen this thing. I much prefer the perpetual sharpness of a mechanical pencil, and I don't care if I'm writing with the best or second best wooden pencil in the world. Plus, having to replace wooden pencils does sound pretty wasteful compared to good ol' mechanical.
4) Overall Thoughts
Despite preferring mechanical pencils, I must say that this is the best experience I've had with a wooden pencil. Not only did my middle finger stay in good working order for future flipping-off use, but when I erased a section of the paper and wrote over it, I did not experience that weird grainy graphite dust that kicked up compared to a cheap Staples pencil.
Will I use it up? I seriously doubt it. I don't remember how much this pencil cost me, but I would say that I got my money's worth if I decided to continue using it. Even though the animator of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs requested to be buried with the Blackwing 602, I would not go so far as to say that I loved its second in command that much. But if you really want to have the experience of using the world's second best pencil, I would not discourage you from doing so.
