HOUSE OF GRAPHITE

The Blackwing 602 was Eberhard Faber's premium graphite pencil, introduced in the mid-1930s and made in the USA until it was discontinued in the late 1990s. It is not graded with an H/B hardness number; instead it uses a single proprietary soft, dark lead famed for the darkness of a 3B/4B combined with the slow wear-rate of an HB, advertised with the slogan "Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed." Cased in lacquered cedar with a hexagonal barrel and a distinctive flat, replaceable eraser held in a square ferrule, it became a cult favourite among writers, animators and composers including John Steinbeck and Chuck Jones. This specimen: Blackwing 602 in grade Single Grade.