Palomino Blackwing 602

[trent]

hmmmm, i did like the darker soft lead of the previous Palomino Blackwing... i guess i'll have to give this one a try, but...

 

if anyone here have both... can you post a comparison of the writing? much appreciated!

 

Well, there's no doubt, the Palomino Blackwing is considerably darker and smoother than the Palomino Blackwing 602. It writes like butter, and it requires frequent sharpening. The frequent sharpening was irritating to writers, because of the many interruptions. The PB602 is the answer to this, but a degree of darkness and softness of lead has been sacrificed.

 

i was afraid of that... i wonder if they will continue to make both -maybe it was mentioned in the thread before and missed it.

 

edited: i don't even like the look of the new version -hate the black eraser!!

 

I don't think you need to worry---Cal Cedar is offering both versions on their website. Artists and musicians will keep using the PB, while writers will go for the PB602.

 

The PB offended many because, despite its wonderful lead, it did not reproduce the look of the original Eberhard Faber 602. The PB602, however, is made to look as much as possible like the original, except for that black eraser, which has upset purists. Cal Cedar offers replacement erasers in pink for those who insist on the original look. I'm not a fanatic about the Eberhard Faber original, but I must say that I do prefer the pink eraser as well.

Edited July 10, 2011 by trent

[dan in montreal]

This thread is old, but here's my take on this pencil. I think it's great. I've never used the original EF Blackwing, but from what I understand, the Palomino 602 seems pretty close to the original. I found this critique, which seems pretty complete (no affiliation):

Pencil Reviewer

 

 

Before using fountain pens, I used to do pretty much all my writing with pencils. However, I would only use models which were readily available (the old USA made Eagle / Berol Mirados, for instance; Faber Castell Americans, Staedtler Traditions, which strangely I cannot find anymore in Canada, as well as a few others). This, of course, was before the internet.

 

I knew about the original Blackwings and was aware they had been revived, so I decided to get a box from Cal Cedar. They are delightful. I got the 602's because I had read the graphite was firmer and needed less sharpening. While I can't compare it to the original or to the first Palomino BW, it is a very nice writing instrument: it looks as good as it writes. I find it to be very smooth and not at all smudgy, which surprised me. It is dark enough for me, darker than my USA made General Semi-Hex HB's for instance (which are fantastic pencils in their own right).

 

They are made in Japan. I've heard a great deal of positive comments regarding Japanese pencils, such as the Tombow Mono 100's and the Mitsubishi Unis, as Hohn mentioned. The latter are probably the ones I will purchase next. Only thing, they are much more expensive than the Blackwings: Jetpens has them at 28.00 USD a dozen. Pencils.com have the BW at 19.99 a dozen. More expensive than the (crappy) made in China Dixons you can find at Wal-Mart, but a beautiful homage to the original (which now sells at ridiculous prices - 30 bucks for one pencil? - that must hurt).

[Hohn]

Just a follow up to this that may be peripherally interesting:

I have three pencils that are almost identical in blackness:

 

Staedtler Mars Lumograph "F"

Faber Castell 9000 "B"

Tombow Mono 100 "H"

 

The Tombow is almost three grades darker than the Faber Castell, with the Staedtler being the tiniest bit lighter than either.

 

Similarly, my Hi-Uni 2mm lead in B performs like a 3B in other pencils, and the H grade is similar to HB in most pencils.

 

It seems to me that the Japanese pencils run about two grades darker/blacker than the European counterparts in a given grade.

 

I perfer the Japanese pencils best overall, I just buy a grade or two harder than I otherwise would for a given reference grade.

 

The Hi-Uni 2mm leads are fantastic and work superbly in any quality 2mm leadholder.

[XiaoMG]

When the Palomino Blackwing came out, I was a little underwhelmed. Its reception was quite warm on blogs, where the initial impression left by CalCedar was that the pencils were still in development, and feedback solicited for further refinement before release. When it was discovered that the pencil was in fact final, a number of people felt a bit betrayed by the company. This feeling was exacerbated when at least one employee of CalCedar posted comments and testimony under a false identity. Mr. Berolzheimer eventually chimed in and tried to clear things up and make right, but there has since been a bit less enthusiasm shown toward their products now than there was at first. This is evidenced by the lack of attention on PencilTalk, or Blackwing Pages. CalCedar have followed other paths to promote their product, and they seem to have done a decent job of getting it out there.

 

I was a critic of the first Palomino Blackwing, largely on aesthetic grounds. I wasn't looking for a copycat version of the EF Blackwings, but I was hoping that the stamping and paint and everything would be executed in a way befitting a premium product.

 

The PBW602 effectively addressed almost all my aesthetic concerns, offered a far more attractive and properly finished product, and came much closer to a good Japanese HB-B, which was my preference anyway. The stampings are a little shallow, but it's one of the most attractive pencils I have. It writes very well, and is not out of place among the premium Japanese pencils. The eraser, like that of the Palomino Blackwing, is OK but not particularly good. I'd still rather cut a chunk of my Pentel Black Ain eraser and put it in the ferrule. Too bad those things tear pretty easily in that role.

 

If the eraser were truly great, I think it'd become my favorite wooden pencil. As it is, it still makes my personal top 5.

[XiaoMG]

hmmmm, i did like the darker soft lead of the previous Palomino Blackwing... i guess i'll have to give this one a try, but...

 

if anyone here have both... can you post a comparison of the writing? much appreciated!

I know this response is pretty old, but I was goofing around and came up with a little, very incomplete image that might be interesting to some.

 

For typical amounts of pressure, it's true that the first PBW is much darker than the PBW602 and other pencils, but once you approach the maximum darkness with pressure, the difference becomes pretty negligible. Sadly, I cannot easily demonstrate differences at a fixed moderate pressure without rigging up some way to make pressure constant. The picture I'm showing represents close to the darkest each of these pencils will achieve with higher pressure.

 

At the pressure I was applying, the Palomino Blackwing was practically melting away, while the others held up a bit better.

[lovemy51]

it's a very useful post, XiaoMG.

 

the thing with me is that i'm so used to writing with an FP that i don't wish to apply any preasure when writing with a pencil either. but i get your point and i will eventually get the PBW602. . just a matter of $20.

 

edited:

just to give u an idea of what i like: Uni-ball Kuru Toga mechanical pencil with .5mm, 4B soft.

 

it works great for me

Edited October 8, 2011 by lovemy51

[XiaoMG]

it's a very useful post, XiaoMG.

 

the thing with me is that i'm so used to writing with an FP that i don't wish to apply any preasure when writing with a pencil either. but i get your point and i will eventually get the PBW602. . just a matter of $20.

 

edited:

just to give u an idea of what i like: Uni-ball Kuru Toga mechanical pencil with .5mm, 4B soft.

 

it works great for me

One of the conundrums I face with pencils is whether woodcased pencils are really worthwhile for my writing habits. I've tried a few Kuru-Togas and never found them satisfactory in performance or feel, so my current 0.5mm mechanical pencil is a Uni Alpha Gel Slim, loaded with 2B, because I find all the 4B leads smear easily. My daily user, however, is the Mitsubishi Pure Malt 2mm loaded up with Uni leads. I can't imagine a more pleasurable graphite writing experience than that leadholder.

 

The original PBW is good, and a similar, perhaps better pencil than that is the Mitsubishi Uni Penmanship in 4B. When writing with a super soft touch, the point lasts a while, but I rarely can force myself to ease up that much, so I tend to have to sharpen frequently.

[beak]

Notemaker now have these available in Australia for under 4$ individually. They're fine pencils, IMO, and worth a try if you're looking for something special.

 

First thing I did was snap off the eraser and crimping - silly, and the eraser not up to scratch anyway. Also, I use pencil extenders for holding stubs, and the wide crimp gets in the way of that.

 

Good pencils though - no doubt about it.

[FLJeepGuy]

Levenger is now selling the Palomino Blackwing Soft Pencils, Black Casing with White Erasers and Palomino Blackwing 602 Firm Pencils, Pearl Gray Casing with Black Erasers in 12-packs for $20 ($1.66 each).

 

No affiliation, just a satisfied customer.

[Rita_K]

If anybody is interested in trying either the Blackwing or the Blackwing 602 but don't want to buy a dozen of them you might want to check out the FPN classifieds. One of our FPN members is selling them very reasonably.

[lovemy51]

If anybody is interested in trying either the Blackwing or the Blackwing 602 but don't want to buy a dozen of them you might want to check out the FPN classifieds. One of our FPN members is selling them very reasonably.

that is very reasonable!! thx 4 sharing.

[Rita_K]

If anybody is interested in trying either the Blackwing or the Blackwing 602 but don't want to buy a dozen of them you might want to check out the FPN classifieds. One of our FPN members is selling them very reasonably.

that is very reasonable!! thx 4 sharing.

 

Yes, it's a great price and 'paperskater' is a pleasure to deal with.

[PENitent]

I am luck enough to have an original Blackwing pencil to compare the two new ones to and have to say that the 602 is much closer than the first new one. The eraser isn't the best but I have other ones that I can use.

 

At work I used an entire box of the first version and am down to the second layer of the other version.

 

Sometimes a wood case pencil is just a treat to write with.

[fast14riot]

Geeze I really should try these, maybe I'll head over to Cal Cedar and see if they have any there. Been a while since I have talked to them.

 

 

-Xander

[XiaoMG]

It seems that CalCedar has been pretty successful getting this brand off the ground. I'm happy that JetPens hasn't adopted the Moleskine-like marketing dishonesty that Levenger and some other sites decided to go with.

 

I also think it's interesting that what most of the connoisseurs really wanted was the lead of the [later] EF versions. When people were ambivalent about the original PBW's lead, CalCedar's announced move was to get closer, not to the EFBW itself, but to the Palomino HB. That they went to the trouble of reprinting the slogan and imitating the paint finish to secure the "traditionalists", yet kind of half-arsed the graphite, is a bit baffling.

 

 

 

As for the pencil, I have to give the company some credit. It writes very well and the paint and stamping are relatively well executed (far superior to the job they did on the original PBW). I personally find the top Mitsubishi pencils to be a bit superior in terms of graphite, but I quite like having a PBW602 with a custom eraser cut from a Pentel block since it is very handy.

 

I've seen a few claims out there that suggest that the PBW602 holds a point like an HB while being smooth and dark like a pencil several shades darker. I do not find this to be the case. If I compare it to my Staedtlers, it offers a similar performance to the Mars Lumograph in 3B in most respects (the 3B Staedtler seems a bit more fragile, though). Compared to my Hi-Unis, I think the wear rate and darkness of the PBW602 correspond to a B grade or so, though I feel that the Mitsubishi is noticeably more slick on most papers. If you're a writer used to an HB Staedtler or Faber-Castell, these pencils may be way too soft for you.

 

I hope the pencil is successful, though I hope CalCedar can encourage retailers to avoid trying to appropriate all the praise that was given to the EFBW. There was an interesting discussion on Sean Malone's Blackwing Pages that addressed the issue a bit (in the last half of the comments, mostly)

Edited November 5, 2011 by XiaoMG

[ralfstc]

I agree with @XiaoMG.

 

I picked up a box of these and have to say that while, on balance, I like them very much, they don't replace fountain pens! More worrying, they don't really replace mechanical pencils. In an MP I can have a soft BB lead and keep it sharp very easily. The 602 are not especially dark without some pressure, and tend to lose their point quite frequently-- I'd say every sixty words as I write with light pressure.

 

They don't hold a point long enough to mark papers with, and I'd find longer writing a bit irritating with the constant resharpening. There's no doubt they are great pencils, but the hyperbole may indeed be just that . . .

 

Cheers,

 

R.

 

ps. People either LOVE or HATE the eraser, which I kind of enjoy!

[lovemy51]

i took a Palomino 2B (orange) pencil out of the pencil bag and started writing with it; and i think that if these PBW602's write as good as this one they have a winner in my book. i simply like the palomino quality.

 

i'll have to wait til my PBW602's arrive. just bought two from Paperskater.

[lovemy51]

http://www.levenger.com/PAGETEMPLATES/PRODUCT/Product.asp?Params=Category=8-911|Level=2-3|pageid=8367

 

from the Levenger site:

The softer side of the Palomino Blackwing Pencil

Pencil aficionados from John Steinbeck to Thomas Wolfe have sung the praises of the Palomino Blackwing pencil, which was originally created in the 1930s by Eberhard Faber. Many corporate acquisitions later and amid dropoff of pencil enthusiasm, this beloved pencil was discontinued...but not forgotten. Charles Berolzheimer II has brought it back, now in a modified version with a slightly softer, smoother lead for artists.

 

 

[Brian]

Haven't tried the BW 602 yet having only now returned to using wood pencils more and more. There are way cool on so many levels - a renewable product (depending on manufacturer), ability to find vintage pieces that won't cost too much, both breadth and depth in types, and using them is very tactile from the aroma of cedar to the act of sharpening, to the slow shortening and measurement of progress as its being used.

[85AKbN]

nevermind.

Edited November 27, 2013 by v7ef44