These are serious pencils.

The graphite is very firm and lays down a serious line. My wife loves using these for journalling. The quality of craftsmanship is evident from the time you hold one of these pencils. The wood is a fine grade of cedar and the graphite is pretty firm, allowing for expressive writing and simple illustration.

The erasers are useless - which is why the pencils get dinged a star. I think that they are not effective because the lines the pencil lays on paper are so strong. I haven't tried other erasers but hell - a good journalist should never erase words they write; just draw a line though them and drive on.

Pros - comfortable, high quality, solid pencils with a very cool heritage. Cons - crappy eraser that just might not be the eraser's fault.

I like them. The Bride likes them. That's good enough for me.

I DO recommend the blackwing long point sharpener. It works great.

My review is more geared to those people interested in using these for drawing. I agree with those who find these to be extremely smooth. I have found the price of these not to be too far off from other pencil brands made and used for drawing. For example, I bought a pack of Derwent Graphics that were more than $2 per pencil and not near the smoothness of these pencils. Faber Castell 9000 are about the same price as the Blackwings when not on sale. Staedtlers are about half the price, and are decent but nearly as smooth. Hi Uni is a little less expensive and on par in smoothness with the 602, Pearl, and Blackwing.

I use both the Hi Uni and Blackwings for my drawings. I started drawing with the Blackings, and use the 602 as a 2B, Pearl - 3B and Blackwing - 4B. Later, I bought and used the Hi Uni's 2H, HB, 6B, and 10B. (I only recently became aware of the Palomino Mixed grade pencils, which I would like to try some time) If I must use only one pencil for a sketch or drawing then I would likely choose the 602. If I'm given a choice of 2 it would be the 602 and the Blackwing. Note: I find that the Pearl is very close in blackness to the 602 and I have a hard time discerning the difference.

In the attached image, I used all three Blackwings: 602, Pearl, and Blackwing.

I must give props to the seller, Palomino. When I received my shipment, there were 2 pencils where the eraser ferrell was glued to the eraser bracket making the removal of the eraser nearly impossible. They responded immediately to my concern and promptly sent me replacements + 2 more for good measure. Now that's great service and I couldn't be happier. Thank you Palomino.

The White pencil writes nicer, but wears out quicker than the harder Blackwing model. You don't notice how nice either pencil writes until you go back and have to use a standard pencil. The square eraser is nice because it keeps the pencil from rolling.
Get two packages of four Kutsuwa STAD Wood Lead Pencil Caps Metal to help protect your purchases. These pencil caps like to disappear, you'll want 8 total.
The Blackwing two step sharpener also does a great job. Internally it looks the same as the KUM two step sharpener, but it worked better than the KUM or a one hole sharpener.
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One star off because I got in trouble with the Mrs. for buying $2 pencils. . .
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Update: Adding back in one star because my daughter snagged two of the Pearls (and pencil caps) to do drawings with and doesn't want to go back to the nearly same price art pencils. She doesn't mind that she has to sharpen it more often. Also, she now has her own two hole sharpener.

Good balance between the 602 and normal Blackwing, but because I use them for math/writing, and not sketching, I prefer the 602. The 602 has a firmer graphite so you have to sharpen your pencil less. I also press hard when I write, so if I'm frustrated when trying to solve a a problem, the pencils become almost unusable. I had the 602 prior to buying this pack, and the firmer graphite was much easier to write fast with, and also took longer to become dull. I wanted to try something different though, so I gave the pearls a shot. They are great pencils, just not for what I use them for. Would recommend if you sketch, but also want to use them for schoolwork.

Before trying out these pencils, I was strictly using .5 2b mechanical pencils. I like to sketch and draw a lot and the convenience of not having to sharpen a pencil is hard to resist.
I learned about this brand by accident and decided to look them up. I decided on this version, the balanced version, instead of the soft version because I understood that they were still very dark and smooth but held their point a wee bit longer. I am almost done with my first pencil and I'm in love! I've been having a blast drawing with this pencil. It's so smooth and my drawing feel less stiff than they did when I used the mechanical pencil. Also, there is no scratchiness I ran into with some other types of pencils.
I highly recommend them.

Edit: I forgot to mention, I almost wish they would make these a little cheaper by not including the eraser. It's convenient but I have a better eraser I use instead for drawing anyway.