Carbon Pencil Set, Black, 4 Count (Pack of 1)

Drawing beautiful dark blacks and not as messy as charcoal and more control with pencil

Great for dark tones without shine like pencil.

Great product, first impression is that these will be a great addition to my sketching kit. Nice deep blacks and some really good tones possible. For me they seem well worth the cost. Update: bought a 2nd set as thaws will definitely be getting a lot of use.

Okay, let's start with an agreement here; anyone who says there is one correct tool for anything is an idiot... and now we have that out of the way for reference I personally use these for the bottom blacks on shaded pictures.I have purchased these pencils many times before as they are carbon. For those who don't know, most pencils are [mainly] graphite. They mix in other agents such as charcoal, carbon, etc. to make the shades of the pencils darker. These pencils are entirely carbon.Lesson time. The reason this matters - assuming that we already know it is dark - is that it reflects light in a different way to graphite pencils. Graphite lays down on the paper in a smooth manner, which causes the top layer of the graphite to be flat and causes a reflection from the graphite itself when light is shone on it. Charcoal is usually used to defeat this as it doesn't layer in a flat manner; but as you can imagine is pretty messy to use.Wolff seem to have found a reasonable middle ground in making a pencil that gives you the none flat layering of charcoal whilst maintaining the integrity of a usable pencil.Pros:As you can see from the picture, the top of this particular set which is only technically marked as 6B is already pretty black.They can be used to shade out well.They don't reflect light back off them.Sharpen well. I use an over the top electric sharpener and they can survive that.Cons:Expensive for pencils - I would say that it is one of those things you should only have in your set if you need it.You will eat through these pencils. While as stated they do have the integrity to be used as pencils you will go through them quickly especially if you areThese can be very sticky if you are not keeping them at a sharp point, (this is one of those preference things I guess.)Pictures added:1) A standard comparison with a some other things I use.2) Same comparison with the flash used to show the effect of reflecting light.3) Same comparison again backlit by a light-box so you can see how it layers

I’ve never used carbon pencils before and having only ever used charcoal pencils, I can honestly say these pencils have blown me away. The charcoal pencils I had bought were from a decent brand and expensive but despite this they still constantly crumbled and the sharp point after sharpening never lasted long.These carbon pencils are completely opposite, they are very good value for money, never crumble and whenever I sharpen them the point seems to last a lot longer.They produce absolutely fantastic blacks. I use these with my Derwent Graphic pencils, but like other carbon pencils you just have to be careful what order you apply them when using with graphite pencils as the carbon pencils won’t apply well over the top of graphite. To get around this I apply my graphite first and leave space for the carbon pencils.I cannot recommend these pencils enough, I won’t ever use charcoal pencils again.

Pencils came sooner than I expected in perfect condition. These carbon pencils are really good by the way, more comfortable to hold than contè 1710, since the shaft is thinner, like the one of regular pencils.

>>>I use pencils everyday for work and these are BEST carbon pencils you will find anywhere. I cannot overstate how good these pencils are for my work. They give intense blacks, no graphite shine at all, no charcoal dust, and can be blended nicely. I have tried many other carbon pencils and while they all have pros and cons, these are the best.>THE GOOD- perfect for intense blacks, very cheap, blendable and not shiny>THE BAD- none

Erm, give me charcoal any day. What's the deal with carbon? It's just like compressed charcoal, it's no darker, no more blend-able, no more special.But they sharpen supremely well, but are not as easily sharpened the traditional way with a knife, god know's why, the wood encasing is particularly hard. That may be a good thing, for it protects against breakage which the softest charcoal is susceptible to in its wood casing.On a price point, it's about the same as the best charcoal pencils, namely General Pencils (NOT the Derwent crap, nor even Conte stuff much to my disappointment). So, suffice to say, these are not worth my time. Could have saved my pennies for more General charcoal. Will not be coming back for more.