The Best Pencils for Writing and Schoolwork

Whether you're filling in multiple-choice bubbles on a standardized test or solving the Sunday crossword puzzle, you should have a great pencil in your hand. After seven hours of research and 18 hours of testing, we've arrived at four standout picks.

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Wirecutter reviews the best gear, gadgets and more, with recommendations made through vigorous reporting, interviewing, and real-world testing by teams of experts.

[abe]

The Palomino Blackwing could be a 2B, which would explain their "half the pressure, twice the speed." The writing does seem slightly darker. 2B lead requires less pressure to leave the same amount of lead as HB, since 2B is softer.

[TsnBanks]

stumbled on this, and I immediately thought of Ticonderoga as it was my favourite when i was in still in college. That being said, I havent used a pencil in a very long time. I have a few pens I like now a days but I really did prefer using a pencil for taking all my notes.

[CrimsonNClova]

No offense, but all these pencils look weak. Where are those thick, black graphite pencils that I used, as a kid in the 1980s, that were so dark and gave off so much lead that they smudged? The graphite was like charcoal. They were painted black, with gold lettering, and were really solid. I need some of those.

[chicagotypewriter]

No offense, but the pencils I got from India would blow these out of the water any day! I tried a couple, Doms, Apsara, Faber Castell, Nataraj, Classmate, but my fav would have to be the Apsara, as I think it had the best lead quality & is iconic.

However, all of them (when converted to USD) are SUPER cheap. We're talking 10 or 12 + complimentary sharpener + eraser on the Doms for 50 INR! (Like 65 cents!) The wood is beautiful & the pencil just looks great! Nice blue & white striping & silver printing

No eraser tho, but that's what the better complimentary rubber is for! And oh my gosh, the lead is so dark & smooth in all of them.
Asian stationery hits different. That said, it costs a ton to get them in the US, so I like picking up stationery in India when my family visits each summer

[birdy]

Its a shame about the Dixon Ticonderoga, as well as the Mirado. Both companies have fallen off TERRIBLY in their quality. They're no longer the best pencils... usually. Depends on the box you buy honestly. But they're NOT the quality they used to be

[TarekMidani]

I've used the faber castel as a kid. Loved it. When I moved to the US ironically everything sold here seems to be the cheap stuff 10 for $1. I was taken aback coming from a "poorer" country

[endezeichengrimm]

The Staedtler Norica is also a great value option. The graphite formula is better than the regular blackwing.

[sherrycohen]

I love, love, love stationery. I switch between pencils, gel pens, and my favorite - fountain pens. I must say that I hate to see the eraser on a pencil used. It must remain perfect. Use a block eraser or wedge eraser instead! As for sharpeners, I have a Bostich one from BJ's on my desk that sharpens quickly and perfectly. For my everyday carry, I use a blue round Staedtler from Staples.

[alexblue]

I have worked as a joiner for fifty years I always had a few pencils in my toolbox and van even sometimes behind my ear Alec from Scotland

[matthewhayes]

It’s apparent to me the reviewer doesn’t actually ever write with pencils. He didn’t sharpen with a long point sharpener for goodness sake. The writing was done sloppy with little care. If I were to bet, he writes mostly on his computer and prefers pens.

[zfk]

These picks are simply not very good. Mitsubishi is the best pencil company for school writing pencils and it’s not close. The 9852, 9850, 9000, and 8900 all blow away any of these. Also you should not be using pencil erasers unless you have to. Buy Pentel eraser caps instead. The Blackwings and Golden Bear ferrules leave a lot to be desired because they are loosely attached. The underlying quality of the wood is also suspect when you sharpen the pencils. With the Mitsubishi 9852 and 9850 the ribbons are continuous and dense during sharpening reflecting the quality of the underlying wood. Then there is price to performance, Mitsubishi pencils strike a nice balance at about 75 cents a pencil.

[fredk]

I really like Musgrave pencils, made in Tennessee USA!

[greekveteran]

I like to write with the Uni Star Mitsubishi Master Writer model!! I also like Blackwings (602/Pearl) and from the mechanical pencils, I love the Pentel Graphgear 500 0.5mm and the Pentel Kerry!!!
For drawing/sketching, my picks are: Graphgear 500. Faber Castell 9000/Aquarelle and Pitt Matt, Lead holders like TK 9400/TK4600, Staedtler 780, Kohinoor 5340/5347 and my top lead holder, a German cousin of the Kohinoor 5616 (best pencil for graphite sketching along with the more versatilem, Kohinoor 5340, are my top 2 sketching pencils ever!!

[blueblousedesigns]

The Dixon Ticonderoga and The Paper mate Everstrong are recommended for standardized testing with Scantrons

[DavidMiller-kvwe]

Maybe I need to up my game a little bit... I only started writing things down (planners and journals) in the last couple of weeks. I dumped the pens I was using because they bleed through the cheap paper of what i've got right now (The planner I use is a Dollar Tree weekly planner) in favor of a 24 pack of (again) Dollar Tree "Jot" pencils I've had since friggin' forever.

I mean... they do perfectly fine for what I need them to do. Except for the eraser. The damned eraser is almost GONE and the pencil isn't even a third of the way down as far as sharpening... and I write until there is just a nub of graphite. lol

And no, I don't erase all that often. I'm gonna have to get eraser toppers for these things. hah

[migyverman]

You would be just as happy with a Moon Products pencil or the USA Gold or Titanium or even a Musgrave or General. Lots of other choices.

[robbiewilliamson]

to give my credentials:
i’m supposed to be mensa smart, made it through highschool and partied out of college. went to rehab twice and jail a bunch. got my sht together without going to prison. now at 34 my job consists of 50% drawing on paper and 50% drawing on autocad. i am also a pencil nerd somehow. not sure how that happened but here we are. i have a staedtler 1.3 for drawing and a .7 for text. nothing else will do. i know this video is about that wood but i had to give my $0.02.

[michaelleftwich]

Ticonderoga here. But, I find the Staedtler Norica blue 13246 pencil pretty good too. Mirado Black Warriors aren't bad either.

[sbrown]

Finding the right pencil type, or lead grade, is the easy part. Finding the best *paper* on which to write *with a pencil and not with a pen* is not discussed anywhere in the world. And I said write -- not sketch, not draw, not color. 2B pencil writing on a thin but textured paper -- you experience that once and you will search for a place to get that paper for the rest of your life, and you will never use HB again.

[oui_]

I use the Master Art Computer Pencils and the Steadler 13212 I can't decided which one is the best