Ticonderoga Envirostik Wood-Cased Pencils, #2 HB Soft, Natural, 12 Count

Nothing beats this pencil for me. I know it's ridiculous that I'm rating a pencil, but when you have a little one in school that uses them all the time, you want it to work. My daughter gets distracted by the tiniest of things. If there's a design "wrap" around the pencil, she'll amuse herself by picking it for 20 minutes. There's no paint or wrap on these, just the bare wood. Also, many other pencils tend to have erasers where the color comes off, leaving streaks across the paper. Or they're so hard and dry, that they rip the paper when erasing. These erasers erase CLEAN, and they're soft enough for little ones to use with very little pressure. The lead is nice and soft too, so, writing comes out visible, even if they're not pressing hard enough. When they're learning to write, they're learning to hold the pencil, too. So, their hands may not be strong enough to grip and press sufficiently, at the same time. Another perk, is that my battery sharpener sharpens these beautifully. No tips breaking, no uneven sharpening, no wrap getting stuck in the blades... NO STRESS.So, there's my super-long obsessive explanation as to why I refuse to buy any other pencil on the market. The end.

I'm so glad I bought these. I'll be buying more. The natural wood looks elegant and they really feel nice to write with. They sharpen nicely with no breakage or splintering or bits of lead falling out like cheap pencils. Best of all they write like a dream. The graphite is smooth and goes on the paper nice and dark. It's hard to find basic, every day items that are well made. I just hope they keep making these and never change their design because these are great!

I love these environmental friendly pencils! They write beautifully —they don’t smudge and they also last a long time. I stuck the whole pencil in soil to keep my plant standing upright because I didn’t have an actual stake on hand and it worked well and lasted until I was able to find bamboo stakes at Home Depot, which was about a month later mind you; the pencils went through 100 degree whether and wind (never split or faded) I remove the pencils cleaned the ends that had soil and was able to still use them to write with again—very Versatile if you ask me! Definitely recommend for plants and writing the graphite and wood works like fertilizer my cactuses thrives in this product! Don’t throw your shavings just toss them in your garden or flower pots your plants will thank you! And the bugs will fear you!

I strongly prefer mechanical pencils, but there are times when I need old wooden pencils (e.g.: some standardized tests do not allow mechanical pencils). For taking tests or ordinary writing, these are great. They feel much better than yellow painted pencils. The natural wood has better traction and get less slippery when your fingers sweat. The integrated eraser also works well, but I prefer separate Pentel Hi Polymer white erasers. I also sharpen with the STAEDTLER cylinder sharpener (it's better than the Prismacolor)If you still need or prefer wooden pencils, these are the best I've found. It pairs well with a good sharpener and large eraser.

Sometimes I am a hard grader. Four stars because these are very good pencils, but not aspirational objects. They are packaged and perform similarly to the standard Ticonderogas you can buy at Walmart and other stores. They are Chinese made, just like the painted versions available these days. When compared to some of the older U.S.A. made Ticonderogas that I still have I did not detect a difference in quality; a testament to the good job the Dixon/Ticonderoga engineers and operations people did in transferring production, tooling, quality control and overall manufacturing processes.The lead is strong and has the feel of a true HB grade in terms of smoothness, soft/hard balance and darkness of line. The eraser is very effective at removing lead from paper, it is durable and well held in place.Aesthetically, I like the wood grain that shows on the barrel and the conical surface after sharpening. The green erasers, lettering and ferrule fit the theme very well.So what could be better? A more fragrant wood that smells like cedar or similar when you sharpen the pencil. However, I am not sure that is possible given the “responsibly managed forests” from which the raw material comes. So I’ll take them as they are.

What’s not to love? They’re literally perfect. No paint, so better for the environment, but also, they write and erase better than any other pencils. The best in the industry.P.s. my son who is reading my review insists that I mention that he thinks they smell very good, haha.

Where was this 3 years ago??? I just recently stumbled across these pencils for $3.64 each box (add on price), I purchased X 6 per my children's school request. Although the request was for sharpened pencils - I did not hesitate buying the unsharpened ones and decided to just sharpened all 64 pieces with the help of my daughter. The pencils turned out well and does not snag or roughened - even the lead inside is sturdy. Take note that these pencils are not painted and are of natural wood which for me is great. I hope dixon ticonderoga won't discontinue this line.

My whole family loves these! Husband uses them daily in his work. Children and I use them at home everyday in our homeschooling. Lead is great(doesn't fracture/constantly break), erases without hassle. Ticonderoga is our 1st choice for #2pencils: always the unsharpened!