Simply put, the Blackwing is just about the best pencil ever made.

Favoured by greats from Disney animators to Stephen Sondheim to, well, Barry Manilow actually the Blackwing was until quite recently a legend on the decline and original unsharped pencils were fetching close to $100 on eBay if you could find one for sale.

Fortunately for us, in 2011 the California Cedar Company bought the rights to manufacturer a new generation of Blackwing Pencils to the original specifications... to the collective rejoicing of pencil lovers around the world.

What makes the Blackwing such a special pencil? Well, for starters it's an incredibly soft and waxy lead that lives up to its slogan, "Half the pressure/Twice the speed". Furthermore it has an incredibly distinctive rectangular ferrule with a unique, replaceable eraser. 

You're best off trying one for yourself, because let's get real... how many pencils have whole blogs devoted to them? Exactly.