The late Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim was a big fan of the late Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602 pencil. This pencil was famous for its smooth and soft lead, as well as its unique design. His collaborator Burt Shevelove introduced the pencil to him while they were working on "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." — Read the rest

Here's a shout-out to our sponsors at Blackwing602, a website about the creative process and creative people. Blackwing602 has stories about notable Blackwing users, like Walt Disney and Moises Chiullan. As you might know, I love the Blackwing 602 pencil, and have used it for many years. — Read the rest

I like my new Blackwing Slate journal, which our friends at Pencils.com sent me to review. The paper has the perfect tooth for a Blackwing pencil, and comes lined or unlined. Best of all, it has a holster for the pencil, which solves the vexing problem of where to stash my pencil. — Read the rest

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Blake Eskin writes about the Blackwing 602 pencil for The New Yorker's News Desk blog:

In June, I learned from the omnium-gatherum site Boing Boing that the Blackwing has been resurrected. I shared my excitement with our most experienced and revered copy editors — O.K.'ers,

I started writing about the Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602 pencil in December of 2002. A lot of people love this pencil, not only for its soft lead, but for its unique eraser and ferrule, its metallic dark gray finish, and for its motto: "Half the pressure, twice the speed." — Read the rest

(Video link) Alex Beam of the Boston Globe reports on the extinct Blackwing 602 pencil and mentions a new pencil that's also called the Blackwing, made by California Cedar (which I don't care for).

Photo by Michael Leddy

I'm not the only person to have received a pre-production version of the Blackwing pencil made by California Cedar. So did several other Faber Eberhard Blackwing 602 enthusiasts, and many of them have already commented about them on their blogs. — Read the rest

In 1998, Eberhard Faber stopped making the Blackwing 602 pencil, and its cult users have been pining for them ever since. An unsharpened Blackwing can sell for $40 on eBay. One person told me his eBay auction for a box of Blackwings went to a "song writer/composer who's worked with Barry Manilow and on feature films, and chooses to only write music using the Blackwing 602." — Read the rest

Photo: Dan Cole

In 2007 I reported that Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602 pencils were selling for $30 each on eBay. The manufacturer stopped making them in 1998 (the retail price at that time was 50 cents). Since then, the price has gone up to about $40 per unsharpened pencil. — Read the rest

The beloved Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602 pencil (Its slogan, "Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed," is stamped in gold foil on each pencil) went out of production in 1998. It sold for fifty cents. In 2002 you could get one on eBay for $10. — Read the rest

In 2002 and 2005 I wrote about the Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602 pencil, which hasn't been made since 1998. It's slogan, "Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed," is stamped in gold foil on each pencil. They cost 50-cents when they were being manufactured. — Read the rest

In 2002, I wrote about the cult status of the Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602 pencil, which hasn't been made since 1998. Old boxes of them are still available on eBay, commanding prices of up to $250 a box.

Here's an article about the pencil, and why it isn't being made any longer. — Read the rest

"We are talking about the legendary Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602, which went out of production in 1998. Up in Writers' Valhalla, John Steinbeck, Thomas Wolfe, and Archibald MacLeish are shedding a silent tear. Down here on Earth, Stephen Sondheim, Andre Gregory, and Roger Rosenblatt are scrounging to locate leftover 602s. — Read the rest

I seek out good bookstores wherever I travel, and really good ones that specialize in commix/art/illustration can be hard to find. Cool places like Meltdown in LA are gone, but I was delighted to find Stuart NG Books in Torrance. — Read the rest

It all started with a pencil.

If you've ever been to Disneyland or Disneyworld you've enjoyed the creations of Imagineer Rolly Crump. He was the key designer for the Haunted Mansion and the Tiki Room. I remember seeing his wonderfully lively exterior to the "it's a small world" pavilion at NYC World's Fair (and later at Disneyland in California) with its animated clock face, doo-dads and gizmos. — Read the rest

I'm a pencil fanatic, who sits around reading pencil blogs and meditating on my favorite pencil sharpeners. (Mark once filmed me gushing about the Kum long-point pencil sharpener packaged by the folks at Blackwing.) I buy all the reissued Blackwing pencils, too. — Read the rest

Here's this year's complete Boing Boing Gift Guide: dozens of great ideas for stocking stuffers, brain-hammers, mind-expanders, terrible toys, badass books and more. Where available, we use Amazon Affiliate links to help keep the world's greatest neurozine online.

The Tsunago pencil sharpener lets you "chain smoke" your pencils by connecting pencil stubs together. The Tsunago ("let's connect") has three blades. One sharpens like a normal pencil sharpener. Another bores a hole in the bottom of one stub. The third makes a plug in the other stub. — Read the rest