-
Blackwing - Walnut Blackwing 602 Gift Box (With 24 Pencils)
Regular price $120.00 USDRegular price -
Blackwing - Replacement Erasers - Pink (Set Of 10)
Regular price $3.00 USDRegular price
About Blackwing
- Based in
- United States
- Founded
- 1930s
- Known for
- the Blackwing 602 pencil with a replaceable eraser
The original Blackwing 602 carried the line "Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed." Eberhard Faber introduced it in the 1930s, and its known users include John Steinbeck, Looney Tunes creator Chuck Jones and Disney animator Shamus Culhane. Production ended in 1998, after several corporate acquisitions, when low demand and high machinery repair costs made it hard to keep going.
California Cedar Products Company, maker of Palomino pencils, acquired the Blackwing trademark and reintroduced the pencil in 2010. The replaceable eraser is still the signature detail. After it was discontinued, some fans paid as much as $40 on eBay for a single Blackwing pencil.
Blackwing questions
What made the original Blackwing pencil famous?
The original Blackwing 602, introduced by Eberhard Faber in the 1930s, became famous for its slogan, Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed, and for its blocky ferrule, the metal band at the top that holds a replaceable eraser. The slogan promised that a lighter touch on the page meant faster writing. Pencil cores are graded by hardness: softer cores leave darker marks and harder cores lighter ones, and common writing pencils are usually numbered from 1, the softest, to 4, the hardest.
How do you replace the eraser on a Blackwing pencil?
The square eraser sits in a metal clip that fits into the ferrule. To swap it, slide the eraser and clip out of the ferrule, remove the clip from the old eraser, place a new eraser in the clip, and push it back into the ferrule. Because the eraser can be replaced, a pencil can keep erasing until it is used up.
