Blackwing vs Palomino

If you have been told to buy a Blackwing and balked at the price, or you keep seeing the name "Palomino" attached to it and can't work out the relationship, here is the short version: they come from the same company. The longer version — what actually differs in the hand, whether the cheaper one is "just a Blackwing", and what to reach for instead — is what this page is for. We stock both families, so we have no reason to oversell either.

Are Blackwing and Palomino made by the same company?

Yes. Both are owned by California Cedar Products Company (usually shortened to CalCedar), a Stockton, California firm that has spent decades as one of the world's largest suppliers of incense-cedar slats — the timber that gets milled into pencils by other manufacturers. In other words, the company behind both brands was in the pencil-wood business long before it sold a finished pencil under its own name.

Palomino is CalCedar's own-label brand, launched in the mid-2000s. The original Blackwing — the Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602 — was a separate, much older pencil, prized by writers, animators and composers and discontinued in the late 1990s after the brand changed hands. When CalCedar revived it in 2010 it first appeared as the "Palomino Blackwing", which is exactly why the two names are so tangled in people's minds. Blackwing has since grown into a standalone brand with its own packaging, its own subscription editions and its own identity, but the corporate parent never changed.

So when you see "Palomino Blackwing" on an older pencil or an old listing, that is not a counterfeit or a different product line — it is the same pencil, from the same company, under the early naming.

What's the difference between Blackwing and Palomino?

Shared parentage doesn't make them the same pencil. The differences are real and they are mostly about positioning: Blackwing is the flagship; the Palomino lines sit below it on price and above it on practicality.

The Blackwing line

Blackwing pencils are made in Japan and built around one unmistakable feature: a rectangular ferrule holding a flat, clamp-style eraser that you can slide out and replace. No other mainstream pencil does this, and it is half the reason people fall for them. The core lineup is graded by feel rather than by the usual HB scale:

• Blackwing (matte) — the softest and darkest; lays down a lot of graphite, needs frequent sharpening.
• Blackwing 602 — the firm one, with the revived "Half the Pressure, Twice the Speed" imprint. The closest to the original Eberhard Faber recipe in character, and the one most writers settle on.
• Blackwing Pearl — pitched between the matte and the 602: smooth and dark, but with more point retention than the matte. A sensible "first Blackwing" if you don't know which feel you want.
• Blackwing Natural — the firmest, with an unfinished body; best point retention of the four.

On top of those, Blackwing runs a steady stream of limited "Volumes" editions — numbered, collectable, and the reason a lot of people end up with more Blackwings than they can reasonably use.

The Palomino lines

"Palomino" is not one pencil but a small range, and the lines differ more from each other than a newcomer expects:

• Palomino Graphite Drawing — the orange-barrelled, dip-ended drawing pencils, made in Japan, sold across seven grades (2H through 6B). These are the closest thing CalCedar makes to a budget Blackwing: smooth, dark for their grade, on the same incense cedar. The obvious differences are the orange end-dipped barrel, a plain capped end (no flat replaceable eraser) and a much lower price.
• Golden Bear — the economy line; perfectly good everyday pencils, made in the USA from California incense cedar but less premium in finish and feel than the Japanese-made graphite drawing pencils.
• ForestChoice — natural, unfinished incense-cedar pencils with an environmental angle (FSC-certified cedar). CalCedar launched ForestChoice back in 1999 as, it says, the first FSC-certified pencil — a clean, no-lacquer everyday pencil if you like a bare-wood barrel.

Side by side

Blackwing and the Palomino Graphite Drawing line are Japanese-made; Golden Bear is made in the USA from California incense cedar. We have not independently confirmed ForestChoice's current country of manufacture, so treat that one as unverified rather than gospel.

Is Palomino a cheaper Blackwing?

Sort of — and it is worth being precise, because the honest answer is more useful than the easy one. The Palomino Graphite Drawing pencils are the same company, the same incense cedar, made in the same country (Japan), and they write smoothly and dark for their grade. If what you love about a Blackwing is the laydown and the cedar, Palomino gives you a real slice of that for a fraction of the cost.

What it is not is the literal Blackwing recipe in a cheaper coat. The cores are formulated differently, the barrel and finish are different (an orange, dip-ended pencil rather than Blackwing's gunmetal or matte lacquer), and — the big one — there is no flat, replaceable eraser. So if the eraser, the graded "feels", the imprint and the object itself are what you are buying, no Palomino replaces a Blackwing. If the writing experience is what you are after, Palomino gets you most of the way there, and Golden Bear or ForestChoice gets you a dependable everyday pencil for less again.

The best Blackwing alternatives

"Pencils like Blackwing" splits into two questions: cheaper pencils from the same company, and pencils from other makers that simply write as well or better. Both are legitimate, so here is our honest take on each.

If you want the in-house "Blackwing for less"

If you want the best writing pencil, full stop

Plenty of buyers searching for a Blackwing actually want "a brilliant dark pencil", and the Blackwing's fame is doing some heavy lifting on the price. If that's you, these other makers are serious rivals and several are cheaper per pencil:

• Tombow Mono 100 and Mitsubishi Hi-Uni — Japanese premium pencils with cleaner, more consistent cores than most people expect, and grade ranges that run far wider than Blackwing's four feels (Hi-Uni alone spans 10H to 10B). The connoisseur's answer to "what's actually the best?".
• Staedtler Mars Lumograph and Faber-Castell 9000 — the European studio standards; superb point retention and a wide grade range, at sensible prices.

None of those gives you the flat replaceable eraser or the collectability — that remains Blackwing's alone — but if the page in front of you is the point, they belong on your shortlist.

And if it has to be a Blackwing

Sometimes the answer is just "buy the Blackwing" — for a gift, for the experience, or because you've tried the alternatives and the real thing is what you want. Two sensible starting points:

Where to buy Blackwing and Palomino in the UK

Both brands are easy enough to find in the UK, but stock and price wobble — Blackwing Volumes editions in particular sell out and then reappear at inflated prices on the secondary market. We list current UK options on each product page and link straight through to buy, so you can check what's actually in stock and what it costs today rather than trusting a number on a guide page that may be months stale. Browse the full Blackwing range or the Palomino line-up to compare grades side by side.

If you are searching "Blackwing pencils near me", a word of warning: outside specialist art and stationery shops, Blackwings are hard to find on the UK high street, and where you do find them it's usually single pencils at a premium. A boxed set bought online is almost always better value per pencil, and the Palomino lines above are rarely stocked in physical shops at all. Use the buttons on this page to jump to the pencil you want and check the live UK price.

So which should you buy?

• You want the whole experience (eraser, feel, the object): Blackwing — the 602 for writers, the Pearl as a safe first pick.
• You want most of the feel for far less, same company: the Palomino Graphite Drawing line.
• You want cheap, dependable everyday pencils: Golden Bear, or ForestChoice if you like bare wood.
• You just want the best writer for the money: look at Tombow Mono 100, Mitsubishi Hi-Uni, Staedtler Mars Lumograph or Faber-Castell 9000.

FAQ

Is the Blackwing eraser really replaceable?

Yes — the flat eraser slides out of the rectangular ferrule and Blackwing sells replacement erasers in packs. It is the one genuinely distinctive feature no Palomino (or rival brand) matches.

Did Blackwing change after the original was discontinued?

The original Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602 was discontinued in the late 1990s. CalCedar's 2010 revival is a new pencil inspired by it; the 602 grade is the one CalCedar pitched as closest to the original's firm character. Purists argue about it endlessly, but the modern 602 is a fine pencil judged on its own terms.

Why is "Palomino Blackwing" written on some pencils?

Because that was the brand name on the early revival pencils, before Blackwing became a standalone brand. Same company, same product — just the older naming.

Are Blackwings worth the money?

For the experience, the gift appeal and the replaceable eraser, many people happily say yes. Purely as "a dark smooth pencil", you can match the writing feel for less — from CalCedar's own Palomino line or from Tombow, Mitsubishi, Staedtler and Faber-Castell.

What grade is a Blackwing?

Blackwing doesn't use the standard HB scale; it grades by feel. Roughly: the matte Blackwing is the softest and darkest, the Pearl ("Balanced") sits in the middle, the 602 is firm, and the Natural ("Extra-Firm") is firmest. If you're chasing the darkest line specifically, our guide to the darkest pencils you can actually buy ranks them across brands.

House of Graphite is an Amazon Associate. We earn from qualifying purchases made through links on our product pages, at no extra cost to you. We stock and recommend both Blackwing and Palomino, so our comparisons aren't steering you toward whichever pays more — they're the honest read of someone who keeps every grade on the shelf. Prices and stock change; always check the live price on the product page.