This big chunky pencil in its sanded natural wood is an aesthetic experience in and of itself. (I sketched a shout-out to the grain pattern in my drawing.) It's like driving an old truck and then meeting power steering. I got a couple of these, supposedly for a stocking stuffer, but when they arrived (promptly and safely, might I add) I just couldn't resist a test drive. I grabbed an art card and whipped this out in a few minutes. (Now, bear in mind that I'm not a great artist, and graphite is not my big medium.) I could have gotten the entire point as black as the dark streak, but I was in a hurry--and frankly finding my ideal pressure. Confusing me was the comparative lack of smearing, as advertised! Do *not* sketch with this baby if you expect your line to be easily erased--once you put it down it tends to stay down.No other soft graphite I've ever seen performs this way.

Note the hatching in the back; this took a couple of goes in the big hole of my sharpener to maintain the point I wanted, but I think the line variation adds something more than my fine-line markers would. But perhaps the star of the show is the pencil streak--see how evenly laid down that is? The pencil did the work here. A *lot* of fun to draw with and will soon be one of your go-tos.