Art Alternatives Woodless Graphite Pencil Art Tin Set, 6-Pieces - 2B, 4B, 6B soft grade pencils for drawing and sketching...

All grades were gritty in my test swatches, leaving black specks here and there. Graphite quality was comparable to a cheap carpenter pencil.

I need to state that I know nothing about art supplies or the quality of one pencil vs another. But these pencils draw nice and dark and they are very smooth on the paper. They are smearable which is good for shading. I'm just starting out with a sketching hobby, so I can't be that accurate when describing them. I can only say that I appreciate the added weight of a woodless pencil and appreciate the darkness of these pencils. The 2B might be a bit dark for some peoples preference, but the 8B are definitely darker and you can draw all the way to black. The bonus is the metal case so you don't have to worry about them breaking in your art supply bag.

Some of my students with learning disabilities have executive functioning problems, which basically means that I must find a way to organize them in a way that makes sense for them individually. Some must be on a point system, and this set of pencils is one prize for one student who is very artistic, but has no art materials. It's a great little set of different value pencils, and I love that they're woodless, which means that she'll gt more use out of them. They're a fine quality, and I love that they come in their own little box. I'm really wanting to give them to this student, so I hope she earns her points soon so I can give them to her. She's a wonderful artist. Another prize is that with enough points, she gets 10 minutes of art instruction from me, something to which she's looking forward. The pencils will make the session a real winner because they're such high quality. I also love that for a beginning student, there are different values so that she can experiment with what she likes best and see what works best for her. I think I'll get a tin of these for myself for when I'm out and about! You won't go wrong with these pencils.

Great pencils and that is what the review is for. However, you should know that the case will end up breaking if you aren't careful. Though it was completely my fault, but it is a cheap case. I accidentally left them in my back pocket walking back to the car from figure drawing. Sitting on the case completely broke the case which is thin aluminum. The pencils however withstood the pressure of my gluts. Even if I hadn't sat on them I believe the case could have broken within my backpack unless handled carefully. So when you get these either: Get a new pencil case or handle this case as if it were your newborn baby. Great pencils and will definitely buy again. **You get 2 of each pencil: 2B, 4B and 6B. Great near complete set for only $6.83 + prime shipping.

These are wonderful pencils. Solid, good quality, such a great texture, just absolutely wonderful to draw with. I've got a stockpile of a couple of extra boxes at my house in case I run out. And I love the cases, as I can slip them into a purse or backpack easily and not take up a lot of space. This isn't really a complaint, since it's quite clear that these come in 2B, 4B, and 6B, but I'd really like a wider range of hardness, if the Art Alternative people started wanting to branch out and make more sets.