I'm a visual artist with a primary focus on drawing. For years my go-to pencils have been the Rotring 600 with 0.3mm 2B lead and the Faber Castell 9000 series 2B wooden pencil. I've used many other brands of graphite pencil without finding one I like better. I purchased the Kita-Boshi 9500 2B and it is excellent; it is now on my drawing table and in my sketching kit. The first pencil out of the box I sharpened with my old Dux sharpener and the wood curled away seamlessly, no gaps, jumps, or hard knots. This is rare, and helps prevent the lead from breaking and makes for a sharp point. The lead is smooth, no scratchiness, on every type of paper I've worked with. The lead is a true 2B compared to other brands of pencil. The lead has a flair to the marks it makes responding to greater and lesser pressure more reminiscent of a fine brush. The Kita-Boshi pencils are very well made with high-quality materials, and they are a pleasure to use.
