UPDATE February 2018!

I used this brand of pencil for about 10 years, mostly because I could buy them locally as individual pencils - so it was easy to restock the HB's, B's, 3B's and 4B's I use the most. But in December of 2016 I wanted to try other brands and since then, I've been using some of the other brands I've reviewed here on my channel. I just used a 4B Marco Raffine again, after 14 months away and it was HORRIBLE! It had a rough patch half way through the pencil that scratched the page and it was way too easy to break during sharpening. I won't be buying these again and won't recommend them to my students!