Nobody revolted after my first pencil post, so I am going to push onward! Today's pencil is definitely one that meets a lot of my requirements for what I'm looking for in a perfect pencil, but it does not wow me in other areas. Meet the Palomino ForestChoice:
This is a really pretty, nakie pencil. Especially with how crazy hot and humid it is here in Virginia, I really enjoy the raw wood because the pencil never became slippery or difficult to hold while writing. The rustic look of the stamping and the green ferrule pull the whole thing together nicely, and what you get is a pencil akin to a farmer who has washed up at the end of a hard day - sure, you can tell that this is not the most polished pencil, but certainly nice enough to be allowed at the dinner table.
Pink eraser fans, here you go.
Point using a wedge sharpener.
As with the Palomino HB, my sample size for this pencil is N = 1, but on the one I have the lead is fairly centered. When sharpened with my wedge sharpener it did a weird thing where the wood seemed to get chewed away right at the core, but the core itself was not damaged. Is there a name for this phenomenon?
When sharpened with a knife, I found this pencil to be on par with the other Palominos I have tried. I say it that way because I am obviously no expert at knife sharpening, but it certainly doesn't feel like a huge struggle to get a decent (and long) point on this pencil.
Point using a pocket knife.
Like the HB, I found the writing performance of this pencil to be solid, but nothing special. It definitely works best on slightly rougher paper, like that in a Field Notes or even copy paper. I wrote up the bulk of my review on some the nicest paper I've ever used, a Clairefontaine Triomphe pad (review to come, eventually) and it was actually so smooth that it was unpleasant. I felt like I needed to have a death grip on the pencil to keep it from running away from me.
Smearing and erasing on Clairefontaine paper.
Smearing and erasing on ForestChoice notebook (left) and Field Notes Pitch Black (right).
Though this pencil writes a bit lighter than I would prefer, that does mean that it resists smearing fairly well and erased quite a bit after just a back and forth pass. I found the eraser on the pencil to be serviceable, though a bit hard until you wear it down some.
As a pencil that sells for just $3/dozen, I think this would be great as a heavy use pencil. Definitely a solid choice for school kids because it is pretty cheap (you can get a gross of them for less than dinner at a decent restaurant) for a quality pencil. And it's FSC certified so you know that it's not killing the planet. At the same time, this is a pencil that I probably would not be willing to pay too much more for, simply because it isn't that nice. Give me one in a B or 2B and maybe I'll change my mind.
This pencil was purchased with my own money and I am not being compensated for this review in any way. All opinions above are my own and you are free to disagree with them if you like.