Write Dudes USA Gold Premium Cedar No. 2 Pre-Sharpened Pencils 12-Count (DDR56)

Better quality than I expected. Worked great for my classroom.

So my son is doing his homework and about every two minutes he stops to sharpen his pencil. . . I'm thinking he is just procrastinating and losing focus so I get on him about it and he shows me that his pencil keeps breaking and the lead just falls out. I tell my wife we need to purchase Dixon pencils because those are the best . . . surprise, surprise all his crappy pencils are Dixons. They just don't make them the same anymore.So I do a little research on what the best pencils are and not to my surprise I find a bunch of posts by school teachers saying they lose so much time because Dixon pencils along with so many other poorly made pencils force the kids to keep sharpening their pencils when the lead falls out frequently. Most of them had similar recommendations so I decided to purchase a few different brands to see which ones worked best for us. And so far we have been really happy with the quality of each of the following types that we tried.-Write Dudes USA Gold Premium Cedar No. 2. (Great all around pencil)-Write Dudes USA SIlver Wooden #2 (Great all around pencil)-Staedtler Rally Graphite #2 (Top notch)-General Pencil Company Cedar Pointe No. 2 Pencil (Very well priced and still great quality)-Paper Mate 12 Count #2 Mirado Black Warrior Lead Pencils, Medium Soft (Great pencils, nice darker color)I'd purchase any of the above again as long as they continue to make them the same way. I found a few other reviews by teachers who recommended others, but those few were in a much higher price range. Keeping it in a realistic price range the above 5 pencils are awesome. They write well and the lead does not break every two minutes. Perfect for keeping kids focused while doing their school work.

I bought these for my kids who are 8 and 6 and are the human equivalent of whatever mythological creature would be the most likely to leave piles of broken pencils in its wake. My kids snap leads, destroy erasers, and sharpen to nubs pencils like there is some sort of bounty system for ruining writing instruments.So, here's my verdict. These pencils *are* better than the super cheap garbage pencils we can buy for a quarter a bushel at the dollar store. They don't have any of the pretty decorative sleeves (which I swear are designed solely to gum up pencil sharpeners) that kids love. But that have the following:1. Solid wood construction that is durable and sharpens easily.2. Erasers that seem well-affixed and survive for more than 28 seconds of erasing.3. Nice leads.Where the rubber hits the road is point #3, which is an admittedly extremely subjective position to take. Pretty much every pencil you buy will say it is a "#2" pencil. But since "#2" is just a self-declared statement by the manufacturer, it has virtually no meaning. A #2 pencil should be medium-hard on the "graphite scale," which is kind of like telling your friend that your BBQ wings are "medium hot" on the Scoville scale. It's not super helpful.I've always found that writing with my kids's super cheap pencils feels a little too smooth. Like the lead immediately balls over, is too slippery, and leaves a dull thick mark about 3/4" of a linear inch after I start writing with it and way too light. This is counter-intuitive because a softer lead (one that rounds off quickly) should leave a darker mark than a harder lead. That's how graphite works. But it's only counter-intuitive until you realize that it's probably just a garbage lead to begin with, and you can't really expect it to follow the same standards as the kinds of leads artists use. That's why they put those decorative sleeves on them: so you won't think about how awful they are.A good pencil holds a sharp edge a little longer, maintains a fairly dark line, and has just a little toothiness to it.But look, it's a pencil. And if you have young kids, it likely will never be fully appreciated or survive to its full potential life span. You are almost certainly better buying the cheap, bulk pencils that you have no regret getting lost, broken, or I don't know, eaten by the dog (Yes, I'm talking to you family-dog-that-thinks-pencils-are-a-tasty-treat).Unless, of you course, you're like me, and you obsess everything to death and you consider the tiny minutia of potential performance, and read hundreds of reviews on pencils (I used to be cool, I think), and spend a little more money for something that is marginally better because it is marginally better. If you're that kind of person--I feel sorry for you, and welcome to the club--just buy these and rest assured that they are slightly--oh so very slightly--better than the cheap one.

These are some of my favorite pencils, they’re durable, and sharpen well.

These are fantastic pencils as far as the way they're made, great quality, write well, lead doesn't break easily when you use or sharpen it, well worth the money. WAY better than those Ticonderoga pencils which I used to swear by but those have gone WAY down in quality and are overpriced and overrated and those leads break, splinters a lot (the Ticonderogas). Back to this review of the USA Gold by Write Dudes. As I said, great pencils. BUT beware as they sell two different kind -- the premium American Wood and these premium Cedar pencils. I used to love the smell of cedar pencils as a kid, so yeah I wanted those throw-back memories for myself and for my son to enjoy those great pencils I remembered from my childhood. These USA Gold cedar pencils used to have that great cedar smell, but these I ordered this time say they're cedar, but there's NO cedar smell whatsoever about these cedar pencils. In fact, there's no smell at all, not even a faint regular wood smell. It says on the package the cedar they use is the California Incense cedar wood. Well I had to Google that type wood to see if it has an aromatic cedar smell or not, and my research says yes, it is the cedar that's commonly used to make pencils and is supposed to have a spicy scent that we associate most with how wooden pencils smell. But these do not have any smell - much less a cedar scent. Maybe this batch I got this time was mis-labeled and it really had the regular wood pencils in the pack that's labeled cedar. I know I paid for cedar, so I'll contact USA Gold - Write Guys and tell them they must have made a mistake. But when they get it right and you order their cedar pencils, you will be pleased as they normally smell great and hold up really well - even down to the nub these pencils will hold up. AND their made in Tennessee, so that's a bonus as that's where I grew up. BUY AMERICAN when you can! Go USA!

All pencils came very sharp. Eased well.