Even a “great” pencil isn’t always the best one for the job at hand. Most of the time when I read or discuss the pros and cons of a pencil with someone, there’s rarely any mention of the paper being used—a necessary part of any mechanism to evaluate a pencil’s performance. The way a pencil writes and wears is necessarily dependent upon the stock that receives the writing and causes the wearing.
Perhaps that is one of the reasons why most don’t pay too much attention to, or have a preference for, any particular pencil: the experience of using a pencil is lost in the manifold, generic contexts for which it’s used. Most are as unlikely to say “this is a really nice pencil” as I am unlikely to say “that is one hell of a toaster”, or “that is the most exquisite ‘ping’ I’ve ever heard come from an egg-timer”, or even “damn, this hammer can really hammer!”
Presumably, if someone has made the effort to seek-out a particular writing instrument, it’s with a particular purpose (or set of purposes) in mind. The vast majority of my pencil-related work involves writing upon staff paper, and ironically, the brands of staff paper that I prefer the most are often bad matches for the Blackwing. Either they are a little too rough vis-à-vis the Blackwing’s particular rate-of-wear, or they are a little too smooth and don’t ‘take’ the lead very well. Instead, there are some other pencils that are better-suited.
It’s O.K. though, because the desk I use “really keeps the paper parallel to the floor better than any other desk I’ve used.”
Blackwing Pages 
I would be very interested in hearing about those better-suiting matches with staff paper…
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Most of my manuscript paper is slightly glossed and the Blackwing really doesn’t take. My workhorse for music writing is the Prismacolor Turquoise 5B. Dark and soft but holds its point fairly well on a slightly glossed paper. I like to use Judy Green manuscript for fair copies and am less picky when it comes to drafts and sketches.
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Out of curiosity, have you tried the JG music writer pencil?
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I’ve not tried it. I’ve never even seen one. Do you know anything about them? Mechanical? Maybe I’ll grab one or a dozen next time I order. Hmmm
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In no particular order, my favorite manuscript paper brands are:
1. Henle — The large-format manuscript paper is on the same stock as their printed editions. Just last month they issued a pencil/bookmark set.
2. Edition Peters — PMWB01
3. STAR Notenschreibpapiere — I bought some of their spiral notebooks while in Paris, though they are based in Germany. Pretty expensive if you order from the U.S.
4. Clairefontaine Musique Cahier — Definitely the smoothest, yet not too terribly glossy. It takes lead extremely well. It’s the same paper found in their Triomphe line. A few online vendors in the U.S. carry them. You won’t be disappointed with this pad at all.
Apart from those, there are any number of brands I might use for scratch work, including printing my own.
As far as pencils go, you can see a list of sorts in this post:
https://blackwingpages.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/a-sampler-of-sorts/
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Great, thanks for taking up the question of the paper. It has bothered me too. I often ask myself: Is the pencil bad or is the paper useless? 🙂
I’ve only had the pleasure of using the Palomino Blackwing, but it has really saved my day.
In my line of work I haven’t much of a choice – I’m compelled to write on “unfriendly” paper, (the newsprint type or some very glossy Chinese types). Neither takes graphite nor ink very well. Moreover the writing will often have to be photocopied. An average HB is almost invisible here – ink bleeds out – so only a ballpoint would work.
I have often wondered, why we are giving children, who are learning the trade of writing useless paper for practice? And tools which are harder to use than necessary? But I digress.
My point is that paper and pencil/ pen must be suitable for the task at hand – and that the Blackwing so far has saved my bacon. I think it performs very well on “bad paper”.
Regards
Henrik
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Which pencil is your favourite for rough paper? A Microtomic?
…and what about smooth paper?
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Those questions are tougher than they seem. 🙂
For rougher paper I really like the Castell 9000 (with eraser), or the 9008 Steno. But yes, as you mentioned, a Microtomic HB is great.
It’s hard to say for the smoother paper, only because with the exception of the Clairefontaine stock, the lead tends to smear quite a bit. But the Blackwing works very well on the Clairefontaine, as do the Graf von Faber Castell refills I have with the brass-threaded ends. They’re older and a bit darker than the modern “Perfect Pencil” refills.
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Great photo. Hope this is not gettnig too off-topic, but there should be different types of lead for the Perfect Pencil, there is even different wood (black and cedar), so why not different leads..
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Thank you very much for your answer. Clairefontaine is actually already my favourite one.
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Judy Green M-328 is my preferred scoring paper, I have a few of the JG musicwriters which have great lead but are true hexagonal pencils making them uncomfortable for long periods of orchestral scoring(ie. creases in the hands which wont go away.) For sketching i just print out 12 stave using Finale. Blackwings seem to work very well on the JG paper which is coated to allow multiple erasures and prevent smearing(this is relative, there is always a little smearing). Great post and pics, I envy your handwriting.
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Thanks MJD. That’s good to know about the pencils…your description reminds me of the Musgrave Test Scoring pencil. The chamfers aren’t rounded at all and are quite sharp—I can’t imagine writing for an extended period of time with one.
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High quality copy paper is excellent for pencils. I am keen to try Clairefontaine to see if on a value basis it beats my copy paper. Even more esoteric is how left upper frontal light (right for a leftie) which does not produce shadows over your work, with the paper sloped at 10 – 20 degrees, makes for an infinitely more enjoyable pencil experience… or am I the only one that seems to think this is important.
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