Prismacolor® - Design EBONY Sketching Pencil, Black Matte Barrel, 12/Pack - Sold As 1 Dozen - Large core diameter provides jet black, extra-smooth lines.

Very smooth deep black, Ebony is an accurate name. Quite a soft lead, similar to what you experiance In 6B + graphites. Been looking for this depth of black for sometime. Excellent Service/ delivery , first class4

not matte black,i was expecting black like a charcoal but the easier less messy application of graphite.these are more like a derwent 5B academy sketching pencil,dark grey rather than black and they can still reflect light so not really matte either. But that said,they are nice pencils,very good quailty as usual from sanford,graphite lays down easy and smooth,cheap in a pack of 12 also so wasn't a waste of money as i will still use them.

Love these pencils. It helps me with the projects I am working on.

Crap, I’m putting 5 stars so people can see the quality of the pencils. All the pencils are like this, it must have been thrown around for them to come apart like this while sharpening. However, the quality is nice and smooth, so you could take the risk of ordering.

Working like they did 30 years ago. I see no change in quality. Excellent pencil for sketching.

love the pencil's

Nothing wrong with design ebony pencils and I've used them for years, but I was supposed to get a box of a dozen but only one pencil was delivered. I returned the first order with just one pencil, and the second order came with the box of a dozen. These pencils, Design Ebony, marked Prismacolor instead of the older ones I have marked Sanford, and they seem to be pretty much the same. They write dark -- better that the Dewent Onyx. They also have a graphite sheen when laid down heavily, like other graphite pencils, but no worse (and which can be knocked down by wetting the paper after writing or drawing with them). And they work fairly smoothly and sharpen easily. and also erase pretty well. These are often standard pencils to use for drawing, especially in drawing classes, and are an old standby workhorse pencil, for a good price, and very good for sketching. One can get better pencils for 2 or 3 dollars each, but these work fine for most cases.