Generals Charcoal Drawing Set, White/Black, Set of 7 Pencils and 1 sharpner - 557-6A

First charcoal pencils I have on my hands and I am satisfied. Cannot compare with any other products as I had no experience with any other charcoal pencils. Round, comfortable to hold.I would like to mention that those guys is best with electric or manual pencil sharpener, becase it is nearly impossible to have sharp edge while sharpening with stationery knife. Also they have some coating between charcoal and wooden handle that is very painful to get rid of by stationery knife (I broke pencil rod once like this).

Great tool for charcoal artists but I don't think I am one! I am currently following an online art course and bought them for the charcoal module. So far I'm not very happy with my work and don't think charcoal is really my medium... I am persevering to the end of the module and then we'll see. The pencils are lovely, with a good selection of hardnesses, but I wouldn't recommend using the included sharpener - the charcoal is very delicate and will break, and you can waste a lot with a sharpener. Better with a craft knife and sandpaper to get a decent point and save the charcoal.

These pencils are really dark and consistent. Not as scratchy as some of the other brands I've used

great pencils very Smooth the reason i give it 4 stars and not 5 isbecause pencil sharpener chews it up so i just use my craft knife to sharpen.

These are by far the best charcoal pencils I have used. I have tried lots of different makes and these are so good, I love the different variations in softness, so easy to use.

A real pity that these are so hard to source in the UK as General's 6B charcoal pencil is pretty much the best there is. Soft but holds a point well and stays dark when it's blended. Puts other more costly "dark" charcoal pencils to shame - non-scratchy, goes on smoothly, basically a joy to use. The 2B and 4B in this set are great, the 6B is spectacular. The only slight disappointment is the eraser putty that comes in the set - too soft for my liking and doesn't hold a point or edge, though it does have good lifting power (because of its softness I suspect). Personally I go for something a bit harder like the excellent Koh-I-Noor Kneadable Eraser but this set still gets full marks from me just for the quality of the pencils.

All good thank you.

I agree with the other reviewer, these pencils are in a league of their own for many reasons.I use Conte, Derwent and Lyra pencils and all have their pros and cons.These General's pencils if I'm drawing in charcoal for the following reasons:- they are smooth due to the consistency of binder/pigment- you don't need to press too hard and can build up black colour gradually- they seem to blend fairly well with graphite, and can draw on top of graphite fairly well, unlike the other brands- they sharpen well because of the quality of the wood.Overall, great pencils and would not change for other brands