What's a "calligraphy pencil"? It's a special, wide-core, soft-lead pencil from Japan, which is commonly used by students there to practice their calligraphy. These luxuriously dark pencils (called kouhitsu shosha in Japanese) are deeper and bolder than other drawing pencils — to say nothing of the scratchy grey pencils found in U.S. schools.

Although it's originally intended for writing, we love this style of pencil as a sketching tool, because it combines the line variability of a stiff brush pen with the erasability and ease of use of a pencil. Even though the core is so much wider and darker than a conventional pencil, it sharpens to a fine point.

Choose between four grades:

• HB
• 2B
• 4B
• 10B 

Made from genuine California incense cedar.

Designed and manufactured at Eyeball Pencil, Tokyo.