If these are General pencils they break . Impossible to sharpen

Great for getting the darker darks. A bit expensive though.

on General's Carbon Sketch 595 - these might very well be my favorites, and the darkest pencil in my arsenal.They go on nice and smooth, I use Bristol as the paper of choice.I sympathize with the folks who have a hard time sharpening them without breaking. I do not use a standardsharpener. I don't believe I could make that work. Instead as in the Pic, I use a Box cutter... and that very slowly holding my index finger under the Charcoal. That always seems to work with the notable exception of my soft Primo Pencils. Try as I might the softest one I find nearly impossible to sharpen.I like these pencils and I can recommend them.

I guess someone at the warehouse desperately needed a pencil sharpener. Because the product package was carefully opened at the top in order to remove the included pencil sharpener, not that I really needed it. But still I expect to receive my orders not being tampered with. The Generals carbon pencils themselves are great. 5 stars otherwise.

Great blacks and not so messy as expected. I use these with graphites as well as General's 557 charcoals. The sharpener that General's provides is better than most sharpeners...less breakage.