Staedtler Rally #2 HB review

In an era when many pencil manufacturers discontinue their pencil lines, get absorbed in mergers, or even go bust; Staedtler keeps going strong.

The Staedtler Rally #2 HB gets the job done.  My user experience was good.

The Staedtler Rally #2 HB is billed as a pencil particularly suited for fill-in-the-oval tests, where one needs a dark lead.  Indeed, I easily produced a nice, dark line with this pencil.  The lead is smooth and of good quality.  The eraser is white and reasonably soft, held in place with a silvery metal ferrule.

The paint job features attractive Navy & White stripes running the length of the pencil.  The navy blue is understated and not heavily saturated, but the high contrast color scheme may make it unwelcome in office environments.

My burr sharpener left an uncomfortable fibrous surface nap on the exposed wood, despite my efforts to smooth it out.  I have not tried sharpening this with a blade sharpener.  The wood is not cedar; I don't know what wood it is made of, but the pencil is made in Thailand.

The lead was off-center after I sharpened it, but this might be user error on my part; maybe I did an off-center sharpening job.

This pencil is very reasonably priced; Amazon sells a box of 12 pre-sharpened for $3.49.