I remain a loyal fan of General Pencil Company. They are one of the few remaining American pencil manufacturers and their pencil products support both daily use pencils as well as art-related pencils. The Cedar Pointe #333 is a classic hexagonal incense cedar pencil with no lacquer added so it smells like cedar and is soft in the hand. The pencil has a black ferrule and a black eraser which matches the black foil stamped information on the pencil.
The box of 12 came with the points pre-sharpened to a short point. I resharpened me test pencil with my trusty vintage Apsco Giant desk-mounted sharpener for a longer point.
I just realized I shot this photo of the writing sample before I actually did the eraser tests. It is not a silky pencil on paper, it makes a bit more noise on paper than some of my other higher-end pencils (pencils that sell for $20/dozen) but it is totally acceptable for a pencil that cost me 27¢.
The black eraser cap did moderately well erasing but the white plastic Staedtler eraser erased almost completely.
I am pleased with my dozen pencils. I love that they are hexagonal, unfinished cedar and I love buying domestically-made pencils. Of the six different types of writing pencils I have from General, the smoothest is probably the Test Scoring 580 if that’s a sticking point for you. If you prefer pencils without the added weight of an eraser, try the Kimberly 525, the General’s Layout No. 555 or the Semi-Hex Drawing No. 497.
I purchased a dozen pencils from Pieritz in Oak Park, IL for $3.25. Three dozen with a more historic paper wrap can be purchased directly from General for $11.
Great review! This is one of my favorite pencils, too. It’s especially nice in summer when Baltimore’s sloppy heat renders a lot of folks’ hands very slippery.:)