PaperMate Mirado Black Warrior HB Pencil

In the low cost addiction of pencils it’s easy to pick up a lot of different things quickly for very little. However when writing this review I decided to double check what I paid for a dozen Mirado Black Warriors. I recall it being not very much. But consulting my Amazon history in October 2015 I paid £5.55 for a box of a dozen.

TL;DR – way overpriced.

The Mirado brand has a couple of variants but the Black Warrior has the best branding. Matt black round barrel, blood red stripe on the brass ferrule. Only the pink eraser betrays its decidedly conventional school pencil origins. Unsharpened they are a respectable 19cm long, but their diameter feels decidedly thin in the fingers. I was surprised when the micrometer measured a whole 7mm in diameter. I guess the extra corners on the hex pencils make them feel a bit heftier. The barrel has the name, ‘2’ and ‘HB’, and the two hearts PaperMate logo in gold foil. But these wear off fast and the blood red band on the ferrule does too.

I’ve had one on the go in my roleplaying dice bag for a while, using it on character sheets and to make notes about our scenarios. And writing is where it falls down. While the line is black enough there is a distinct friction on the page so not really smooth. It’s usable, but no better than no brand pencils. The eraser lasts well by not working very efficiently and often leaves a clear outline on the paper. Generally I prefer a plain or capped end and have a separate eraser anyway.

Overall they are nothing but average, and not cheap average at that.