Blackwing Lab 5-13-25 (Metallic Gold/Silver Cores)

Blackwing Lab 5-13-25 with metallic silver and gold cores

Although I’ve never actively collected Blackwing’s quarterly editions, some of the California pencil company’s irregularly released, very limited Lab editions have interested me enough to buy entire boxes or swap with friends for a few. Within the graphite collection, the extra-soft graphite core naturally interested me. I’ve also grabbed boxes of the non-photo blue pencil and the matching red one. Most recently (and belatedly), I tried a box of Blackwings installed with special soft erasers.

It’s been a long while since any Blackwings have piqued my curiosity enough to put out a request. A kind and generous friend came to my aid: Blackwing’s latest Lab 5-13-25: Metallic Cores.

The many faces of the same 12 Blackwing Colors

I’ve always found Blackwing Colors editions to be excellent colored pencils – soft cores, good layering, solid quality. (My only quibble has always been that they keep coming out with different editions of the same 12 colors.) I had high expectations that the new metallic gold and silver pencils would be of similar quality.

Indeed, they are just as soft and heavily pigmented as previous Colors. I thought it would be worthwhile to put them head-to-head with a few gold and silver colored pencils in my collection: Prismacolor (vintage Eagle and Berol), Faber-Castell Polychromos, Caran d’Ache Pablo, Caran d’Ache Supracolor, Caran d’Ache Prismalo Bicolors and Derwent. Just for kicks, I also tossed in Caran d’Ache Neocolor I wax pastels.

From top: Blackwing Lab, vintage Prismacolor, Polychromos, Pablo, Supracolor, Prismalo Bicolor, Derwent, Neocolor I

Impressively, Blackwing Lab metallics compare favorably with all contenders, and they are shinier and more opaque than Polychromos and Pablo. (Interesting, isn’t it, how the color “gold” is interpreted by each pencil maker?) As always, scanning an image with metallic pigments takes away some reflective qualities, so I’ve shown an image that was photographed, too. Unfortunately, the black Uglybooks sketchbook paper I used is, itself, quite reflective, which makes it difficult to photograph well.

Scanned image of swatches reduces the reflective qualities. (All swatches and sketch made in black Uglybook sketchbook.)

Photographed image shows a bit more sparkle.

Since the Blackwings naturally came with erasers attached to the pencils with their iconic ferrules, I decided I might as well test it, too, against a Tombow Mono Knock. (Oddly, it’s the standard Blackwing eraser that comes on all graphite pencils; I would have expected the “sand” eraser that comes on the current Colors edition.) Although the Knock isn’t necessarily known for its skills in erasing colored pencils, I’m sometimes surprised by how often I reach for this excellent eraser when drawing. Blackwing’s eraser did an OK, though not stellar, job.

Erasing test

Finally, I made a test sketch using a reference photo I had taken on a golden-hour walk through the neighborhood. It wasn’t nighttime, of course, but I thought the black paper would best show off the metallic sparkle, the warm glow of low light and a silver-gray Element. That’s a lot of sparkle there! I look forward to using these during this winter’s nocturne season. 

6/4/25 Blackwing Lab metallic pencils in Uglybook (photo reference)

Although I always enjoy writing reviews and comparison posts, it's even more enjoyable now when all my pencils are so easy to find and pull out!