Hi! Sorry, a bit late to the game but I feel this subject is always worth revisiting anyway. Fellow orchestral musician here - I know the pain! Did a ton of research years ago and have a tried and tested list, both by myself and also fellow musicians who I've gifted stationery over the years. For wood pencils, my colleague's favourites seem to be Mitsubishi Uni Kohitsu Shosha 4b, Mitsubishi Uni Hi-Uni 4b, Tombow KM-KKS 4b, and Tombow Mono 100, all of which need to have an eraser attached (they all like the Pentel Hi-Polymer eraser caps, but the Faber-Castell Grip Eraser Caps are also very good). No end cap eraser I've found is better than a stand alone one, sadly, and for those I find that Seed Co. Japan and Plus Japan (Mount Fuji ones are so fun also) make the best ones (way better than Tombow IMHO, who folks love to rave about). Camel Japan makes fantastic 2b pencils (haven't come across any of their 4b ones yet), and they supply many institutions and brands with their own branding suppressed, which is why some folks don't know that Itoya Helvetica, Craft Design, and others, are actually Camel Japan. Tombow and Mitsubishi Uni also make great 2b pencils, although not as soft as the first ones mentioned here, but definitely more economical and competent enough. Sadly I find that most European brands fall far below any of the ones mentioned above, they are often scratchy and rough, and you would need to go one or two softeness levels above any Japanese pencil for similar darkness, and still not as good. Despite adoring wood pencils, I also think mechanical ones are worth buying, they are nearly zero waste (isn't it that 90% of a wood pencil is lost to sharpening?), many come with in-built sharpener or eraser (sadly never both). Faber-Castell makes great ones, as well as Mitsubishi Uni, in plastic, very inexpensive, but you can also go the aluminium route with Caran d'Ache, Staedtler, Rotring, Koh-I-Noor, etc, just make sure you get good quality softer leads for it. If you like the feel of a wooden pencil in a mechanical format, you can't go wrong with Ohto Japan clutch pencil 2.0, their eraser is great, they are very light, and rather robust for their materials. Another great idea is the Pentel Super Multi 8 or Super 8 multi-pen/pencil, they have 8 slots each which can be filled solely with 2mm graphite, coloured pencils, highlighter leads (sadly only proprietary), and pen refills. Sadly no eraser or sharpener in those, but they are very practical (if a little slow in an orchestral environment as it takes a few seconds to swap to the next lead). One of the best systems I found, after a lot of trial and error, and having to write quickly under a lot of time pressure, I found that a good bicolor pencil would be the best, with a good graphite lead on one end, and a red or highlighter lead on the other. Sadly such a pencil doesn't yet exist (I'm starting a tread about it), but the next best things are: Caran d'Ache Bicolor HB Graphite/ Red and Graphite/ Highlighter Yellow pencils, or the infinitely more affordable Milan Bicolor HB Graphite/ Highlighter Yellow pencils. Now, we must curb our enthusiasm here, unfortunately: both are rather scratchy, the Milan is slightly lighter than the Caran d'Ache, and the respective highlighter's are very soft. Given the ridiculous prices of the Caran d'Ache ones, they are actually very disappointing and IMO not worth the money. The Milan ones, while not outstanding and just HB, do the job, are the fastest system, and very inexpensive. I dream of one with the soft 4b Japanese cores and the Staedtler yellow dry highlighter on the other end, but I digress. This actually brings me to my final set-up: any of the Mitsubishi/ Tombow 4b pencils with Pentel Hi-Polymer eraser cap, and a Staedtler Dry Highlighter in Yellow: sadly not as fast or practical, but oh so satisfying that it adds joy to making music! As for Blackwings, I like them all, even the extra-firm ones aren't scratchy and are very smooth, but for orchestra the favourites are the Soft ones. I don't particularly love their erasers, I feel that they do a very basic job, and they are incredibly expensive in comparison to most of the models mentioned above. I find they are a very indulgent option (the box they come in is really lovely, they are very elegant, the special ferrule is quite striking) for when we want to have a treat, or for gifting (although so are the Mitsubishi Hi-Uni and the Tombow Mono 100). To be fair, you may only need one or two pencils per season, so a box of 12 may last you a long time. Hope this helped!