General's Compressed Charcoal Sticks

These are rigid, compressed charcoal sticks for art projects and general sketching. The sticks are sufficiently durable, although you can easily split them if you need to do so. Thankfully, they don't get crushed or pulverized during shipment - at worst, some of the sticks might be split upon arrival. But that's okay since they're just as usable at any length. Note they are pretty messy, however, so you probably want to hold them with a small cloth, unless you don't mind ending up with charcoal all over your fingers. Remember you'll need different levels of hardness depending on the type of project you're doing. You can also buy softer, more malleable charcoal blobs instead of sticks. Sticks are used for making sketches where standard pencil leads might be too soft or too light. For shadowing, you'll probably want to have a paper nub on hand as well. (Not included.) One typically does not need to sharpen charcoal sticks. But if you wear down all the corners, it's simple enough to whittle them with a pocket knife.