Comments on: Pencil degrees.

by: Pencil Revolution

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 20:57:00 +0000

Thanks, Woodchuck!
I think that, to me, the Palominos run like a very very soft 2B or 3B.
But I really prefer the Palominos for writing than traditional drawing pencils because the lead is as thin as a Western HB and can be sharpened finer for writing than, say, a Turquoise 4B, which is a pretty thick lead.

by: WoodChuck

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 19:58:00 +0000

Great post PRevo -
After I finish the current series of Timbelines posts regarding Incense-cedar use in pencils I have been planning a series on other technical aspects of pencil manufacturing. Graphite and Color cores will of course be part of that series.

You have already covered an important point on the grade variations in graphite and saved me part of my trouble so I can link to this post and expand on other salient points.

Your point regarding a lack of industry standards is very important. For example, the Japanese market prefers softer, darker lead so their HB grade (like we have in our Palomino pencil) would be more consistent with a 2B or even 4B made by manufaturers elsewhere.

by: Pencil Revolution

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 16:48:00 +0000

The softer the lead, the thicker it has to be. While lead-holders are great, they don’t allow for variations in the diameter of the hole, like wood does. For instance, a 9B Turquoise pencil is almost all lead, since the core is so thick.

I might be wrong about this, though.

by: Brian

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 14:21:00 +0000

I’ve wondered why the leads for those mechanical (drafting-style) lead holders don’t seem to come in the softer weights. The darkest I’ve seen is 4B.

Is it because the darker leads break more easily? Or is it just that people don’t generally use those lead-holders for drawing and sketching?

(I’ve found that even 4B is far too smudge-prone for drafting)