Drawing Pencils Hardness Scale
This test defines a pencil hardness of a coating as the grade of the hardest pencil that does not permanently mark the coating when pressed firmly against it at a 45 degree angle.
Drawing pencils hardness scale. For example a 2 pencil is a standard writing pencil which happens to be of the same softness as an hb drawing pencil. The american system is numerical and goes from 1 to 4 while the european system uses the letters h and b to note how hard or soft a pencil is. H leads become lighter as you work up the scale.
Some feel most comfortable with the degree of hardness f. Graded pencils can be used for a rapid test that provides relative ratings for a series of coated panels but can t be used to compare the pencil hardness of different coatings. When drawing a range of shades is needed to create depth and light and dark.
9h 9b with the h end of the spectrum being the harder and the b obviously the softer. Pencil hardness ranges from. The uk pencil hardness scale is measured in hardness and how black the.
The soft b pencils are ideal for children who are just learning to write. The uk hardness scale of pencils. The h in the hb scale stands for hardness.
To help to do this pencils come in different levels of hardness. These are scaled according to a standard level. Grades of drawing pencils are organized in a scale based on softness or hardness.
With soft and especially thick graphite pencils beginners can write very easily. The first graphite grading scale is a numeric scale. While watching him work one day i noticed he only used two or maybe three different pencils on his pieces.
These pencils are on the softer side of the spectrum when it comes to pencil hardness. There is no industry standard for the hardness of a lead grade and results vary from brand to brand. The hb graphite grading scale is used to determine the hardness and the darkness of pencils.
A 2b pencil and an ebony pencil. The hardness is determined by the amount of clay added to the pencil leads during production the more clay then the harder the pencil. Faber castell castell 9000 graded graphite drawing pencils 12 pack 15 95 staedtler mars lumograph drawing pencils 20 pencil set.
The higher the number next to the h the harder the pencil lead inside is. The american 2 pencil usually lines up with the european hb grade as seen in the graphic above. To distinguish harder and softer pencils pencil manufacturers rank pencils on a grading scale.
The american system uses numbers with 2 in the middle of the scale. There are two scales the us scale and the uk scale. Anyone with more experience in writing and drawing will usually choose a pencil with the medium degree of hardness hb.
There are two grading systems for pencils american and european.
