What grade of hardness should I pick?
The classic hard/black scale
Leads are manufactured using a mixture of clay and graphite, a form of carbon. The clay is what holds the graphite together. After the ingredients are mixed, they are fired just like other ceramic product. The more clay has been added to the mixture, the harder the resulting lead will be and the lighter the resulting line you draw will be. If less clay is added, the lead will be softer and will leave a much darker line.
Colored leads are manufactured differently than black leads, with a colored wax typically used as a binder agent rather than clay. The result is that all colored leads are soft..
Legendary Lead offers pencil leads in a wide variety of hardnesses. Which you choose will depend first on how you intend to use your pencil: technical applications usually require harder leads, while artists prefer softer leads for sketching. For general writing, there are medium degrees of hardness which blend the longevity of a hard lead with the dark line of a softer lead.
A second consideration, and a more important one, is your personal preference. We bring identical pencils loaded with samples of different hardnesses to each show for customers to try first. The lead you "should" use is the one you most enjoy using!
Colored leads are manufactured differently than black leads, with a colored wax typically used as a binder agent rather than clay. The result is that all colored leads are soft..
Legendary Lead offers pencil leads in a wide variety of hardnesses. Which you choose will depend first on how you intend to use your pencil: technical applications usually require harder leads, while artists prefer softer leads for sketching. For general writing, there are medium degrees of hardness which blend the longevity of a hard lead with the dark line of a softer lead.
A second consideration, and a more important one, is your personal preference. We bring identical pencils loaded with samples of different hardnesses to each show for customers to try first. The lead you "should" use is the one you most enjoy using!
Soft leadsOn the traditional hardness scale, "B" stands for black, so the more black the lead is, the softer it is. 4B is softer than 3B, is softer than 2B.
|
Medium leadsIn the middle of the spectrum, the B/H scale imported from Europe overlaps with the U.S. numbering system.
|
Hard leadsHarder pencil leads start with 2H, which is the equivalent of a Number 4 on the U.S. Numbering system, followed by the increasingly harder 3H, 4H and so on.
|