Question: Pencil Lead Hardness

[Beathard]

I have purchased a .3mm pencil in an attempt to work on drawing smaller designs. The stupid thing had no lead. So back to the store. Now I'm looking at lead and there are more than 10 hardness levels. I have no idea what they mean.

Does anyone know which F,H,or B would work for a person that does not have a heavy hand and wants to draw on metal?

 

[JJ Roberts]

Beathard,I like the 5mm lead pencil with soft B lead,tryed the 3mm pencil and the leads keep braking so I went with the 5mm.hope this some help. J.J.

 

[Beathard]

I've been using the .5mm but the lines are awfully thick. I can engrave smaller than the line. I have found myself following the left edge of the line. Thought a smaller pencil line would increase accuracy.

 

[Sandy]

Try an "H" with a fine point (use a fine sandpaper to make the point)

 

[Roger Bleile]

B is soft and H is hard. A 9H is the hardest. An HB is in the middle and equal to a #2 lead pencil. I don't know about the F series.

I use a rotary sharpener that puts a needle point on the lead. Sometimes I sharpen the lead on my power hone.

 

[FANCYGUN]

Beathard
Leave your mechanical pencil at home because I wont let you use it in my drawing class in two weeks to draw landscapes and animals. You won't need it.

heheheheheh :no:

 

[Beathard]

Awww Marty, no mechanical pencils? You making us draw in sweat and blood?

 

[Sandy]

Took Marty's drawing class last year. He was a slave driver I hate to say it with :bow: Him skulking around, but, I learned a lot from the old curmudgeon It was a great class. You will enjoy it.
Sandy

 

[Tim Wells]

Curmudgeon, I like that.
To the original poster, look up pencil hardness scale cart and that will answer the question for you. Sometimes those pencil lead sections at art supply stores will have a chart right there on the display.

 

[FANCYGUN]

Blood is good........sweat curls and blisters the paper.

Hope you've been practicing Sandy. You were kicking and screaming the first half of the week. Going to be drawing and engraving more animals this year in class. My way of doing them.

Seriously though. we did not use any mechanical pencils and i dont use them at home in my shop either. They're just ..too mechanical and have no life to them

 

[Beathard]

Can't wait! I think... Sandy has me a little scared.

 

[DakotaDocMartin]

look up pencil hardness scale chart

 

[rod]

Thanks for that nice pencil chart, Doc M and Tim!

Rod

 

[Chujybear]

H is pretty good for point three. I find it plenty dark. But if light for you hb. B's will be soft and crumbly at that diameter.

 

[sinan]

I like mechanical pencils. I use three of them to draw. 2H for .3mm , B for 0.3mm and 3B for .5mm . If you use harder lead you can draw thin lines. Other pencils are wasting your time by sharpening. You can get .7 mm mechanical pencil and sharpen the lead by fine sand paper too. You can draw very thin lines by it too.

 

[FANCYGUN]

The problem I have with mechanical pencils are......they do a nice consistant fine line which can be good for marking the metal prior to cutting a line. Now it sounds like many of you want very fine pencil leads so you can draw small. When I do a drawing i draw larger than the actual engraving is to be. When you cut a line the line is usuall not of a consistant depth or width thus varying the character of the cut line. With a mechanical pencil in a drawing i cannot achieve this variation. Therefore i choose to us drawing pencils of various numbers. This way I can draw lightly or heavy. I can start light with my guidelines and darken as I correct and develope the image. A drawing then has some life to it and hopefully I can carry this forward onto my engraving.

DIXON #2

 

[bram ramon]

At Leon Mignon we use HB 0.5 and 0.3mm automatic pencil for drawing the contours and the basic shading after that we go over the shading with a B. For the background we use 2B and sometimes even darker. Here is a recent drawing i made at school this is my design not a school design so please don't copy it. Not jet finished. No transferring no calking only free hand drawing! This will be engraved soon. We always try to draw 2,5 times bigger than we engrave. if you draw bigger you can easily put a lot more detail in the drawing.

 

[axeman11]

I use the Blackwing 602 with a dual stage sharpener from Pencils.com. Not sure about the lead. It is a special blend, made in Japan and writes silky smooth. With the dual stage sharpener, you can make a needle point if you need it.

 

[Brian Marshall]

So, I guess the consensus here is that there is more than one way to put lead in your pencil?


Brian





Others can comment some more on the advantages of mechanical over natural and the hardness factor?

 

[Hora]

I use a 0.3 pencil with HB fillings. It stains but it is great for me.