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What Do Pencil Numbers Like HB And 2B Mean?

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    Pencils are still one of the most popular mediums for artists. Most of us learn our drawing skills with a pencil and favour them alongside charcoal for sketching.
    Pencils are normally made with a small cylinder of graphite and clay surrounded by a wooden casing to grip.

    Pencils are all marked on a European system called the degree scale where H is hardest and B is blackest.
    Pencils can be marked as;
    9H, 8H, 7H, 6H, 5H, 4H,3H,2H, H F,HB, B, 2B, 3B, 4B ,5B ,6B ,7B ,8B ,9B

    H pencils have a higher concentrate of clay than graphite, whereas the B pencils have a much lower percentage of clay.
    The B pencils make soft, dark marks, whereas the H pencils have a much harder, lighter mark.

    The F pencil stands for fine point, which is slightly harder than the HB making it a good writing pencil.
    1 0

    Deepbreath 

    answered 3 years ago

      Basically h- hard, b-black, f-fine the higher the number, the more it is ie 8b is very dark
      0 0

      James9182 

      answered 5 months ago

        The H and B markings on pencils relate to the relative hardness or softness of the graphite used in it. H means hard, B means black. A 6B pencil has extremely soft, dark graphite and a 6H has very hard, pale graphite. HB is the average, mid-scale, type of pencil graphite for general use.

        Going from softest to hardest -> 6B 5B 4B 3B 2B HB 2H 3H 4H 5H 6H
        0 0

        Sickkid 

        answered 2 months ago

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