Faber-Castell Pitt Graphite 9B Pure Pencil

Product Information

All in all I didn’t feel that the Grafwoods were for me, but I’d advise you to try them for yourself and make your own mind up. Staedtler are an interesting company and are actually a non-profit corporation set up in 1835 to fund German universities. These pencils offer unparalleled possibilities for spontaneous expression, creating different effects based on the pressure applied and grade of hardness. For example, they mention it's a very nice pencil, perfect for fine dark tones, and an absolute joy to draw with. Faber-Castell's Pitt Graphic range provides all creative artists with an extensive range of pencils and crayons in different grades of hardness for sketching, graphic design and shading work.

If you love shading, the hexagonal Lyra Art Design pencil is for you: the perfect way to get to the heart of your drawing and unleash unexpected creativity. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. The Derwent Graphic Pencil 9B is a professional-grade pencil that's perfect for drawing, sketching, and other artistic endeavours. The pencils are very popular in the UK where many people rate them for their blending ability, but I personally feel that they don’t match the standard of some of their rivals despite the fact that they often cost more. You can read more on the pencil grading system here, but to summarise briefly: pencils are graded on a scale that runs from the hardest grades which have a lot of clay in them and which make a very light mark, to the softest grades which have the least clay and mark very darkly.The Lumographs run a bit darker and softer making them the ideal mid-tone pencil, and the lighter grades feel smoother than the equivalent grades in the 9000s due to the slightly higher graphite ratio. For instance, grades 3H to 6H or higher would be usually considered more suitable for graphic or technical/industrial design than for sketching. They seemed consistently well mixed with excellent bonding and drew with a slightly coarse texture, but felt silky and a pleasure to apply. The pencils don’t seem to be as well bonded as the Faber-Castells and Staedtlers and break more easily especially when you sharpen them, though this may be due in part to the soft crumbliness of the very dark leads.

In either case they are surprisingly cheap which I find quite baffling because they are such an excellent pencil. Therefore you get quite an extreme degree of tonal gradation between the lightest and darkest pencils.We also take huge pride in how you receive the goods, making sure they were received securely and without any damage. They have a long association with pencils, with members of the Staedtler family known to have been involved in the pencil trade back in the 17th century. They are extremely large in diameter and feel very chunky in the hand, which some people will like and others will not. It shouldn’t shed a dust of tiny particles of graphite on your paper, an effect known as ‘ghosting’. Therefore if you don’t put your pencil back with the lettering facing up you can’t tell which grade is which.