A Comprehensive Guide To Choosing Pencils For Writing and Drawing

Whether you are a student, a working professional, or an artist, working with a pencil is something you engage in daily. For continuous users of pencils who work on lengthy writing or drawing tasks on a daily basis, it is essential to use a long-lasting pencil that is easy to write with. Utilizing the wrong pencil can become a nuisance due to several reasons. For one thing, a low-quality pencil breaks its tip frequently, causing disruption in your work.

Secondly, a substandard pencil will result in illegible writing, which can result in negative consequences for students. You don’t want the teacher marking you down for untidy work, do you? What is more, a pencil that feels rough on paper will tire out your hand and can be uncomfortable to write with. In this guide, we will tell you exactly how to select a pencil that is a joy to write with.

The Graphite Pencil Contrast Scale

Pencils consist of different types of graphite that produce various shades of marking on paper. Pencils vary widely when it comes to the shades of writing. To classify the boldness of text written through various pencil types, a uniform standard scale called the Graphite Pencil Scale is used to categorize the boldness of pencil shades from super dark to super light. 

The scale consists of alphabets H and B. Letter H is used to denote the hardness of the graphite, and B represents the blackness level. The scale has 12 levels. 12H pencil means very hard light grey, and 12B is intensely dark graphite.

You need to decide the purpose for which you will be using the pencil first for you to make the correct choice of shade.

Wood Type: Enjoy A Breakage Free Writing Activity

There is nothing more annoying than the pencil tip breaking multiple times in the middle of a task and breaking your flow. The type of wood used to construct a pencil determines how easily the tip breaks and how easy it is to sharpen it again. In the past, a wholesale pencil manufacturer typically used Cedarwood to produce pencils. However, this is no longer the case as this type of wood is no longer cheap and also because environmentalists have raised concerns about the cutting down of trees. Nowadays, there are 14 types of wood that are used to create pencils. 

Low-quality pencils usually use softwoods that are difficult to sharpen and prone to breaking. 

Graphite Core Bonding: The Key to a Long-Lasting Pencil

A pencil has a basic structure that simply consists of fitting a graphite core into a wood slat and gluing another wood slat on top of it to enclose the graphite strip.. But to strengthen the structure further, top-quality pencil manufacturers use glue all around the graphite along with gluing the two slats together. This additional layer of glue applied surrounding the lead is known as lead bonding. 

In inferior and cheap pencils, there is no lead bonding, and the glue only bonds the two slats while it does not apply glue surrounding the graphite.

Making Writing a Pleasure By Selecting The Correct Pencil

Reading a text written in a neat and legible manner can be appealing to anyone and also plays a role in establishing a favorable impression of the writer. Choosing a top-quality pencil is essential if you want your writing to appear neat.

A vital factor to consider is the darkness of the pencil. Visibility matters a lot, and choosing a light pencil will only make reading difficult. Keeping the graphite scale in mind, we recommend that you opt for an HB pencil for daily writing tasks. This pencil’s boldness and hardness are well-suitable for abundant writing. The graphite is hard enough not to break frequently, and the pencil is bold enough to make the writing readable. Additionally, you don’t have to worry about smudging or writing with an HB pencil.

It Is better to avoid Fand H grade pencils as they feel rough during the writing and also leave a lighter mark on the paper. Once you have decided on the grade of the pencil, the next thing to consider is the wood quality and graphite core. It usually depends on your budget and preference. There can be a big price difference between a premium international pencil brand and a cheaper one. You have multiple brands to select from, starting from low, mid, and high tiers. It all depends on your preference. 

Notetaking and journaling is other common activity that people engage in, and an HB pencil will work fine. Taking notes can be a process that might involve a lot of erasing as you organize written content in different ways, and an HB pencil is much easier to erase without leaving a mark on paper compared to other grades. When it comes to journaling, especially when using bullet points, experts recommend using a darker pencil to make your points bold and striking. For this purpose, it is better to opt for a 2B grade pencil. 

Selecting Pencils For Drawing

Artists who want to sketch appealing pictures with pencils would need to select a range of pencils of various grades that can achieve the complex shading involved in producing a realistic picture. A wide area of the Graphite Scale spreads the range of pencils that are best for sketching. Normally five grades of pencils are ideal for sketching pictures.

• H Pencil: People use this to make outlines of a picture.. 
• 2B Pencil: For filling out the sketch and sketching the minor details
• 4B: People use the second most frequently used pencil for darker shading.
• 6B: The blending technique is used to give a subtle shade in complicated visual effects. They only use it for finer detail work.