Comments on: Pencil Hardness

By: Mechanical Pencils :: PigPog

Mechanical Pencils :: PigPog — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 18:01:44 +0000

[...] also: Pencil Hardness: What those letters and number mean – HB, 4B, 2H, [...]

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:23:27 +0000

One correction to check: The “H” and “B” designations for the European ssytem refer to hardness and blackness, not hard and soft. So pencils are graded by both their hardness and blackness. The pencils.com website does a fine job of explaining.

By: Nylisk

Nylisk — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Besides the typical #2 pencil, I have never seen any other type of pencil labeled under the US system. I see the B through H system all the time and don’t really consider it to be an English versus American system. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen another American-labeled pencil besides the #2, ever. This 1,2 1/2, 3,4 is unknown to me and I’ve lived here all my life. America and England for the most part go by the same system but for some reason most of our standard pencils are labeled #2. But anyone who ventures beyond that will only know the H & B system.