2mm Leads

       As the pencil ones, the leads for the Lead Holders also use the graphite scale for degrees, but with not so much values in it. As an example one manufacturer produces 19 ranges for wood cased pencils and only 7 for 2mm leads.

Individual 2mm leads

 

Leads are sold individually, on sets of 2, or packs of 12, and have sizes from 130mm to 90mm.  

 

Examples of packs of 12 2mm leads

       STAEDTLER^® Mars^® carbon Leads packs include a colour end cap to fit on the holder for easy lead degree identification. and a place, in the case. to put the original chrome cap, while using the provided colored one.

These leads degrees are  4B - 2B - B - HB - H - 2H - 4H

 

       As it is difficult to me to get good leads for drawing locally, I have used a procedure to get leads easily. If I have access to good drawing wood cased pencils, then I already have graphite leads available, i just have to take off the wood case. It also enable me to get a wider range of degrees to work with using lead holders, How to get the lead out of the pencil with a procedure i followed when I was in need of a lead on a Sunday afternoon and all stores were closed, will be described in a later article.

       These leads are bigger than the size that the lead holders can manage, so i break them in two, use one in the lead holder, and the other half I tag it, so i can recognize it easily later, and save them, carefully with others half leads i already have.

 

 Spare Leads of several grades

     Tip: Check the lead size of the pencil, before you buy it, some of the more softer pencils, from some manufacturers, have a lead size bigger than 2mm and they won't fit on the lead holder, this is specially evident in the 6B to 9B range 

Details view of spare leads, tagged for easy degree identification

Enjoy Drawing

Products or brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Lead holders

Lead holders

        As said before, the difference between a mechanical pencils and a lead holder is that the lead holder have a mechanism to hold the lead in place and the lead needs to be sharpened from time to time.

        Most use 2mm diameter graphite leads, so they replace the wood pencil as the lead is of the same size, other sizes include 5.6mm leads.

        In the lead holder, the length and weight of the drawing tool remains constant all time, making it easy to get used to it, and also obtain a good control of the tool.

          I use mainly 2mm lead holders, some metal ones and some plastic, cheap ones. For detailed work i may use a mechanical-pencil 0.7mm or 0.5mm, but also can use a lead holder with a very sharp lead.

My set of 2mm lead holders

These are my set of lead holders, from top to bottom:

• STAEDTLER^® Mars^® technico 780 C with HB lead
• STAEDTLER^® Mars^® technico 780 C with 4B lead
• Stilus - SECOLGRAF 120 with 4H lead
• MAXIM 1300 with F lead
• MAXIM 1300 with 2H lead
• Stilus - SECOLGRAF 120 with B lead
• MAXIM 1300 with 2B lead

        The Mars^® technico are very good as they are made mostly of metal,  have a nice weight and cool touch.  This are the tools i use most to draw. They range from 4H to 4B. They all use 2mm graphite leads. In my local art stores, not much shades are available, mainly HB leads, so i have to get another source for good quality 2mm graphite leads ( more on that later ).

It is funny that the other lead holders are from different brands but seems to be exactly the same model.

 Detail view of the mechanism that holds the lead

 Other detail view of the holder mechanism

In next article we will focus on the leads for these lead holders,

until then enjoy drawing

Mechanical Pencils

Mechanical Pencils

These are my mechanical pencils.

From top to bottom:

1. rOtring Tikky 0.5
2. rOtring Likky II 0.5
3. STAEDTLER graphite 777 0.7

     Those are for 0.5mm, 0.5mm and 0.7mm leads, respectively. They are good for detail work, but cause it is difficult for me to find leads different from HB, I do not use them much, I prefer to use a sharp lead-holder to do so. I manage to find some cheap 2B leads 0.7mm for the 777 but they not seem much like 2B, maybe more like B.

Detail view of the leads of my mechanical pencils

        The mechanical pencils have a top cap that can be taken off and gives access to the tube where you can put some leads at the same time, about 2-3 leads. The top cap usually includes a little eraser.

Detail view of a mechanical pencil with a lead and eraser and cap

Another detail view of a different mechanical pencil mechanism with some leads and a bigger blue eraser that sits on top of the cap, making it easier to replace.

Leads

       The mechanical pencils use graphite leads from 0.9mm to 0.3mm size and a range of degrees from 4H to 2B. But what is normally available everywhere is HB leads.

      Manufacturers also started to make colored leads. So you have a more wide range of leads to choose for these mechanical pencils.

Cheap 2B 0.7mm leads

 

Normal HB 0,5mm leads available locally

Next article we will focus on the other type of mechanical pencils, the lead-holder.

Until then, enjoy drawing!

Mechanical Pencils and Lead Holders

Mechanical Pencils and Lead Holders

 

 

The main problems of the pencil is that it has a very light weight and it's size changes with use and also it needs to be sharpen frequently.

 

So mechanical pencils came to the rescue. They are made of plastic or metal, or a mix of the two, and they hold an internal lead of graphite. They don't shrink with use and remains the same size and weight so the artist can get used to work with it. And sharpening it only involves sharpening the lead and not the case.

The differences between mechanical pencils and lead holders is that the mechanical-pencil lead can be advanced in steps and will not drop out, and don't need to be sharpened. The lead holders have a mechanism to hold the lead in place and the lead have to be sharpened.

Generally the mechanical pencils use leads from 0.9mm to 0.3mm size, and the lead holders goes from 2mm to 5.6mm lead sizes.

The main problem of the mechanical pencil is that the lead breaks easily, even if reinforced with a polymer as some manufacturers do. They are good for detail work, being the lead holders more suitable to other kind of work, like laying value on a area or general sketching, but it is the artist who must decide how they fit in their own workflow.

 Enjoy Drawing

Pencils part 2

In the first article about pencils, I showed a set of drawing pencils with a range of shades from 6H to 8B, all from the same manufacturer. This is desirable as it maintains consistency in all shades of gray that the pencils can generate. As I said before, a 4B graphite pencil from one manufacturer is probably different from a 4B pencil from another manufacturer. So it's a way manufacturers have to probably make you use only pencils of one manufacturer in a given pencil set. On the other hand if you can't get a full set of pencils from one source, you may try to make one yourself, trying different pencils from different manufacturers until you get a set you like.

 The Hard pencils

This picture is from one set i have made. I use it to draw outside. It is made from several manufacturers, those are the ones i could manage to find in local art stores.

These are the Hard (H) pencils, most of them from only one manufacturer.  They range from 9H to F.

Be careful with the high H range of pencils, specially the 9H is extremely hard and when sharpened, it is like a needle, it will hurt you if you don't take care when drawing with it

From top to bottom: 

• CARAN D'ACHE TECHNOGRAPH 777 9H
• CARAN D'ACHE TECHNOGRAPH 777 8H
• CARAN D'ACHE TECHNOGRAPH 777 7H
• CARAN D'ACHE TECHNOGRAPH 777 6H
• CARAN D'ACHE TECHNOGRAPH 777 5H
• CARAN D'ACHE TECHNOGRAPH 777 4H
• CARAN D'ACHE TECHNOGRAPH 777 3H
• STAEDTLER Mars Lumograph 2H
• Faber-Castell  Castell 9000 H
• CARAN D'ACHE TECHNOGRAPH 777 F

The Soft pencils

  These are the soft pencils of my own made set.

 
Again many of them comes from one manufacturer. As they are a lot of pencils for one picture, i have included a detail picture of them.

From left to right:

• STAEDTLER Mars Lumograph 8B
• Faber-Castell  Castell 9000 8B
• Faber-Castell  Castell 9000 7B
• Faber-Castell  Castell 9000 6B
• Faber-Castell  Castell 9000 6B
• Faber-Castell  Castell 9000 5B
• CRETACOLOR 150 5B
• CRETACOLOR 150 5B
• Faber-Castell  Castell 9000 4B
• Faber-Castell  Castell 9000 3B
• Faber-Castell  Castell 9000 2B
• Faber-Castell  Castell 9000 2B   
• NOMBRE DON DIN 2B
• Faber-Castell  Castell 9000 B
• CARAN D'ACHE TECHNOGRAPH 777 B
• Unmarked pencil B
• Unmarked pencil HB
• STAEDTLER Noris HB
• 4OFFICE 4120 HB 
• Scholine - PROFESSIONAL DRAWING 2300 HB

The lead of the STAEDTLER 8B  is bigger than any other pencil in this set, even the Faber-Castell  Castell 9000 8B is not so big.

These soft pencils are fragile, so be careful with them, The lead may fracture inside the pencil if they drop on the floor and when sharpened the pencil tip may break easily and drop so you have to sharp it again.

As you can see, you can make any set of drawing pencils with all kinds of pencils you can find in local art stores. After some trial and error you will be able to define a set of drawing pencils that you like.

In a following article we will focus on another type of pencils, the mechanical ones and the lead holders.


Until then enjoy drawing

Products or brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.