STAEDTLER 100-4B Mars Lumograph Graphite Pencils for Drawing & Sketching - 4B (Box of 12)

Nice, delicate pencils useful on permatrace and for other sensitive work, they remain need sharpening when used carefully and they hardly smudge.

I buy these for work (woodwork) it's cheaper buying a full box than individual, they last ages and mark many surfaces.

These pencils (F grade) are as smooth as silk but leave a clearly-legible line with a slightly metallic sheen. More importantly, they take and hold a good point so they’re ideal for sustained writing. I have little artistic ability but I’m confident anyone using them creatively would be delighted with them. They’re an absolute steal at the current price of £12.20 for a box of 12. These will be top of my list for future purchases of pencils (of any grade). I can recommend them unreservedly for writing, sketching, drafting or any other purpose you can think of. Just buy them; you’ll have no regrets.

Hexagonal shape stops hand from slipping which can happen with round shape pencils. Consistent quality of graphite. The 2B allows a good variety of mid and dark tones to be built up when sketching.

First of all THESE PENCILS ARE NOT TOYS - they are much too expensive too soft and WAY too black to be left in the hands of a child. I got the 8B because someone at my Life Drawing class showed me one. This soft pencil is wonderful to use - it is intensely black not grey like normal graphite. It is very tough, one can use a light touch or a really heavy push without breaking the point and the strip sharpens easily and takes a long time to wear down but being so thick it will shade full 5mm lines if held at a low angle. I have hated graphite pencil for drawing most of my life -ever since I saw sanguine crayon and silverpoint and brush drawings, but these Pencils, however they are made, are a joy to use. They are also very difficult to smudge, though the side of the hand tends to pick up some black it is not as much as a 6B graphite would give and washes off very easily. If the lines are light they can be rubbed out with a putty rubber but heavy lines leave a ghost on paper...They seem to be slightly soluble in water and White spirit but I have not experimented much with this. I would not use them with watercolour or colour pencil unless you want black lines around everything - I am told they are much used by animators and can see why they would be. I do not know why Amazon classes these pencils as toys, they are a perfect professional Tool.

I don't really know why but I love the F grade lumograph pencils (and also the Tradition version). I use them for writing rather than drawing and they keep their point longer than HB pencils. I spend a lot of time as a software engineer writing up notes in my engineering log books. You might ask why I don't just use something like OneNote but to be honest I enjoy some old school engineering where I can flip back through my thoughts and review decisions that I have made.

Doing a computing degree in Uni. As mature student this is the only success factor I need to graduate.

Good quality pencils. Not the cheapest but better than others.