By Ines Keane
Look at the stamp on a pencil. HB, 2B, 4H. Three letters and a number, and yet two pencils from two makers with the same stamp can write differently. Wikipedia’s article on the pencil says so plainly: grades are not standardised, and each manufacturer sets its own.
What the letters mean
According to Wikipedia, H generally means hardness and B means blackness. F is often said to stand for “fineness”, though F pencils are not finer; many makers say it means “firm”. HB is the standard writing grade, and the article says the designation was in use by 1814. Softer grades run from 3B up to 9B, extremely soft and black. Harder grades run from H to 9H, extremely hard and light grey. The article says softer grades suit artistic work and harder ones suit technical drawing.
One company has its own account. Wikipedia reports that Koh-i-Noor claims it introduced the HB system, with H for Hardtmuth, B for Budějovice and F for Franz Hardtmuth. The article presents that as the manufacturer’s claim and not an independently confirmed fact. We repeat it as a claim.
The number system
American pencils often carry a number instead. Wikipedia says Nicolas-Jacques Conté used whole numbers from 1, with higher numbers meaning softer, while John Thoreau used higher numbers for harder cores. The Conté and Thoreau table, with #1 as B, #2 as HB and #3 as H, is widely accepted, the article says, but not all makers follow it. So the first thing to read on a pencil is the maker’s name, and the second is the grade.
Why it is called lead
Wikipedia says a large, pure graphite deposit was found near Grey Knotts in Borrowdale, Cumbria, in 1565, and that some sources say about 1500. Graphite was thought to be a form of lead and was called plumbago. It contains no lead, but the core is still called “lead”. The article adds that Conté mixed powdered graphite with clay and fired the rods in a kiln in 1795, and that changing the ratio changed the hardness. It also says the Austrian Joseph Hardtmuth reportedly developed a similar method earlier, around 1790. Two dates, two inventors, and we choose neither.
Why Nuremberg
Wikipedia’s pencil article says the first attempt to make graphite sticks from powdered graphite was in Nuremberg in 1662, mixing graphite with sulphur and antimony; it calls the result inferior. Its article on Staedtler says that in 1662 the city annals mention Friedrich Staedtler as a pencil-making craftsman, and that the Nuremberg council forbade one person from doing the whole job, from core to wood, and required two experts. The article gives no date for the rule.
A pencil retailer’s blog tells the same story as a legend. It says pencil making had two steps, a lead cutter and a woodworker, that only guild members could make pencils, and that Staedtler defied the council until it recognised his pencils. The blog says a pencil-maker trade with its own guild existed by the 1730s. It is a shop’s blog, so we label it promotional.
Stein
Wikipedia’s article on Stein says the town lies on the left bank of the Rednitz, about 7 km south-west of the centre of Nuremberg, and that the first pencil makers settled there in 1717. A.W. Faber-Castell was founded there in 1761 by Kaspar Faber. The article describes him as a carpenter who had moved from Langenzenn.
Here the sources differ on his trade. Wikipedia’s article on the company calls Kaspar Faber a cabinet maker; the retailer’s blog does too; Wikipedia’s article on Stein calls him a carpenter. His own Wikipedia article says he was born on 31 March 1730 in Langenzenn, trained as a carpenter, moved to Stein in 1758, settled there around 1760 and opened a small pencil workshop in 1761. It adds that in 1771 he tried to improve the pencils by mixing ground graphite with sulphur, antimony and binding resins, because pure graphite pencils crumbled easily.
The firm grows
Wikipedia says Kaspar lived from 1730 to 1784 and that the business has stayed in the family for eight generations. His great-grandson Lothar von Faber (1817 to 1896) opened branches in New York in 1849, London in 1851 and Paris in 1855. In 1898 Lothar’s granddaughter Ottilie married Count Alexander zu Castell-Rüdenhausen, which began the Faber-Castell line, and in 1905 the company launched its Castell line, in green. The article on Stein adds that the new Faber-Castell castle was built between 1903 and 1906 next to an older small one.
The Staedtler article gives its own date. Johann Sebastian Staedtler founded the pencil factory in Nuremberg on 3 October 1835, and by 1866 it had 54 employees. The blog mentions that in 2010 the two firms disputed which is Germany’s oldest pencil maker. The 1662 mention, the 1761 workshop and the 1835 factory are three different kinds of “founding”, and we do not rank them.
Shape, wood and colour
Wikipedia says the commonest casing is thin wood, usually hexagonal, though round and triangular ones exist, and that a standard #2 pencil is hexagonal and about 19 cm long. Red cedar was favoured because it was aromatic and did not splinter; as supplies dwindled in the early twentieth century, dyed incense cedar became the main substitute. The article says Koh-i-Noor introduced yellow pencils in 1890, that the reason is unconfirmed, and that German and Brazilian pencils are often green, blue or black.
Dates in order
- About 1500 or 1565: graphite found at Borrowdale, according to Wikipedia.
- 1662: Nuremberg graphite sticks; Friedrich Staedtler mentioned, according to Wikipedia.
- 1717: first pencil makers in Stein, according to Wikipedia.
- 1761: Kaspar Faber’s workshop, according to Wikipedia.
- 1795: Conté’s clay and graphite method, according to Wikipedia.
- 1835: Staedtler’s factory, according to Wikipedia.
- 1905: the green Castell line, according to Wikipedia.
Questions a buyer would ask
What grade do I need for writing, and what for sketching? Does a different maker’s HB match? Is the core called lead because it contains lead? We name no model and no size, and we make no claim about smoothness or price.
What kind of sources these are
Five Wikipedia articles and a pencil retailer’s blog, which is promotional. We read no maker’s own page and no museum page. We give no sales figures.
What we left out
We left out the twentieth-century seizure of a castle and later corporate matters.
Quick answers
What do H and B mean on a pencil? According to Wikipedia, H generally means hardness and B means blackness. HB is the standard writing grade, and grades vary by maker.
Why is a pencil core called lead? Wikipedia says graphite was once thought to be a form of lead and called plumbago. It contains no lead, but the name stuck.
Where was Faber-Castell founded? Wikipedia says Kaspar Faber founded it in Stein, near Nuremberg, in 1761.
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