Faber-Castell Pitt Graphite 9B Pure Pencil

Product Information

Art Design pencils are encased in pure cedar wood with an ultra-fine, extra-resistant graphite lead. The pencils don’t seem to be as well bonded as the Faber-Castells and Staedtlers and break more easily especially when you sharpen them, though this may be due in part to the soft crumbliness of the very dark leads. The pencils run only up to an 8B grade and I find this a little frustrating considering how light the range is in general: it means that I have to supplement my range with a Staedtler pencil if I want to draw very dark shadows. It’s useful to know whether a range runs on the light or dark side, because most people will actively prefer one or other.

It shouldn’t shed a dust of tiny particles of graphite on your paper, an effect known as ‘ghosting’. The texture is on the coarse side and yet there was a strangely ‘waxy’ feel to them, which again, I think some people might quite like but others won’t. I’m not necessarily saying that the 9000s are superior to the other pencils I’ve awarded top marks to, but for the type of drawing that I do (light, quite detailed portraits) they suit my style better than a darker, softer range. However from 3B upwards the pencils drew so darkly that it was as if they came from a different range altogether. I’m not sure why they have this unusual texture but pencils leads are finished in a wax bath to fill in any microscopic holes in the graphite, so I would imagine that the Grafwoods are given a particularly long soak.The lighter grades are delightfully smooth too and if you wanted to draw more lightly with them you could use a selection of the H grades – I found that a 3H was tonally equivalent to about an HB from Staedtler’s Mars Lumograph range. Mono 100s generally vie with the Mistubishi Hi-Uni for the number one spot amongst true pencil aficionados. My favourite fact about them is that their colour scheme was chosen by Count Alexander von Faber-Castell to match his military uniform!

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.Derwent's Graphic Pencils are made from the finest quality graphite and purest clays for a smooth line. This tin of Derwent Soft Graphic Sketching Pencils is a perfect starting point for what every artist needs: a good set of traditional, high-quality graphite pencils. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.