2B pencils from China

[Jonah79]

I noticed something odd about standard Chinese pencils / mechanical pencils. They are often offered as 2B, not HB / #2. Is this because of the Mandarin script? Enlighten me, please. 

[Wil D]

20 hours ago, Jonah79 said:

I noticed something odd about standard Chinese pencils / mechanical pencils. They are often offered as 2B, not HB / #2. Is this because of the Mandarin script? Enlighten me, please. 

I do not know what they mean with the 2 after HB, but 2B means a softer grade. HB is average, B is soft. So B, 2B, 3B aso. H is hard, so there it is H, 2H, 3H aso. I use B and 2B mostly.

[Jonah79]

1 hour ago, Wil D said:

I do not know what they mean with the 2 after HB, but 2B means a softer grade. HB is average, B is soft. So B, 2B, 3B aso. H is hard, so there it is H, 2H, 3H aso. I use B and 2B mostly.

I meant: why do the Chinese seem to prefer a softer pencil grade for writing?

[Beechwood]

On 5/8/2024 at 9:37 AM, Jonah79 said:

I noticed something odd about standard Chinese pencils / mechanical pencils. They are often offered as 2B, not HB / #2. Is this because of the Mandarin script? Enlighten me, please. 

 

My experience is different to yours in that the standard Chinese pencil is HB as in this link

 

https://polarpencilpusher.home.blog/2019/08/22/pencil-review-chung-hwa-6151-hb/

 

HB is fairly standard, globally, as an everyday pencil but artists typically prefer the softer 2B in order to obtain better degrees of light and shade than provided by an HB which is simply a shade of grey. 

 

 

 

 

[Wil D]

6 hours ago, Jonah79 said:

I meant: why do the Chinese seem to prefer a softer pencil grade for writing?

Sorry, misunderstood. I do not think they do. HB is common in China too.

[Wil D]

2 hours ago, Beechwood said:

 

My experience is different to yours in that the standard Chinese pencil is HB as in this link

 

https://polarpencilpusher.home.blog/2019/08/22/pencil-review-chung-hwa-6151-hb/

 

HB is fairly standard, globally, as an everyday pencil but artists typically prefer the softer 2B in order to obtain better degrees of light and shade than provided by an HB which is simply a shade of grey. 

 

 

 

 

You are right I am an artist (with numbers ;-))

[Number99]

In my area, 2B seems to be the best seller. Schools used to specify HB, but since the free-choice system was introduced, most children seem to be using 2B.

However, HB or B is still required to fill out the mark sheets for the exam. There was an article about a person who panicked when he realized after the exam that he had used a pencil made in China.

Furthermore, HB in my area is manufactured with the same softness as B in Europe, which means they are using 3B equivalent pencils from the West. 

Apparently the advantages of 2B are that it is less tiring and less likely to break. 

I have only one 6B wooden pencil in my pen case, although I don't use it very often. Once you use a dark pencil, you can no longer use HB.

 

Based on the assumption that the Chinese standard is 2B, the same phenomenon may be occurring since the written characters are very similar to those in China.

 

 

Edited May 9, 2024 by Number99

[stuck-in-time]

It's interesting to see that different countries have different preferences. In Indonesia where I live, 2B is the norm and is also the required grade for computer scanned exams. They usually even have something like "Special for Computer" printed on them. These will flood the stores during exam season.

[RJS]

I spent two years teaching in China, and there was no apparent "most common" grade I saw- just a mixture of HB/B/2B. My students generally came from very wealthy families, and tended to have the nicest Japanese stationary, with pencils leads that are darker than the corresponding grades of EU and US pencils.

 

By the way, I encountered children carrying genuine £1,000+ pens to school. Madness! 😅

[Jonah79]

On 6/6/2024 at 11:19 PM, RJS said:

 

By the way, I encountered children carrying genuine £1,000+ pens to school. Madness! 😅

Well, that's communism, folks!🤑

[mke]

On Aliexpress you can find boxes with 1000 leads - in 2B. But I didn't find these "last for life" boxes in HB or any other grade. That certainly can tell us what is most used in China.

But you find 20 of 20 leads boxes as special offers. Most probably, made for non-Chinese.

 

In Japan, where they use mechanical pencils a lot, typically you find HB. But I have also seen spare leads from H to 6B. 

[mke]

On 6/7/2024 at 6:19 AM, RJS said:

children carrying genuine £1,000+ pens to school

 

Which pens would that be?

[RJS]

5 hours ago, mke said:

 

Which pens would that be?

Montblanc. 

Edit: One six year old was told to buy a fountain pen for class so his grandfather took him to a Montblanc store to choose one. He lost it after two days. The family didn't care though, and said the grandfather owned a pen that cost 100x as much. 😅 God knows what pen that was- must have had a big diamond on the finial or something!