It goes to 12!
If you think 10B is the softest grade on the market, note that Taiwanese brand Roxy offers their No. 188 pencil in 12B.
Unfortunately, the Roxy 188 is a scratchy carbon pencil, leaving a line perhaps comparable to – I’m not sure what. Even “hard” compressed charcoal is smoother and more usable.
The “12B” label seems to be a gimmick. The pencil does have a triangular shape and a nice enough finish.
My thanks to blog reader Robert for sending me this pencil.
Yoiks! 12B sounds great, but that sample of the line it makes in the last image is a shocker. Gimmick for sure.
Ouch! That pencil resembles a bluff package ;-)
I would like to add that there was a graphite pencil in the STABILO “tone” series, the precursor of the woody 3-in-1 (the “tone” range was targeted at designers etc. but unfortunately discontinued a few years ago). An expert told me that the graphite “tone” was a 20B pencil but I haven’t tried one yet. However, given the fact that the hardness grades are far from being standardized one can’t assume that the 20B “tone” was twice as soft as the Mitsubishi 10B, especially since the compositions vary in a wide range (just compare the STAEDTLER Mars Lumograph 8B with the LYRA graphite chalk 9B).
The way it writes looks waxy.
It looks a little waxy, but if I recall, it felt like writing with a cheap charcoal briquette. Not smooth at all really. I sent it (along with a few other pencils) because I stumbled across it and had never seen anything marked 12B before. I don’t think I can recall any redeeming characteristics other than it being cheap.
The Roxy brand is fairly common around here…sold in bookstores as artist pencils alongside Liberty 9800s (Mitsubishi 9800 clones), Ohto 9000s, and Marco Raffines. Better shops also include the Mitsubishi 9800s and Staedtler Mars Lumographs. The more standard grades of the Roxy lineup are OK, but nothing special.
I want 20b pencil, I am pencil Carver.
I want 12 b and 20 b pencil ..im pencil craving beginner