Gegensätze in Graphit

Zwei nicht all­täg­li­che Blei­stifte und ein Kon­trast, wie er grö­ßer wohl kaum sein könnte: Der Druck­blei­stift Pen­tel PG2-AD und der holz­ge­fasste Blei­stift Mitsu­bi­shi 10B.

Gegensätze in Graphit

Wäh­rend der Pen­tel mit Minen arbei­tet, die mit 0,2 mm noch nicht ein­mal dop­pelt so dick sind wie ein mensch­li­ches Haar, ver­fügt der Mitus­bi­shi über einen vier Mil­li­me­ter star­ken Gra­phit­kern der Härte 10B. Das sanfte Glei­ten die­ser außer­ge­wöhn­lich wei­chen Mine auf dem Papier sorgte sicher auch für den Namen die­ses aus­ge­fal­le­nen Blei­stifts: ふでえんぴつ, „fude-enpitsu“, was sich mit „Schreibpinsel-Bleistift“ über­set­zen lässt und an den ebenso wei­chen Pin­sel­strich erinnert.

Gegensätze in Graphit

Beide Schreib­ge­räte sind auf ihre Art etwas ganz Beson­de­res und zei­gen ein­mal mehr den viel­sei­ti­gen Ein­satz jenes Mate­ri­als, das man zuerst um 1564 in einer Grube bei Bor­row­dale in der eng­li­schen Graf­schaft Cum­ber­land ent­deckt hat.

Vie­len Dank an isu von the uncom­for­ta­ble chair für den her­vor­ra­gen­den Mitsu­bi­shi 10B!

Nach­trag vom 23.3.18: Der erste 0,2-mm-Druckbleistift war der Pen­tel PS1042 von 1973; ihm folg­ten 1981 der Pen­tel PG2-AD und 2014 der Pen­tel orenz (Quelle: Pen­tel).

9 Kommentare zu „Gegensätze in Graphit“

  1. Do you know if that Mitsu­bi­shi pen­cil is still in pro­duc­tion? I read some­where that these pen­cils are used to write with Japa­nese calligraphic-like cha­rac­ters, is that right?

  2. I don’t know if this very one is still made, but to prac­tice cal­li­gra­phy you have the pen­man­ship pen­cils in 4B and 6B, hexa­go­nal or tri­an­gu­lar, and also the regu­lar Hi-uni up to 10B (9B and 10B having the lar­gest core like the pen­cil in the pic­ture above).

  3. I per­so­nally only tried the 4B (pen­man­ship) hexa­go­nal, and while I do not usually app­re­ciate soft pen­cils (my hand­wri­ting is pretty small, I don’t draw, so I need some­thing pre­cise that I don’t have to shar­pen every 5 words), the pen­man­ship pen­cil wasn’t an ordi­nary experience.
    The lead is actually very usable, and even if my prac­tice of cal­li­gra­phy dates from ano­ther era, I can ima­gine it will do well in the inten­ded use. Of course it was no brush, but maybe it could favor­ably compare to these pens with a tiny sili­cone tip that acts like a firm brush? I guess shar­pe­ning will play a role too, to take advan­tage of the large core.

  4. Guil­lermo de la Maza: As far as I know this pen­cil is still in pro­duc­tion. Like Matt said, to prac­tice cal­ligraphy the Mitsu­bi­shi Kou­hitsu Sho­sha are bet­ter. By the way, Mitsubishi/uni offers a wri­ting mat, and with this the results are even more amazing.

    Matt: Alt­hought I don’t use the Mitsu­bi­shi pen­man­ship pen­cils very often I find them incre­di­ble. The qua­lity of the lead and the finish are out­stan­ding, and I haven’t found a pen­cil which mea­su­res up to the stan­dard of it yet. Of course they are too soft for ever­y­day wri­ting but this is not their in­tended purpose.

  5. I just recently star­ted using pen­cils for cal­li­gra­phy and let­te­ring work, but it never occur­red to me use a broad core pen­cil for this task. And yes, shar­pe­ning plays a role here, but am not sure how. I’ve seen some videos where the artist varies pres­sure to obtain line varia­tion, but she shar­pens the pen­cil quite often during the course of it. I’ve been using blunt points on soft cores to achieve line varia­tion by chan­ging the incli­na­tion angle, but I’ve got­ten mixed results.

    Gonna try my tech­ni­que with broa­der cores and will also try to order some pen­man­ship pen­cils to test them out.

    For actual wri­ting, I too pre­fer har­der leads that lasts lon­ger. I too tend to write with small let­ters. As such, my 2H and H Tra­di­tion pen­cils have pro­ven a revelation.

  6. I find it very unu­sual to design a pen­cil which should work simi­lar to a brush and I can ima­gine that it is dif­fi­cult to use the Mitsu­bi­shi Kou­hitsu Sho­sha for cal­li­gra­phy pro­perly. (My cal­li­gra­phic ability is very limi­ted so I don’t get pre­sen­ta­ble results.) – Some use car­pen­ter pen­cils with flat leads for cal­ligraphy and get ama­zing results.

    I can ima­gine that for smal­ler let­ters and for lon­ger wri­ting H and 2H leads are perfect!

  7. Before fal­ling deeply and madly in love with pen­cils, I used to be a foun­tain pen user, and one of the things I liked the most about them was using flex nibs. I never could have ima­gi­ned that a pen­cil could be used for cal­li­gra­phy, but the truth is, pen­cils are pretty impres­sive tools, for the allow a myriad things to hap­pen. From out­lining, to shad­ing, from making it more easy to write cur­sive (at least in my case), to allo­wing for line varia­tion. Also, with some cores, you can get a wider tonal range that allows for many effects out of the same pen­cil. IMHO, they are the most ver­sa­tile wri­ting instruments!

    I will send some let­te­ring and cal­li­gra­phy examp­les with your package. By the way, had a chance to see my Update mail? Any­thing else you need me to send?

  8. Thank you for these details. It looks like I have to try a flex nib some­day. – Yes, pen­cils are vers­atile, and there is so much to discover!

    I have just replied to your email :-)

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