Ende 2015 hat STAEDTLER die Sortimentserweiterung des Bleistift-Klassikers Mars Lumograph vorgestellt. Mit 7H, 8H, 9H und 9B kamen vier Härtegrade hinzu, und die Härtegrade 7B und 8B enthalten nun keinen Ruß mehr. Neu sind der Lumograph Black in 2B, 4B, 6B und 8B mit hohem Rußanteil. Damit verschwindet der alte Lumograph 7B.
Manche Händler haben noch Restbestände, und so trifft man ihn zuweilen zusammen mit dem neuen 7B an. Während die Mine des alten aufgrund des Rußanteils mattschwarz ist, lässt der hohe Graphitanteil des neuen die Mine grau glänzen.
Wer gerne den alten 7B benutzt hat, sollte sich jetzt noch Restbestände sichern. – Interessant zu wissen wäre, ob die Mine des neuen Black 8B der des alten 8B entspricht; falls nicht, würde letzterer ebenfalls verschwinden.
Anm.: Die Grade 7B und 8B des Lumograph, der am 1. August 1930 eingeführt wurde, kamen als EXB und EX-EXB auf den Markt. Später änderte man die Bezeichnungen zu EB und EE und in der zweiten Hälfte der 1990er Jahre zu 7B und 8B. In Thailand war der Lumograph EE jedoch so beliebt, dass man den Namen dort noch eine ganze Weile behalten hat. Es gibt immer wieder Diskussionen darüber, ob nicht nur die Bezeichnung, sondern auch die Rezeptur dieser beiden Grade geändert wurde (siehe dazu auch „The hunt for the EE grade pencil“ bei pencil talk).
What a change in appearance: black turns into grey. Could it be there are environmental reasons for changing the recipe? Soot (Ruß) can contain hazardous polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Or is it just motivated by a reduction of costs?
Wowter, thank you for your comment. As far as I know many a customer has wondered about the change of the pencils’s characteristic from 6B to 7B; maybe the change of the recipes for 7B and 8B which makes the pencil range consistent was a reaction to this. – Thank you for the details on the toxicity of soot! I didn’t know that. I don’t think that there were environmental reasons or the motivation to reduce costs; otherwise they wouldn’t have introduced the Lumograph Black which contains soot in all four grades. – By the way, in the early days of pencil making adding soot to increase the blackness was disapproved-of.
When I stumbled upon the Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black, I thought I had reached heaven because of their darker tonal values and their beautiful lead with a matte finish.
But am a bit confused now, I don’t own a single Mars Lumograph Blue but been thinking about buying a set of 6 to complement the aforementioned pencils, but lately I’ve heard, read and seen on several blogs and vlogs that the differentiating factor for these versus Faber Castell or Mtisubishi Hi-Uni is also their darker tonal value (on the softer grades) which approximates to black, rather than grey.
So, are they back to a normal graphite pencil now?
Until 2016 there was only the blue Lumograph in 6H to 8B; 7B and 8B were different since they contained soot. The range extension brought the Lumograph in the new grades 7H to 9H and 9B (now 20 grades in total), and the grades 7B and 8B do not longer contain soot (and of course the new 9B doesn’t either). In addition to that the Lumograph Black was introduced; it is available in 2B, 4B, 6B and 8B, and all grades contain soot.
So now there are two lines, namely the blue Lumograph in 9H to 9B without soot in the softer grades and the Lumograph Black in four soft grades with soot.
Thanks for the clarification Gunther. Do you know if Staedtler sells a set with all 20 degrees over in Europe?
On my side of the pond, there are only 12 and 6-pencil sets, and as far as I know, the softest grade on them is 8B.
You’re welcome! The set with 20 hardness grades is listed on Staedtler’s German, Japan and USA website so I assume it is available almost worldwide.
I live in Mexico, here we don’t seem to get many choices. But upon reading your comment, I searched on Amazon and came with a 24 set instead! All 20 Lumograph Blue grades plus 4 Lumograph Black pencils.
Going to check them out. Again, thank you!
It’s great to hear that you found this set, and I hope you’ll get and enjoy it!
The rumor I heard for the change is that people didn’t like the waxy blacks in with their graphite pencils so Staedtler crateda a 2nd black line.
It is a pity that they dropped the 7B, but the 6B has worked fine for me. These are wonderful pencils for artists since you can get nice darks without the reflective shine.
Perhaps if the Black line becomes more popular they will add the 7B back in.
In any case, I’m happy with the solution, in the long run it’s less confusing. And it let’s one just buy the blacks, leaving other options for graphite.
I have heard that too. Besides that the two softest grades which contained soon caused some kind of inconsistency which many a user didn’t like.
Yes, it was a great decision, and I hope that this range extension will be successful in the long run too.