All the ingredients play a part. High levels of pigment will tend to make a pencil hard. The amount and type of wax will define how it interacts with the paper.
What is lightfastness?
A measure of how quickly something will change when exposed to UV light (sunlight). Light can cause colour to whiten, darken, fade or completely disappear. Lightfastness refers to the chemical stability of a pigment under long exposure to light. Our colours are rated on a scale of 1 to 8, the higher the number the better lightfast rating it has, so a colour with a rating of 8 will react more slowly when exposed to light. Find out more about lightfastness testing here.
What's the difference between the graphite degrees?
B stands for BLACK and H stands for HARD. 9B is very soft & black and 9H is very hard & pale in shade. HB is half way between the two. F degree was made (stands for FINE) for doing shorthand in the days before computers!
How are degrees made and controlled?
By varying the proportions of clay and graphite. More graphite means a softer, blacker degree. More clay means a harder degree. HB has 50:50 clay and graphite.
I am having issues with my Derwent Paint Pen, what can I do?
We have put together this handy complete guide to give you some tips on how to use and clean your Paint Pens so they should work correctly. View the Paint Pen guide here.
Is the Inktense range permanent?
Yes, the Inktense pencils and blocks, once the pigment is dissolved fully in water, become permanent when dry. You can then work on top of this layer. The colour is vibrant and like an ink. Learn more about the range here.
My pastel pencil won’t sharpen, it keeps breaking.
Pastels are more delicate than normal pencils so they need to be handled with care during sharpening. Also the materials used to make pastel pencils are more abrasive than the materials in other pencils so the blades in sharpeners and craft knives will blunt more quickly. We recommend using a craft knife or special pastel sharpener (buy here) and replacing them regularly to keep the blades sharp. For more tips, view our sharpening guide.
How can we identify when a particular batch of pencils was made?
Each batch has a date code stamped on next to the imprint. This identifies the week that batch was made. From that we can trace the exact details of when the pencils were manufactured: the day, the operator, the machine etc.
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