> On Sep 13, 2014, at 23:43 , Thomas Conroy  wrote:
> 
> a run from a moderately hard to a moderately black would be 4H - 2H - HB - 2B
-4B.

Omitting F and H, which are between HB and 2H. I still
have some F lead for mechanical pencils, from a drafting
class in the mid-90's. The Berol turquoise drawing pencils
get occasional use in the shop (4H & 6H).

> I still have a lot of my mother's, and others I bought myself in the early
'80s. The numbers for common-or-sidewalk pencils, back when they meant anything,
seem to have corresponded roughly to the hard side of the artist's-pencil scale,
so that a No.4 was something like a 4H and a No.2 approximated a 2H. I even
remember seeing, long ago, yellow hexagonal pencils labeled "HB".

FWIW, I was told that a No. 2 was equivalent to an HB. 
Wackypedia concurs, but I didn't bother chasing down an 
authoritative source, much less my drafting text.

> With artists' pencils you will probably want a push-on eraser or a separate
eraser. The white plastic kind are less abrasive, and they don't leave crumbs of
rubber embedded in the paper. Or, I expect, in the wood.

For paper, my favorite eraser is the Tuff Stuff Eraser Stick.

http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Mate-Stuff-Eraser-
SN64801/dp/B0006HXI74">http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Mate-Stuff-Eraser-
SN64801/dp/B0006HXI74

It eliminated most of my usage of the erasing shield, but I use
a Staedtler Mars plastic eraser on wood, just because it has
more material to waste.

Adam