[cobalt]

why do you ask ?

however i use a hb, b, 2b and 4b

It depends what i am doing and what material i am dawing on. all are good for sketching laying shade and the 2b and 4 b are the best for marking wood and giving dark tones as they will give the darkest line and the lead is soft, but as long as there a good quality they are strong

A carpenters pencil is usually b grade

 

[cobalt]

I dont know the values of your pencils and assume your #2 pencil is the same as the HB we use here

I do use pencils every day and it is always my starting point when i start making a stick.Even at this stage i do tend to use shade on the drawings its force of habit with me ?

But there is a noticable difference in the grades of pencils it gives depth to a drawing when used as tone . They say its possable to get 141 different shades from a pencil i doubt if i can achive anywhere near that,

Th f and h grade pencils here are used by graphic designers etc.

I am in the old fashioned school prefer to draw than use the computer

this shows the toneal differance between 3 pencil grades hb, b and 2b hope the picture is good enough

 

[cobalt]

Cant see why you cant mark the wood with pencil unless you got wax on it. i dont use anything else. Resharpen the pencil and use a 4 b to mark it with.

Still you have a good saw there