[ane]

So what's the truth of the hardness/blackness grade? Did Conte invent it? Because Hardtmuth, one of the large pencil manufacturers, claims otherwise:

"According to the personal notes of Franz Hardtmuth, the marking of pencils using the letter H originates from the family surname Hardtmuth, B means Budweis, or Budějovice in Czech language, and F refers to his first name Franz."

https://www.blog.koh-i-noor.cz/post/the-story-of-iconic-koh-...

Sounds a bit apocryphal to me.

[kanapala]

Conte was French anyway, there’s no h-word for hard in french..