Cretacolor 160

Here we have a Cretacolor 160 fine art pencil. It was not until I went and looked up who and what Cretacolor were, that I found this is of Austrian origin.

If I remember correctly, I picked this up whilst browsing around Stuart R. Stevens art and gilding shop in London - what an excellent artists supply shop, stuffed full of all sorts of materials and implements. If you are passing that way, I’d recommend dropping in.

The company

Cretacolor are an Austrian art company specialising in fine art equipment. The company started in 1863.

The pencil itself

The 160 is listed as a fine art pencil. Normally I’d expect that to mean either a slightly chunkier pencil and almost always a slightly thicker lead - but in this case, that seems not to be. This looks and feels like a fairly standard writing pencil in its dimentions and build.

The finish on this pencil is really rather nice. A nice semi-matt body colour, a dual coloured tail tip with a nice rounded finish. And, I really rather like the embossing - not just the quality, but I rather like the fonts used as well.

How does it write

Being an art pencil, I was not quite sure what to expect. Given the high end status of the pencil and the quite professional finish, I thought it might perform well.

Normally I would expect that to mean a very smooth lead. In this case though the lead is not that smooth, but a little more gritty. Funnily enough for me, that is a good thing. I like a little resistance to my pencils, and a really smooth waxy lead is not wholly to my liking.

I liked using the pencil. I felt sharp and accurate, left a good line, did not feel like it was wearing down to fast. I’d be happy using this as a day to day pencil.

Sourcing

These obviously are available in the U.K., as that is how I sourced mine. I suspect you will only find them at a few select artists supply stores though. You can of course purchase them online. It looks like you can get packs of 3 HBs for £2-4, so maybe just under £1 each, which for an art graded pencil is not too bad.

One feature of the range, being an art range, is they are available all the way from 9H to 9B.

Reviews

I didn’t find too many reviews online. I saw there were a couple of youtube vlogs. I did find this blog review, that also indicates there is some backstory history with the Koh-I-Noor pencils factories as well.

http://benbutzer.com/blog/?p=379