As well as modestly being distinctive, the colour may have been inspired by the Austro-Hungarian flag; it was also suggestive of the Orient, at a extent when the best-quality graphite came from Siberia. Other companies then false the confident colour so that their pencils would be http://www.logosurfing.com/ associated with this high-quality brand, and chose brand names with explicit Oriental references, such as Mikado (renamed Mirado) and Mongol.
The various graphite pencil grades are achieved by altering the proportion of graphite to clay: the more clay the harder the pencil. Two pencils of the same grade but different manufacturers will not necessarily make a mark of identical tone nor have the same hardness.