How wooden pencils are made

Comments ⁷

1. David Jones

   I have tried using the mechanical pencils throughout my cartooning ventures…. but I just love the Old Number 2’s. I think it is the smell as you sharpen your point. I use an X-Acto blade to shave the lead until I have the pencil perfect. In my opinion, they outdraw the mechanicals when they are prepared properly.

2. Pete McDonnell

   I’m just amazed by the precise engineering of these machines, the way the creation of a perfect pencil is automated down to the dipping of the back end of the pencil into their trademark red lacquer paint. Can you imagine having the job of sharpening pencils all day to test the wood? Reminds me of Chaplin’s “Modern Times”.

3. Mike Lester

   “lead sandwich”. I am soooo using that. But I’m glad somebody else is as geek’d about the making of something as primitive and irreplaceable as a lead pencil. This is why I’m a Luddite.

   I believe this is the Staedtler factory. Wish they wouldn’t put a factory point on them which is one of the reasons I’m a Derwent geek.

4. Mark Stokes

   Fascinating to watch! Makes me appreciate the simple, time-honored pencil even more. I use a mechanical pencil for final, tighter sketches, but nothing beats a No. 2 for those rough first sketches. Thanks for posting!

5. Vince

   That was fun to watch and informative. Despite using a blue mechanical pencil for my strip, everything else i draw is done by a wooden Dixon Ticonderoga #4 pencil.

6. dave nelson

   I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at a pencil and wondered about how they are made. Thanks SO much for the post!

   Oh, and pencils having the “write stuff”? These MUST be cartoonist’s pencils.

7. Dan Bielinski

   That was cool.