Pencils may look alike, but they can be very different!
Here's how you can tell them apart:
Which Pencil Is Which?
Economics of Pencil Manufacturing
Just as with any other manufactured products the economics of pencil manufacturing are driven by a number of factors.
These cost drivers include:
- cost of raw materials (wood, graphitei, clay, brass, lacquer, etc.)
- cost of parts or other finished components used to assemble the pencil
- cost of transportation and handling of various materials used and of the finished product to the factory
- cost of labor and benefits for the factory workers employees
- cost of energy
- cost of supplies used to maintain eq
- cost of government regulations (taxes, duties, compliance to safety, labor or environmental rules)
- cost of capital (money used to buy equipment, to purchase and maintain inventories of raw materials, parts, supplies and finished product)
- cost of management
Pencil companies make a number of important decisions regarding these costs as part of their business. Some of the most important decisions include:
- the quality of product they wish to produce will impact which raw materials and component parts they will purchase
- alternative suppliers for raw materials
- whether to make or buy different component parts like slats, leads, ferrules and erasers or even semi-finished pencils from other pencil manufacturer
- where to locate thier pencil factories which is driven by relative differnece in costs between cities, states or countries for labor and materials, transportation costs for incomming materials as well as to the customer, regulatory and energy cost as well as duties and taxes
- the quantity of product to produce drives the level of investment required in the factory and inventories as well as can effect the cost per unit produced due to economies of scale.
The pencil manufacturer strives to minimize the cost of producing the pencils at the desired quality level and quantity of production and to sell all these pencils for more than the cost in order to acheive a profit.
All of these decisions are made within the framework of the marketplace and the competition the pencil maker faces for business from the other producers. The level of competition can have a big impact on the profit in an industry or segment of the pencil market. Each company tries to focus on what competititve advantage it has versus other pencil makers and what it can do better than others. This is why different companies specialize only in certain markets or product ranges to try to set themsves apart.
These days typical yellow writing pencils and children's coloring pencils are generally considered to be a commodity. That is one product from one producer is more or less considered by the customer to be as good as another, just like corn from one farm is more or less the same as corn from another farm. When this occurs the price often becomes the key purchase factor for the pencils. Then it is more difficult to make a profit without a strong brand name or other point of difference in terms of product feature or performance.
A key factor that effects the competition is the increasing level of international trade. As more markets have opened up to more producers from more countries around the world the pencil industry like many others has globalized. Many poorer countries such as China, Indonesia and India have dramatically increased pencils production and export because of a general cost advantage in materials, labor and reduced regulatory environments.
From the beginning
After papermill was invented, paper becomes common in Europe in the 1400s. people have been using quill pen to write. But quil pen and animal feathers will only last about a week, and these pens needs a very lengthy preparation time.
In 1560 Graphite was first mined from the hamlet of Seathwaite near Borrowdale parish, Cumbria, England. The local that time make used of these graphite to mark sheeps. These material was prove to be too soft for rocks and too hard to be earth, was judged by the Royal Society to be similar to white lead. and hence named as Black lead. These pure solid form of graphite could be easily sawn into sticks. 1584 Giovanni Lomazzo’s16c treatise on art and architecture recommended it to be use as a drawing material. And artists actaully adopted black lead well.
Black lead/ graphite used as a chuck/ stick were wrapped in strings or bound into wooden case for easy handling. inital metal lead holder was replaced by gluing black lead into wood cases by the end of 17C. In 1662 Friedrich Staedtler, a carpenter in Nuremberg invented the first modern pencil. He cit black lead into a square and glued it inside two halves of wood.
Wood casing of different shapes and sizes were employed over th years. Namely squares, rectangle, circle, hexagon.
Pencil: Encyclopedia
A pencil is a handheld instrument used to write and draw, usually on paper. The writing is done with graphite (except for colored pencils), which is typically covered by a wooden sheath. Pencils may also have an eraser or "rubber" attached to one end, typically by means of a metal ferrule. The pencil differs from most pens in that erasing is possible.
Some time prior to 1565 (some sources say as early as 1500), an enormous deposit of graphite was discovered at the site of Seathwaite Fell near Borrowdale, Cumbria, England. The locals found that it was very useful for marking sheep. This particular deposit of graphite was extremely pure and solid and it could easily be sawed into sticks. This was and remains the only deposit of graphite ever found in this solid form. Chemistry was in its infancy and the substance was thought to be a form of lead. Consequently it was called plumbago (Latin for "acts like lead"). The black core of pencils is still called "lead", even though it does not contain the element lead.
The value of plumbago was soon realised to be enormous, mainly because it could be used to line the moulds for cannon balls, and the mines were taken over by the Crown and guarded. Graphite had to be smuggled out for use in pencils. Because the plumbago was soft, it required some form of case. Plumbago sticks were at first wrapped in string or in sheepskin for stability. The news of the usefulness of these early pencils spread far and wide, attracting the attentions of artists all over the known world.
Although deposits of graphite had been found in other parts of the world, they were not of the same purity and quality as the Borrowdale find, and had to be crushed to remove the impurities, leaving only graphite powder. England continued to enjoy a monopoly on the production of pencils until a method of reconstituting the graphite powder was found. The distinctively square English pencils continued to be made with sticks cut from natural graphite into the 1860s. Today, the town of Keswick, near the original findings of block graphite, has a pencil museum. The first attempt to manufacture graphite sticks from powdered graphite was in Nuremberg, Germany in 1662. They used a mixture of graphite, sulfur and antimony. Though usable they were inferior to the English pencils.
It was the Italians who first thought of wooden holders. An Italian couple in particular named Simonio and Lyndiana Bernacotti were believed to be the ones to create the first blueprints for the modern carpentry pencil for the cause of being able to mark their carpentry pieces, however, their version was instead a flat oval, more compact type of pencil. They did this at first by hollowing out a stick of juniper wood. Shortly thereafter, a superior technique was discovered: two wooden halves were carved, a plumbago stick inserted, and the two halves then glued together—essentially the same method that is in use to this day.
English and German pencils were not available to the French during the Napoleonic wars. It took the efforts of an officer in Napoleon's army to change this. In 1795 Nicholas Jacques Conté discovered a method of mixing powdered graphite with clay and forming the mixture into rods which were then fired in a kiln. By varying the ratio of graphite to clay, the hardness of the graphite rod could also be varied (the more clay, the harder the pencil, and the lighter the color of the mark). This method of manufacture remains in use today.
America colonists imported pencils from Europe until after the American Revolution. Benjamin Franklin advertised pencils for sale in his Pennsylvania Gazette in 1729, and George Washington used a three-inch pencil when he surveyed the Ohio Territory in 1762. It is said that William Munroe, a cabinetmaker in Concord, Massachusetts, made the first American wood pencils in 1812. If so, this was not the only pencil-making in Concord. According to Henry Petroski, transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau discovered how to make a good pencil out of inferior graphite using clay as the binder; this invention was prompted by his father's pencil factory in Concord, which employed graphite found in New Hampshire in 1821 by Charles Dunbar.
Ballpoint pen, Dixon Ticonderoga, Fountain pen, Mechanical pencil, Pencil case, Pencil lead, Pencil sharpener
Today, pencils are made industrially by mixing finely ground graphite and clay powders, adding water, forming long spaghetti-like strings, and firing them in a kiln. The resulting strings are dipped in oil or molten wax which seeps into the tiny holes of the material, resulting in smoother writing. A juniper or incense-cedar plank with several long parallel grooves is cut to make something called a slat, and the graphite/clay strings are inserted into the grooves. Another grooved plank is glued on top, and the whole thing is then cut into individual pencils, which are then varnished or painted.
Many pencils, particularly those used by artists, are labelled on the European system using a scale from "H" (for hardness) to "B" (for blackness), as well as "F" (for fine point). The standard writing pencil is "HB". However, artist's pencils can vary widely in order to provide a range of marks for different visual effects on the page. A set of art pencils ranging from a very hard, light-marking pencil to a very soft, black-marking pencil usually ranges from hardest to softest as follows:
9H 8H 7H 6H 5H 4H 3H 2H H F HB B 2B 3B 4B 5B 6B 7B 8B 9B
The American system, using numbers only, developed simultaneously with the following approximate equivalents to the European system.
U.S. Europe
#1 = B
#2 = HB (most common)
#2 1/2 = F (also seen as 2 4/8, 2.5, 2 5/10, due to patent issues)
#3 = H
#4 = 2H
Even though the natural deposits of pure graphite are tapped out, it is still possible to write the way Englishmen did centuries ago, without clay or wax additives leaving oily stains on paper. Chemical supply companies commonly sell 99.995% pure graphite rods in 3 mm and 6 mm diameters. The largest commonly available mechanical pencils ("lead holders") take 2 mm leads.
A story in circulation since the 1970s tells of NASA spending large sums of money, typically in the millions of dollars, to develop an instrument that would write in space (a space pen). This task is not as simple as it seems, for standard ballpoints and fountain pens require gravity in order to function. The typical punch line is that either someone sends NASA a pencil, or that the Soviets used pencils. This second form appeared as a joke as high up as an episode of The West Wing.
While humorous, it is not true (See Snopes for details). There are drawbacks to using pencils in space. The act of writing would cause graphite dust to come free from the lead and float about the cabin. From there it could become a health risk by being inhaled by the astronauts, clog filters in the ventilation system, or even cause short-circuits by getting into switches and other electrical equipment.
A carpenter's pencil is not round or square. It appears as though it were a flattened circle. This shape performs two functions; a flat pencil does not roll away from the user, and a flatter pencil marks a line closer to the cutting edge, allowing for a more precise cut.
Pencil - Miscellaneous
The pencil is a common cause of minor puncture injuries in young children. The tip of the lead may leave a grey mark inside the skin for years. This led to the old-wife's tale that the lead bits could be passed through the blood vessels into the brain, causing retardation in those with such a wound. Of course, pencil lead is graphite (carbon) and does not contain the element lead, so it is not poisonous, despite what teachers have been telling school children for decades.
Pencil - History
The prototypical pencil may have been the ancient Roman stylus, which was a thin metal stick used for scratching on papyrus, often made of lead. The word pencil comes from the Latin word penicillus which means "little tail".Some time prior to 1565 (some sources say as early as 1500), an enormous deposit of graphite was discovered at the site of Seathwaite Fell near Borrowdale, Cumbria, England. The locals found that it was very useful for marking sheep. This particular deposit of graphite was extremely pure and solid and it could easily be sawed into sticks. This was and remains the only deposit of graphite ever found in this solid form. Chemistry was in its infancy and the substance was thought to be a form of lead. Consequently it was called plumbago (Latin for "acts like lead"). The black core of pencils is still called "lead", even though it does not contain the element lead.
The value of plumbago was soon realised to be enormous, mainly because it could be used to line the moulds for cannon balls, and the mines were taken over by the Crown and guarded. Graphite had to be smuggled out for use in pencils. Because the plumbago was soft, it required some form of case. Plumbago sticks were at first wrapped in string or in sheepskin for stability. The news of the usefulness of these early pencils spread far and wide, attracting the attentions of artists all over the known world.
Although deposits of graphite had been found in other parts of the world, they were not of the same purity and quality as the Borrowdale find, and had to be crushed to remove the impurities, leaving only graphite powder. England continued to enjoy a monopoly on the production of pencils until a method of reconstituting the graphite powder was found. The distinctively square English pencils continued to be made with sticks cut from natural graphite into the 1860s. Today, the town of Keswick, near the original findings of block graphite, has a pencil museum. The first attempt to manufacture graphite sticks from powdered graphite was in Nuremberg, Germany in 1662. They used a mixture of graphite, sulfur and antimony. Though usable they were inferior to the English pencils.
It was the Italians who first thought of wooden holders. An Italian couple in particular named Simonio and Lyndiana Bernacotti were believed to be the ones to create the first blueprints for the modern carpentry pencil for the cause of being able to mark their carpentry pieces, however, their version was instead a flat oval, more compact type of pencil. They did this at first by hollowing out a stick of juniper wood. Shortly thereafter, a superior technique was discovered: two wooden halves were carved, a plumbago stick inserted, and the two halves then glued together—essentially the same method that is in use to this day.
English and German pencils were not available to the French during the Napoleonic wars. It took the efforts of an officer in Napoleon's army to change this. In 1795 Nicholas Jacques Conté discovered a method of mixing powdered graphite with clay and forming the mixture into rods which were then fired in a kiln. By varying the ratio of graphite to clay, the hardness of the graphite rod could also be varied (the more clay, the harder the pencil, and the lighter the color of the mark). This method of manufacture remains in use today.
America colonists imported pencils from Europe until after the American Revolution. Benjamin Franklin advertised pencils for sale in his Pennsylvania Gazette in 1729, and George Washington used a three-inch pencil when he surveyed the Ohio Territory in 1762. It is said that William Munroe, a cabinetmaker in Concord, Massachusetts, made the first American wood pencils in 1812. If so, this was not the only pencil-making in Concord. According to Henry Petroski, transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau discovered how to make a good pencil out of inferior graphite using clay as the binder; this invention was prompted by his father's pencil factory in Concord, which employed graphite found in New Hampshire in 1821 by Charles Dunbar.
Ballpoint pen, Dixon Ticonderoga, Fountain pen, Mechanical pencil, Pencil case, Pencil lead, Pencil sharpener
Pencil - Manufacture
Today, pencils are made industrially by mixing finely ground graphite and clay powders, adding water, forming long spaghetti-like strings, and firing them in a kiln. The resulting strings are dipped in oil or molten wax which seeps into the tiny holes of the material, resulting in smoother writing. A juniper or incense-cedar plank with several long parallel grooves is cut to make something called a slat, and the graphite/clay strings are inserted into the grooves. Another grooved plank is glued on top, and the whole thing is then cut into individual pencils, which are then varnished or painted.
Many pencils, particularly those used by artists, are labelled on the European system using a scale from "H" (for hardness) to "B" (for blackness), as well as "F" (for fine point). The standard writing pencil is "HB". However, artist's pencils can vary widely in order to provide a range of marks for different visual effects on the page. A set of art pencils ranging from a very hard, light-marking pencil to a very soft, black-marking pencil usually ranges from hardest to softest as follows:
9H 8H 7H 6H 5H 4H 3H 2H H F HB B 2B 3B 4B 5B 6B 7B 8B 9B
The American system, using numbers only, developed simultaneously with the following approximate equivalents to the European system.
U.S. Europe
#1 = B
#2 = HB (most common)
#2 1/2 = F (also seen as 2 4/8, 2.5, 2 5/10, due to patent issues)
#3 = H
#4 = 2H
Even though the natural deposits of pure graphite are tapped out, it is still possible to write the way Englishmen did centuries ago, without clay or wax additives leaving oily stains on paper. Chemical supply companies commonly sell 99.995% pure graphite rods in 3 mm and 6 mm diameters. The largest commonly available mechanical pencils ("lead holders") take 2 mm leads.
Pencil - Pencils in space
A story in circulation since the 1970s tells of NASA spending large sums of money, typically in the millions of dollars, to develop an instrument that would write in space (a space pen). This task is not as simple as it seems, for standard ballpoints and fountain pens require gravity in order to function. The typical punch line is that either someone sends NASA a pencil, or that the Soviets used pencils. This second form appeared as a joke as high up as an episode of The West Wing.
While humorous, it is not true (See Snopes for details). There are drawbacks to using pencils in space. The act of writing would cause graphite dust to come free from the lead and float about the cabin. From there it could become a health risk by being inhaled by the astronauts, clog filters in the ventilation system, or even cause short-circuits by getting into switches and other electrical equipment.
Pencil - Carpenter's pencil
A carpenter's pencil is not round or square. It appears as though it were a flattened circle. This shape performs two functions; a flat pencil does not roll away from the user, and a flatter pencil marks a line closer to the cutting edge, allowing for a more precise cut.
Pencil - Miscellaneous
The pencil is a common cause of minor puncture injuries in young children. The tip of the lead may leave a grey mark inside the skin for years. This led to the old-wife's tale that the lead bits could be passed through the blood vessels into the brain, causing retardation in those with such a wound. Of course, pencil lead is graphite (carbon) and does not contain the element lead, so it is not poisonous, despite what teachers have been telling school children for decades.
Inkscape - Features
Inkscape - Object creation
- Drawing:
- pencil tool (freehand drawing with stroked paths)
- pen tool (creating paths with Bezier curves and straight lines)
- calligraphy tool (freehand drawing with calligraphic strokes, tablet pressure/angle support)
- Shape tools:
- rectangles (optionally with rounded corners)
- ellipses (optionally circles, arcs, segments)
- stars/polygons (optionally rounded and/or randomized)
- spirals
- Text tool (regular multiline or flowed text)
- Linked bitmap images, either imported or rasterized from selected objects (a separate utility for embedding linked images comes with the program)
- Clones ("live" linked copies of objects)
Inkscape - Object manipulation
- Affine transformations (moving, scaling, rotating, skewing), both interactively and by specifying numeric values
- Z-order operations
- Grouping objects, with a way to "select in group" without ungrouping, or "enter the group" making it a temporary layer
- Layers, with a way to lock and/or hide individual layers, rearrange them, etc; layers can form a hierarchical tree
- Copying and pasting objects
- Alignment and distribution commands, including grid arrange, randomization, unclumping
- A tool to create patterns of clones, using wallpaper symmetries plus arbitrary scales, shifts, rotates, and color changes, optionally randomized
- Grid and guide snapping
Inkscape - Fill and stroke
- Color selector (RGB, HSL, CMYK, color wheel)
- Color picker ("dropper") tool
- Copy/paste style between objects
- On-canvas gradient editing with draggable and mergeable handles
- A gradient editor capable of multi-stop gradients
- Pattern fills
- Dashed strokes, with predefined dash patterns
- Path markers (e.g. arrowheads)
Inkscape - Operations on paths
- Node editing: moving nodes and Bezier curve handles, node alignment and distribution, scaling and rotating node groups
- Converting to path (for text objects or shapes), including converting stroke to path
- Boolean operations (union, intersection, difference, exclusion, division)
- Path simplification, with variable threshold
- Path insetting and outsetting, including dynamic and linked offset objects
- Bitmap tracing (both color and b/w)
Inkscape - Text support
- Multi-line text (SVG 1.1
) - Flowed text in frame(s) (proposed SVG 1.2
) - Full on-canvas editability, including styled text spans
- Uses any outline fonts installed on the system
- Can use any scripts and languages supported by the Pango library (e.g. Hebrew, Arabic, Thai, etc.)
- Kerning, letterspacing, linespacing adjustments
- Text on path (both text and path remain editable)
Inkscape - Rendering
- 256x maximum zoom
- Fully anti-aliased display
- Alpha transparency support for display and PNG export
- Complete "as you drag" rendering of objects during interactive transformations
Inkscape - Miscellaneous
- Connector tool for diagrams
- Collaborative editing over the net ("Whiteboard")
- Live watching and editing the document tree in the XML editor
- PNG and PostScript export
- Command line options for export, conversions, and analysis of SVG files
- RDF metadata (authorship, date, license, etc.)
Pencil - History Encyclopedia
The prototypical pencil may have been the ancient Roman stylus, which was a thin metal stick, often made of lead and used for scratching on papyrus. The word pencil comes from the Latin word penicillus which means "little tail".
Some time prior to 1565 (some sources say as early as 1500), an enormous deposit of graphite was discovered at the site of Seathwaite Fell near Borrowdale, Cumbria, England. The locals found that it was very useful for marking sheep. This particular deposit of graphite was extremely pure and solid and it could easily be sawed into sticks. This was and remains the only deposit of graphite ever found in this solid form. Chemistry was in its infancy and the substance was thought to be a form of lead. Consequently it was called plumbago (Latin for "acts like lead"). The black core of pencils is still called "lead", even though it does not contain the element lead.
The value of plumbago was soon realised to be enormous, mainly because it could be used to line the moulds for cannon balls, and the mines were taken over by the Crown and guarded. Graphite had to be smuggled out for use in pencils. Because the plumbago was soft, it required some form of case. Plumbago sticks were at first wrapped in string or in sheepskin for stability. The news of the usefulness of these early pencils spread far and wide, attracting the attentions of artists all over the known world.
Although deposits of graphite had been found in other parts of the world, they were not of the same purity and quality as the Borrowdale find, and had to be crushed to remove the impurities, leaving only graphite powder. England continued to enjoy a monopoly on the production of pencils until a method of reconstituting the graphite powder was found. The distinctively square English pencils continued to be made with sticks cut from natural graphite into the 1860s. Today, the town of Keswick, near the original findings of block graphite, has a pencil museum. The first attempt to manufacture graphite sticks from powdered graphite was in Nuremberg, Germany in 1662. They used a mixture of graphite, sulfur and antimony. Though usable they were inferior to the English pencils.
It was the Italians who first thought of wooden holders. An Italian couple in particular named Simonio and Lyndiana Bernacotti were believed to be the ones to create the first blueprints for the modern carpentry pencil for the cause of being able to mark their carpentry pieces, however, their version was instead a flat oval, more compact type of pencil. They did this at first by hollowing out a stick of juniper wood. Shortly thereafter, a superior technique was discovered: two wooden halves were carved, a plumbago stick inserted, and the two halves then glued together—essentially the same method that is in use to this day.
English and German pencils were not available to the French during the Napoleonic wars. It took the efforts of an officer in Napoleon's army to change this. In 1795 Nicholas Jacques Conté discovered a method of mixing powdered graphite with clay and forming the mixture into rods which were then fired in a kiln. By varying the ratio of graphite to clay, the hardness of the graphite rod could also be varied (the more clay, the harder the pencil, and the lighter the color of the mark). This method of manufacture remains in use today.
America colonists imported pencils from Europe until after the American Revolution. Benjamin Franklin advertised pencils for sale in his Pennsylvania Gazette in 1729, and George Washington used a three-inch pencil when he surveyed the Ohio Territory in 1762. It is said that William Munroe, a cabinetmaker in Concord, Massachusetts, made the first American wood pencils in 1812. If so, this was not the only pencil-making in Concord. According to Henry Petroski, transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau discovered how to make a good pencil out of inferior graphite using clay as the binder; this invention was prompted by his father's pencil factory in Concord, which employed graphite found in New Hampshire in 1821 by Charles Dunbar.
History of The Pencil
The origins of today's pencil goes back to 1565, when a grey-black glistending substance was found in Borrowdale, in the Cumberland hills of England. It was said to be a 'lead' coloured material, greasy to touch an quick to stain the fingers. This substance became known as black-lead, an was found to be more convenient for a writing an drawing than pen and ink, as it's marks could be easily rubbed out.
Engraving - 1711 Graphite Mineral
In the late 18th century, Swedish chemist Karl Wilhelm Scheele identified the substance as a crystallised form of carbon, like diamond, however structurally very different. He named it Graphite, from the Greek word for writing, 'Graphein'. In 1761 cabinetmaker Kaspar Faber settled in Stein, near Nurenburg, in Germany to make his first simple pencils. Graphite was cut into narrow sticks and glued between two pieces of wood which were cut and planed smooth. The family dynasty of pencil makers had begun.
The oldest pencil: found during renovation work.
In 1794 the Graphite-Clay process was invented. Powdered graphite was mixed with clay, shaped into thin rods (or leads) then fired in a Kiln at high temperature. The greater the graphite content the softer and darker the lead. The greater the clay content the harder and ligther the 'lead'.
+ Graphite For a darker and softer writing - Example 6B
+ Clay: For a lighter and harder writing - Example 6H
In 1839 Lothar Faber, the great grandson of Kaspar Faber, began to transform the pencil industry. He mechanised production, using first water, then steam power and achieved a production rate and consistency of quality previously unheard of. He invented the hexagonal pencil and created standards for the pencil size and grades of hardness still in use today. His products were marked A.W. Faber, the first ever brand name writing products and amongst the earliest branded articles in the world.
The Myth of the Yellow Pencil
With the recent 150th anniversary of the patent of the eraser tipped pencil, I have seen several new references around the web about pencils and a few indicating that 75% of pencils sold in the United States are painted yellow. At our Pencils.com. site we explain the history of why so many pencils are painted yellow in the US. It's not clear to me where this estimate of 75% comes from however. Our site simply states that a majority of basic graphite writing pencils sold in the US are painted yellow and given today's market that may be generous. I have not checked Henry Petroski's book as it certainly has a reference to the genesis of painting pencils yellow although I can't recall if there is some figure stated for proportionof market as yellow painted pencils. Even so that book is now roughly 20 years old and market conditions have changed dramatically over that time. So perhaps it's time for a new look at this old story and the trends in the US pencil market that impact this.
My approach is first to view the US pencil market by it's key product category components & sub-components which include:
- graphite pencils for office, school & home use
- color pencils for school, home or artist use
- carpenter pencils
- cosmetic make-up pencils
Of these the last two groups are relatively small segments on a unit volume basis. Based on my knowledge of the industry I've estimated these two segments would not be much more than 5-7% of the annual unit volume of pencils sold in the US. Although with a higher average sales value per unit than graphite or color pencils it may be perhaps 8-10% of the wholesale sales value. Virtually none of these pencils are painted yellow though some proportion of carpenter pencils may be yellow the most comon colors are white, red, blue and orange. So a conservative estimate removes 5% of all US pencil consumption from being painted yellow.
The next challenge is to break out color vs. graphite pencils. Historically there has been an approximate ratio of 20% color pencils to 80% graphite writing pencils. I conducted a reasonably thorough review for 2005 of US production sources and import sources of pencils. By dividing each country of origin and US producer out into known and/or my best estimate figures for color vs. graphite pencils I calculated a weighted average of 28.7% for color pencils for 2005. Of particular interest is that only a very small small portion of US pencil production is color pencils. My estimate is just 5%. With about 1/3 of today's pencils being produced domestically in the US and a full 2/3 imported from overseas this means that about 39% of the imported pencils are color pencils.
This data supports the growth of color pencil consumption in the US over the past 15 years or so. This has been driven initially by the entry of Crayola into marketing color wood cased pencils in the early 1990s. These pencils are all produced in Brazil or Costa Rica by Faber-Castell. Following the lead of Crayola many other. Of particular interest is that in Europe the ratio of color to graphite pencil consumption is more or less reversed from the US trend as historically color pencils have been the vast majority of pencils produced and sold inthe European market where pens are more frequently used for writing purposes.
Given that color pencils are usually painted the color of the core for each color in general color pencils have a very low proportion of yellow painted pencils. We could either simply discount this group entirely (as non-graphite pencils) or assume that about 1/12 of these pencils on average are painted a yellowish hue given that yellow is a primary color and as pencils are generally sold in multiples of dozen packs this proportion should hold about true as the color pallet expands for 24, 36, 72 and 100+ count boxes of color pencils. Thus at best 2 to 3% of US pencils are color pencils that are painted some form of yellowish hue.
Thus my analysis indicates that perhaps only 66-67% (100% less 5% carpneter/cosmetic less 28-29% color pencils) or approximately 2.9 billion graphite pencils per year are sold in the US today. So even if 100% of graphite pencils were painted yellow only 2/3 of US pencil consumption would be yellow pencils. Adding 2-3% yellow coloring pencils still doesn't get us to 75%. However there are several major sub-categories of graphite pencils including:- advertising specialty pencils for custom imprint purposes (hexagonal and round shapes)
- golf pencils (hexagonal and round)
- designer theme pencils (includes licensed character/sports pencils, holiday themes, and other decorative themes ( generally round)
- artist quality graphite drawing and sketching pencils
- standard branded writing pencils (mostly all hexagonal shaped painted a single color)
It is really just this last group of more standard branded writing pencils that have traditionally had a very high proportion of yellow painted pencils. And frankly it's likely this last group of pencils that the average person is probably thinking about when saying 75% of US pencils are painted yellow. Certainly it may be historically true that 75% of branded hexagonal graphite pencils in the US were painted yellow and it may even still be true today of this sub-segment. However as with the growth in the color pencil market the advertising specialty, golf pencil and designer theme pencils have been the key growth sub-categories of the graphite pencil market over the past 10+ years. My quick estimate is that something in the range of 50 to 70% of graphite pencils would fall within this last group in the current market and if 75% of those are painted yellow then at the upper end we are looking at just 35% (= 67% graphite x 70% to 75%) graphite yellow painted pencils as a proportion of the total US pencil market. This is a far cry from 75% and even if significantly more than 75% are painted yellow would not get much higher than 40% of all US pencil consumption . Thus it's probably not even technically correct any longer to say that the majority of pencils sold in the US are yellow painted pencils.
In fact within the pencil industry the historical intent of painting a pencil yellow as a reflection of high quality is considered out of date and yellow pencils are increasingly viewed as a low value commodity segment. Certainly some important high quality brands such as Dixon's Ticonderoga , the Mirado (originally the Eagle Mirado now Sanford's Papermate Mirado), to some extent the Mongol (though now discontinued in the US by Sanford) and a few other minor brands have a good quality reputation and retain yellow as the primary lacquer color. Some of these have offered additional paint color options within their brand range. The reality is that today the vast majority of yellow pencils sold in the US are imported low priced pencils. Many of these are private label pencils for the major office supply chains. The Papermate American brand remains one higher volume yellow hex pencil that is still US produced to a large extent, but the quality has been reduced considerably to compete with the imported pencils. Alternate species woods have reduced sharpenability performance, lower standards on lacquer finish reduce the look and feel of the pencil, ferule and eraser quality reductions and graphite smoothness inconsistency, are today unfortunately often the case with common yellow pencils.
While all this means more affordable pencils for general writing needs it's also changed the perception of the yellow pencil over time. Today's standard commodity yellow pencils cost about $0.10 per pencil at retail which is surprisingly the same as the price of a Ticonderoga, a Mirado and other high end brands 40, 50, 60 and even 70 years ago now. When you consider the value of the dollar today vs. it's value over those time periods you'll see common yellow pencils are effectively much cheaper in real dollar terms than they ever were. I'm not sure what milk, gasoline and many other common consumer goods cost that long ago relative to today's prices, but I'm guessing the relative value retention for the yellow pencil has been quite good although the qualtiy on average is just not what it once was and may or may not compare favorably with quality performance of other common goods that have had relatively more infalated values over time on a real dollar basis.
Why Pencils Are Yellow
Pencils have been painted yellow ever since the 1890s.
And that bright color isn't just so you can find them on your desk more easily!
During the 1800s, the best graphitei in the world came from China. American pencil makers wanted a special way to tell people that their pencils contained Chinese graphite.
In China, the color yellow is associated with royalty and respect. American pencil manufacturers began painting their pencils bright yellow to communicate this "regal" feeling and association with China.
The rest, as they say, is history. Today, a the majority of basic hexagonal graphite writing pencils sold in the United States are painted yellow!What is the history of the pencil?
For centuries it has been the faithful recorder of our thoughts and artistic abilities. With it men have created masterpieces of literature, children have transferred their imaginations to paper and artists have drawn superb pictures. Yet, throughout all of this, the humble work-horse behind it all has gone unrecognised. Who gives a thought to the pencil? Well, it’s about time this injustice was corrected. So, lets take a closer look at our trusty servant – the pencil.
The word pencil is derived from the Latin pencillus, meaning ‘painters’ brush.’ The earliest pencils were, in fact, fine brushes that hardly resemble our modern version. When graphite was discovered in Bavaria, however, the fine hairs of the brush were replaced with this new find and encased in wood. Graphite was originally known as plumbago – acting like lead –and up to this day people still believe that pencils contain lead, which is not the case.
The type of graphite used today wasn’t discovered until 1564. This solid, high purity graphite gave a far better result than that previously used. This graphite was initially held in the hand without any covering, The mess it made of the writer’s hand, however, became a major hassle and soon efforts were made to overcome this problem. The graphite was wrapped in a waxy material by some, enclosed in a metal tube by others and wrapped with cord or string-like material by still others. A wood encased graphite rod pencil wasn’t manufactured until 1660. This was further refined in the late 1700s when a method of grinding graphite with clay to produce a much finer, more consistent and smoother pencil was found. Thus, the modern pencil was developed into a form which has remained substantially unchanged for 300 years.
How is a pencil made? It all starts with the grinding of graphite and clay into a stiff, doughy consistency. This is then extruded through a small hole in a tungsten carbide die. The finished graphite is then cut into about 7 inch lengths. These individual ‘leads’ are then dried and fired in a kiln and then impregnated with a lubricant to make them smoother for writing. The gradient of the pencil is dependant on the amount of clay initially added to the mixture.
So, next time you utilise the humble pencil, take a moment to appreciate where it’s come from and where you’d be if you didn’t have it as your faithful transmitting device.
The Early Days
Modern pencils are the descendants of ancient writing instruments.
Oldest Known Wood Cased Pencil – Faber-Castell collection
Eagle Pencil Factory - New York
In ancient Rome, scribes wrote on papyrus (an early form of paper) with a thin metal rod called a stylus, which left a light but readable mark. Other early styluses were made of lead. Today we still call the core of a pencil the "lead" even though it is made from nontoxic graphite.
Graphite came into widespread use following the discovery of a large graphite deposit in Borrowdale, England in 1564. Graphite left a darker mark than lead, but was so soft and brittle that it required a holder. At first, sticks of graphite were wrapped in string. Later, the graphite was inserted into wooden sticks that had been hollowed-out by hand! The wood-cased pencil was born.
Oldest Known Wood Cased Pencil – Faber-Castell collection
The first mass-produced pencils were made in Nuremberg, Germany in 1662. There an active pencil industry developed with famous companies like Faber-Castell established in 1761, Lyra, Steadtler and others growing throughout the 19th century industial revolution.
Development of the US Industry
Until the war with England cut off imports, pencils used in America came from overseas. William Monroe, a cabinetmaker in Concord, Massachusetts, made the first American wood pencils in 1812 as did another Concord area maker, famous author Henry David Thoreau.
Other eary US manufacturers that helped industrialize pencil making in the United States were Joseph Dixon Crucible Company (now Dixon Ticonderoga) and a number of factories established in New York and New Jersey towards the end of the 19th century by immigrants from the German industry including Faber Castell, Eberhard Faber, Eagle Pencil Company (Later Berol) and General Pencil Company.
Eagle Pencil Factory - New York
The first mass-produced pencils were unpainted, to show off their high-quality wood casings. However, by the 1890s, many manufacturers were painting their pencils and giving them brand names. There's an interesting story behind the familiar yellow color of the common pencil.
March 30, 2008 was the 150th Anniversary of the Hymen Lipman patent on eraser tipped pencils.
Following the Wood
Early American pencils were made from Eastern Red Cedari, a strong, splinter-resistant wood that grew in Tennessee and other parts of the southeastern United States. Many Northern manufacturers set up wood mills in Tennessee and other Southern states where Eastern Red Cedar grows. Eventually much of the US pencil manufacturing industry established pencil factories in Tennessee where the remaining US producers are primarily concentrated today.
To ensure the continued availability of Incense-cedar, forest workers have carefully managed the stands of trees in which Incense-cedar grows, and timber companies have been careful to harvest the trees on a sustained-yieldi basis. "Sustained-yield" means that the annual growth of the forest is greater than the amount harvested from the forest. Forests managed on a sustained-yield basis are abundant and healthy, and will continue to provide wood for people and habitat for animals for generations to come.
A Global Industry
The history of the pencil industry includes a great number of important companies and brands from around the world. Many of the major brands now have factories throughout the world. The reduction of trade barriers, the introduction of containerized shipments of goods overseas, the comparative differences in raw material costs between countries and the lower cost of tranporting people and information around the world have lead the pencil industry like many others to experience the challenging impact of globalization. This has lead to a great shift in the past 20 years of where pencils are produced with increasing concentration of manufacturing in Asia.
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