This nibble can be seen (in high resolution) on Flickr.
References and Further info
Collectors can be great sources of encyclopaedic knowledge on trivial things. In this case, a shout out goes to "recreational pencil user" Caroline Weaver, the former owner of CW Pencil Enterprise, a small shop in New York dedicated to pencils.
The Perfect Pencil: the Untold Story of a Cultural Icon - Caroline Weaver (Gestalten, 2017, ISBN: 9783899556759)
Pencils You Should Know: A History of Ultimate Writing Utensil in 75 Anecdotes - Caroline Weaver (Chronicle Books, 2020, ISBN: 9781452178509)
Another shout out goes to curious engineer Henry Petroski, whose book, The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance (1990) is pretty much the de facto book on the history of the pencil. Its an incredible book, considering when he wrote it (in pre-internet time). His other books are worth a read too, including the one on the book and bookshelf and the tooth pick!
The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance - Henry Petroski (Faber & Faber, 2003, ISBN: 9780571217632)
And here's an amusing mock ad campaign for the Ticonderoga by Justin Oberman that's worth a look (posted in 2011).
Our Story | Ticonderoga (weareticonderoga.com)
Dixon Ticonderoga Company - company-histories.com
Dixon Ticonderoga Pencils - A Comprehensive Guide - Pen Vibe
Meet the Brand: Koh-i-Noor | Cult Pens
The
Pencil Place (sundrymemes.com)
The Graphite Pencil Scale – Ultimate Guide - Pen Vibe (2021)
Brookman & Langdon's Trade Card (1810s) - British Museum
Regarding the First Attachable Eraser (It Wasn’t Lipman) - (Contrapuntalism, 2018)
Adventures in Stationery: A journey through your pencil case - James Ward (Profile Books Ltd, 2014, ISBN: 978-1-84668-615-3)
The Anatomy of a Pencil
The pencil is a simple object. It’s just a stick of graphite sandwiched in (at least) two pieces of wood, shaped into a thicker stick one can hold easily while drawing/writing. But even this simple object can have a lot of complexity. Its lead – can come in many formulations, from standard HB to water-soluble pigment-containing leads, as found in watercolour pencils. It’s casing – does it have to be made of wood? Its shape, colour, and what’s on its other end – the possibilities are endless. Pencils come in many varieties, and many are made for particular purposes, like the “blue pencil” used by editors (in the days before computers). It’s amazing how such a simple object can have such variety. Visit any stationary/art supply store and see the variety on sale – and that’s before we talk about their many uses.
Dixon Ticonderoga 1388 HB No. 2 Soft
The “yellow
No. 2 pencil” is an American icon and has been called “The World’s Best Pencil.” It can be viewed as the Ford
Model T of pencils. Introduced in 1913, the Ticonderoga is a flagship product
that is the result of over a century of development by one of the oldest
companies in America. Joseph Dixon first got the idea to make pencils in 1812, because
his dad owned ships that regularly travelled to Asia, via Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Graphite
was so plentiful in Ceylon the ships used large chunks of it as ballast and, after
arriving at the port of Marblehead, Massachusetts, dumped it after use. He
wanted to put this graphite to good use. With help from chemist Francis Peabody
and cabinetmaker Ebenezer Martin, Joseph made his first pencil. Initially, there was little demand, so Joseph
made his fortune with other graphite products, mostly stove polish and crucibles
for metal smelting. The demand for the latter, bought on by the
Mexican-American War, led to the building of a factory in Jersey City, New Jersey,
in 1847. But he didn’t give up making pencils. It was the American Civil War
that finally created a high demand for pencils. In 1866 Joseph patented a wood
planning machine that could make 132 pencils per minute. It wasn’t until 1872
(after Joseph’s death) that Dixon (steered by son-in-law Orestes Cleveland)
made a profit on making 86,000 pencils per day. In 1873 Dixon
bought the American Graphite Company, located in Ticonderoga, New York – a noted
source of graphite. By 1900,
Dixon was only making pencils, and in 1913 rebranded as Dixon Ticonderoga. First
made in Jersey City, this modern Ticonderoga, a prime product of automated mass
production, was made in Mexico City.
Lead
The first pencils used sticks of pure graphite. But pure
graphite is brittle, and rare to find, making it very valuable. Most graphite
that exists is full of impurities that’ll make a lead scratchy in nature. Such
graphite has to be crushed, filtered and grinded into a powder to be usable.
This was then mixed in some binder, like resin, to make it into a rod. Modern
pencil lead is a mix of powdered graphite and clay, fired to form a solid
graphite core. This means of making pencil lead was developed by
Nicolas-Jacques Conté in 1794.
How to Make Pencil Lead
Precise recipes are trade secrets, but pencil lead is made
of -
Powdered Graphite – Dixon developed techniques that, by the
1870s, was milling graphite at 99.96% purity. Much of it from a mine in
Ticonderoga, whose site became the Joseph Dixon Memorial Forest in 1958.
Clay - The most common clay used in pencil lead is kaolin
clay (a white fine powdered clay that also used in the cores of coloured
pencils).
Wax - As a binder and lubricant. Wax replaces graphite in
coloured pencils.
Water - Helps bind the graphite and clay.
Optional - Some manufacturers (especially Japanese ones) add a polymer to the mix to make lead that is breakproof, smoother, and less messy.
After mixing, the resulting thick dough is then squeezed
through a nozzle to make a continuous “grey noodle.” This is then temporary heated
to make it malleable, so it can be cut into long lengths. Before completely
cooling down, they are baked at about 980°C (1,800°F) to harden, becoming the
finished leads.
Dixon was one of the first manufacturers to use circular lead rods in the late-1870s. Square rods were the standard before, which were easier to make. But circular leads are stronger and easier to sharpen, and lend better to mass production, because they require both pieces of wood to be cut with a precise groove to fit snugly. That’s cheaper than only cutting a groove in one piece of wood, in the case of square-lead pencils.
Lead Hardness
Lead comes in various mixtures of clay and graphite, measured in “hardness.” Until the 20th century, various manufacturers use to use their own systems to mark out which lead is the hardest. Conté (the inventor of modern pencil lead) used a number scale, with “1” been the hardest. American manufacturers (like Dixon) adopted a number scale for pencils made for general use, with “1” Been the blackest. This system originates from Henry David Thoreau’s “invention” of the Conté method in the 1840s. For pencils made for artists and technical drawing, they use the same system the rest of the world uses – the HB scale. Its exact origins are debatable. Some say it began when A.W. Faber made the first poly-grade pencils in the 1830s, which were marked from “HHH” to “BB.” Some credit London pencil maker Brookman & Langdon in the early 19th century. (An 1810s trade card advertises a range from “HHH” (“extremely hard as to be SELDOM REQUIRED”) to “BB” (for “Extra Shade (very black for ditto)”), including a “F” for “Fine Drawing (middling degree)”) Some say that L&C Hardtmuth introduced it with their Koh-I-Noor 1500 set in 1889. According to them, H stood for “Hardtmuth,” B stood for “Budweis” (the town they were made), and F stood for “Franz,” the family member who came up with the idea. They can have the claim, as they labelled them liked modern pencils. The Ticonderoga pictured is labelled a “Soft” HB No 2 pencil – the most commonly used grade of pencil.
H “Hard”
The more clay, the harder the lead, the lighter the line.
Hard leads keep their point better and are less likely to smudge. Ideal for
precision perfectionists.
4H – 55% graphite, 39% clay
3H - 58% graphite, 36% clay
2H/#4 “Extra Hard” – 60% graphite, 34% clay
H/#3 “Hard” – 63% graphite, 31% clay
F/#2 ½ – 66% graphite, 28% clay
F grade leads (meaning “firm” or “fine point”) are for leads
whose hardness are between HB and H. It exists because is ideally suited for technical
drawing, as it can be sharpened to a fine tip.
According to data obtained by Maria Costa Sousa and John W
Buchanan in 2000, for the Computer Graphics Forum, the lead of an HB/#2 “soft”
pencil is 68% graphite, 26% clay and (as well as every other pencil lead) 5%
wax.
B/#1 “extra soft” – 71% graphite, 23% clay
2B – 74% graphite, 20% clay
B3 – 76% graphite, 18% clay
4B – 79% graphite, 15% clay
B “Black” “Bold”
The more graphite, the softer the lead, the darker the line.
Soft leads are smoother, more smudgeable, and wear out faster.
Astonishingly, lead grading is not subject to universal
standards. It’s all subject to the manufacturer’s practices and customer
preferences. For example, a HB pencil made by Mitsubishi in Japan is darker
than a HB made by Staedtler in Germany.
Been weaker, the cores in pencils get thicker as it gets
darker.
Paint
Until the 1890s the best pencils were “natural polished.”
Paint was mostly used to hide imperfections in cheaper pencils. It was
customary to paint them in dark colours, such as black, red, maroon, or purple.
This changed when L&C Hardtmuth introduced the ground-breaking Koh-I-Noor
1500 at the Paris World’s Fair of 1889. These were deliberately lacquered 14
times (unheard of then) in yellow-gold paint, and tipped with 14-carat gold. Why
yellow is subject to some debate. Some say it was a homage to the black and
yellow Austro-Hungarian flag. Some say its because yellow is associated with royalty
and respect in Chinese culture, and China was the source of the best graphite
at the time. But what can’t be disputed is that when the Koh-I-Noor was
introduced to America in the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 it sparked a tread
for American manufacturers (like Dixon) to make their pencils yellow, to
imitate its success. By the late-20th century 75% of all pencils
sold in the US were painted yellow.
Most early American yellow pencils were of a subdued hue,
compared to modern pencils. But even back in the 1890s/1900s they stood out, as
the majority of pencils were dark coloured.
Barrel
The wood protects the fragile lead, preventing it from
breaking (most of the time) and marking the user’s fingers. It also suspends it
in a medium that can be held comfortably and shaped to a sharp point. Most pencils
(including the Ticonderoga) use cedar wood, because its light and has a tight
grain that’s not too dense or prone to splintering – ideal for sharpening.
Other woods have been used, due to costs or what is available locally to the
manufacturer. The first machines designed to cut wood for pencils were designed
by Ebenezer Wood, for William Munroe’s pencil factory in Concord, Massachusetts,
which started up in 1819. Munroe made the first lead pencils in America (by
hand) in 1812.
Hex section
Many pencils are hexagon in cross-section. A pencil could be
made square-shaped, the easiest to mass-produced, but it would be uncomfortable
to use and hard to sharpen. Triangle sections create larger flats for each of
the three gripping fingers, which is why many pens use it, but it’s difficult
to sharpen a triangle pencil. The best shape to use in a writing instrument is
a circle section. It’s optimal for sharpening and can be easily adjusted to
various angles while in use. Many pencils are this shape, especially if it has
printed artwork on it. But most pencils are a hexagon because it uses the least
material to make, making them the cheapest of all pencils. It also helps that
it doesn’t easily roll about on the production line/desk. Ebenezer Wood’s machinery
were the first to make pencils hexagonal (and octagonal).
“This shape prevents the fingers from becoming cramped
while writing and also the possibility of their rolling from the desk.” –
Sears, Roebuck catalogue (1897)
Rubber
Bread crumbs were used by early pencil users until engineer
Edward Nairne picked up a piece of “elastic gum” and found out it was good at
rubbing out pencil marks. He began selling cubes of natural rubber for this
purpose in 1770. The modern eraser came to be when manufacturers added pumice
(as an abrasive) as soon as erasers caught on, and after Charles Goodyear first
vulcanized rubber in 1839. Since the mid-20th century, most erasers
use synthetic rubber, making them (as stated on the Ticonderoga’s packaging) “Latex-free.”
Pumice adds abrasion to the rubber to make it generate
heat, making the rubber slightly sticky, making it more able to pick up
unwanted graphite. The pumice used in early erasers came from volcanic rock and
gave erasers a slight pink colour, hence how pink erasers became the norm.
Ferrule
The idea of attaching a rubber to the end of a pencil was
first patented by Hymen Lipman in 1858. Originally, the rubber was encased in
the wood, which can be sharpened as the rubber worn away, just like the lead. Pencils
like this were made. In 1891 Eberhard Faber II was granted a patent for a “Means
for Attaching Rubber Tips to Pencils” – the ferrule. In 1964 J.B. Ostrowski
patented the aluminium ferrule. Before, ferrules were carefully-crafted pieces
of brass or nickel. Aluminium was cheaper, but was considered too soft and
prone to distorting. Ostrowski added vertical ridges and one or two horizontal bands
to it to make it stronger. Most American pencil makers, including Dixon,
adopted it soon after.
The Ticonderoga’s ferrule was originally plain brass. But
during World War II, metal rationing forced Dixon to switch to a green and
yellow plastic ferrule. After the war, they switched back to brass, but kept
the colour scheme.
For pencils that didn’t come with an eraser attached, in
1867, artist John Blair patented the first eraser cap.