Custom Pencils, Personalized Pencil, Promotional Pencils

Promtional pencil writing or a drawing instrument consists of a thin piece of stick usually made of graphite and clay. Graphite could be of colored pigment or charcoal. Pencils are usually encased in thin wooden cylinders. Papers and plastic sheaths are also used now a day. The archetypal pencil might have been evolved from the early Romans who used a thin metal stick usually made of lead. These were used for scratching on papyrus. The word pencil originated from the Latin word pencillus which means little tail.

During 1565, enormous amount of graphite was found near Cumbria, England. The locals of this area found graphite to be very useful in marking their sheep. This particular graphite deposit of England was very solid and could easily be molded in to cylinder form. Since chemistry was not of that fame during those days, this was considered to be a form of lead. The black part of the pencil is considered to be lead even though it never contained any lead. The value of graphite was soon realized and was used widely to line the cannon balls. The mines were taken by the crown and guarded.

Graphite was smuggled to be used in pencils. Since it was very soft some form of case was needed to be transported. Graphite sticks were rapped in sheep’s skin for stability. The use of these pencils started gaining fame among the artists worldwide. Although graphite was found in other parts of the world it was not of the same purity. It had to be crushed down to remove the impurities and leave only the graphite powder. Italians were the first to think of the wooden holders. Italian couple named Simonio and Lyndiana was the first to make modern carpentry pencils.

During the Napoleon wars, the English and German pencils were not supplied to the French. An officer in Napoleons army changed this by discovering a new method were powdered graphite was mixed with clay. This mixture was then made into rods and then heated in kilns. American colonists imported promotional pencils from Europe until American Revolution.

Modern pencils are manufactured by mixing the finely ground graphite with clay. Then by adding water they mix it well and make long strings and heat in kilns. The final strings are dipped in oil or molten wax. This gets into the tiny holes of the strings, resulting in a very smoother writing. Almost all the pencils in Europe and also in other countries are graded on European system using a continuum from ‘H’ to ‘B’ as well as ‘F’. H refers to the hardness, B to the blackness and F for the fine point. The writing personalized pencil is usually graded HB. In United States majority of the pencils are painted yellow. Now day’s pencils are painted with darker to the lighter colors in many countries. In Germany the custom pencils are painted usually in green. Pencils are usually hexagonal and sometimes round or triangular.