The wood is softened and cut into slats called stock or pencil squares.
step.2 A wax and stain are applied and the stats are passed under a cutting wheel .
The grooves in the slats are filled with a special elastic glue for the lead.
Now its time to add the lead .Lead is created by mixing graphite and
clay baking it in a oven at about 1500 degrees Fahrenheit. Graphlite
is an organic from of crystalline carbon that was found in Metaorphic
and indigenous rocks .It is turned into lead ,which is the common
terminologly used to describe the inside of a penci
After the pencil is loaded with lead , it's time for another slat of wood to be
loaded on top.This is done on converytor belt with an automateded arm
that flips the side with glue over and stacks it on top of the other slat countaing
the lead .Think of it as a lead sandwich.
A medchanized plunger squeezes the sandwich togther with over 2,000
pounds of pressure.The wood slats are compressed as the glue has time to dry.
After about an hour ,the sandwich's are sliced into pencils .A fast- spining
cutter is used to shape the pencils into a Hexagonal dessign. From there ,the pencil's
separate out of the sandwich into individual pieces. Any pencils with defects. are discarded.
One at a time the pencils go though a lacque\ring head ,giveing them their color and sheen.
The surface is coated with 4-10 coats of paint or lacquer,depending on the desired and
color.
The final step is adding the rubber eraser at the very top with an assembly machine.
First,the machine squeezes the top of the pencil and slides on top of the aluminum part known
as a ferrule.Next its inserts the rubber eraser and squeezes to hold eveything together.
some of the pencil's are wrapped in decorative film with intricate design's ,
while other's are screen printed or foil stamped with logo or advertising message.
If they' re not used as company giveaways, the pencils are simply imprinted
with brand name of the pencil manufacturer.