For some reason I’ve been on a cleaning/throwing out spree lately. I’ve a long way to go, but this fall weather has me hacking away. Today I started gathering pens and pencils stuck around all over the house, threw away half and redistributed the rest back to where we seem to never be able to find one that works.
A little used desk drawer had an accumulation of wood lead pencils, some looking old enough to spark an interest. Here’s what a Google search netted.
First, pencils are made from graphite, not lead. It is unclear, but it could be as early as the 1500s a high quality natural graphite formation was discovered at Cumberland in England. Early on, the people thought it resembled a type of lead, thus the name.
It seems England had, and still has, the highest quality graphite. So, they had a corner on the best quality pencils into the 1860s.
In the United States, lesser quality graphite was found in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Most pencils in the United States are made from graphite mixtures.
William Munroe, a cabinet maker, put a wooden case around the graphite in the United States as early as 1812. Eberhard Faber had early success in pencil production. By 1870, Joseph Dixon developed a way to mass produce pencils.
Wood was red cedar but by the early 20th century, it was running out so incense cedar from California became popular.
Starting on the bottom and moving up.
Dixon Ticonderoga is still making pencils, an off shoot of the 1870 Dixon manufacturing co.
Faber-Castell began in Germany, not has an home office in the US, but most pencils are made in Brazil. Remember that Faber was in the pencil making business early and is the oldest company in the United States still in production.
Empire Pencil Co is no longer in production. It was bought by Sanford Corp. and has probably followed the same route as Eagle.
Eagle pencil company was founded in 1856 in New York but in 1969 was purchased by Berol Corp, then Sanford and eventually bought by Rubbermade in 1992
Skilcraft is a trade name for the National Industries for the Blind. They still are producing office products.
NAPPCO or National Pen & Pencil Company was established in 1933 but have merged with Dixon Ticonderoga.
The beat up BUCKSKIN pencil was made by the Blackfoot Indian Writing CO in Browning Montana. They went out of business in 2001 after having been in business since 1971.
The top pencil is a advertisement pencil from Checkerboard Square now Purina. The reason it is in the picture is because the wood in the pencil is obviously red, although it doesn’t show up in the picture. It made me wonder if it might be red cedar.
I almost threw all these old pencils away. Glad I didn’t. Some from closed pencil manufacturing companies must be quite old. Now I have something to look for at flea markets or garage sales. I know, that doesn’t do anything for getting rid of clutter.
