How are regular lead pencils made? How do they get the lead into them? How do they make the long channel?

Question

Where are they made? Who makes them? What kind of wood do they use. I saw a new kind the other day---made from plastic like stuff. Why not wood? Why plasticky stuff? Who invented pencils? Why? Where? When? How? How do they make some lead hard and some soft? Is it really lead or is it graphite? Where do they get graphite? What is graphite? I think it's really graphite because I've seen lead fishing sinkers and I've seen powdered graphite. It seems more like graphite to me. Besides, I have a pencil that says for its name GRAPHITE. That's what got me thinking about these questions.
When you look at a pencil and thiink about it, it must be pretty hard to get that stuff that writes down the middle track in the wood. Abe Lincoln did his Arithmetic on a wood shovel with charcoal. Is that really true? My guess: They drill a long hole through a tube of wood, pour in powdered graphite and powdered gluey stuff, then use heat and pressure, then let harden. BUT HOW?

Answer 1

Graphite is a natural mineral, a form of carbon. It's powdered, mixed with a substance like fine clay powder (the proportion makes harder or softer grades of pencils) and a binder, then extruded into a rod. The wood is made in two halves with a channel routed out and glued together with the extruded graphite rod inside. I don't know how they make plastic pencils, but they may extrude the plastic onto the graphite like insulation is put on wire. For the rest, you should spend an evening doing a search. "Lead" is a misnomer, although metallic lead is soft enough to leave a mark on paper.

Answer 2

The general process in making pencils is like making a sandwich last time I checked. You have your first layer, which is appropriately cut and grooves are put in. Then you cut the graphite and lay them into the grooves. After that, some glue is applied and then the second layer of wood is put on top of that. Finally, the whole thing is cut into individual pencils.

Answer 3

There is a great TV program that regularly runs on the Discovery channel called "How it's Made." I wish I could send it to you because it had a segment which showed exactly how pencils are made. Very automated and by the thousands and thousands! Maybe you could look this one up and see it for yourself. They repeat programs frequently.

Answer 4

Black writing pencils (Lead Pencils) are not actually lead, they are made from Graphite. Colour pencils are are chemical thing i'm not sure of but it is illegal to use lead now.