How is a pencil manufactured?

The conventional pencil consist of a a central core called
lead, enclosed in a wooden casing. The manufacturing process of pencil consists of three
main processes. These are:

1. Making of the central
   core. Though this this commonly described by its old name - that is lead, it is made of
   graphite.


2. Making the wood
   casing.


3. Shaping the
   pencil.


4. Finishing.

The
lead is made by mixing graphite with wax or some special clays for binding the graphite
and then forcing this mixture through a suitable die to form a continuous length of the
core. This process is called extrusion. The long leads thus produced are then cut to
required size. For some types of pencils such as coloured pencils the core may be made
of some other material rather than graphite. However the process of making the lead
remains same.

The wooden casing is made by sawing thin
strips of wood called slats. Then parallel semicircular grooves are cut in the slat for
accommodating the leads. The distance between the parallel groove corresponds to the
thickness of the pencils to be made.

Half of the slats
required for making the required number of pencils are then glued on the grooved side
and the leads are placed in the grooves. The other half numbers of unglued slats are
placed on glued slats with lead so that the slats match. The paired slats are then
pressed to achieve good bonding between them.

Next step is
called shaping in which the hexagon shape of the pencil is formed by cutting suitable
grooves on both sides of the pairs slats running in the center of position of adjoining
leads. Once these grooves are made, individual pencils are sawed off from the
slat.

The cut pencils are then finished by smoothing and
painting. The finished pencils are then suitably packed for selling in
shops.