Capital City Carvers

History of the Pencil

One of the essential pieces of equipment in your carving bag is the pencil. Without one, it would be difficult to mark your carving. Of course, you could use a Sharpie© but it is difficult to remove an incorrect mark. The stylus is one of the earliest writing instruments. This was an actual stick of lead used to mark papyrus. Today, "lead" is used to describe the graphite-based cores of modern pencils. It was the discovery of a large deposit of pure graphite near Cumbria, England in the early 1500's that ultimately spurred the modern pencil design and production. The solid substance was sliced into thin sticks and wrapped in string or sheepskin to prevent it from breaking and from soiling users' hands.

England remained the primary source of pencils until 1662, when German manufacturers discovered a way to form a solid strand of the marking medium by combining the more readily available graphite powder with clay. The French were unable to import graphite from England during the Napoleonic wars and formulated a superior recipe for a granite-composite core in 1795.

The Italians were the first to successfully encase graphite in wood by hollowing a juniper stick and inserting a strip of graphite. By the mid 1600s all pencil makers used a more efficient method: cutting channels in slats of wood, inserting strips of graphite (or compressed graphite powder) and then adhering the slats together.

During the War of 1812, Americans could not import pencils. This prompted Boston cabinetmaker William Monroe to become the first U.S. pencil producer. The pencil industry centered in New England during the late 1800s. The industry was drawn to Tennessee as it was a source for Eastern red cedar.

French scientists discovered during the 1770s that rubber worked as an eraser. Before that, people used bread crumbs to delete pencil markings from paper. The practice of attaching erasers to pencils didn't catch on until 1858. Apparently, teachers resisted the idea at first because they thought it would foster writing errors.

Points to Ponder

When mixing colors, make sure you measure and record what you did. It may turn out great and you will want to reproduce the same color. It is never important until you want to recreate your color again.
Hugh Van Hayes

An idea for texture to give the illusion of dirt or pebbles is to take different sized nails and gently pound the nail points in random areas combining different sizes to create a more realistic texture where texture is needed.
Desiree Hajny

If you are going to put your name on a carving, do the very best work that you are capable of doing.
Jim Sprankle

Surround yourself with every reference source you can find about the subject you are carving and study them prior to and during the carving process. You can't carve what you don't know.
Frank Russell