The most valued commodity in the schoolyard marketplace is one of the most basic. Every kid wants a pencil—especially a carefully carved stub of a pencil called a mini. Sasha Portnoy, a 9-year ...

No.2 pencils are widely used, but you may not know what the number actually refers to. This video explains how pencils developed into their modern form and the significance of the labeled numbers.

More clay in the mixture makes the lead harder. A harder lead has a higher number. Pencils are numbered from 1-3 but most people use a number 2. Harder lead makes a lighter mark and softer lead makes ...

Common mechanical pencils come in sizes to accommodate 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9 mm leads, but there are bigger and smaller ones available. Perhaps one of those really large drafting lead holders could be ...

Enjoy these pencils and pencil boxes in our collections. National Museum of American History pencil, packaged set National Museum of American History Box of American Lead Pencil Co. Venus Pencils ...

Germany began mass-producing pencils in the 17th Century. In the late 18th Century, the Frenchman Nicolas-Jacques Conté pioneered a way of blending graphite and clay into a pencil lead - the ...