dear jaycee, dear jax, they’re made sort of like a cake...

Google: hexagon cylinders

Dear Jax,

How is the lead and

the stuff in colored

pencils made?

Jaycee Gibson

Corydon, Kentucky

Beakman or Jax1130 Walnut StreetKansas City, MO 64106Questions, name & citymyQuestion@beakman.com

Colored Pencils:dry glues, dry lubes,hard wax, soft wax,

pigment (colors).Later, add water.

Black Pencils:dry clay, graphite.Later, add water.

Blocks of wood are cut withgrooves. The leads from the

mixer and nozzle squirter arelaid in the grooves.

Another grooved blockof wood is glued on topand baked to harden the

lead and dry the glue.

Saws cut them intoseparate pencils that

can be square, or cut intohexagons or rounded into

cylinders.

Dear Jaycee,They’re made sort of like a cake, with dry stuff mixed in huge mixing machines, and after hours and hours of mixing, water is added to make a thick paste that is squirted through nozzles, which makes long solid leads that are then laid into grooves cut into blocks of wood – usually cedar wood – and another grooved block is glued on top, followed by baking and then just sawing apart the separate pencils, rounding and painting them.

Since that sentence may have worn you out, get your family together to make a real, refreshing cake today.

Jax Place

P.S. from Beakman: There is none of the toxic metal lead in a pencil’s lead. None at all.

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