Utilization of Hardwoods for Pencil Manufacture

Incense-cedar has been the primary species for wood-cased pencils for almost 50 years. As a result of increasing transportation and raw material costs and the decreasing availability of incense-cedar, it has become necessary to consider other species for pencil manufacture. The basic properties of wood related to pencil production were examined and two potential hardwoods, yellow-poplar and red maple, were selected for further testing. The pencil-making characteristics of each hardwood, both untreated and wax treated, were compared with those of the control species, treated incense-cedar. Yellow-poplar was similar to incense-cedar in quality after the slat manufacturing, grooving and shaping processes. Less warp was found in the yellow-poplar pencils. The control species, however, tested better during the finishing and sharpening operations. Red maple was the best species for finishing, but the shaping and sharpening operations of this hardwood could not be completely evaluated because of machining problems that occurred during testing. Both hardwoods are less expensive and more available than incense-cedar; yellow-poplar is the best with respect to these two factors. Quality pencils may be obtained from yellow-poplar or red maple slats if appropriate modifications of the cutterhead and feed rolls are made to the incense-cedar pencil manufacturing process.

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