The pencil “lead” is actually a mixture of graphite and clay. 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 ...

Pieces of pencil lead on the floor marked up the new carpeting ... he used to steal pencils before he knew better. “That was my way of living,” he joked. These days he’s a buy-and-hold ...

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.

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 ...