A pencil is a writing or drawing tool that is made up of a thin, solid pigment core enclosed in a protective shell to prevent the core from breaking or marking the user’s hand.

Pencils leave a path of solid core material that clings to a sheet of paper or another surface as a result of physical abrasion. Pens, on the other hand, discharge liquid or gel ink onto the designated surface.

Graphite powder and a clay binder make up the majority of pencil cores. Graphite pencils (also known as “lead pencils”) leave grey or black markings that are readily erased yet resistant to moisture, most chemicals, ultraviolet light, and natural aging. Drawing and sketching are done using other sorts of pencil cores, such as those made of charcoal. Teachers and editors may use colored pencils to revise submitted texts, although they are more commonly thought of as art supplies, especially those with wax-based binders that smear when erasers are put on them. Grease pencils have a softer, oilier core that may mark smooth surfaces like glass or porcelain.

The most common pencil casing is thin wood that is permanently attached to the core and is generally hexagonal in form but can also be cylindrical or triangular. Casings can be made of a variety of materials, including plastic and paper. The shell must be cut or peeled off to reveal the working end of the core as a sharp tip in order to use the pencil. Mechanical pencils feature more elaborate casings that are not connected to the core but instead support independent, movable pigment cores that may be extended or retracted as needed (typically through the casing’s tip). As the old cores wear out, these shells may be reloaded with fresh cores (typically graphite).

Silverpoint was the nearest antecedent to the pencil as a sketching method until a huge deposit of graphite was discovered on the way to Grey Knotts from the hamlet of Seathwaite in Borrowdale parish Cumbria, England in 1565 (other accounts suggest as early as 1500). This graphite deposit was exceptionally pure and solid, and it was easily sawn into sticks. It is the only large-scale deposit of graphite that has ever been discovered in this solid-state. The material was once considered to be a type of lead because the chemistry was still in its infancy. As a result, it was given the name plumbago (Latin for “lead ore”). Because the pencil core is still called “lead” or “a lead,” many people believe the graphite in pencil is lead, and the black core of pencils is still called “lead,” despite the fact that it never contained the element lead. In German (Bleistift), Irish (Penn laid), Arabic (qalam a), and other languages, the word pencil literally means “lead pen.”

The mines were taken over by the Crown and guarded since the value of graphite was quickly realized to be immense, primarily because it could be used to line the molds for cannonballs. When the mines had gathered enough graphite, they were flooded to prevent theft until more was needed.

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