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I don't often follow a work with a sequel. The sequel is rarely shown in Hollywood, but this is not Hollywood, although I don't want a complete movie about pencils. However, there are some pencil songs and cartoons that I will not visit.

I was surprised to see how much there is about wooden "lead" pencils. I know the Ticonderoga brand, but nothing more. It was actually Dixon Ticonderoga, named after Joseph Dixon, who experimented with various uses of graphite found on his father's sailing boat. He mixed minerals with clay and water, rolled them into strips, and baked them in his mother's oven. Then he pressed the mixture into fluted cedar wood, and the first Dixon pencil was born.

The biggest advantage of a wooden pencil is that it is not made of plastic. This means that less energy is needed to produce pencil raw materials, and over time, it will eventually become a pile of shavings, hoping to be composted.

Wood is one of the most important components of high-quality pencils. The best pencils are made of real fragrant cedar, while the high-quality cheap pencils are made of basswood or poplar wood. Cedar is the most commonly used.

2,000,000,000 is the estimated number of pencils used in the United States each year. This represents approximately 82,000 trees.

Graphite is expensive, but pencils are cheap because the graphite core (called "lead", although it does not contain lead at all) is not high-grade pure graphite, but a mixture of graphite powder and clay binder. The wood is wrapped with graphite, and yellow paint is used as the outer shell.

The pencil produces traces through physical abrasion, leaving a trace of a solid material that adheres to a piece of paper or other surface. Although its gray or black markings are easy to erase, they are resistant to moisture, most chemicals, ultraviolet radiation and natural aging. Other types of pencil lead, such as charcoal, are mainly used for drawing and sketching. Colored pencils are another day.

The most expensive pencil is the limited edition Graf von Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil, priced at $12,800. Only 10 of these classic pencils are made of 240-year-old olive wood and 18-carat white gold, and come with a built-in eraser and pencil sharpener. There are only five left in the world.

Perfect Pencil limited edition platinum pencil is made of cedar, inlaid with diamonds and platinum, it is the most expensive pencil in the world today.

This is enough, albeit only a small part of the vast amount of information about the pencil. How about using the word "pencil" in certain phrases?

For example: not the sharpest pencil in the box, pencil me, pencil pusher, pencil whip, pencil neck (geek). I will let you figure out the meaning of these phrases. I will also let you find the most commonly used pencil phrases, which are not mentioned here.

Pencils are almost perfect because they combine three basic functions in one object: writing and correcting, and designing for eternity.

You must love them.

View large picture Dr. Ed Iannuccilli is the author of three popular memoirs, "Growing up in Italy; Grandfather's Fig Tree and Other Stories", "What Happened on Sunday Dinner" and "My Story Continues: From Neighbor to Junior High ." Learn more here. 

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