TOOTHPICKS TO LUMBER WAGONS 29 



wood used, yet the trade demands not only good 

 color and soft texture, but even the presence of a 

 delicate cedar odor. For many years it was cus- 

 tomary to allow the sap-wood to rot under damp 

 conditions until it fell away, and to cut into pencil 

 slats only the remaining heart. Now, however, this 

 light colored sap-wood is made into pen-holders 

 and similar articles. So-called paper pencils were 

 once more popular than they are today. Their 

 manufacturers thought that a pencil which would 

 not require a knife to sharpen it would be a great 

 step in advance, but the whittling public apparently 

 decided otherwise. 



To make a wooden pencil the manufacturer first 

 cuts out a board or slat about seven inches long, the 

 width of half a dozen pencils and as thick as one- 

 half a pencil diameter. With a special machine he 

 then shapes it into six semi-rounded or semi- 

 hexagonal sections and grooves one side ready for 

 the "lead." The "lead" is inserted, the halves 

 glued together and the pencil finished at some more 

 convenient point. All our high grade pencils are 

 filled with graphite which is not really lead, or even 

 a metal, but, similar to coal, a product derived from 

 decayed wood or vegetable matter. The best 

 graphite comes largely from mines in Africa. 



In the same class with pencils we may consider 



