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Each Graphite Pencil is Special

My personal interest in graphite began with a memory about receiving my first drafting pencil. When I was in elementary school, my father had a client who was an architect. He gave my dad a drafting pencil as a gift knowing that I was seriously interested in pursuing architecture at such a young age. It was a matted silver Pental Graphgear drafting pencil. Architects/artists could describe the valued relationship of a good drafting pencil to a normal pencil one that is between gold and plastic. A good drafting pencil has weight and substance; It makes the user feel important. The tip of my drafting pencil was smaller and refined, only a .5 mm graphite rod, giving the handler superior control and stability when writing. The origin of these drafting pencils comes directly from Japanese influence who have perfected simplicity and craftsmanship of design over the centuries. Receiving this drafting pencil from my father felt like a collectible that someone had created with love and care. The path to create such a pencil however, is quite recent and its evolution is fascinating.

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The Evolution of Graphite

Graphite has been used by humanity for millenia and its evolution is one that is parallel with human technological advancement. It's important when looking at an object like my drafting pencil to understand the final product, why it looks and feels the way it does? Let's start with the core component; graphite. What even is it? Up until the 18th century people had called graphite black lead but this was disproved by chemist K.W Sheele who found graphite was a form of carbon. (Tate GRAPHITE)  If you were to compare carbon to diamonds the only difference is in the composition of the molecular structure, yet this difference makes graphite flake perfect for writing.  Graphite as a writing substance has been used like chalk since the neolithic age, but it was only until the 1500’s that graphite was used for finer writing. It’s generally agreed that this was around the time that graphite was first enclosed in wood. This was achieved due to the softness and the brittleness of the graphite which happened to be found in parts of England. Around the turn of the 18th century, a French mechanical engineer Nicolas Jaques Conte earned a living from painting. (Britannica Nicolas-Jacques Conté) However; because of the french revolution, imports of graphite from England were restricted, he had to find a different way to use the limited supply of graphite he had. His solution was to use a portion of graphite mixed with clay compounded together into hard rods. Only 20 years later in America, Joseph Dixon, another mechanical mastermind, opened the door for widespread industrial production of the pencil. After experimentation he found a hexagonal shape saved the most material and that too has mostly stuck through to the 21 century. Joseph Dixon also secured a patent that allowed graphite for the first time to be used as a grinder for lenses and this marked the beginning of graphites other industrial uses expanded upon until today. However most of us know graphite for its artistic qualities.

Early Pencil Mass production

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Artistic Qualities of Graphite

The refinement of the pencil unlocked an ether of potential and creativity to the average user. Art has often been at the forefront of cultures throughout history but many were barred by expensive ink, oils, acrylics, mosaics; with graphite harnessed into a singular rod, it unlocked a stepping stone into the artistic world. William Laurel Harris (an early American painter) described the pencil as, “the revival of an ancient craft… which forces the student to search out in every object the qualities of elegant design and simple, effective pattern.” (Harris 315) The pencil in all its simplicity is deceptively hard to master because the skill ceiling is very high. To begin; graphite rods are made in many different diameters, as I mentioned above mine is .5 mm, but rod sizes vary vastly increasing the possibilities of precision. More important; however, is that advanced draftsmen and artists follow a pencil hardness scale varying in thickness and amount of graphite shed. It’s scaled from 9B to 9H, B meaning soft and H meaning hard.  A typical number 2 pencil commonly used is also considered a 2B and is a bit softer than the middle graded HB. (Art in Context) Most people use pencils in the middle of the scale because it allows for easy sharpening  while still applying a generous amount of graphite to the paper. Thinking artistically, the softer graded pencils are used for broader expressive strokes, perfect for capturing emotion. On the harder graded pencils, the more clay prevents large flakes of graphite from depositing on the page creating the perfect pencil for drafting and precision line drawings. 

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Graphite as a Multisensorial Experience

For all the average pencil users, art is certainly interesting, but perhaps doesn't have the most profound effect on our own lives. The pencil I would suggest, is a multi-sensory experience that when focused on, can feel meditative and enhance the user's experience of writing/drawing. In a TED video narrated by Caroline Weaver, the most replayed section of the video, which has been viewed almost 450,000 times, was a white background with a pencil making squiggly marks on a paper. (1:50-1:53) If you listen to the audio, it's a tingling scratchy sound that feels like it is cleaning the back of your ear. Audibly writing with pencils to us humans is pleasing and soothing, we find it relaxing. When we are in a relaxed state, we tend to find ourselves doodling. It turns out that when we are in a half-conscious state whether it be from boredom or stress, writing/doodling helps us focus better and relieve anxiety. In a study done by Harvard medical school, “researchers found that people doodling during a 2/1/2 minute phone call had a 29% better recollection of the message conveyed than those that had not doodled/written.” (Phillay) Clearly there is more than just hearing and doodling going on; The hand is perhaps the most fine-tuned motor skill in our body. If you think about your dominant writing hand to your non-dominant writing hand, it becomes apparent that, while the pencil is not actually attached to your body, the pencil is an extension of your brain to your arm/hand, to the paper. It is the connection of the mental to the physical.

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Final Thoughts

 It is from simplicity, ease, and versatility that graphite is used by chosen necessity by almost every human on the planet to allow visual interpretation through art, documentation, and culture. Graphite has continually evolved and been perfected in writing and its other applications to become a real asset to people and culture. It's because of this evolution that its artistic application can range from a variety of skill sets from the everyday jotter to the experienced draftsman/artists. The entire experience of using graphite through drawing/writing is one that is multisensory and unique to each individual. I hope Uncovering the layers of graphite instills in you inspiration to appreciate the little objects we take for granted. Imagining a world without graphite or pencils is impossible because its use is so ingrained in our culture and ourselves. It has shown and will continue to show that its simplicity and craftsmanship will stand the test of time even with future technology on the rise.  

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Raw graphite chunk

The Simple complexity of Graphite

You would be hard pressed to find anyone that doesn’t use graphite in their daily lives. For me as an architecture student, what would my life be without my drafting pencil. I could not create silky black lines that compose visual directions to an unbuilt structure or enthusiastically create quick napkin sketches to a potential client. Graphite is often a forgotten entity not truly appreciated unless examined closely. It is the simple complexity of graphite that instills its modern day dominance, limitless imagination, and multi sensorial experience. Its course of history is one that pairs with the rise of modern society through the industrial age all culminating into many industrial applications of graphite and most notably, the pencil.   

[mflegoking]

The Simple complexity of Graphite

You would be hard pressed to find anyone that doesn’t use graphite in their daily lives. For me as an architecture student, what would my life be without my drafting pencil. I could not create silky black lines that compose visual directions to an unbuilt structure or enthusiastically create quick napkin sketches to a potential client. Graphite is often a forgotten entity not truly appreciated unless examined closely. It is the simple complexity of graphite that instills its modern day dominance, limitless imagination, and multi sensorial experience. Its course of history is one that pairs with the rise of modern society through the industrial age all culminating into many industrial applications of graphite and most notably, the pencil.