The Roller Coaster Evolution Of A Pencil

A pencil is a daily staple in any home, office, school or business. Whether you’re learning your first alphabets or writing your final exam, you most definitely must have used a pencil at some point in your life.

But have you ever wondered how this thin cylindrical writing object came into existence?

The pioneers of creating this writing tool were the Romans who first came up with the concept. They created a long, thin object out of graphite, which they called a stylus.

In addition, chalk, as well as slate pencils, were also widely used.

It was around the 1500s , when graphite was discovered in a small quaint town in England called Cumbria. It was then that the use of graphite pencils came into being. These pencils were different in shape and structure as compared to the new-age pencils that we use today.

How are Pepaa pencils better than regular pencils?

Pepaa pencils are a hundred times better than regular pencils because they are nature-friendly stationery. They don’t just help you write or draw but also save you from the guilt of killing trees for pencils. 
Are Pepaa pencils more sustainable than regular pencils?
Yes, Peppa pencils are more sustainable than regular virgin pencils. The reasons for this is because –
They’re made up of recycled newspaper and used handmade paper. 
They’re biodegradable and come with a seed that you can plant. 

Why are plantable pencils not as common as regular pencils?

Plantable pencils like Peppa are a new invention. For hundreds of years, we have been using virgin pencils that are made of wood pulp. We knew all along that trees had to be cut for our stationery needs, but we had no other option. Now that we have an opportunity, most of the plantable stationery is limited to online stores because plenty of people don’t know about it yet. However, plantable stationery is picking up pace nowadays. 

Are Pepaa pencils as good in quality as regular pencils?

Yes. The quality part of Pepaa pencils has been taken care of, throughout the production of these pencils. They are suitable for detailing as well. 

Here’s the process of making a pencil.

• Cedar Trees are most popular when it comes to the production of pencils. These cedar trees mature when they reach 14 years of age. At this stage, the wood is ready to be transformed into a pencil. These mature trees are felled and then cut into smaller pieces.
• These smaller logs are sliced and shaped into thin, peaked slats. Next, these slats are treated to make the wood extremely supple and dry. This step is of umpteen importance as it is crucial for shaping the pencil. A well-treated pencil sharpens smoothly and effortlessly.
• The Pencil Slats are also treated with wax in order to create uniformity in the color of the pencils.
• It takes a period of 60 days for the slates to completely dry.
• Once these slats are fit to be turned into pencils, the next step is to create grooves in the slats. A total of nine grooves is carved into each slat in a parallel manner. These grooves provide a base to fit a graphite rod.
• The graphite is held in place firmly with a one of kind glue that is pressed into the grooves.
• The pencil leads are then put in the oven and heated at a temperature of 980 Degrees Celsius. This is another significant step as the extreme heat makes the pencils strong, sturdy and extremely smooth to sharpen and use.
• The graphite and lead rods are then scrunched through the top of the slat on the glue.
• One this step is completed, a new slat is placed and fixed over the first slate. Thus, the graphite lead is sandwiched between the two layers of the pencil slats. This sandwich-like structure is treated with intense heat which is then compressed.
• Extreme pressure is applied to the slat which is ready to be turned into a fresh pencil. Next, the sandwiched slats are cut into 19-centimetre size of a pencil.
• After this, the pencil goes through multiple rounds of painting, coloring, varnishing, and sharpening. And there you have it, A brand-new, smooth pencil.

Coming to some statistics, on an average, about 170,000 pencils are manufactured from a single tree. Can you imagine the number of trees that have been felled to fulfill your requirement of just a single pencil? We live in a world of mindless consumption, where we consume without giving much thought to our natural surroundings. However, this careless consumption could not go on forever. It had to stop. Our ecological environment had to be protected, preserved, nourished and nurtured.

That’s when Pepaa decided to take a step.

A step towards a better tomorrow.

A step towards a greener tomorrow.

A step towards a healthier tomorrow.

A step by which we altered the old school way of creating pencils.  We create sustainable, 21st century, modern pencils.

Pencils at Pepaa are handmade with immense importance given to precision and detailing. These pencils are no ordinary ones. We create pencils out of waste using reused handmade paper and old newspapers. In this way, we create a fully functional pencil with the help of materials that would be otherwise lying on the surface of the earth as waste.

In addition, our pencils are also Plantable. Which means that they can be planted in soil to grow into alluring, green plants. Seeds like tomato, marigold, chili come along with the pencil. So when you’re done using the pencil, simply just plant it in a beautiful flower pot. And, in a few days, your magical pencil will be bloomed into a delicate and lovely flower. Pepaa’s pencils exhibit a magic that can paint the world green.