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While pruning Russian olives, I admired the red bark and thought they'd make nice pencils. So I ordered long leads from the Faber-Castell website and got some long, fine drills (1.4 mm, 1.6 mm, 2.0 mm). The heartwood is soft and the drill follows it.
https://i.imgur.com/DlVO48u.jpg
Rambling around our place, I clipped twigs from several species: serviceberry, lilac, redosier dogwood, willow. Once they season, I'll make a batch of pencils for holiday gifts.
As an artist who loves working with graphite, is the sort of gift I’d appreciate! And a bunch would look so nice in a desk cup. Really beautiful.
Those are SO cool - what a brilliant idea for a gift. Kudos.
I don't use pencil for my sketches (only if I really need it), but looking at these pencils, I can't help but to drool.
Got long leads from the Faber-Castell website. The drills were a bit tougher, but McMaster-Carr has extended length bits in sizes such as 2 mm.
So far, I've carefully pushed the leads into the holes without any glue. If you break the lead while inserting it, pieces fall out when it's sharpened. I might try a scrim of wood glue on the next batch.
Dropping pencils - bad, very bad. I learned this the hard way with very pricey colored pencilsQuote:
Originally Posted by Chip
Made more twig pencils, from different species of shrub.
https://i.imgur.com/ELQ6ejT.jpg
Top down: Russian olive, lilac, redosier dogwood, redosier dogwood, and Russian olive.
Cut some Titebond wood glue with water and brushed it on the leads before putting them in. Rather than using my fingers to push them down, I carefully tapped them down with a small block of wood and didn't break a single one.
Only two B (soft) leads left, so I'll get on the Faber-Castell site and order more.
Here's a chart showing the different grades of pencil lead, hard to soft:
https://i.imgur.com/xNPk5n8.jpg
Very interesting variant, looks authentic!
Nice! Those things don't grow on trees.... oh...yes they do...
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So organic and cool -looking.
I also enjoy your description on the making process.
Guess I wasn't the first to think of it. Checked Etsy, which is awash in twig pencils.
I could try custom twig pencils, with the buyer specifying the sort of wood and the hardness of the lead.
But I think I'll just make them for fun and give them away.
Been in the shop most days, making twig pencils. My limit is about twelve at a time.
A quick question: what lead on the scale do you use most often? Or do you use different types for different tasks?
https://i.imgur.com/xNPk5n8.jpg
Depends on the use case.
For writing purposes most people are using between 3H and 2B, most 0815 pencils are HB.
For drawing purposes usually HB down to the softest available are used.
Harder than 3H are imho not used often (at least I know no common use case, beside some technical special things).
But at the end also personal preferences counts.
Cool gimmick.
I wonder if you dry the wood in advance?
If not completely dried out before making it I wonder if the wood movement while drying isn’t breaking the leads (also when surrounding humidity changes afterwards again).
These are fantastic!
Have you considered using shellac on the leads, rather than glue? I have re-saccing pens on the brain right now which totally accounts for this suggestion. :-)
Thanks. It would probably work just as well. I have a wee bottle of sac shellac on hand.
Technical update: sharpening my beauties, I discovered why most pencils are made of cedar, which is rather soft. The harder woods are a right bugger to sharpen. It takes a strong grip and the lead often fractures when you're nearly there. :facepalm:
Very cool!
Gave away a few handfuls for Christmas. Here are the leftovers.
Some more twiggy than others.
https://i.imgur.com/GuJ5tfz.jpg
It's a pleasant surprise how well the drill seems to follow the heartwood. Only about one in ten pokes out to the side, not always the curved ones where you'd expect it.