While researching something completely different, I discovered there’s a whole community out there dedicated to collecting and documenting pencils and erasers. Even though I’m only casually interested in them, it’s still fascinating to see the variety of designs out there and how things have and haven’t changed. I also learned interesting but useless trivia like the origin of the electronics company Sharp’s name - it’s from their first product, the EverSharp mechanical pencil, from 1915. I was also surprised by how long ago the first mechanical pencil was invented. They may seem like a ‘modern’ product, but they were first invented in 1822.
Some select pencil sites:
- Wooden pencils: Pencil Talk, Brand Name Pencils
- Mechanical pencils: Dave’s Mechanical Pencils
- Erasers: Joy of Erasers, Erasersworld