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The history of lead pencils and their lack of any lead (2021)

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Re: The history of lead pencils and their lack of any lead (2021)

#31

Post by kbelder »

sharkweek wrote: post #14

I remember in like 4th grade I stabbed myself in the leg with a pencil on accident and snapped a piece of the "lead" off in my leg. My brain spiraled for weeks thinking I had essentially poisoned myself and would be dying shortly. Finally told my parents, who said "okay lets go talk to the doctor" who, very sweetly, told me that little piece of graphite in my leg would cause essentially no harm. It's still there, a l…

My older brother jammed a pencil into an old-school dart gun and fired it at me, tagging me about half an inch to the right of my eye. Left the same permanent blue dot.

Semi-permanent, actually; it faded after a couple decades. Probably wormed it's way into my brain. Sometimes I'm shocked I'm still alive.

Re: The history of lead pencils and their lack of any lead (2021)

#32

Post by spinningD20 »

As a toddler in the early 80s, I playfully stole my older sister's pencil when she was working on her homework, ran away with it, tripped and fell, the lead breaking off in my eye. Fortunately I don't remember any of that myself...

Almost 40 years later it's still there, still scaring any new eye care establishment personnel with each visit.

Fortunately no noticable side effects, other than when I get something in my eye and back out again, my brain keeps telling me something is there for an hour or two afterward.

Re: The history of lead pencils and their lack of any lead (2021)

#33

Post by kanapala »

ane wrote: post #15

So what's the truth of the hardness/blackness grade? Did Conte invent it? Because Hardtmuth, one of the large pencil manufacturers, claims otherwise: "According to the personal notes of Franz Hardtmuth, the marking of pencils using the letter H originates from the family surname Hardtmuth, B means Budweis, or Budějovice in Czech language, and F refers to his first name Franz." https://www.blog.koh-i-noor.cz/post/the-…

Conte was French anyway, there’s no h-word for hard in french..

Re: The history of lead pencils and their lack of any lead (2021)

#34

Post by dtgriscom »

nkurz wrote: post #17
cancerhacker wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the same thing in the palm of my hand - was bumping a pencil along a wall, also in fourth grade, ish. I knew it was graphite and wouldn't hurt me, but I was too afraid of it hurting to winkle it out, and it just healed over.

I spent some time puzzling over what "winkle" might be a typo for before realizing it was a British verb I was unfamiliar with: "chiefly British : to displace, remove, or evict from a position" Apparently the etymology is the periwinkles are difficult to remove from their shells: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/winkle

"She's horribly good at winkling."

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/7a2639f3-cf03-4223-bc46-5ae44b5...

Re: The history of lead pencils and their lack of any lead (2021)

#35

Post by sphars »

david422 wrote: post #26
sharkweek wrote: post #14

I remember in like 4th grade I stabbed myself in the leg with a pencil on accident and snapped a piece of the "lead" off in my leg. My brain spiraled for weeks thinking I had essentially poisoned myself and would be dying shortly. Finally told my parents, who said "okay lets go talk to the doctor" who, very sweetly, told me that little piece of graphite in my leg would cause essentially no harm. It's still there, a l…

I've got a blue mark in the palm of my hand from where it was stabbed in maybe 1st or 2nd grade. I don't think I actually left a piece of pencil in there ... I think perhaps the skin was colored grey and just stayed that way?

Same here, tiny little dot of gray/blue on my palm. Probably from 2nd or 3rd grade. Then I have another on in my arm, probably 4th grade.

Even after nearly 25 years they're still there.

Re: The history of lead pencils and their lack of any lead (2021)

#36

Post by 0_____0 »

alnico wrote: post #30
sharkweek wrote: post #14

I remember in like 4th grade I stabbed myself in the leg with a pencil on accident and snapped a piece of the "lead" off in my leg. My brain spiraled for weeks thinking I had essentially poisoned myself and would be dying shortly. Finally told my parents, who said "okay lets go talk to the doctor" who, very sweetly, told me that little piece of graphite in my leg would cause essentially no harm. It's still there, a l…

I too was stabbed in grade school; twice actually, in the same hand. I think both times for pestering girls as they were writing, lol. I guess I deserved it. Both left visible gray marks under the healed skin...one on a finger and the other in the soft tissue between my thumb and index finger. Years later, in my 30s, I was handling some super strong magnets and felt tugging on the tissue next to my thumb, indeed that…

What caused the graphite fragment to be ferromagnetic?

Re: The history of lead pencils and their lack of any lead (2021)

#37

Post by xdc0 »

I'm from a Spanish speaking country. In the 90s one of the ubiquitous pencil brands had on their pencils the phrase "Sin plomo" or "No contiene plomo", can't remember which one, these phrases translate to "Without lead" and "Does not contain lead" respectively.

I never understood where it came from but it probably came from some English label translation perhaps? Where the distinction and labeling where the disambiguation of the word "Lead" made more sense and the label was simply translated at face value on a Spanish speaking market.

Re: The history of lead pencils and their lack of any lead (2021)

#39

Post by corinroyal »

samirillian wrote: post #38

Lead for mechanical pencils is highly conductive, seemingly pure graphite but I think they can have different hardness ratings too, I wonder what the difference is.

The difference is pencil clay. More clay makes a harder, lighter marking lead. https://shop.kremerpigments.com/us/shop/pigments/40960-penci...

Re: The history of lead pencils and their lack of any lead (2021)

#40

Post by Arrath »

cancerhacker wrote: post #16
sharkweek wrote: post #14

I remember in like 4th grade I stabbed myself in the leg with a pencil on accident and snapped a piece of the "lead" off in my leg. My brain spiraled for weeks thinking I had essentially poisoned myself and would be dying shortly. Finally told my parents, who said "okay lets go talk to the doctor" who, very sweetly, told me that little piece of graphite in my leg would cause essentially no harm. It's still there, a l…

I have the same thing in the palm of my hand - was bumping a pencil along a wall, also in fourth grade, ish. I knew it was graphite and wouldn't hurt me, but I was too afraid of it hurting to winkle it out, and it just healed over.

As a child I was walking through my room and stepped on a fallen pencil, it rolled under my foot in just the right way: it shot out and stabbed me in the ball of my other foot!

Most random thing, and I've still got the dot these 30 years later.

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