Why most wood pencils are Yellow

General Mechanical Pencil Discussion
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While watching these on Youtube, I noticed another wood pencil video.

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Thanks for this, Patrick. Really fascinating! I had not known that graphite was discovered in a UK mine and that later, the most refined lead was found in China.

But what really got me–Koh-i-noor. The name reflecting the rare diamond! And interesting that yellow is a reflection of “gold.” Koh-i-noor really set the standard, not just with color but also the hexagonal cuts. It DOES help with anti-roll… not dramatically for steeper surface angles, but slow enough to catch. But I also imagine it may have been done for the ease of printing/engraving of the wood for branding and other info.

It’s also interesting to see the tremendous range of yellow shades… from an orangey cadmium yellow to a bright lemon yellow. I also wonder if it’s just a coincidence that school buses are also a common graphite pencil yellow color.

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I had no idea Koh-I-nope was so old!

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I don’t know if lead holder guru Dan Linn is on this forum, but if so, my apologies for borrowing a photo of his (originally posted to the Drawing Instruments group photos section, only accessible by members).

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These mechanical pencils combine many of the themes mentioned above - yellow colour, Koh-i-noor (Hardtmuth) in their earlier Austria days, hexagonal section, and even British Graphite. They’re also made of wood (mostly). Pity they don’t have erasers.

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