Stick-Pencil

I saw this concept on a trip to Tate modern art gallery in London, These natural pencils were on sale for £7/$15, i really liked the idea but i thought the price was ridiculous for something so simple. After about 30 minutes of work i had made my own natural Stick-Pencil.

This project is very simple to do but it is incredibly rewarding, you get to make something that you can customize and actually use, it's better than a regular pencil because it looks great and it feels good in your hand.

This project is very simple and it can be done in many ways, if you do not have the exact tools on this list, don't worry , just use something similar or improvise.

Tools

• Secateurs (garden scissors)
• Gardening gloves
• Sandpaper
• A Pencil (thicker the graphite the better)
• Drill (can be any type)
• Glue
• A Stick

First of all you need to get a stick of wood. So put on your gloves, pick up your cutting tool and head on out into the wild (aka back garden)

What to look for

• First of all look for a bush...
• Then find a straight section of a branch
• It doesn't matter if the section has other branches coming off it, you can cut and sand these down.
• You don't want it to feel like a log in your hand so pretend to hold the branch like its a pencil and see if it is the right thickness, The section i used was 14mm thick.

Now you need to cut the section off, the pencil should be around 17cm long so cut a 20cm section just in case you make a mistake and need to trim a bit off.

Now you have a big leafy section, trim off all the other branches and leaves until you have the plain straight section.

Now we can use the sandpaper to smooth out any lumps and bumps.

Using the sandpaper first smooth any bumps then lightly run the sandpaper up and down the stick so it feels smooth to the touch, don't press to hard though or the bark will wear away.

Now you have your stick we need to make a hole to put the graphite in.
To create the hole we need a drill, any type of drill will do, I used a Dremel to drill mine.

When you choose your drill bit hold the pencil next to it and make sure the drill bit is just a tiny bit thicker, Then drill your hole.
If you cant drill the entire length of the stick don't worry, just drill as far as you can

Now we have the shell of the pencil we need to get the graphite out of the normal pencil.

Most pencils wooden casing will split if you apply pressure but we don't want the graphite to snap so we cant just jump on it.
Using Scissors or the Garden scissors you used earlier, clamp down on the flat end of the pencil, this should cause a split in the wood and you can snap it off, Keep on snapping the wood off until you have enough graphite exposed to fill the hole you drilled. Then simply snap the graphite off.

Alternatively you could break open a ball point and make a Stick-Biro..

Now we have our stick and out graphite we can assemble the pencil.

Squirt some of the glue into the hole in the stick and then put a few drips on the graphite itself, now simply slide the graphite into the hole. Wait 10-15 minutes for the glue to dry before moving on to the next step.

Now we have assembled our pencil we need to shape the end so we can write with it.
You could use a normal pencil sharpener for this bit but using a knife make it look better.

With a knife shape the end into a point and then do the same for the tip of the graphite

Now you have finished making the pencil, if you want you can stop here and use it as it is.

But if you want to customize your pencil, read on !!

You can customize your Stick-Pencil any way you want, here are some of my ideas ;

• Paint it
• Carve a pattern into bark
• Add a rubber grip
• Swap the graphite for the inside of a ball-point pen
• Strip of all the bark
• Burn words/symbols into it

For my Stick-Pencil i decided i would strip an area of bark and then burn something into it with my soldering iron, I decided i was going to write instructables.com
If you want to do something similar, read on.

• First use a craft knife to cut a rectangular box in the bark, then with the tip of the knife pick at the edges and pull the bark square off.
• Next use a pencil to faintly mark where the words will go
• Now heat up your soldering iron
• Once heated use the iron to burn the wood and write your words.
• Depending on the power of your iron you may need to go over the words to make them stand out.
• Step back and admire your creation.

If you made this, Thanks and i hope you enjoy your Stick-Pencil, Post pictures !!
If you just read it, Thanks for reading :D

This instructable is in the book contest and i'd really like to see it get in the book because anybody can make this, its fun, useful and easy to make,

So if you did like this please Vote, Rate and Comment !!!

Stay Creative =SMART=