Pencils

A traditional wooden pencil comes with different lead types

A pencil lead is made from graphite mixed with clay. The amount of clay determines the hardness of the lead, which impacts the darkness of the writing. The harder the pencil, the lighter in color the marks are. At Quill, you can select the right business supplies and writing utensils, with the lead hardness that best fits your projects.

• #1: This lead is very soft. Use it for bold, thick lines.
• #2: This medium-soft lead is the standard for school work. Use it for standardized tests or scanned forms and day-to-day writing.
• #3 and #4: These harder leads leave light lines. They are most commonly used for drafting and engineering work.

Wooden pencils offer flexible choices

A hexagon-shaped barrel makes a wooden lead pencil easy to grip, and the shape prevents it rolling along the desk or off a drafting table. When you choose writing implements like Ticonderoga® pencils, you start with the advantage of a pre-sharpened lead, making them convenient for travel and off-site meetings. The lead in a wooden pencil is typically smudge-free and markings are easily removed with an attached eraser. Some pencils are PMA certified as nontoxic, which is good news for the pencil-chewers in your office and classroom. Cedar barrels, one of the popular woods used in pencils, are easy to sharpen.

In addition to traditional yellow or black barrels, you can choose cute pencils with bright colors and patterns, like glitter, animals, camo and more, to add a punch of fun to work. Pre-sharpened golf pencils are also efficient for taking notes on paper in a meeting, filling in business forms, for noting scores in games like golf and bingo, for election ballots, or in other situations when you need a lot of pencils quickly.

Teachers find erasable checking pencils with red or blue leads convenient for in-class checking, editing, and other collaborative work. To further embellish work once you've sketched your design or drafted your document, use pens, markers, and other writing supplies from Quill.

A mechanical pencil is convenient for on-the-go writing

With no need to sharpen the polymer leads, mechanical pencils provide easy availability outside the office. Available with 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9-millimeter lead thicknesses, these pencils let you write fine, medium, or bold lines that are smudge-proof and erasable. Some styles come pre-loaded with several leads, while others are refillable. The plastic barrels are recyclable, while the option to replenish both leads and erasers make them economical. Some barrels have an easy-to-grip hexagonal shape, and others have soft comfort grips.