The life of a pencil

Today we have a guest post and photo essay from the highly regarded kiwi-d of Dave’s Mechanical Pencils!

(Photos can be clicked for full size views.)

We all tend to focus on nice new pencils – picturesque in their youthful prime. Here’s a little something beyond those early salad days.

1. The beginning with a world of opportunities out there.
The life of a pencil

2. Office work is not too hard, but over time age starts to show.
The life of a pencil

3. Working outdoors or in the trades is often a little harder on the body.
The life of a pencil

4. Still, things are generally all OK.
The life of a pencil

5. But some don’t take such good care.
The life of a pencil

6. Others take paths of danger or just plain old stupidity and pay the price.
The life of a pencil

7. Luckily though many continue to a ripe old age, handing over to the next generation.
The life of a pencil

8. And spending time as a respected elder.
The life of a pencil

No pencils were harmed in the making of this article.

9 Replies to “The life of a pencil”

  1. My first thought, when the top of the picture appeared in my browser was,” hey, he has learnt something from Dave”. Only then I realised it was a guest article. Nice going both of you. I like the poetic approach.
    And it’s nice to see a Danish pencil appear here (the red “Skjoldungen” in the second picture) – glad it didn’t appear in pictures when things are not going that well.

    kind regards
    Henrik

  2. Leave it to Dave to explain the most enigmatic smile in art history (nice touch that ‘postprandial’ cigarette). If no pencils were harmed in the making of this article why are La Gioconda’s and Homer Simpson’s pencils so rudely snapped in half? The life of a woodcase pencil in the wild is indeed solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Perhaps Stephen will show the Dickensian fate that awaits the cosseted mechanical pencil suddenly subjected to the ravages of this heartless workaday world. Hmmm?

  3. Barrel, don’t worry, an article on the short and unhappy life of many MP’s is in the pipeline. The “No Pencils Harmed” bit means pencils were not deliberately sharpened, broken etc for the article – in fact the snapped ones were rescued from their uncaring masters.

  4. Photo 2, the top pencil of the three. The search facility on this blog doesn’t bring up any results for this brand of pencil. Anyone want to guess what it is?

  5. The mystery pencil in photo 2 is a “Columbia Copperplate 700”, Columbia being a brand of international stationery giant Esselte.

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