Carpenter's Pencil for fire starting?

R

RedEdge77

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Jul 13, 2005
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As I was sitting here drawing up some plans for a wood shed, I glimpsed a carpenter's pencil out of the corner of my eye. Needless to say I pulled out a knife and decided to shave away some thin strips for the hell of it.

I noticed that I was able to make very thin and long curls out of the wood encasing the lead. Today I am unable to test out whether or not they would catch a spark well but in the future definitely plan on trying it.

Anyone else ever tried this before? You also get the added benefit of being able to mark stuff with it being a pencil and all :D
 
most carpenter pencils are made with western cedar, so the shavings should make good tinder.
 
1066vik said:
most carpenter pencils are made with western cedar, so the shavings should make good tinder.
Click to expand...

I am so glad you guys started this thread. While moving most of my possessions to a storage unit the other day I found a box of my dad's old Carpenter pencils. I came very close to pitching them in the trash. That's very interesting that they would make those type of pencils with cedar wood.

The times I did some carpentry work I never figured out what the advantages were using those older Carpenter's pencils. Glad I kept them.

I'll bet that the simple shavings you get out of most pencil sharpeners would make good tinder and/or kindling. Interesting needless to say :)
 
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