Scott Cheatham’s Weblog

If you’re like me and enjoy a good quality wood pencil to write with but hate having to throw them away after using only about half of the pencil, keep reading.

A few years back, I switched back to wood pencils in my writing. I’ve written before about my attempts to switch to mechanical pencils with no success. When I switched back though, I began a search for quality pencils that I could enjoy using. Much of what is marketed in stores today is cheaply made wood with lousy lead fillers. No wonder though if you throw them out every few weeks, why spend more?

But after you’ve used a quality pencil (and paid a bit more for it), you want to use as much of it as possible. Enter the Alvin Aluminum Pencil Lengthener. As the picture at right show, the device is a simple aluminum barrel with a screw top clutch that holds your pencil securely. When you’re nice pencils wear down like before, simply put them in the pencil lengthener and get many more weeks use from them. For a while now, I’ve used the Lyra Beechwood extenders with a collar that slides down over a semi-hollow barrel. These were okay but not what I was looking for. A few years back, I read about a Japanese manufacturer named Kutsawa that built nice pencil lengtheners but they weren’t easy to find. My good friends over at Pencil Things started to carry these so I waited until I needed some new pencils to have them throw one of these in there.

I wasn’t disappointed. The devices are relatively inexpensive ($3.00 for one  or $7.97 for a three pack) and they are nicely built for that price. As I mentioned earlier, the barrel in these lengtheners is hollow so you have put a half used pencil in them and work it down to the nub before throwing it away. This will extend the life of my pencils by at least 40% and looks professional in my messenger bag when I use it.

You pay good money for your quality pencils. Now make sure you get as much from them as possible. I recommend the Alvin Aluminum Pencil Lengthener for its balance of price, value, and convenience. I’ve not seem these in any store though since most office supply stores don’t see a need for stocking quality pencil products. You can order these online from Pencil Things and have them in your hands usually within a week.