# Erasers on pencils **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 30, 2016, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624 "2016-03-30T11:37:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/81 "2016-04-07T01:46:56Z")
Upthread I said I hadn’t used one in years, so I’m not some pencil enthusiast calling you out. How old are you that you’ve never used a pencil? ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/82 "2016-04-07T02:50:16Z")
I wonder if there is a cultural element as well. It strikes me that the Germans (and the Japanese) tend to be less willing to accept lower quality in exchange for convenience. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/83 "2016-04-07T19:33:04Z")
> [@spamforbrains](#): > > I don’t think I’ve ever even used a pencil, with or without an eraser. I know what they are but why? Kind of like using a quill pen. 😕 Pencils are so last century. Why use an outdated technology when we have pens. Just like books. Why would I read a murdered tree when I can read the internet. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/84 "2016-04-07T20:08:34Z")
> [@spamforbrains](#): > > I don’t think I’ve ever even used a pencil, with or without an eraser. I know what they are but why? Kind of like using a quill pen. 😕 You’ve never painted the triangle yellow and so forth? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/85 "2016-04-08T10:42:30Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > I’ve always hated conventional graphite-core wooden pencils anyway. I placed a high value on sharp lines and small-but clear writing, and those pencils got too dull too quickly, necessitating frequent sharpening - and each time you broke the tip, you had no choice but to resharpen. Were you using a “pencil sharpener”? You should have been using a sharpening knife and either a file or a piece of sandpaper. You sharpen up the tip with the sandpaper, and when the tip becomes too short you carve off some more wood with the knife. Which doesn’t stress and break the core. But like you, I shifted to mechanical pencils with fixed-width leads. In my case, because I wasn’t any good at drafting, and needed all the help I could get. [The kids in the school here are still using pencils with no eraser. Pencils with erasers are cheap Chinese imports, and the erasers are never taught in schools] ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/86 "2016-04-08T11:45:45Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > You’ve never painted the triangle yellow and so forth? 😕 Painted the triangle yellow? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/87 "2016-04-08T12:01:13Z")
As a little child, exercises painting inside the lines, to teach colors and shapes and exercise coordination and manual dexterity. “Paint the triangle yellow… pain the square red… pain the circle blue…” ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/88 "2016-04-08T12:34:20Z")
Oh okay, thanks. Nothing like painting the town red, which I think is an American saying. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/89 "2016-04-08T14:23:03Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > Pencils with erasers make better desk top drum sticks than those without. Well, that settles it. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/90 "2016-04-10T01:38:05Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Where is this unified nation of ‘Europe’ of which you speak? > > I am sat here, in my British office, using a pencil with an eraser (rubber) as we debate. And the rubber is, indeed, smudging my sketches. This. Europe is not a country. In Europe there’s are many countries and they have pencils with erasers. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/91 "2016-04-10T13:41:35Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Okay, that’s way more information than you needed or wanted but so be it, I walk around each and every day with a pencil case that holds those things. Truly geeky, I admit. > > And the zippered fabric pencil case? That holds highlighters, spare batteries and different color pens and is tossed into my backpack which is my attaché case for work (laptop and such). SW engineer, Silicon Valley, I am usually in the office in shorts and sandals and a nice shirt. That’s how I usually travel too. The casual look, business casual. The slacks and shoes and ties come out whem I’m at my destination… Business casual…I see all that worn with short-sleeve dress shirts. Say it ain’t so. And socks with the sandals. \* shudder \* ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2016, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/92 "2016-04-10T13:44:52Z")
Socks with sandals is my favorite combination. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/93 "2016-04-13T23:40:00Z")
And by chance, I was reading this last night: > [@Winnie the Pooh](#): > > When Pooh saw what it was, he nearly fell down, he was so pleased. It was a Special Pencil Case. > > There were pencils in it marked “B” for Bear, and pencils marked “HB” for Helping Bear, and pencils marked “BB” for Brave Bear. There was a knife for sharpening the pencils, and indiarubber for rubbing out anything which you had spelt wrong, > […] > “Was Pooh’s pencil case any better than mine?” > “It was just the same,” I said. > He nodded and went out … and in a moment I heard Winnie-the-Pooh - bump, bump, bump - going up the stairs behind him ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2016, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/94 "2016-04-13T23:48:46Z")
How is it possible for anyone alive today to have never used a pencil? For elementary school art classes if nothing else? My daughter is in 3rd grade in a well-off district, and they have iPads and computers, but plenty of their work is still done with paper and pencil. The pencils have erasers, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/95 "2016-04-14T00:33:33Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Socks with sandals is my favorite combination. There are some of you out there. But yeah, \* shudder \* ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/96 "2016-04-14T21:34:05Z")
Proof that many people, myself included, need to get a life. TWO pages on pencil erasers???! Hard to imagine a more trivial topic. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/97 "2016-04-14T22:42:07Z")
> [@spamforbrains](#): > > I don’t think I’ve ever even used a pencil, with or without an eraser. I know what they are but why? Kind of like using a quill pen. 😕 I have a computer and several types of pens at my desk. And i also have my trusty Dixon Ticonderoga pencil, with its useful eraser. I like the way it feels when i write with it. I like the precision of the extremely fine point i can put on it, and i like being able to erase. I don’t use it every day, but i use it often enough that it earns its spot on my desk. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/98 "2016-04-14T22:57:59Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I think that might be what jtur88 actually meant by ‘degrade’ - the rubber dries out or continues curing after manufacture, or something. It’s oxidizing. Ozone is a big culprit. Same thing causes rubber bands to get brittle and break. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/99 "2016-04-15T00:31:41Z")
> [@CC](#): > > Proof that many people, myself included, need to get a life. TWO pages on pencil erasers???! Hard to imagine a more trivial topic. Key fobs. No… Paper clips! A thread on which size is the best. I believe there are three, but I see no reason for the tiny ones, or the large ones. A bundle of paper that thick needs a clasp. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624/100 "2016-04-15T00:36:12Z")
> [@CC](#): > > Proof that many people, myself included, need to get a life. TWO pages on pencil erasers???! Hard to imagine a more trivial topic. The number of posts per page is not a fixed number; it’s set by the user (within certain limits). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erasers-on-pencils/750624.md?page=6)