# Why are most pencils painted yellow? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 21, 2000, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-pencils-painted-yellow/9158 "2000-03-21T03:07:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ursa\_Major](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a88e57/32.png) [@Ursa\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ursa_Major)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-pencils-painted-yellow/9158/1 "2000-03-21T03:07:00Z")
Well? ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-pencils-painted-yellow/9158/2 "2000-03-21T03:22:00Z")
According to [http://www.pencils.com/](http://www.pencils.com/) > [@](#): > > During the 1800s, the best graphite in the world came from China. American pencil makers wanted a special way to tell people that their pencils contained Chinese graphite. > In China, the color yellow is associated with royalty and respect. American pencil manufacturers began painting their pencils bright yellow to communicate this “regal” feeling and association with China. > The rest, as they say, is history. Today, 75% of the pencils sold in the United States are painted yellow! Don’t know how true that is, though. ---
**Author:** ![Ursa\_Major](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a88e57/32.png) [@Ursa\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ursa_Major)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-pencils-painted-yellow/9158/3 "2000-03-21T03:35:00Z")
Thanks, Kat! That’s a much more interesting explaination than I expected. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-pencils-painted-yellow/9158/4 "2000-03-22T06:58:00Z")
Just to inject further useless pencil-related trivia into the discussion – the explanation above also explains why one of the more popular #2 pencils has the name it does – the Faber-Castell Mongol. ---
**Author:** ![Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/57b2e6/32.png) [@Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-pencils-painted-yellow/9158/5 "2000-03-21T22:10:00Z")
Wasn’t the mascot of Faber College a Mongol? “Knowledge is Good.” ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-pencils-painted-yellow/9158/6 "2000-03-21T22:51:00Z")
Kat’s explanation (from the [www.pencils.com)](http://www.pencils.com)) site is backed up by Henry Petroski, author of the fascinating book The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance. According to Petroski: –Pencils were originally painted to cover inferior wood and construction. –When Siberian graphite came to been seen as superior, Oriental names like Mongol and Mikado were adopted. –The yellow paint helped reinforce this “Orientalness.” Bean, who loves her Ecowriter pencils–yellow with a green eraser. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2000, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-pencils-painted-yellow/9158/7 "2000-03-21T22:56:00Z")
Oh, and by the way…Mongols were made by EberhardFaber, not Faber Castell. These are two different companies. A say WERE made, because last I heard, Eberhard Faber had been acquired by Sanford (the Sharpie people) and were to be discontinued. I hope that this has not come to pass, 'cause the Mongol was a really terrific pencil. ---
**Author:** ![Ursa\_Major](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a88e57/32.png) [@Ursa\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ursa_Major)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-pencils-painted-yellow/9158/8 "2000-03-22T00:41:00Z")
There’s a story about how HD Thoreau, managed to hang out at Waldin without doing a lick of work. I wonder if anybody can confirm it. Of course, he was sponging off his neighbor RW Emerson for eats and a warm room in the Winter, but he was also the heir to Concord’s pencil barons. What’s a vintage Thoreau pencil worth? ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-pencils-painted-yellow/9158/9 "2000-03-22T01:19:00Z")
Yes, Ursa, you are absolutely right. The Thoreaus were pencil-makers, and Henry David worked in the pencil business before he became a writer. It was the family money that allowed him to live at Walden. As for the cost of a vintage Thoreau pencil, all I could come up with was this: “…and even as long ago as 1965, a dozen pencils offered by a Boston bookseller sold for $100 to a collector.” (Petroski, 118) ---
**Author:** ![RussellM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed8c4c/32.png) [@RussellM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RussellM)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-pencils-painted-yellow/9158/10 "2000-03-22T12:22:00Z")
Yellow? Surely you mean red. AFIK, most pencils in the UK are red with black stripes down the vertices. Russell ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-pencils-painted-yellow/9158/11 "2000-03-22T13:01:00Z")
Yeah. That’s right. The red ones write in an English accent. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2000, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-pencils-painted-yellow/9158/12 "2000-03-22T14:54:00Z")
(Shaking head) Pencils are painted yellow to cover the unsightly blemishes left by inferior harvesting techniques. UC Davis eventually helped develop better techniques and more resitant wood, so now you can get naturally colored pencils. Pencil ice cream is green because the wood is … oh, wait, never mind, wrong thread… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ASPA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b19c9b/32.png) [@ASPA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASPA)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2000, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-pencils-painted-yellow/9158/13 "2000-03-25T21:04:00Z")
[QUOTE] Originally posted by Kat: According to [http://www.pencils.com/http://](http://www.pencils.com/http://)[www.pencils.com…](http://www.pencils.com....) INTERESTING! ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2000, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-most-pencils-painted-yellow/9158/14 "2000-03-26T01:59:00Z")
Well, in Switzerland, it seems most of the pencils nowadays are not painted. However, in the 1970’s and before (according to my parents) they were mostly yellow. Perhaps due to the USA influence?