The material that makes a pencil write is a mixture of graphite (a form of carbon), clay, wax, and chemicals.
To make a pencil, you have to mix graphite, clay, and water at high speeds. The mixture is placed in a machine that compresses it into a long, thin black wand. This wand or stick is cut into pieces the size of a pencil in length, and then baked until hard. A layer of wax is applied to the pieces so that they write smoothly.
The hardened graphite sticks are placed inside the grooves of a piece of wood. Then another piece of wood with similar grooves is placed over the first piece containing the graphite sticks and joined together in the form of a "sandwich". The two already joined pieces are cut into individual pencils, varnished, sanded and a metal ring is added where the eraser is located.
When sharpening a pencil, wood is actually being removed to expose more of the graphite. When someone writes, tiny fragments of the soft graphite remain on the paper, creating words and images.
Colored pencils are made in the same way, except that other pigments and dyes are mixed with the clay, instead of graphite.
Ancient Greeks and Romans used lead pieces to write!
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