Sercan Külcü

Sercan Külcü

Assistant Professor, Computer Engineering, Giresun University

Pencils

Why Graphite Shines

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A dark graphite drawing can suddenly flash silver when viewed from an angle. That sheen is a fundamental property of the material rather than a defect in the pencil. Read more

The No. 2 Pencil

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In the United States, “No. 2 pencil” became almost synonymous with school and testing. Read more

American School Pencils as Design Objects

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The ordinary American school pencil is easy to dismiss because it is so familiar: yellow barrel, pink eraser, metal ferrule, No. 2 marking. But familiarity is exactly what makes it culturally interesting. Read more

German Pencil Making Tradition

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Germany occupies a central place in pencil history, especially the region around Nuremberg and Stein. Names such as Faber-Castell and Staedtler connect modern stationery shelves with centuries of pencil manufacturing. Read more

Japanese Pencils and the Pursuit of Finish

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Japanese pencils attract collectors for reasons that go beyond writing darkness. The entire object often receives careful attention: lacquer, typography, barrel edges, core centering, and packaging. Read more

Faber-Castell Castell 9000

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The dark green Castell 9000 is one of the easiest pencils to recognize from across a desk. Its appearance is restrained, but the model carries more than a century of history. Read more

Why Pencils Break When Sharpening

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Few pencil problems are more frustrating than a point that breaks every time it emerges from the sharpener. The visible break may happen at the blade, but the real damage can have occurred much earlier. Read more

Knife Sharpening a Pencil

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Sharpening a pencil with a knife looks old-fashioned, but it offers control that a conventional sharpener cannot match. Read more

Sharpeners Change the Pencil

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A pencil cannot be separated from the way it is sharpened. Change the sharpener and the same pencil can feel like a different tool. Read more

How to Start a Pencil Collection

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A pencil collection does not need to begin with rare or expensive pieces. In fact, the best beginning is often a handful of ordinary pencils that are different enough to teach you what to notice. Read more

How I Test a New Pencil

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When a new pencil enters my collection, I try not to judge it from a single scribble. I use the same small routine so that comparisons remain meaningful. Read more

Pencil Point Retention Explained

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Darkness is easy to notice in a pencil test, but point retention may matter more during actual writing. It describes how well the sharpened point keeps a useful shape as the pencil moves across the page. Read more

The Anatomy of a Wooden Pencil

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A wooden pencil can be read almost like a small machine. Start at the point and move backward: graphite core, wooden casing, paint or lacquer, printed imprint, and then perhaps a dipped end, ferrule, eraser, or decorative cap. Read more

Why Pencil Wood Matters

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The wood around a pencil core is easy to overlook until you sharpen a badly made pencil. Then grain direction, density, machining, and centering suddenly become obvious. Read more

Inside a Pencil: Graphite, Clay and Wax

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A wooden pencil looks like a piece of painted wood with a dark center, but the core is a carefully engineered material. Calling it “lead” is traditional shorthand; ordinary graphite pencils do not use metallic lead in the writing core. Read more

What HB, B and H Really Mean

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The letters printed near the end of a pencil look simple, but they describe one of the most useful systems in the pencil world. H indicates the harder side of the scale, B indicates the softer and generally darker side, and HB sits around the practical middle. F is another middle grade found in many ranges. Read more

A Short History of the Modern Pencil

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The modern pencil is the result of several different technologies meeting over centuries: graphite mining, wood working, ceramic-like mixing processes, precision cutting, paint, printing, and mass production. Its familiar form looks inevitable only because it has been refined for so long. Read more

Why Pencils Still Matter

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A pencil is one of the simplest tools on a desk, yet it offers something that many modern writing instruments do not: visible change. The point becomes shorter, the paint acquires small scratches, the lettering slowly disappears under the fingers, and every page removes a little more of the object. A used pencil carries evidence of use. Read more