Did you know that woodless pencils exist? For a long time I had no idea there was such a thing as a woodless pencil, and when I mentioned to my husband a few days ago that I’d just bought a set of woodless pencils, he was quite surprised. For a time, he couldn’t quite figure out what I was talking about. Even after the pencils arrived and I took one out to show him, he was still a bit astonished to think that a pencil could be made completely of graphite — no wood at all.

So, what’s the big deal about a woodless pencil? Do you need one? What would you do with it if you had one?

I’m sure I would have been asking those same questions if someone had mentioned woodless pencils in the past. As chance would have it, however, I found myself with one of…