Pencil Manufacture

Pencil- is a clay or graphite or similar material encased of wood or holds which is primarily
used for writing and drawing.

Species for pencil manufacture

1. Southern cedar
2. Eastern cedar
3. Incense cedar
4. Benguet pine
5. Binuang
6. Kalantas
7. Malakawayan
8. Palosapis

Characteristics of species manufacture

1. Hardness- species for pencil making is not too hard because it has undergo machine
abilities or it may not too soft because it fragile.
2. Straight grained- more strength
3. Reddish in color and pleasantly scented

Steps in pencil manufacture

1. Preparation of slots- a wooden materials as a cover of the lead.
Types of slots
1. Blanks slot- without grooves
2. Slots- with grooves

For light colored wood it is impregnated with dyes and immerse in paraffin to prevent
sneering of dye in the surface.

1. Drying- drying of slots to 8-10% to give reddish color of slots.

2. Putting of grooves in the blank- size of grooves should be equal to ½ diameter of the
rod/lead to be inserted.
3. Application of glue- to fasten the two blanks after the rod is inserted glue used is the
polyvinyl acetate.
4. Putting of matching slots
5. Pressing- pressing of matched slots will be pressed for 24 hours at 60 to 90 psi.
6. Feeding to shaping machine- matched slots is feed to the shaping machine so as to a
desired shapes.
 7. Sanding the sides- sanding is done to smoothen the surfaces.
8. Painting and varnishing- improve the appearance of the finished products.
9. Stamping- printing of trademarks.
10. Heading- insertion of eraser
11. Inspection and packaging- ready for distribution to different outlets.

CHARCOAL MAKING (Pit Method)

Charcoal- is a black porous and combustible mass produced by control burning of wood or
other lignocellulosic materials. It has been by man since pre- historical times.

Economic uses of charcoal

1. Fuel for domestic cooking

2. Heating purposes
3. Metal smelting
4. Curing tobacco, meat and fish
5. Source of carbon for the manufacture of various chemicals such disulfide, calcium
carbide, silicon carbide, sodium cyanide, carbon monoxide, etc.

Selection of raw materials

Almost all kinds of wood can be made into charcoal. However they are heavy and
there are light woods. Charcoal produced from heavy will have good quality because
they hard and dense. The selection of speed will depend upon the availability of raw
materials locality.

Some of the recommended wood species for charcoal making are the following, Native
and giant ipil-ipil, kakawate, binayuyu, guava, mango species considered as having good
quality charcoal products. Agriculture wastes are potential source of materials for
charcoal making.

They available in great quantities. Some examples are the coconut shells, tree and husks,
corn cobs, peanut shells, pili nut shells and rice hulls. Will accepted agricultural wastes
charcoal duct is the coconut shells.

PIT CONSTRUCTION AND CHARCOALING PROCEDURES

 To produce a higher yield of charcoal, FPRD recommends the following techniques
and producers:

How to construct a pit

Select a convenient place, one which is away from the house or houses in the village to
avoid smoke disturbance.

Check if there are plants or trees near the area which may be affected the smoke. If
possible, dig the pit on clayey soil, no need to concrete or GI sheet linings-on the pit
walls.

1. Dig a rectangular pit of 4 meters long, 2 meters wide and 1.5 meter deep. The pit
should have sloping sides with smaller dimension at bottom which is 3.3 meters long
and 1.5 meters wide.

2. At one end of the pit, make 3 circular holes for the air inlets chimney at a distance of
about 1 meter away from the rim. These how about one half meter apart should be 15
cm in diameter and should exit toward the bottom of the pit.

3. Insert bamboo tubes in the holes in such a way that the chimney at center should be
higher than the air inlets.

4. Prepare a pit cover made of either GI sheet or flattened oil drum should be dig
enough to cover the whole pit.

Setting the raw Materials

1. Load only one kind of raw material at the time. Do not burn wood and coconut shell
together. Different raw materials burn in different ways. Some born slowly, like
wood. Some are light like coconut husks which burn faster. If these materials are
burn together , the result will be half – charred wood and coconut husks turn into
ashes.
2. When using wood burn pieces of the same sizes together. If this is not possible ,
make sure that the larger pieces are either put together at the bottom or at one end
of the pit. The smaller pieces, on the other hand, should be placed.
CHARCOAL MAKING

1. Before stacking the raw materials, place long wooden or bamboo poles along the length of
the pit bottom to serve as sticker. These stickers will leave a space between the ground and
the raw materials to allow the air to move from the inlets and floe toward one end of the
pit; the air moves back and then flow out through the chimney.
2. Stack the materials carefully with smaller wood pieces piled across the pit’s width. They
should be stacked well to allow as much materials to be burned at a single charge.
3. Pile kindling materials such as dried twigs, pieces of paper or coconut coir on top of the
wood piece.
4. Cover the pit with GI sheets or flattened oil drums, but leaves an opening of about 15 cm at
one end directly about the kindling materials. Ignite the kindling materials through this gap.
5. Start the fire – make sure that the burning is underway before closing the 15 centimeter
gap. Thick smoke through the chimney shows that burning is well underway.
6. Observe the smoke that comes out of the chimney. If it is white and thick, this means that
the materials are burning to much control the flow of air by closing and opening the air
inlets.
7. Check the pit cover for any possible holes or gap. This could be easily detected when smoke
comes out in any portion of the pit cover. Put banana leaves and soil over the cover to seal
off any gap air opening.
8. If this pit dimension (4x2x1.5 meters) is used. It takes about 72 hours to complete the
burning. When the smoke out of the chimney gradually thins out and turns bluish/ burning is
almost complete.
9. Wait for the kiln to cool off. It usually takes about 72 hours to cool off the kiln. In the mean
time. Make sure that there are no holes or gaps for the air to pass through from the surface
into the pit, otherwise burning will continue and some of the charcoal will turn to ashes.
10. When the charcoal has cooled off remove the cover and shovel out the charcoal from the
pit. Put them, in the sacks or any kind of suitable container and storwe in a covered, dried
place.