How to Make the Best Quality Colored Pencils

Discover the process behind creating Faber Castell’s quality colored pencils, carefully crafted to best serve the vision of the aspiring and professional artist. Providing quality colored pencils is a craft we’ve mastered and have been dedicated to for hundreds of years. Born from wood growing in our FSC certified forests, every step in the manufacturing of our color pencils promises a quality result.

Wooden slats on machine belt

Slat:

Our process begins with a knot-free slat of wood, cut accordingly to a certain length and thickness in the shape of a sandwich board.

Grooved Slat:

We then groove the slates surface with a series of parallel lines. The size of this grooving varies depending on the style of the pencil it will evolve into.

Wooden slats

Lead Laying and SV Bonding:

Our next step is SV bonding; a unique but key component in our quality manufacturing. During this process, we diligently apply glue throughout the entire grooved line where we rest the lead, making our pencils trustworthy with extreme break resistance.

Our attention to quality details carries through with the lead we produce. The proof is in the pigment. Our rich pigments allow for better blending and layering, are resistant to fading over time and are certified non-toxic.

Sandwich:

We complete our SV bonding process by sandwiching two slates together and firmly pressing them until completely dried.
We proceed by marking the surface of the sandwiched slate with a single line. This line functions as a guideline and rail for the cutting process.

Pencil Molding:

From here, we finally get to see our pencils take shape as the slats go into the molding and cutting process. We shape them to become one of our various pencil styles whether it be hexagonal, triangular or round. Our molds are designed with the artists comfort in mind, ensuring tireless writing with our ergonomic shape options.

Once the molding and cutting is done we now have raw pencils.

Colored pencils dipped in paint

Lacquered Pencils:

Though the internal pencil creation may be complete, our dedication to quality advances outward as we send them through a coating and coloring process.
We coat our raw pencils with a primary coat to serve as a foundation for the coloring process.

Pencils with marking