Velvet Pencil Making Machine

Each individual slat goes through a machine called the Groover Machine (not to be confused with someone who can't stop dancing) that cuts — you guessed it — grooves into the surface of the wood. This preps the wood for graphite.Chunks of graphite (a soft, dark mineral) and clay are placed inside a huge rotating drum. Large rocks inside the drum crush the graphite and clay into a fine powder. Then water is added, and the mixture is blended in the drum for up to three days.Joseph Dixon, an inventor and entrepreneur involved with the Tantiusques graphite mine in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, developed a means to mass-produce pencils.