Pencil sharpener pencil in position, although they then sharpen them to the usual conical point as for a round pencil, abandoning some distinctive aspects of the carpenter's pencil. Sharpeners with a single blade for use on wax crayons are available, and sometimes included in boxes of crayons. These often have plastic blades, which are adequate for the soft wax. Mechanical pencils dispense the graphite lead progressively during use and thus do not require sharpening; such pencils are sometimes called "self-sharpening". A type of mechanical pencil has a rotating gear mechanism which rotates the lead slightly every time the lead is lifted off
Negro (lead pencil) art which was dark enough to be reproduced with early photographic technology. It was used as a replacement for lithographic printmaking, just as pen and ink line art essentially took the place of intaglio in late 19th-century illustration. While the name is used in the artistic sense, the word "Negro" literally, depictions of stylized African natives have been used in marketing campaigns and product packaging. One of the original producers of negro pencils was the Koh-i-Noor company, however those manufactured by the company today are composed of lead that is slightly less dark and waxy than the originals. Cretacolor produces