The Game of Pencils
As I was showing my collection of pencils from the 1990s to a friend the other day, he reminded me of a game he used to play in middle school. I, who went to middle school four years later and halfway across the country from him, vaguely remember it, too.
How to Play the Game of Pencils
It was called “pencils” (great name, right?), and involved two players. They took turns flicking their pencils at the other player, damaging the wooden barrel of the pencil on defense. After each hit, they’d switch roles and the defense pencil went on the offense. The pencil that broke first lost.
A cursory Google search reveals the Traditional Mexican Pencil Game, pencil and paper games (which looks kind of fun, actually), and how to score baseball games with a pencil. But I can’t seem to find a reference for a game of pencils.
As a collector and user of fine graphite-based writing instruments, I now feel that this is just a bit of wanton destruction for the same of destruction — something middle-school-aged kids love, right? But then I got to thinking. Could this be a good test of the durability and strength of a pencil? Would, say, a glossy lacquered, fine incense cedar Palomino demolish, say, the cheap generic big box-store pencil? What about an extruded wood pencil made of compressed sawdust? Would that make it stronger or weaker?
Also, what if I used a triangular pencil? The 120-degree angles of the tri-sided pencil is surely much sharper than the 60-degree angles of a hex, and the zero-degree angles of a round. It may help to cleave a pencil.
Meanwhile, do you remember this game? Any rules or subtleties I’m missing? Let me know what you think. I’m hoping to find time and products to pit against each other in, perhaps, a pencil tournament. Can you think of products to use?
I stated collecting pencils in middle school after a newly acquired pencil known as the Eagle Black Warrior won a few matches for me. I saved it and thus started collecting. I have played around with it a little as I am older now and find that it is much easier to break your own pencil by pulling back too hard. Also, I must say that those cheap pencils are a bear to break. I imagine they are made of some type of cheap hard wood from a tropical area. I can even hear the difference when one of my students is sharpening a pencil with one of them. Upon closer inspection I see that the wood has been mangled. The sharpeners have a hard time cutting though that wood. I also perform some hand sharpening for my students from time to time and that wood is really hard to slice. Not sure what it is , but it is only use in by cheap genric pencils. Fine cedar is soft and sharpens well.