PENCIL, an instrument used by painters for laying on their colours. Pencils are of various kinds, and made of various materials; the largest sorts are made of boars bristles, the thick ends of which are bound to a stick, bigger, or less according to the uses they are designed for; these, when large, are called brushes. The finer sorts of pencils are made of camels, badgers, and squirrels hair, and of the down of swans; these are tied at the upper end with a piece of strong thread, and enclosed in the barrel of a quill.
All good pencils, on being drawn between the lips, come to a fine point.