In this episode of MADE HERE, we’re taking you through the pencil-making production process—from colored pencils, to sketching pencils, and the everyday classic pencil.

The beloved writing tool begins as a humble slab of wood from which the familiar pencil shape emerges. The slabs for the colored pencils get sorted, shaved, then sorted again before being stacked, smoothed down and shaped. Next, the color stick is sandwiched between two slabs of cut wood that gets placed in a machine that prepares to cut the columns that will become sharpened pencils later on in the production process.