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The ubiquitous Ikea pencil. If you’ve been to Ikea, you probably have one hiding in a drawer somewhere…

The company

Well, it’s Ikea, what can I say. If you don’t know of Ikea, well, you can always read the wikipedia article.

The pencil itself

What is there to say - it is a short, standard diameter, unfinished wood pencil.

It does not have a stated hardness, but let’s presume it is an ‘average HB’. Given the pencils natural short length, I struggled to use the pencil for anything but the shortest scribbling, so I dug out my ‘pencil extender’, normally reserved for using up the stubs of well loved pencils.

How does it write

Not bad. A touch hard, but it didn’t wear down too fast, and left a decent mark. For a ‘free’ pencil (and, although the pencils are free in the stores, it is not clear to me if they really are free to take away, or if technically that is a little bit or robbery :-)

You might think, being a pencil, these little things are predominantly used for writing with. But, there is almost a sub-culture around re-using Ikea pencils for purposes they were not originally intended for - a chair, a pencil holder (what else!), it has been mentioned in the BMJ, and the list no doubt goes on. One interesting thing that caught my eye relevant to some other work I’m doing at the moment is that it may be the exact same size as hex screwdriver bits…

Sourcing

Err, well, you get them from … Ikea! Funnily enough, I don’t think you can purchase the. You can buy a set of coloured pencils, but not ‘the’ Ikea pencil. So, you are just going to have to go visit a store and ‘liberate’ some. You know though, it is amazing what you can buy on ebay - yep, you can buy 10 un-used Ikea pencils from an ebay seller for £2.50.

Next time you are in, near or passing an Ikea, go, get at least one, and give it a try.