Pencil Debris

Transmitted Off Circular Polarized Light and Reflected Darkfield Illumination

Pencil debris includes the carbon fragments from the "lead" of the pencil, wood sawdust, and paint from
the surface of the pencil. The yellow particle just to the upper right of the center of this image is
from the yellow paint on the surface of the pencil. The vehicle of this paint is acetone soluble so the
acetone soak in preparing this tapelift for analysis dissolved the vehicle and the paint pigment and filler
coalesced into an ellipsoid due to surface tension. The carbon fragments are actually a blend of clay and
graphite. The graphite is relatively reflective and so the particles are speckled with reflected highlights
from the darkfield reflected light illumination. The black particles that show the light tan highlights are
from the pencil lead. A small sawdust particle is left of center (white elongated particle) in this image.