Offering the broadest Incense cedar slat product range available to meet pencil industry needs
CalCedar Incense-cedar slats are available in a variety of dimensions, grades and forest certification options to produce the widest possible range of wood-cased pencil products according to our customer needs.
Standard Dimensions – 4.8mm thickness x 184mm length
- Standard dimension slats are available in a range of widths from 7 ply down to 2 ply that can yield from 3 to 10 pencils per slat sandwich depending upon finished pencil dimensions
- 7 ply slats allow for greatest labor efficiency in pencil manufacturing through maximization of pencils produced per sandwich – Available in both 71mm and 73mm widths finished pencil yields vary depending upon finished pencil dimensions and tooling selection.
- Narrow ply slats (2 ply to 6 ply) allow more flexible customers to manage wood costs and optimize their production mix and are available in a variety of set widths from 33mm to to 66mm
Memos – 117mm & 127mm
- Memo slats are shorter length standard thickness 7 ply slats which are most commonly used for producing shorter cosmetic pencils and allow for improved total yields from Incense-cedar raw material
Special Dimensions
Special slat dimension slats are most commonly used for the production of various cosmetic pencils, long carpenter pencils and larger diameter pencils used for learning purposes or more ergonomic shape pencils such as triangular or large rounds
Available in standard 7 ply width in a variety of Special Thicknesses and/or Lengths as follows:
- Thickness Options: 6.3mm, 6.8mm and 9.2mm (in standard width and length)
- Length Options: 200m, 210mm, 247mm and 255mm (in standard width thicknesses)
- Additional special order Custom dimensions may be available upon request depending upon volume requirements, raw material supply and price
Fingerjoint & Edgeglue slats
- Designed to improve total slat yields from short or narrow slats these products are produced on an accumulation basis as a recovery product only
- Most commonly used for pencils marketed as recycled wood they are available only in limited quantities, typically on an allocated basis to our customers
All finished slat products are produced to exacting dimensions and variability tolerances to assure optimum yields and performance during pencil manufacturing.
Cedar Slat Grades
CalCedar has developed a proprietary set of slat grades and grade mixes designed to optimize the outbound Incense-cedar product mix for the market demand and production needs of our customers. Finished slat grade selections address the following main characteristics in Cedar slats:
- Grain Type – straight longitudinal orientation (vertical grain) or flat (flower) grain
- Grain Angle – degree of cross grain angle from side to side along length of slat
- Grain Density – ring count across the width of the slat or # of flowers on flat grain
- Natural Characteristics – includes items such as light or hard burl, pitch pocket, bark seam,
- Machine Defects – torn/raised grain, machine marks – dents, skip or rough surface, rectangularity, thick/thin variation
Available Grade mixes vary by ply and other dimensional characteristics, but are managed to clearly defined standards for each individual product providing the highest and most reliable accuracy available in the industry.
Slat Stain & Wax Treatment
CalCedar uses a proprietary wax & stain treatment and drying process to assure uniform attractive color; optimum gluing, machining and finishing during pencil production as well as smooth sharpening performance. Developed through years of experience the process has been optimized to assure consistent wax and stain penetration, drying, and dimensional stability as well as meeting the industry’s highest consumer product safety standards. This process is further fine tuned to each of the individual species characteristics.
Third Party Certifications and Product Safety Considerations
For customers whose requirements include third party certification of wood supply chain our CalCedar® Incense-cedar slats are available under two alternative forest and chain-of-custody certification programs from the worlds two leading certification organizations, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC):
- FSC (license # FSC-C010858)
- PEFC (license # PEFC/29-31-165)
All slats under these two product ranges involve independent third party certifications of the forests and chain-of-custody certification of wood through the supply chain and manufacturing processes. To learn more about Third Party Forest Certification in the pencil industry visit the Forest Certification Mark pages on CalCedar’s Pencils.com site.
All CalCedar® Incense-cedar slat products (regardless of participation in third party certification programs, or not) are fully compliant with the U.S. Lacey Act as well as newly developing EU standards with respect to the harvest, production and marketing of legal, non-threatened plant species. For more information related to Lacey Compliance issues see Ecoslat Basswood LAC Product Range information.
All CalCedar® Incense-cedar slat products are also certified under the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association (WIMA) PMA Certification program and are fully compliant with highest standards of consumer products safety in the U.S., EU and elsewhere.
Contact us at Sales@calcedar.com for assistance in determining the optimum species, dimensional and grade product specification requirements to fit your intended production and target cost requirements.
