How long of a line do you suppose you could draw with one ordinary pencil? A mile? Ten miles? Thirty-seven miles?

I happen to know that one pencil will draw a line about 4.5 miles. You don’t have to take my word for it. You can test this conclusion yourself by taking one newly-sharpened, standard number 2 Dixon Ticonderoga yellow pencil and drawing a straight line on a sheet of paper under constant pressure until the pencil needs to be resharpened. You then measure how long that line is (it will be about 700 feet long), and multiply that distance by the number of sharpenings the pencil has in it (about 34 per pencil). You should end up discovering that an ordinary pencil has a writing capacity of about 4.5 miles, an impressive number for the humble pencil. You might get a few extra meters per pencil by applying lighter pressure when drawing the line, or using less aggressive sharpening techniques or perhaps using a smoother writing surface. But I’d be surprised if you could get much more than 5 miles per pencil (MPP) under the very best conditions.

I didn’t conduct this experiment myself, of course. I’m far too busy surfing the Internet, looking for photographs of Angelina Jolie’s twins and voting for the new American Idol to be spending my valuable time conducting pencil experiments. But I did come across someone who did perform this exact experiment and reported on it in a little magazine called Northwest Woodlands, which is a publication put out jointly by the Oregon Small Woodland Association, the Washington Farm Forestry Association, the Idaho Forest Owners Association, and the Montana Forest Owners Association. Most of the magazine is devoted to more mundane forestry matters such as how to maximize revenue from a small wood lot, chain saw safety tips, making the most of your pulpwood, and the five essential steps in proper tree felling technique (assess the area, assess the tree, establish a safe working area, fall the tree and get the hell out of the way.)

I read Northwest Woodlands largely because I like the smell of sawdust and the sight of a freshly split, nicely stacked pile of quality firewood, and the magazine somehow manages to give off a chainsaw and firewood vibe. But I also like pencils, and I was glad to see Northwest Woodlands columnist Rod “Ask the Treeman” Huffman’s take on this burning question and conduct this important experiment. I believe the fact that your basic pencil produces more than four miles worth of writing establishes, once and for all, the superiority of the common pencil as a writing implement over such other pretenders to the throne as the cheap but aesthetically unpleasing ball-point pen, the mechanical pencil and the overrated roller ball.

One of the first things I do when I get to my office every Monday morning is take my jar full of pencils over to the electric pencil sharpener and give them all a good sharpen. I keep a little manual sharpener in my desk drawer to do touch ups and minor cosmetic work on my pencils during the week. I also use it to hand sharpen my over-sized yellow Ticonderoga “Laddie” pencil and my Certacolor “Quattro” four-colored pencil because neither of them fit in the narrow openings of most commercial sharpeners. There are few more satisfying experiences than moving a freshly-sharpened pencil over a clean white sheet of paper and leaving behind important information such as a grocery list or a weekend to-do list.

My favorite use of a pencil is to make humorous sketches of my boss and co-workers during staff meetings. If the meetings run long or the donuts run low, I use my Quattro to color in the sketches for added authenticity. I’d bring scissors with me to the meeting so I could cut out the sketches and make them into little carton figures that I could prop up around the conference room table, but I sense that doing so would be disrespectful of my boss and co-workers.

Among other memorable things, Henry David Thoreau once said, “Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.” Did you know that Thoreau was a pencil man himself? John Thoreau & Company was a highly respected pencil maker in Concord, Mass., and Henry himself helped devise a graphite/clay blend that produced the finest pencils of his day.

Long live the humble pencil, and long may she write.

Islander Tom Tyner is an attorney

for the Trust for Public Land. He is author

of “Skeletons From Our Closet,”

a collection of writings on the island’s latte scene.