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Square cut graphite laid into a wooden groove were the earliest pencils as we now know them. The wood used was cedar and so pencils were known as cedars. They were mass produced products in the C19th with companies such as Banks in Keswick, Cumbria, UK- Hardmuth, Germany-Faber in USA and Germany- Eagle USA- and many others.

Metal porte crayons were used to hold sticks of cut 'wad' or 'graphite' as illustrated below but as the graphite sticks were replaced by cedars, the practice of making silver covers for writing items continued but for wooden pencils. mostly these were circular in cross section with a slider ring. Another class of cedar holders normally termed carpenters encloses flat pencils..