on 12/8/05 3:25 PM, botanicalart at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> I always warn students in my colored pencil workshops, of the dangers of
> dropped pencils/broken leads.  At my most recent workshop, a participant
> passed on this tip to repair the cracked up contents of a broken waxed based
> colored pencil.  The advice was from a presenter at a Colored Pencil Society
> workshop:   Zap the pencil in the microwave.
>

If you heat it in the microwave sideways, won't the hot wax melt and drip
rather than fuse? Unless you find a way to stand it on its end opposite to
the point? How would it be possible to do that? Hmmm... I know: get a small
block of wood a couple of inches on each side, drill some holes
perpendicular to the bottom, almost but not quite through, just a hair wider
than pencil diameter. Stand pencils up in that. You'd need a good-sized
microwave, tho, to accomodate the length of the pencil. My guess is 10 or 20
second increments, and just until you smell the wax softening.

Kathy