A pencil is roughly two-thirds of a foot long. The wood of a standard writing pencil is usually maple, although other trees are also used such as ebony, hickory, and pine. Standard pencils are made from the wood of about 100 large trees. Writing instruments have been made from stone, bone, horn, and now even plastic and metal. The first written records using pen and paper date back to 14th century China. They were made from bamboo but since then many materials have been developed for this purpose. Today, most pen types are made of steel or other metals. The first true pens were made from wood. Wood is easy to work with and provides many different shapes that you can modify. It can also be painted like some modern pens. In fact, some historians believe that early writers used colored feathers instead of pens because they could be worn as jewelry! Pens come in many sizes and shapes. There are small pocket pens for taking notes while talking on the phone, large billboard pens for drawing big pictures, and everything in between. The type of pen you need depends on how you plan to use it.