to write on slate?

[Headfry]

Found on my plot...a short piece of something?
it's about 1" long tapered, looks bit like it could be graphite or sharpening stone, it's about as thick as a pencil. It writes a treat on slate.
What did the children use in schools ages ago to write on the slate boards?
Could it be this?

[Alice]

Interesting Headfry. Both my husband and I learned to write - and read, and count and spell - on slate. I can remember the awful grating noise we could make scraping across the slate but I can't remember what I had in my hand. How strange. I'll check with my husband and post tomorrow.

[Potter]

Do you think it is the same stuff that is in the middle of a pencil? I use a thick version of this called a graphite stick for producing large thick pencil type drawings (in the style of charcoal drawings but in pencil). Do you think it could be this? I've no idea about writing on slate I'm afraid.

[Potter]

I think that these have been around for years!

[Headfry]

Hmmmmm, I wonder if that is what I have found on my plot...
It's only a small piece but it does write really well on my old slates.
I was going to make some tree labels out of the slate!
Thanks folks

[MrsBond]

I had a slate board once, a long time ago

It had a piece of string attached to the scribey thing that was used for writing. It was just another piece of slate in the shape of a pencil/pen as far as I was aware.

MrsB x

[JennieAtkinson]

I too used slate in my first couple of years at school. I'm sure we had some form of chalk, not like the stuff as we know it today though, as Alice says, it used to scrape and sound something terrible.

Ooooh aren't we showing our age! Very sustainable way of learning though, no paper being wasted and thrown away, no electricity to make it work .............

[Snadger]

I too used slate in my first couple of years at school. I'm sure we had some form of chalk, not like the stuff as we know it today though, as Alice says, it used to scrape and sound something terrible.

Ooooh aren't we showing our age! Very sustainable way of learning though, no paper being wasted and thrown away, no electricity to make it work .............

Would it have been french chalk as used by dressmakers!

It's also used in engineering for marking on rusty steel plate!