How crayons are made

A crayon is mostly paraffin wax, dyed and poured into a mold like a candle.

stations: 7
things upstream: 57
raw sources: 18
steps from the ground: 10

The short version

A crayon is paraffin wax mixed with pigment. The wax is heated until it flows, dyed and poured into molds shaped like rods. It cools and sets. The sticks are popped out, trimmed, wrapped in a paper label, and packed in boxes by color. The standard crayon is about 3.5 inches long.

Melt the wax

Paraffin wax is heated in a tank until it is just warm enough to flow. Temperature is controlled closely, because the wax has to be liquid yet cool enough to mix evenly.

Goes in
Paraffin wax
Stir in the pigment

Color is stirred into the melted wax, along with any fillers. Each color gets its own batch, mixed until it is the same all the way through.

Goes in
Titanium dioxide Pigment
Pour into the molds

The colored wax is poured into metal molds with hundreds of crayon-shaped cavities.
Chill until set

Cool water circulates around the molds until the wax is hard. The crayons shrink slightly as they solidify.
Pop them out

The molds open, and the finished sticks are pushed out and sorted. Crooked or cracked ones go back into the melting tank.
Wrap in paper labels

A machine rolls each crayon in a paper wrapper printed with its color name and brand.

Goes in
Paper
Box by color

Wrapped crayons are counted into boxes. The first Crayola box, in 1903, held eight colors.

Goes in
Cardboard box

End of the lineCrayon

Worth repeating

The name Crayola was coined in 1903 by Alice Stead Binney, wife of Edwin Binney, from the French craie (chalk) and the first part of oleaginous.
Washable crayons were developed by chemist Colin Snedeker, who was awarded a patent in 1990.
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice mentions crayons, in 1813.