A crayon is a stick of colored wax, charcoal, chalk, or other material used for writing and drawing. A crayon made of oiled chalk is called an oil pastel; when made of pigment with a dry binder, it is simply a pastel.

Wax crayons are commonly used for drawing and coloring by children, although adult artists have occasionally (though not commonly, for one reason because of the difficulty in mixing colours) produced works in crayon. They are relatively easy to work with, blunt (removing any risk from sharp points), non-toxic, and available in a wide variety of colors. The world's largest manufacturer of wax crayons is Binney & Smith Inc., the manufacturer of CrayolaВ® brand crayons.

CrayolaВ® brand crayons' boxes sometimes come with a built-in sharpener.

External links

• A movie about how crayons are made
• Timeline of CrayolaВ® crayon colours
• Soy crayonsda:Pastelkridt

ja:г‚Їгѓ¬гѓЁгѓі pl:Kredka simple:Crayon

Various drawing, writing and marking compositions are known in the art such as crayon compositions, color pencil compositions and the like. Crayons are generally prepared by mixing together one or more natural or synthetic waxes such as water insoluble paraffin, carnauba wax, hydrocarbon waxes and the like in a molten state in a suitable combination in accordance with the quality of crayon required, adding talc to the molten mixture as a binder, adding a pigment to the molten mixture as a coloring agent, pouring the resulting composition into a specified mold and solidifying the composition by cooling.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,786 discloses a crayon composition containing, based on 100 parts by weight of the composition, (a) 10 to 30 parts by weight of at least one of cellulose resin and vinyl resin, (b) 5 to 30 parts by weight of at least one of ketone resin, xylene resin, amide resin and terpene resin, (c) 2 to 12 parts by weight of at least one of dibenzylidene sorbitol, tribenzylidene sorbitol and derivatives of the sorbitols, (d) 25 to 60 parts by weight of at least one of glycols, ethers of glycols, ether esters of glycols and benzoic acid esters, and (e) 2 to 30 parts by weight of a pigment or 2 to 10 parts by weight of an oil-soluble dye.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,933,708 describes a crayon wax composition having a wax base, stearic acid, pigment and an additive mixture which contains polyethylene having a molecular weight between 500,000-6,000,000. It is stated that the use of polyethylene in small amounts enables the replacement of higher melting point waxes with low-melting point paraffin wax of 120.degree. F.-140.degree. F., while still maintaining the required performance qualities of the crayon wax.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,774 relates to a plastic colored crayon which contains an outer layer of plastic and an inner, abradable, colored core containing a mixture of ethyl hydroxyethyl cellulose, a plastic binder, wax and coloring matter. The ethyl hydroxyethyl cellulose is present from 8-30 percent by weight of the colored core.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,957,495 discloses a writing material in solid form containing a solid vehicle in which is dispersed a non-volatile oily solvent containing an electron donative chromogenic compound of substantially colorless character which develops color upon contact with an electron accepting substance, more than 50 percent by weight of the solid vehicle being an ester of a higher (hydroxy) fatty acid or a mixture containing an ester of a higher (hydroxy) fatty acid and a microcrystalline wax, and the non-volatile oily solvent being contained in the writing material in a range of from 10 to 50 percent by weight of the entire writing material.

U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,840,669, 4,840,670 and 4,859,242 describe a water soluble paint composition containing water, a polymeric thickener to maintain solid components such as coloring agents and sparkle or glitter in a uniform and permanent suspension, a water soluble wax to thicken and harden the composition, glycerin and the like to increase the time span of hardening to enable the mixture to flow without undue heating, an adhesive thickener, glitter and coloring agents.

Japanese Patent Application No. 63057683 discloses the manufacture of crayons from pressed granules which are obtained by mixing together a metal salt of a higher fatty acid such as calcium stearate or calcium 1,2-hydroxystearate, a pigment and an extender with water and a surfactant. It is stated that polyethylene glycol is also used in the preparation of the pressed granules.

Japanese Patent Application No. 60023464 relates to the manufacture of a phosphorescent substance for color pencils, crayons, inks, etc. The phosphorescent substance is prepared by adding a polycondensation type high polymer, a thermoplastic material, rubber, wax, paraffin, rosin, clay, water solvent, etc. to a quinazolone derivative and dispersing the mixture at normal temperature under heating. It is stated that polyethylene oxide, polypropylene oxide and ethylene oxide/propylene are heated under reflux in a typical preparation step.

Japanese Patent Application No. 59096179 discloses crayon-like writing compositions containing a sodium salt and/or potassium salt of a C.sub.8 -C.sub.22 fatty acid, more than one of polyoxyethylene polyol esters or castor oil- or hardened castor oil-ethylene oxide adducts, more than one C.sub.8 -C.sub.22 fatty acid and an inorganic pigment or tar coloring matter.

Japanese Patent Application No. 58162673 describes a solid correcting composition used for crayon and pastel work which contains a condensate of a C.sub.5 -C.sub.7 hydric sugar alcohol and aromatic aldehyde and/or hydrogenated castor oil, a water soluble organic solvent, water, a resin emulsion, a water soluble resin and a white pigment. It is stated that preferred water soluble organic solvents include ethylene glycol and propylene glycol among others.

Czechoslovakian Patent No. 210496 relates to a homogeneous composition for water-spreadable leads for crayons which contains fillers (kaolin), pigments, a cellulose derivative, dispersants, ethoxylated nonylphenol, polyethylene glycol having a molecular weight of 500-1300, triglycerides of C.sub.16 -C.sub.30 fatty acids and spermaceti.

Japanese Patent Application No. 57092069 discloses water soluble crayons prepared by emulsifying compounds of a water soluble polymer solution, waxes, coloring agents and solid emulsifying agents at high temperatures and solidifying the water-in-oil emulsions by cooling.

Japanese Patent Application No. 56059879 describes water soluble drawing materials prepared from water soluble resins and/or waxes, water absorbent polymers, surfactants and pigments. An illustrative water soluble drawing material contains Benzylidene Yellow 2400, polyethylene glycol 1540, polyethylene glycol 2000, polyethylene glycol 4000, Sanwet IM 300 (acrylic grafted starch), a surfactant and denatured alcohol as a mixing aid.

Japanese Patent Application No. 81034240 relates to hydrophilic crayons which contain an oxidized microcrystalline wax, a hydroxyl group-containing compound such as a monohydric alcohol, a polyhydric alcohol, etc., a pigment and optionally a polyethylene wax. The crayon is neither water repellent nor water soluble.

Japanese Patent Application No. 52058621 describes a water soluble crayon composition which contains a paraffin wax, stearic acid, a hardened wax, a pigment, a filler such as talc or calcium carbonate and a mixture of surfactants.

Japanese Patent Application No. 79024326 discloses water soluble rod-shaped drawing materials which are produced by mixing a water soluble wax, a different wax, a lubricating agent, a surfactant and a pigment and subsequently molding the material.

Japanese Patent Application No. 76004128 relates to a waxy crayon obtained by mixing a water soluble paste and a pigment with a polymer emulsion.

United Kingdom Patent No. 1,548,901 discloses a water soluble crayon which contains a fugitive tint, an inert filler such as chalk and a mixture of polyethylene glycols.

United Kingdom Patent No. 1,250,166 describes adhesive crayons which can be removed from a substrate by a water-based treatment. The adhesive crayons contain polyethylene glycol, wood rosin and zinc oxide.

Japanese Patent Application No. 62121778 relates to water soluble coloring compositions which contain a fatty acid ester ethoxylate and a pigment.

Notwithstanding the compositions described above, crayons still remain to be improved since crayons tend to not be completely satisfactory for all desired performance properties. In particular, a broad spectrum or combination of desired performance properties can be difficult to attain primarily due to the various required crayon ingredients utilized in the art. For example, crayons obtained from the use of certain waxes or resins may have high breaking strength, i.e., hardness, but tackiness may be a problem, whereas other different waxes or resins may impart low tackiness to crayons but breaking strength may be a problem.