pese:

Graphite is carbon.

Bill

technically its an allotrope of carbon, like diamonds are. But realistically i don't think there is any benefit of using carbon in its elemental form over graphite so either would be acceptable

@ Gestalt0:

Yes, you are correct and I agree. 

Bill

hope you didnt think i was correcting you. merely trying to help pese in understanding the difference/similarities in what he was describing.

Further to that if you actually buy some pencils, preferably proper artists graphite pencils rather than your standard HB then you will actually have some high quality graphite rods, however getting the "lead" out of the penicl in one piece is another story, but i belive you can purchase the type where you can refill the pencil with seperate lead.

@ Gestalt0:

Not at all.  Well, actually, you did correct my statement which was proper to do.  My answer was an oversimplification and yours is the better answer.

My carbon rod is still going strong after being in the ground for about a year.  I pulled it up about 3 months ago and cleaned it off, no sign of any breaking down of the material. (I am using these in my earth battery experiments.)

You are right about the pencils.  At first, the only carbon I could find that was decent was inside carpenters pencils.  Not too hard to remove as these pencils are flat.

Here are some pics of my carbon rod.  About $20.00 US.