Awesome Old Sharpener at Dan’s Dad’s House.


My friend Dan and I made a trip through the ice to visit his Dad one evening last week.  Mr. PJ is a contractor who owns his own business, and he really likes pencils.  There’s a cup full of carpenter pencils in the back of the photo below.

This sharpener was quickly spotted by me in his kitchen, where I’d been a hundred times before.  I believe he said that it belonged to his grandfather.  Mr. PJ is my own father’s age (born in 1949); so that sharpener must be pretty old.

The top has a hinge, and the shavings are collected in a drawer at the bottom.  All metal.  The knob that would, today, be plastic is wooden.

We actually had a very fantastically pencilicious evening, complete with woodworking, fire and beer buried in snow. We made pencil boxes from reclaimed oak and discovered a survivalist aspect of KUM wedge sharpeners.  More posts to come!

Edit: Mr. PJ tells me this:

Hey, John, glad your evening like mine was fun.  The photo’s of my grandparents’ hand-cranked, which I first saw in my   grandparents’ home in the old sun  parlour.  It had  several bookcases  my granddad had built.  The sharpener was secured to the top of one case  — which sadly fell apart during a move for my grandmother years ago.  So I salvaged the sharpener with my grandmother’s  permission.  Thus the old sharpener enjoys its  high  place on the files.  This oldie was also  used   by my granddad in his studies while attending  drawing  classes.  I am sure it sharpened  many a pencil used in his architectural  drawings.  I still use it, though it’s not secured.  I enjoy the fact that it still works so well.  pjkelley

February 7, 2011 | Editor | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

Review of Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener.


A few months ago, Troy contacted us about reviewing the Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener, a burr-type sharpener that boasts smooth and quiet sharpening and quality construction. We took delivery of this heavy-duty green sharpener this fall and have put it through lots of tests with lots of pencils. And, golly, we have not reviewed a sharpener in ages! This is a very worthy harbinger of further sharpener reviews.  This machine is great.

Vitals:
Type: Single burr, 8mm hole.
Material: Metal body, mechanics and handle, with plastic tray and small parts.
Shavings Receptacle: Large, clear plastic tray.
Point Type: Very long.
Markings: “Pencil Sharpener”.
Place of Manufacture: ???
Availability: Official website and Ebay store..

This is, frankly, a big and heavy sharpener. I’ve heard tell of devoted Comrades carrying burr sharpeners around with them for their daily writing needs. I never do that myself. What I look for in a crank/burr sharpener is metal construction and heft, frankly. I like that this sharpener is burly and solid. It comes with mounting hardware, but I’ve never used it. Since the clips hold your pencil in place, you only need one hand to hold the body still while you crank out a nice, long (LONG) point.  You can even hold the machine in your hand (or on your lap) with one hand, while the other cranks the handle.

Watch a video of the sharpener in action.

One of the best features of this sharpener is its auto-stop. The teeth/clamp feed the pencil into the burr mechanism. You turn the crank. The pencil gets sharpened. If you are my age and remember the old sharpeners we had in school that would just eat your pencil if you didn’t stop turning the crank, you might be relieved with this sharpener. When the point is achieved, the feeder stops, and turning the crank doesn’t engage the blade any longer. I put this to the test with some completely new pencils. The auto-stop kept the pencils from getting shorter at all. On very close inspection, the graphite at the point still retains the flatness of its unsharpened state just enough to see with very good eyes. It’s sharp like a pencil, not like a pin — there are no minuscule points that will crumble immediately.  This sharpener does not eat pencils.

Speaking of the point, it makes a KUM Longpoint look…stubby.  If you like a really, really long point but are not particularly adept at whittling your pencils with a blade/knife, this might be just the sharpener for you.  Below, from left to right, are unfinished “sample” pencils with points from: Classroom Friendly Sharpener; KUM 2-step Longpoint; KUM brass wedge.  (Note the pin points on the KUMs which are ready to break off.

The smooth cranking action and sharp burrs really place this in the realm of very quiet sharpeners. When I think of the wall-mounted, decades-old behemoths that used to eat my pencils in grade school, I wish heartily that the good sisters of St. Thomas had one of these green beauties around.  The wall-mounted monstrosities were loud enough to silence even very loud math lessons from Sr. Teresa Mary.

This machine is not flawless. If there’s one thing that bothers me, it’s the teeth that grip your pencil for sharpening. This sharpener might not eat pencils the way that some burr machines do, but it does bite them a bit. This varied from indentations in thickly lacquered pencils to mini-holes in old Mirados. However, since a pencil is a tool that, by its very design, gets sharpened away anyway, these bite marks are overshadowed by what a great point you can get and how nicely this sharpener is built. I showed this to my good pal, and he said the same thing as me: So what?  It’s a pencil for writing/drawing.  And, for the record, he sharpened his pocket pencil with it and immediately wanted to know where to get one.

As it stands, it’s my favorite crank/burr sharpener to date.  I really like the vaguely retro looks of the chrome and green paint, and the metal body and heavy construction leave me thinking that my 8 1/2-month old daughter will wind up using this for school at some point.  I keep mine out in the open because it’s a handsome piece, and I definitely intend to pick up a second unit for my office.

January 3, 2011 | Editor | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 41 Comments »

Trains, pens and planners on pencil sharpening.


Certainly, there are those of us who prefer pencils to pens and computers, in part, because of the joy of sharpening. My better half giggled last week when I confessed to the existence of my box of nearly forty pencil sharpeners in the closet in our daughter’s room (she’s only 5 months old and too little to find them yet) and when she noticed one in our bathroom I’d left there. But then I opened a box which contained several of her sharpeners, in shades of pink and red.  And I giggled a bit.

Trains, pens and planners presents us with a short piece on the simple joys of pencil sharpening:

“It was at this point I realised what a pleasure sharpening a pencil was. I had forgotten the physical feeling of turning the pencil, the noise, the swirl of shaved wood. Now this doesn’t mean I shall give up on mechanical pencils to start a pencil sharpening frenzy in my life. It does make me think a bit more about the simple things in life. The things that we don’t take time to think about or if we notice them don’t capture the feeling. It’s probably impossible to pay attention to the small things all the time but perhaps choosing a day to consciously notice the small things would be enriching, in a small way. I must try that.”

Read more.

September 8, 2010 | Editor | Tags: , , | 2 Comments »

The art of sharpening a pencil, from M.J. Taylor.


There’s a great page from artists and designer Matthew James Taylor, on different methods of pencil sharpening that’s particularly enjoyable.

“Welcome to the world of pencil sharpening – this may sound like a dull topic but there is actually a lot more to it than you think. There are a number of different sharpening styles and methods; all good artists should know them. The trick is using the right one at the right time.”

Includes such variations as “The Chisel Point” and “The Needle Point” — and information on using short pencils:

“I find shorter pencils so much better that I have even started chopping my new pencils in half after buying them. You get two-for-one that way! One word of advice however, after the chop make sure you make a note of the hardness on the other end, otherwise you will have all these mystery grade pencils!”

Very excellent piece, with photos to boot.  Read more at Matthew James Taylor’s website.

September 1, 2010 | Editor | Tags: , , , , , | No Comments »