Happiness Is a Sharp Pencil

I use pencils a lot when I sew.

I rarely notch with scissors anymore, preferring to mark notches with a pencil -- something I picked up from my menswear sewing class at FIT.

Sometimes I'll use a washable pencil made specifically for sewers, but a lot of the time I just use one of the many dozens of colored pencils I've accumulated over my lifetime.  I don't seem to be able to throw away colored pencils if they're more than an inch long.  Actually, that goes for most any pencil.  I love pencils.  They can't leak and ruin your shirt pocket or canvas briefcase.  And they last a long, long time.

But for decades, I've owned only cheap plastic portable sharpeners like the one below.  Perhaps you use one like this.





Half the time the tip breaks off before the pencil ever gets sharp, or one side sharpens and the other will still be covered with wood.

But no longer!

I was over at my Mom's yesterday and today (she had to have cataract surgery) and I got to take home the pencil sharpener I grew up with; my mother doesn't use it anymore.



I think my dad brought this sharpener home from work (my parents were teachers).  It wasn't new when we got it and I'm assuming he didn't just unscrew it from his classroom, or anybody else's, so I'm not sure how he came by it.   Since 1967 it was screwed onto a shelf in my brother's closet and, today, more than 45 years later, I unscrewed it. 

I brought it home and immediately installed it atop an old painted bookshelf in the bedroom.  I'm sure you've seen these sharpeners before, probably in school if you're about my age (or maybe any age).  As you can see, I'm not into polishing stuff.

Here's the inside.  Those grinding cylinders are called burrs, which I learned from Holly Gates' excellent blog, Tooling Up.  Those burrs essentially mill the pencil to incredible sharpness when you turn the crank.







The shavings land in the easily removable front section.



BEFORE:



AFTER:



I am so happy to have possession of my childhood pencil sharpener, readers.  Next trip, I'll have to grab my old Tonka trucks and board games (anyone want to play "Masterpiece"?)

Have a great day, everybody!