Duffy Moon ([info]duffymoon) wrote,
@ 2009-04-18 11:08:00
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Pencil Sharpener, in its Natural Environment

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[info]lilflowerpetals
2009-04-18 06:28 pm UTC (link)
Ah, the memories...

There is a disassembled pencil sharpener (mounting screws tucked inside) sitting on a shelf at work. I found it the other day and just *had* to open it to inhale that lovely pencilly aroma. I wannit. May have to ask permission to adopt it.

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[info]duffymoon
2009-04-18 09:08 pm UTC (link)
Easier to ask forgiveness than permission...
(unless, of course, you're fired, then not so much)

See, YOU get it. YOU know. There was one of these in every single classroom, and I could have had them all for $1 each, likely as not. Nobody wanted them at all. I couldn't believe it!

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[info]chondrule
2009-04-19 12:56 am UTC (link)
suddenly remember the smell of those sharpeners plus the noise/sensation. not sure to say it's a nabokov or proust sort of moment.

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[info]lilflowerpetals
2009-04-19 01:14 pm UTC (link)
Ah, yes...I remember how on some of them, the handle would wobble a bit as you turned it, so you'd try to brace the cover with your left hand, and some of the time you'd accidentally push that cover so it'd come loose all of a sudden and spill shavings everywhere.

And I remember the way those shavings would come out in beautiful little curls, only to crumble to dirty sawdust if you tried to handle them.

And I remember how tempting it was to keep grinding well past the point of sharpness, just to watch the pencil get shorter and the pile of shavings getting bigger.

Aw, geez. I *am* gonna have to grab that one from work, aren't I?

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(Anonymous)
2009-04-19 11:50 pm UTC (link)
We've had one mounted in the house for many years. Don't use it often but it's there, and dependable, when needed. Loved using them in grade school: the motion, the aroma, the sound and the precise point they left you with. Electric sharpeners just don't match up.

My grandfather always had one in his work shop. He was a master tool maker and that sharpener gave him the exact pencil point he demanded. He used the shavings to demonstrate to his grandsons what the shavings from a properly adjusted hand plane should look like. I still have those images in mind when using one of my antique planes.

Jeff

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[info]freshribbon.blogspot.com
2009-04-21 10:47 am UTC (link)
I teach writing in a new multi-million-dollar building that's completely wi-fied and covered up in techo-trappings. But there's not one pencil sharpener in the the whole place. Each Fall the students come pouring in from all points Arkansas and they circle the shiny classrooms looking for a place to sharpen a pencil. Nada.

Sign of the times.

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