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But a pencil... is just a pencil, isn't it?
David Jenkins - 9/6/14 at 06:48 PM

I followed a link to this YouTube video from elsewhere - I find it mind-boggling. How can anyone get so excited and emotional about sharpening a pencil?



I was taught how to sharpen a pencil by my architect father, when I was a kid. He spent a minute telling me what to do, watched me while I did it once or twice (I was only about 8 or 9), passed a comment or two on my results, then left me to it. He used pencils throughout his career, and preferred ordinary pencils to mechanical ones, but I never saw him take more than 10 or 15 seconds to sharpen one.

This guy is a professional pencil sharpener, for goodness sake! Do his customers send them back after using them for a line or two?

BTW: it's a really boring vid - I lasted about 5 minutes before I gave up... and, if it's a wind-up, it's a poor effort...

[Edited on 9/6/14 by David Jenkins]

loggyboy - 9/6/14 at 07:04 PM

The line about 8 min where he says that if his mates tell him hus method us wasteful, he tells them to f*** off and die... must be a wind up. But as you say, not funny.

yellowcab - 9/6/14 at 07:15 PM

What have I just watched?!

7m 37s is just epic!!!

40inches - 9/6/14 at 07:46 PM

quote:
Originally posted by yellowcab
What have I just watched?!

7m 37s is just epic!!!


WHAT! You watched it ALL! I woke up when my head hit the keyboard

Macbeast - 10/6/14 at 11:16 AM

It's brilliant !!
I'm going off to raid my grandfather's tomb to rescue his old razor strop.

stephen_gusterson - 29/7/14 at 12:51 PM

I wonder how you actually found that? Search term?

scootz - 29/7/14 at 03:43 PM

It's an (obvious!) spoof...

Irony - 29/7/14 at 03:58 PM

Some people take their pencils seriously. My degree level design lecturer constantly used his pencils down to literally 10mm long. He used to put a bit of pipe on the end to make it longer. He claimed the pipes used for beer kegs to pump were the exact right diameter and stiffness to use for this. He also never ever sharpened them with a sharpener. He used a blade to shape the tip to his exact requirements. He gave a 20 minute lecture on the sharpening and use of pencils.

I seem to remember he was obsessed with making furniture out of recycled pallets.

[Edited on 29/7/14 by Irony]

Macbeast - 15/8/14 at 11:52 AM

Certainly, for any serious mechanical drawing we were taught to sharpen the lead to a chisel point. Also applies to carpentry I think. Obviously, pencil sharpener wouldn't work