Photo Archive
Building: It is an ex-Locost - it has gone to the IOW!
posted on 9/6/14 at 06:48 PM
But a pencil... is just a pencil, isn't it?
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...
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.
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.
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
I'm addicted to brake fluid, but I can stop anytime.
