by David Rees
I use my late grandfather’s pocketknife for clients who request a hand-hewn pencil. My grandfather was born in 1906 and didn’t use calculators (my mother told me he didn’t trust them). Needless to say, his calculations were worked out in pencil.
I have a vivid memory of my grandfather giving me a hand-made wooden 9-volt battery holder for Christmas. (I used to be obsessed with 9-volt batteries.) This item is not required for pencil sharpening.
TWEEZERS
I use tweezers for one of the unheralded pleasures of sharpening a pencil: collecting shavings in the job’s aftermath.
(Don’t trust a pencil sharpener who doesn’t offer to return your shavings. The shavings are part of your pencil, after all, which means they are your property.)
During face-to-face sharpening jobs, the tweezers add a vaguely sterile, medical element to the proceedings that clients find reassuring. It’s not hard to come by a good pair of tweezers; I use the ones my wife left behind when she moved out.
BAGS FOR SHAVINGS
A 3" × 4" bag will hold an entire pencil’s shavings regardless of sharpening technique.
SINGLE-BLADE POCKET SHARPENERS / REPLACEMENT BLADES
Every sharpening kit should include single-blade pocket sharpeners as well as replacement blades. The pocket sharpeners I keep close at hand are:
• Alvin Brass Bullet: a hefty, well-machined device, this is my favorite pocket sharpener.
• Bethge sharpener: this German sharpener has perhaps the best hand-feel of any object I’ve ever used.
• United States Census-issued plastic sharpener: I rarely use this sharpener on jobs; I keep it in my kit as a reminder of my business’s humble origins. (It was while working for the United States Census that I rediscovered my love of sharpening pencils.)
MULTIPLE-HOLE, MULTIPLE-STAGE POCKET SHARPENERS
These devices use the same engineering as single-blade pocket sharpeners, in that the pencil is sharpened by rotating its point against a tiny blade. These sharpeners, however, feature a second blade for sharpening the graphite point after the first blade has honed the wood.
Here are the multiple-hole, multiple-stage sharpeners I use most:
• Alvin triple-hole magnesium sharpener: This model includes a third “standard” blade for people who can’t be bothered to use two separate blades.
• Palomino-KUM Long Point Pencil Sharpener: A recent addition to my travel kit, this two-step sharpener produces a lovely, long point.
SINGLE-BURR HAND-CRANK SHARPENER
For many Americans, the first pencil sharpener they used regularly was a hand-crank model attached to a classroom wall.
As it’s difficult to carry around a wall, I use table-ready hand-crank sharpeners.1
Everyone needs single-burr hand-crank sharpeners in his or her kit.
• The Dahle 166: Often used for oversized colored pencils, it puts a fine point on a standard #2 pencil. This is the pencil sharpener I use for my red documentation pencils (see this page).
• The CARL Angel-5 Royal (pictured): Leaves pencils with an especially long point—longer than the Dahle. A friend brought me this model from Tokyo.
DOUBLE-BURR HAND-CRANK SHARPENER
El Casco M430-CN: This is the finest hand-crank pencil sharpener in the world.
SANDPAPER / EMERY BOARD
Sandpaper is a controversial topic in the pencil-sharpening world—some pencil users keep a sheet of sandpaper close to their work area, refreshing their pencil points with a few swipes across the sheet. Sandpaper, however, can weaken a pencil point even as it sharpens it, by introducing irregular divots into the graphite. I often refine a point on plain paper, rather than sandpaper. If I do use sandpaper, I use 220-grit or 320-grit.
There is one use for sandpaper that is uncontroversial: exposing the graphite core of a pencil whose end is compromised by sloppy finishing and paint overruns. It’s for this reason, even more than point-finishing, that you will always find sheets of sandpaper in my kit.
Collar imperfections can be eliminated with the delicate application of an emery board. Care must be taken, however, lest the conical surface of the pencil point is flattened or otherwise degraded by a heavy hand.
VINYL TUBING
⅜" × ¼" vinyl tubing is perfectly sized for fitting around sharpened pencil tips. Even if the client doesn’t require a display tube, a protective sheath is a must. (Unless, of course, the client intends to start using the pencil immediately.)
SHATTER-PROOF PLASTIC TUBES / CAPS FOR TUBES
8-inch plastic tubes are long enough for most #2 pencils. These tubes keep pencils safe in transit, and also double as display tubes for those clients who choose not to use their artisanally sharpened pencils. Over the course of shipping hundreds of pencils to customers, I’ve yet to receive a complaint of a broken pencil. The credit is due entirely to these tubes.
Please use plastic tubes to protect your pencils!
FIVE DOLLARS AND CHANGE
I always keep an extra $5.25–$5.80 squirreled away in my pencil sharpening kit. It’s the ideal amount of money: Enough to buy a sandwich if I feel lightheaded, but not so much that I’ll be tempted to go to the theatre instead of attending to the task at hand.
HEADBAND MAGNIFIER (WITH LED LIGHTS)
Pencil sharpening requires long stretches of close work, which can strain the eyes. A good desk-mounted or headband magnifier allows for hours of focus with minimal eye strain. I use a magnifier with 2x optical power.
What looks like a fine point under normal conditions may, under the illumination of a magnifying lens, reveal itself as less than ideal, playing host to imperfections that should be resolved before returning the pencil to its owner.
On the other hand, donning magnifying spectacles and confirming that a point really is as fine as you expect is enough to make the most hardened pencil sharpener fall into an ecstasy.
TOOTHBRUSH / TOOTHPICKS / HANDKERCHIEF
I use a toothbrush to remove graphite and wood residue from the burrs of my hand-crank sharpeners. It’s always tempting to dislodge residue by banging the sharpener against a hard surface; I don’t recommend this, as you run the risk of damaging the planetary gears or otherwise compromising the sharpener’s mechanism. Once you use a toothbrush to clean a pencil sharpener, you should no longer use it to clean your teeth.
Wooden toothpicks are my preferred means of dislodging shavings from single-blade pocket sharpeners. Using a thumbtack, pin, or sewing needle is to be discouraged, as the metal could damage the sharpener’s blade.
I use a white cotton handkerchief for removing graphite residue from a finished pencil point (sometimes called “ragging it off”), as well as the light cleaning of a pencil sharpener’s exterior.
DUST MASK / BANDAGES
A dust mask is recommended for those pencil sharpeners with sensitive noses, those with a propensity for coughing, and those with life-threatening allergies to pencils.
It also makes it harder for clients to read your facial expression during a face-to-face sharpening, which can be useful.
I’ve injured myself only once in the course of my pencil-sharpening business: I used a dull pair of scissors to cut vinyl tubing and wound up slicing into the interdigital fold between my index and middle fingers. It was an inauspicious start to my enterprise, and a painful reminder of the importance of paying close attention to every step of the sharpening process.
Nobody wants another man’s blood on his pencil.
LABELS / CERTIFICATES / RED PENCIL
Every pencil I sharpen is returned with extensive documentation. My information labels include Job Number, Date, Sharpness Rating, and other information that may be of interest to the client. I use a red pencil for recording the information and entering the job number in my log.
To be safe, I generate two labels per job order: one for the pencil tube and one for the shavings bag. If I’m fulfilling multiple orders in one sitting, recording the job numbers on both pencil and shavings eliminate
s the risk that a client will receive shavings that don’t correspond to their pencil. (This is especially useful at parties or other chaotic environments in which the consumption of alcohol has occurred.)
Finally, each pencil is returned with a Certificate of Sharpness, stating that it was sharpened by my hand, and reminding the client that “A sharpened pencil is a dangerous object; use with care.”
1 Although I don’t use wall-mounted sharpeners in my practice, their use will be discussed in Chapter 15.
CHAPTER 2:
ANATOMY OF THE #2 PENCIL
It is assumed the reader is already somewhat familiar with the #2 pencil. Let the remarks below serve only to further refine his or her understanding in the context of best sharpening practices.1
The typical #2 pencil is made of cedar. It is 7 ½" long, with a wooden shaft measuring 6 ¾".2
a. THE TIP of the pencil is the marking surface farthest from the eraser.
b. THE POINT of the pencil, for the purposes of this book, refers to the cone whose end is the pencil’s tip and whose base is the upper limit of the unshaped shaft. This means the point is composed of exposed graphite and cedar. (Conservative readers may object to this nomenclature; I trust they will become convinced of its utility as our book unfolds.)
c. THE COLLAR TOP is the boundary between cedar and graphite.
d. THE COLLAR is that part of the point with no exposed graphite. If one thinks of the exposed graphite as a balancing visual analogue to the eraser, the collar serves as a visual analogue to the ferrule.
e. THE COLLAR BOTTOM is the boundary between the bottom of the cone and the top of the untooled shaft. (On hexagonal pencils, it is defined by scalloped edges where the shaft’s planar surfaces taper into the exposed cedar point; cylindrical pencils feature no such scalloping along the collar bottom.)
f. THE SHAFT is the wood casing surrounding the graphite core. It is also known as the body of the pencil. For #2 pencils sold in the United States, it is most often hexagonal.
g. THE FERRULE is a crimped piece of metal connecting the shaft of the pencil to the eraser.
h. THE ERASER is a mystery.
A pencil’s “lead” is actually made from a mixture of graphite, clay, and wax, with a bonding agent applied to seal it inside the wooden shaft.3 This process was first developed by the Frenchman Nicolas-Jacques Conté in the late 18th century—an innovation that led to France’s dominance of the pencil trade for years.
The amount of clay in the mixture determines the hardness of the lead—the more clay, the harder the point and the lighter the line. There is still no single international standard as to pencil-lead gradations. This book (and my business) focuses exclusively on #2 pencils, sometimes called HB pencils.
EQUIVALENTS BETWEEN U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL PENCIL GRADATIONS, AS DEVELOPED BY CONTÉ AND THOREAU
U.S. World
#1 B
#2 HB
#2 ½ F
#3 H
#4 2H
For years, I assumed pencils “got graphite” by having it injected into their hollow shafts. In fact, a close look at the unsharpened, or “raw” end of a pencil will usually reveal differences in color and/or grain of the opposing halves. This is because pencils are composed of two grooved pieces of cedar with a length of graphite sandwiched between them.4
Most #2 pencils are hexagonal. The design is justified by logistical and utilitarian concerns: Manufacturers realized the same piece of wood yielded more hexagonal shafts than cylindrical shafts; hexagonal pencils are less likely to roll off slanted drafting tables.5
You should always inspect a pencil before sharpening it. The early history of pencil production was marked by inconsistency of manufacture and outright fraud (some pencils’ leads only extended a few inches into the shaft; by the time the user sharpened a pencil enough to realize the deceit, it was too late). In our own time, as more and more pencils are produced abroad with an eye on minimizing cost, we are beset with low-quality examples of the classic #2 pencil, and it behooves us to inspect them for any deficiencies that would render sharpening attempts futile.6
The hexagonal shaft of the pencil must be straight, as bowing can lead to “shudder” in hand-crank sharpeners and irregular collars produced by pocket sharpeners. Rolling a pencil under your palm on a flat surface should reveal any bowing.
Make sure the graphite core is centered within the wooden shaft. An off-center lead will produce a point that gets progressively more difficult to sharpen evenly. Employing a pocketknife (see Chapter 4) will afford greater flexibility in pointing an errant core, but even still, the pencil user will have to moderate his or her pressure while applying that side of the point which runs closest to the edge of the shaft. Best to simply discard those pencils with cores that are more than 25% off-axis.7
The raw top of a new pencil should be free of paint. The iconic yellow (or black8, or blue9) shaft of a pencil is colored by dipping it into a vat of paint; any paint that adheres to the raw end of a pencil bespeaks of irregularities in the finishing process, which, in turn, suggests irregularities in earlier stages of production—irregularities that indicate unfortunate compromise in matters more significant than aesthetics!
Remember: A pencil point enjoyed by the writer may not be suited for the draftsman; the ideal point for the standardized-test taker laboring in an over-lit classroom may not please the louche poet idling on a windswept peak. No point can serve all needs. The unsharpened pencil is, in contrast, an idealized form.10 Putting a point on a pencil—making it functional—is to lead it out of Plato’s cave and into the noonday sun of utility. Of course, life outside a cave runs the risk of imperfection and frustration. But we must learn to live with these risks if we want enough oxygen to survive.
Let us now walk together into the sunlight.
1 Much of the information for this chapter was gleaned from Henry Petroski’s exhaustive, magisterial The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989), a volume which belongs on every pencil enthusiast’s shelf. There are few questions about the history and engineering of pencils whose answers cannot be found between its covers.
2 The latter measurement refers only to the exposed length of the shaft; some of the wood is hidden within the ferrule, which is clamped around it.
3 Early graphite deposits were misidentified as lead, and the appellation stuck.
4 Readers may be familiar with the phenomenon of alternating light and dark bands in a traditional ribbon of pencil shavings. This pleasing effect is the result of mismatched cedar halves in a single pencil.
5 Similarly, the flattened rectangular shaft of a carpenter’s pencil makes it safe to deposit on a sharply sloped roof.
6 Alas, the most common complaint about modern pencils concerns a shortcoming that cannot be easily ascertained by visual inspection alone: Poor-quality leads that break during sharpening, or upon application on the page. As the quality of a pencil’s lead is determined by the quality of its component materials, it would be the gifted sharpener indeed who could appraise it solely by deconstructing it with his or her eyes!
However, there is one visual signifier that often predicts lead quality: The words “Made in USA” (or a European country) typically bespeaks a higher-quality pencil than “Made in China” (or “Made in Mexico”). This rule is not a product of jingoism (your author is American), but rather the cold facts of current pencil-manufacturing realities. Japanese pencils are also good.
A further point regarding lead-breakage: The single thing a pencil-user can do to increase the sorry likelihood of his or her lead breaking is dropping his or her pencil; the graphite core is vulnerable to internal shattering, which may not make itself known until the compromised section of graphite is revealed during the sharpening process. This is not to say we should coddle our pencils—they are, after all, tools to be used, and with vigor at that—but treating them with appropriate decorum cannot help but engender their finest possible utility.
7
Percentage is approximate and based on personal experience.
8 I’m thinking of the infamous Palomino Blackwing.
9 I’m thinking of German Faber-Castell pencils, which display the company’s colors.
10 Most vintage-pencil collectors will not deign to include sharpened pencils in their collections.
CHAPTER 3:
WARM-UP EXERCISES
Sharpening pencils should be a pleasant activity that enriches the senses. (See Table 3.1.) However, it is a physical process,1 and as such carries the risk of bodily harm. If you’re in pain while sharpening a pencil, or racked with discomfort afterwards, you’re probably doing something wrong: either gripping the pencil or the sharpener too tightly; sitting or standing in an awkward position; applying the blade of the sharpener to your body rather than the pencil; or (most common) failing to stretch and prepare your body before beginning the sharpening process.
In this respect, sharpening a pencil is no different from weightlifting, bungee jumping, or bull riding. All these activities require physical preparation and the constant monitoring of one’s bodily integrity.
Take a few moments before each sharpening job to make sure your body is comfortable, free of disease, and sufficiently stretched to maintain the muscle control, flexibility, and range of motion necessary for pointing pencils.
Below we find a sampling of warm-up exercises that will increase the pleasure taken from sharpening pencils while decreasing the likelihood of injury and death.
