Good advice on pencils
- Thread starter MHV
- Start date
"“M’lady’s ruffled skirt abandoned on the floor in the throes of our love-making.”"....never thought I'd see that line reading about pencil sharpening....
There's definitely an art to doing it correctly although our author may have gone a little off the deep end. 
Thanks for sharing! Here are a few of mine.
Thanks for sharing! Here are a few of mine.
That might be 2000 words more than I thought could ever be written on sharpening pencils - impressive...and informative
I remember seeing a quick video showcasing this guy and the service he provides. Yes, his book sold so well that he has started a professional...nay, an artisanal pencil sharpening service. The definition of disposable income.
- Thread starter
- #7
do ya think he might be laughin' at guys like us? ya think?Very funny.
I like to think it's a kind of performance art: dead-serious and sincere, but at the same time full of funny bits, and revelatory of the spectator's reaction.
When you look at the current craze for quality pencils (Palomino black etc), or the amount of details that get into straight razor sharpening, then that kind of work does not surprise me.
Anything you put a lot of attention to will be rewarding in a way (makes you structured, disciplined, self-aware) while at the same time revealing how difficult it is to draw the line between trivial and serious. For many, spending hours debating the best DE blades and comparative smells of lavender creams is an utter waste of their time; for others it isn't.
In a way, the guy is pushing his idea to the furthest limit he can, and even if there are apparent tons of layers of irony (accidental or not), he also proves that you can get better at a given task with proper tools, state of mind, and practices, whatever the task.
His thing would be a real joke if in the end you did not at least gain the marginal advantage of having a properly sharpened pencil. Then, it would really be a "pointless" exercise. But I don't mind him having the last laugh either.
I'd say that this was a pretty cursory survey of pencil sharpening. It failed to get at the meat of the matter, giving scant attention to adjusting technique for varying clay:graphite ratios and how the various woods affect the sharpness of the collar. But not too bad for a first effort. 
A pencil and paper remain an almost magical interface for finding a solution to a problem. Get a few sharpened up. . . no need to pick a font . . . start anywhere on a page . . . erase a bit if need be with an eraser . . . keep going.
I'd say that this was a pretty cursory survey of pencil sharpening. It failed to get at the meat of the matter, giving scant attention to adjusting technique for varying clay:graphite ratios and how the various woods affect the sharpness of the collar. But not too bad for a first effort.
Not to mention that you can only get a truly sharp pencil if you use one of those Belgian pencil sharpeners. Sure, they're expensive, but they are the best by a long shot. Anyone trying to sharpen a pencil using generic modern is doomed to failure. Some of the sharpeners from the Jnat Sharpener Co. Ltd. are pretty good too are excellent, but very hard to use if you are not very familiar with them.
