Pencil sharpener
A pencil sharpener (also referred to as a parer or topper in Ireland) is a device for sharpening a pencil's writing point by shaving away its worn surface. Pencil sharpeners may be operated manually or by an electric motor.
History
Before the development of dedicated pencil sharpeners, a pencil was sharpened by whittling it with a knife. Pencil sharpeners made this task much easier and gave a more uniform result. Some specialized types of pencils, such as carpenter's pencils are still usually sharpened with a knife, due to their flat shape, though recently[when?] a fixed-blade device with a rotatable collar has become available.
Bernard Lassimone, a French mathematician, applied for the first patent (French patent #2444) on pencil sharpeners in 1828. In 1847, Therry des Estwaux invented an improved mechanical sharpener.[1] The first American pencil sharpener was patented by Walter K. Foster of Bangor, Maine in 1855.[1] Electric pencil sharpeners for offices have been made since at least 1917.[2]
They now come in a wide array of colors and shapes. It is common for traditional sharpeners to have a case around them to collect the shavings. It can be removed for emptying.
In May 2011 tourism officials in Logan, Ohio put on display, in its regional welcome center, hundreds of pencil sharpeners which had been collected by Rev. Paul Johnson an Ohio minister who died in 2010. Johnson, a World War II veteran, had kept his collection of more than 3,400 sharpeners in a small shed, outside his home in Carbon Hill in southeast Ohio. He had started collecting after his wife gave him a few pencil sharpeners as a gift in the late 1980s. He kept them organized in categories, including cats, Christmas and Disneyland. The oldest was 105 years old. Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). Some electric pencil sharpeners are powered by batteries rather than being plugged into a building's electrical system, making them more portable.
Razor knife
Artists use a very sharp knife to sharpen pencils and other media by hand. The tip is cut into a triangle shape and then the edges of the triangle are trimmed down. This requires a total of 6 cuts and takes practice to master without breaking the lead.
Specialized pencil sharpeners
Specialized sharpeners are available that operate on non-standard sizes of pencil, such as the large art pencils used in primary schools. Sharpeners that have two holes, one for normal pencils and one for larger art pencils are still fairly common. Some mechanical sharpeners have a large hole with a rotating disk in front of it that has several holes of different sizes.
An artist's or draftsman's pencil sharpener leaves the graphite untouched and sharpens only the wood. (Some models can switch from standard to wood-only by an adjustment.) The graphite lead is then honed to a razor point with a lead pointer which sharpens only the lead without wood. Lead pointers are also used with mechanical leadholders which have removable/refillable leads.
Sharpeners of similar design for use on wax crayons are also available, and sometimes included in boxes of crayons. These often have plastic blades for the softer wax.
Carpenters may use carpenter pencils, the shape of which stops them from rolling away, while still providing a constant line width. These pencils were traditionally sharpened with tools conveniently to hand, such as a plane or sandpaper. Rotating pencil sharpeners are now available for these too, where a rotating plastic collar hold the pencil in position.
Because mechanical pencils dispense the graphite stick progressively during use, they do not require sharpening. Such pencils are sometimes called "self-sharpening". But prolonged writing often causes the graphite stick to become lopsided and dull. Specialized versions of pencil sharpener, known as graphite pointers, may be used by drafters and other mechanical pencil users who need constantly sharp points.[citation needed]
References
- ^ "20 Things You Didn't Know About... Pencils", Discover magazine, May 2007, retrieved 2009-04-30
- ^ See photo at the Early Office Museum, which also shows earlier electric sharpeners used industrially.
External links
- Antique Pencil Sharpeners
- Collector of pencil sharpeners (in French and partly in English)
- Dutch Collector of pencil sharpeners
- Pencil Sharpener Museum in Logan, Ohio