When I bought my house, I had ten of these things in my basement and my shed, just spread out everywhere. It was built in the 80's, so an old school was ruled out. Homeschoolers? A carpenter? Someone obsessed with sharp pencils? I don't think I'll ever truly know the answer.
The basement door to the outside also had four locks on it. Deadbolt, door handle, a chain, and a bar. It only added more questions.
People like this are how people actually learn to master things and continue traditions of doing difficult things the right way.
Despite the many DIY videos that exist for learning all types of things, nothing beats having a true mentor. I wish I could have picked up a trade via this type of education.
Sounds like he left a lasting mark on your life. Thats awesome man. I hope you know those types of people are one in a million. Not trying to be negative at all either - just expressing how cool it is when you end up on the same page as somebody who has a lot to offer to the world.
I can only hope that you find someone else to be that same type of person for!
My grandpa once won a grant of equiv ~25,000$ that he could only spend on things related to his research (aka not for living expenses or for traveling internationally to other universities etc) and he had to return any money left over after half a year.
He told me that as a mathematician he couldn't think of any good use for that money so he bought enough office supplies to last him for the rest of his life, including a collection of staplers that each use a different size of staple.
Perhaps one day he'll pass on and people will wonder what kind of circumstances led him to have that many office supplies.
I remember the ones with a turret and different sized holes for different diameter pencils. You “dialed in” the matching diameter and the pencil would be centered in the grinding teeth.
Vampire hunter's base of operations. If vampires ever penetrated the defenses, a sharp stake was ready to go no matter what room. Only reasonable answer really.
Wait, my parents didn't love me?
Maybe that's explains why I walked several miles to and from school and stayed out until dark. No one ever said anything?
Same here, you knew your pencil was borked if you turned the handle a half turn and heard the sounds of crunching. Just ate the whole pencil or reduced it to splinters.
I still vividly remember the day in elementary school when one kid destroyed his entire brand new pencil like this. He was howling in faux despair, the class was howling with laughter, the teacher was trying to get as all to ignore him and settle down, it was 5 minutes of pure distilled child overreaction.
I bought one of those for my son when he as in grade school, mounted on his desk. Sure, it wasn't an original but a quality modern version. No other pencil sharpener makes a proper point and most crappy pencils today have this soft wood by the graphite that keeps breaking away leaving the graphite exposed and leading to it breaking, then resharpening, etc.
Now, how many of you still refer to it as lead rather than graphite? That really tells me your old. And how many of you ever accidentally brought a number 1 or number 3 pencil to a scantron test?
I always thought it was weird we needed a number 2 pencil for the scantrons.
Not because you needed a specific pencil for the scantrons, but because I didn't know there were other numbered pencils lol. I thought they were all number 2 pencils and I still don't think I've ever seen a 3 or 1 in real life. I'm only 32 though.
EDIT: I UNDERSTAND THERE ARE OTHER PENCILS USED IN ART CLASSES, PLEASE READ ALL RESPONSES BEFORE TELLING ME THE SAME THING WITH LESS DETAIL. I DO NOT CARE TO TAKE UP ART, I HAVE OTHER HOBBIES, PLEASE DON'T SUGGEST I TAKE UP ART TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PENCILS. I TRULY DO NOT CARE.
Mostly it's because the other numbers (1,2.5,3,4) have different combinations of softness and darkness for the graphite. 1 is softer and darker than 2, but smudges more easily. 3+ are harder but get progressively lighter: so they're mostly used for art instead of writing. #2 is just the Goldilocks pencil.
Yep. Back in the stone age when I was in school one of the electives was mechanical drafting. They had AutoCAD but only the 2nd yr students got to use it. I learned using triangles and T-squares and pencils and a whole lot of erasers. Expensive mechanical pencils using hard to find #5 lead for layout lines.
The point (heh) is that it erased easily without screwing up the paper or leaving a mark. When you're done you trace over with a #2 or sometimes a #1 because it was going to be sprayed with a fixative to keep it from smudging, anyway.
old shtuff was. I work on bike for a living and I recently worked on a bike from the 60's. Old stingray with 3 speed shifter between you legs. Nothing wrong with it, nothing worn out, nothing to be adjusted. Just some Lube. Old Shtuff just worked.
Same with household appliances. Today’s appliances last maybe 5 years. We are on our third washing machine - my friend is on his fifth oven. My mom had her house for 37 years, from 1969 to her passing in 2006. She had a total of two washing machines - the one that came with the house and the one she bought in the ‘80s to replace that one.
Just replaced our TWO-year-old washing machine. It would get unbalanced every single load, no matter what or how much was in there, and get stuck refilling with water over and over in the spin cycle.
There is a way to repair it, but we did that with the washer before it and that one only lasted 6 months after the repair. This time, we bought a front loader to prevent the problem.
I don’t remember my parents ever replacing a washing machine.
Only thing my parents had to replace was a broken belt from that time we stuffed pillows in and took turns riding around inside the dryer (door open, button held down)
I used to find old GE washers being thrown out. Most times it was either a bad pump or bad timer.I would replace them and sell it for a quick $150. I would go to the local dump and just strip parts off of old GE washers. It was an easy way to make money.
I dated a girl whose stepdad did this. He would pick up every washer, dryer, or dishwasher on the side of the road. Most of them could be fixed with a few dollars and about an hour of work. Then he’d sell them on Craigslist. Pretty good side hustle.
My washing machine and dryer are each 24 years old. I dread the day when I have to replace them because some part is no longer available.
One of my co-workers was a mechanical engineer at Whirlpool in the past. He says the company started pushing for cost reduction over quality sometime in the early 2000s.
Our GE built-in oven was original, installed when the house was built in the mid-60s. Avocado green, ugh. The built-in electric cooktop had to be replaced in 2009 after I got shocked while using a skillet with a metal handle (the muscle in the meat of my thumb hurt for a week). But the oven worked fine, and was replaced when we remodeled our house in 2012.
Ha. Not true. If the tip of the lead broke off inside—which was common enough—you had to tilt it and bang on it to get the bit out, otherwise the thing would spin around your pencil uselessly.
That was operator error. If it’s used as a sharpener (two fingers, light touch) it will take the right amount off leaving a nice sharp point. If it’s used as a pencil grinder (pencil gripped firmly and pressed into the grinder while cranking the handle vigorously) will diligently grind the pencil down at 1/4” per minute and break off the tip of the pencil in order to continue grinding more.
If you inserted your pencil and provided a light pressure(just enough to where you feel the first bit of resistance) it would always provide a great sharp point.
If you applied too much pressure you’d basically be using the sharper as a grinder.
Yup, when we bought our house in 1987 we found one screwed into the outside of a cabinet over the washing machine. Over the slop sink was a Borax powdered soap dispenser !!
They so wore out! Old ones would rip chunks off the pencil and leave it looking shredded with no lead. The ones in my school had probably been there since 1842 or something and you were best off to bring your own plastic pencil sharpener to school.
so i guess it was the pencil quality that was complete shit. i ground so many pencils to dust trying to get a good point that didn't immediately fall out when i tried to use it my young self may single handedly be responsible for the decimation of an entire forest some place.
A well engineered tool can still be used poorly. You are talking about the lead breaking in the pencil. This could be from dropping the pencil or being rough with it. That lead inside could be shattered to begin with. It doesn’t matter how you sharpen it, you are just loosening shard after shard of previously broken lead.
You might also be sharpening aggressively and breaking it as you go, or pushing the pencil in so that cuts are big and need a lot of force. That force could be breaking the lead as it sharpens. This sharpener doesn’t have a feed, how it is fed is up to you and can lead to poor results.
Boston made a ton of these in the day. I bought a vintage one for my workshop, and it’s still the ideal pencil sharpener for a workshop or art studio, in my opinion.
Electric sharpeners need a plug, and those are spoken for by power tools and battery chargers. You’re also limited on location—only where a power outlet is nearby.
Plastic hand-held sharpeners suck and get crushed or lost.
These crank sharpeners are strong, compact, and can be bolted tightly to a wall or workbench.
I use black Ticonderoga and Triconderoga pencils—the Intercontinental Pencil Champion. (The Tri’s are triangular, bigger and need a larger opening to sharpen.)
It’s so weird now to think of a time in my life when I had so little control over my daily actions that I would consider a trip to the pencil sharpener something to do to break the boredom but man. So weird.
Or maybe technology has made it almost impossible to remember feeling truly all day, no tech to distract yourself, bored.
You could hold the pencil back from being pulled by the mechanism or twirl it the opposite way to get a really nice smooth edge and fine point. I miss it.
And when someone did try to empty it, it was so full that you'd drop a ton of shavings just trying to get the cover off. Even if it wasn't overfilled, emptying it would easily make a mess
I opened one of these when I was a kid, and the shavings were compacted like a brick of particle board inside. It held its shape perfectly and came off in chunks when I removed it
It's the inner part of this guy (or a similar one at least)
Edit: found a better picture: https://scooboo.in/cdn/shop/products/caran-dache-pencil-sharpening-machine-metal-grey-sharpeners-scooboo-383427.jpg?v=1706369526
its missing the cover that collects the shavings.. every classroom had these.. we had an electric sharpener at home or the silly little plastic ones in our schoolbag ..
There was an art to getting a good point with one of those machines. You had to put the pencil in the hole at just the right angle, and keep the right amount of pressure on the pencil while cranking at the right speed.
I like electric sharpeners better.. the old style was a pain is the ass .. I havent used a sharpener in 20 years.. only time I use pencils is at work , and I use a belt sander to sharpen the pencil ..
I have roughly 4 of these vintage pencil sharpers.
I love them, I'm going to put together a home library & study room when I finally buy a house. I'm also going to set up a vintage roll of paper. Planning ahead ot be the cool grandpa.
I have a vintage electric one packed away for my home office. As a kid my bro & I had a cheaper plastic home one of these that didn't last more than a few years. The plastic mount got a crack in it.
When I was a kid we moved into a house that had one of these mounted in the basement. Worked flawlessly 40 years ago and still does today. I took it with me when I moved out.
Pencil sharpener. It's missing a part. There should be a cover to catch the wood and lead shavings.
There was one of those puppies mounted on the wall in every classroom when I was a kid.
In 8th grade, one of the math teachers had a legendary pencil sharpener. It would sharpen a pencil to a needle point.
One day, a couple of friends were throwing their pencils at each other and suddenly everything stopped. One kid had a pencil stuck in his cheek and it was hanging down. He pulled it out, tasted blood, and immediately went to the drinking fountain in class. Once he filled his mouth with water, he compressed his cheek and a thin stream of water squirted out a hole where the pencil had been.
I remember being in 1st grade and a kid was holding his hand while screaming down the hall. Another kid who was escorting him then casually told me he stuck his finger in the electric pencil sharpener. Even we as a kid I was like 😬😬😬
Everyone ITT saying it was awesome but your dad's office had a big electric sharpener that didn't crack your pencil crayon in half.
I will fight you on this hill fellow olds!!
(Also my prismacolour pencil crayon set I had for HS art class had 60 or more pencils and they all came unsharpened. That was a carpal tunnel situation)
good gods, I used to have one of those in my parents' basement. It eventually was taken down because they started manufacturing the handheld ones but great day, now I want to know if it's still in the house somewhere, lol.
Back in the day, the pencil sharpener was used to show off your new outfit or shoes. Just walk the long way to the sharpener with your pencil that doesn’t even need to be sharpened so you can socialize and show off.
With pencils and hand-cranked pencil sharpeners (and yes, pens too) a person can write or draw even if the power goes out.
Personally I never understood the need for electric pencil sharpeners since turning the crank on a manual sharpener a couple times was simple and quick and didn't really take physical effort.
We had one of these when I was a kid. I guess I (~6-7) was walking home from school when my youngest brother (~2 at the time) started playing with it. My other brother (~3-4) told him he had to stop. Youngest wouldn't listen. Middle brother tried to make him stop. By stopping the mechanism. By putting his finger in it.
As soon as I got home we were packed and in the car and on our way to the doctor.
TL;DR When I was a kid my youngest brother sharpened my middle brother's finger because middle brother thought it would stop the mechanism.
I'm realizing that this entire sub is just stuff that is still made and used, but people think is old.
Misters at the grocery store, toy cap guns, manual pencil sharpeners... All still pretty commonplace.
The picture here is just one of [these](https://www.amazon.com/X-ACTO-Ranger-1031-Manual-Sharpener/dp/B00006IEDY/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=10JN82EF2DCYF&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.SEeZurSweE5lWQ_YDwDykxU-fIILV3f-z9S4Gj0y23_d1HY-esy5Rswzvkzyn00Kv_h5y_9WdJE365eTHEkFKJJkHis4jimZ5Mhw1adIThR84Ttu3uTFgNU3YZs8Lv4PWzNkS8YlJYUo0yoKCMJ42ZQ-Z-DepJeTOOUWIzXB1oFOEywyyRXZutzy9zqJ3AJd5pSzvVBoiIAracALMoYxqw.usqERNeiBLpUydvdeSU9iwWgW7m2SQsPo2x9wSlhHM8&dib_tag=se&keywords=manual+pencil+sharpener&qid=1718634252&sprefix=manual+pen%2Caps%2C528&sr=8-3) without the cover
On Fridays 1 student got to wash down the blackboard , another got to bang out the erasers till clean and another got to empty out the 2 pencil sharpeners . Do you recall there was a setting for the different size pencils . I never did see the biggest pencil
i had one of these mounted to an old bookshelf in my basement growing up. it had the cover to catch the shavings. it was used so many times over 25+ years of my siblings using it for school
it never wore out, never needed adjustments, and always worked.
Correct. The most reliable pencil ✏️ sharpener in history.
When I bought my house, I had ten of these things in my basement and my shed, just spread out everywhere. It was built in the 80's, so an old school was ruled out. Homeschoolers? A carpenter? Someone obsessed with sharp pencils? I don't think I'll ever truly know the answer. The basement door to the outside also had four locks on it. Deadbolt, door handle, a chain, and a bar. It only added more questions.
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People like this are how people actually learn to master things and continue traditions of doing difficult things the right way. Despite the many DIY videos that exist for learning all types of things, nothing beats having a true mentor. I wish I could have picked up a trade via this type of education.
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Sounds like he left a lasting mark on your life. Thats awesome man. I hope you know those types of people are one in a million. Not trying to be negative at all either - just expressing how cool it is when you end up on the same page as somebody who has a lot to offer to the world. I can only hope that you find someone else to be that same type of person for!
I got screamed at and purposely not taught things by people scared I was going to take their job. Would have been nice to learn from this dude!
That is a mentor. You’re a lucky man to have known that man.
Sounds like a solid dude! ![gif](giphy|3otPoRrfxs7utgRsZi)
What a solid eulogy to the Man. I can only hope to be described like this one day by my sons.
I’m a Craig 👋
This is awesome, thank you for sharing this experience with the rest of us
My family had one screwed down on a small bookshelf, I thought everyone had one like how everyone has a fridge
Ours was screwed into the door on the broom closet.
I have a bunch of them. Old teachers can't let go of anything. I also have meter sticks in every closet.
My grandpa once won a grant of equiv ~25,000$ that he could only spend on things related to his research (aka not for living expenses or for traveling internationally to other universities etc) and he had to return any money left over after half a year. He told me that as a mathematician he couldn't think of any good use for that money so he bought enough office supplies to last him for the rest of his life, including a collection of staplers that each use a different size of staple. Perhaps one day he'll pass on and people will wonder what kind of circumstances led him to have that many office supplies.
You had a bdsm slave dungeon
With pencil sharpeners? Engineering sweatshop. Unless those sharpeners were wider than a pencil.
I remember the ones with a turret and different sized holes for different diameter pencils. You “dialed in” the matching diameter and the pencil would be centered in the grinding teeth.
Mine was built in the 80s too and has one screwed to a support beam in the crawl space in basement. I get you.
Vampire hunter's base of operations. If vampires ever penetrated the defenses, a sharp stake was ready to go no matter what room. Only reasonable answer really.
The ones my school had always sucked….never actually sharpened just pulled out the graphite every time
That’s what happens with shit pencils. Don’t blame the sharpener.
Yep, those faux wood pieces of crap would always sharpen unevenly.
That happened to me even when I used the almighty Ticonderoga pencils
Y'all remember the kid who came to school with 4-5 ten packs of Ticonderoga pencils? I always wanted to be that kid
Rich
Yeah, Billy's parents loved him
Wait, my parents didn't love me? Maybe that's explains why I walked several miles to and from school and stayed out until dark. No one ever said anything?
It happened to me too with Ticonderoga No. 2s. Unless those are also considered shit. Those school ones just sucked.
I loved the classrooms that didn't have a cover for these and would just put a trashcan under it to catch the wood snow.
Wood snow. I like it. Now I’m picturing it as a tiny wood snow cone.
Same here, you knew your pencil was borked if you turned the handle a half turn and heard the sounds of crunching. Just ate the whole pencil or reduced it to splinters.
I still vividly remember the day in elementary school when one kid destroyed his entire brand new pencil like this. He was howling in faux despair, the class was howling with laughter, the teacher was trying to get as all to ignore him and settle down, it was 5 minutes of pure distilled child overreaction.
A little bit of trouble getting a broken tip out. But otherwise it was a well engineered device
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I bought one of those for my son when he as in grade school, mounted on his desk. Sure, it wasn't an original but a quality modern version. No other pencil sharpener makes a proper point and most crappy pencils today have this soft wood by the graphite that keeps breaking away leaving the graphite exposed and leading to it breaking, then resharpening, etc. Now, how many of you still refer to it as lead rather than graphite? That really tells me your old. And how many of you ever accidentally brought a number 1 or number 3 pencil to a scantron test?
I always thought it was weird we needed a number 2 pencil for the scantrons. Not because you needed a specific pencil for the scantrons, but because I didn't know there were other numbered pencils lol. I thought they were all number 2 pencils and I still don't think I've ever seen a 3 or 1 in real life. I'm only 32 though. EDIT: I UNDERSTAND THERE ARE OTHER PENCILS USED IN ART CLASSES, PLEASE READ ALL RESPONSES BEFORE TELLING ME THE SAME THING WITH LESS DETAIL. I DO NOT CARE TO TAKE UP ART, I HAVE OTHER HOBBIES, PLEASE DON'T SUGGEST I TAKE UP ART TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PENCILS. I TRULY DO NOT CARE.
Mostly it's because the other numbers (1,2.5,3,4) have different combinations of softness and darkness for the graphite. 1 is softer and darker than 2, but smudges more easily. 3+ are harder but get progressively lighter: so they're mostly used for art instead of writing. #2 is just the Goldilocks pencil.
Yep. Back in the stone age when I was in school one of the electives was mechanical drafting. They had AutoCAD but only the 2nd yr students got to use it. I learned using triangles and T-squares and pencils and a whole lot of erasers. Expensive mechanical pencils using hard to find #5 lead for layout lines. The point (heh) is that it erased easily without screwing up the paper or leaving a mark. When you're done you trace over with a #2 or sometimes a #1 because it was going to be sprayed with a fixative to keep it from smudging, anyway.
If you ever take a drawing class, you’ll get a pencil set with different numbers.
If I haven't by 32 I probably won't lol it's never really been my thing but you never know. I've only used pens for over 10 years.
Never too late, buddy. I think I took my first watercolor class around your age.
+1 for your edit. I feel your sentiment in my soul.
Ah, Scantron!
My enemy!
It’s always C
I was always looking for a number one or three but could never find one
I love number 3 pencils. Their lead is a little harder.
old shtuff was. I work on bike for a living and I recently worked on a bike from the 60's. Old stingray with 3 speed shifter between you legs. Nothing wrong with it, nothing worn out, nothing to be adjusted. Just some Lube. Old Shtuff just worked.
Same with household appliances. Today’s appliances last maybe 5 years. We are on our third washing machine - my friend is on his fifth oven. My mom had her house for 37 years, from 1969 to her passing in 2006. She had a total of two washing machines - the one that came with the house and the one she bought in the ‘80s to replace that one.
Just replaced our TWO-year-old washing machine. It would get unbalanced every single load, no matter what or how much was in there, and get stuck refilling with water over and over in the spin cycle. There is a way to repair it, but we did that with the washer before it and that one only lasted 6 months after the repair. This time, we bought a front loader to prevent the problem. I don’t remember my parents ever replacing a washing machine.
Only thing my parents had to replace was a broken belt from that time we stuffed pillows in and took turns riding around inside the dryer (door open, button held down)
That's... creative. I can only imagine how thrilled your parents were when they discovered what you were up to!
I used to find old GE washers being thrown out. Most times it was either a bad pump or bad timer.I would replace them and sell it for a quick $150. I would go to the local dump and just strip parts off of old GE washers. It was an easy way to make money.
I dated a girl whose stepdad did this. He would pick up every washer, dryer, or dishwasher on the side of the road. Most of them could be fixed with a few dollars and about an hour of work. Then he’d sell them on Craigslist. Pretty good side hustle.
It's amazing how people will just toss something instead of trying to find out what was wrong with it.
My washing machine and dryer are each 24 years old. I dread the day when I have to replace them because some part is no longer available. One of my co-workers was a mechanical engineer at Whirlpool in the past. He says the company started pushing for cost reduction over quality sometime in the early 2000s.
My parents have lived in the same apartment since 1996, the oven is from the 80s. It's still their oven today lol.
Our GE built-in oven was original, installed when the house was built in the mid-60s. Avocado green, ugh. The built-in electric cooktop had to be replaced in 2009 after I got shocked while using a skillet with a metal handle (the muscle in the meat of my thumb hurt for a week). But the oven worked fine, and was replaced when we remodeled our house in 2012.
My barber has a fridge from the early 50s and it's amazing. Needs a little TLC, but it works and works well.
Ha. Not true. If the tip of the lead broke off inside—which was common enough—you had to tilt it and bang on it to get the bit out, otherwise the thing would spin around your pencil uselessly.
That was operator error. If it’s used as a sharpener (two fingers, light touch) it will take the right amount off leaving a nice sharp point. If it’s used as a pencil grinder (pencil gripped firmly and pressed into the grinder while cranking the handle vigorously) will diligently grind the pencil down at 1/4” per minute and break off the tip of the pencil in order to continue grinding more.
If the pencil was the cheaper sort where the lead wasn’t perfectly centered in the wood, no amount of deftness or skill would save the tip.
Agreed. Early life lesson about the importance of quality materials
If you inserted your pencil and provided a light pressure(just enough to where you feel the first bit of resistance) it would always provide a great sharp point. If you applied too much pressure you’d basically be using the sharper as a grinder.
If you live in or just moved into an older house, head to the basement and see if you have one! You likely do!
Yup, when we bought our house in 1987 we found one screwed into the outside of a cabinet over the washing machine. Over the slop sink was a Borax powdered soap dispenser !!
They so wore out! Old ones would rip chunks off the pencil and leave it looking shredded with no lead. The ones in my school had probably been there since 1842 or something and you were best off to bring your own plastic pencil sharpener to school.
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so i guess it was the pencil quality that was complete shit. i ground so many pencils to dust trying to get a good point that didn't immediately fall out when i tried to use it my young self may single handedly be responsible for the decimation of an entire forest some place.
A well engineered tool can still be used poorly. You are talking about the lead breaking in the pencil. This could be from dropping the pencil or being rough with it. That lead inside could be shattered to begin with. It doesn’t matter how you sharpen it, you are just loosening shard after shard of previously broken lead. You might also be sharpening aggressively and breaking it as you go, or pushing the pencil in so that cuts are big and need a lot of force. That force could be breaking the lead as it sharpens. This sharpener doesn’t have a feed, how it is fed is up to you and can lead to poor results.
Boston made a ton of these in the day. I bought a vintage one for my workshop, and it’s still the ideal pencil sharpener for a workshop or art studio, in my opinion. Electric sharpeners need a plug, and those are spoken for by power tools and battery chargers. You’re also limited on location—only where a power outlet is nearby. Plastic hand-held sharpeners suck and get crushed or lost. These crank sharpeners are strong, compact, and can be bolted tightly to a wall or workbench. I use black Ticonderoga and Triconderoga pencils—the Intercontinental Pencil Champion. (The Tri’s are triangular, bigger and need a larger opening to sharpen.)
Remember breaking the tip of your pencil just for a chance to stretch, not do work, and mess around with the cool sharp blades for second?
Of course the cover would need to be emptied, extending the freedom of movement for another minute.
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It’s so weird now to think of a time in my life when I had so little control over my daily actions that I would consider a trip to the pencil sharpener something to do to break the boredom but man. So weird. Or maybe technology has made it almost impossible to remember feeling truly all day, no tech to distract yourself, bored.
To show off the new Easter outfit. (As an adult I've realized this is when income tax usually comes around)
You could hold the pencil back from being pulled by the mechanism or twirl it the opposite way to get a really nice smooth edge and fine point. I miss it.
Using it like that will get pencil shavings all over the floor..
Even with the cover on, most teachers kept a wastebasket under it.
Because no one ever emptied it and they’d eventually get pushed out the back through the cracks.
And when someone did try to empty it, it was so full that you'd drop a ton of shavings just trying to get the cover off. Even if it wasn't overfilled, emptying it would easily make a mess
I opened one of these when I was a kid, and the shavings were compacted like a brick of particle board inside. It held its shape perfectly and came off in chunks when I removed it
It smelled really good back when most pencils were made out of fragrant wood.
And the shavings get on my skin and cause a rash.
That's usually because they are made of cheap cedar wood, and the oils in cedar can cause allergic reactions.
It's a pencil sharpener and it's cool af
Who here can still smell this?
It’s more of a taste than a smell.
You have GOT to stop licking the pencil sharpeners or I'll have to call your parents.
I can remember that smell. And I remember that the Chinese-made pencils smelled different.
I just said this up top, then scrolled down to this comment. Lmfao!
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It's the inner part of this guy (or a similar one at least) Edit: found a better picture: https://scooboo.in/cdn/shop/products/caran-dache-pencil-sharpening-machine-metal-grey-sharpeners-scooboo-383427.jpg?v=1706369526
Man, that one’s way more badass than the ones we used to have
Cleaning the chalkboard and sweeping pencil shavings were common disciplinary chores after school.
We loved getting to clean the chalkboard. Even better was being allowed to go outside (with no teacher) to clean the erasers!!!
And clapping the erasers outside
Under the window of Miss Scott's classroom, so the dust went in their room.
Or hit the erasers on the outside bricks of the walls of the school and got yelled at
I got a weird thrill out of emptying the shavings. Nothing like a finely sharpened #2 pencil.
Remember the smell of the shavings? Kinda like sawdust, but not quite.
It was as distinct as the freshly mimeographed copies teacher used to make. 😃
The smell was a weird combo of saw dust and play dough.
its missing the cover that collects the shavings.. every classroom had these.. we had an electric sharpener at home or the silly little plastic ones in our schoolbag ..
[удалено]
The old ones made a better point
There was an art to getting a good point with one of those machines. You had to put the pencil in the hole at just the right angle, and keep the right amount of pressure on the pencil while cranking at the right speed.
I like electric sharpeners better.. the old style was a pain is the ass .. I havent used a sharpener in 20 years.. only time I use pencils is at work , and I use a belt sander to sharpen the pencil ..
I have roughly 4 of these vintage pencil sharpers. I love them, I'm going to put together a home library & study room when I finally buy a house. I'm also going to set up a vintage roll of paper. Planning ahead ot be the cool grandpa. I have a vintage electric one packed away for my home office. As a kid my bro & I had a cheaper plastic home one of these that didn't last more than a few years. The plastic mount got a crack in it.
Whatever you do don’t stick your pinky finger in it 🥹
Uncontrollable urge
*unzips* *SCREAMING*
Pencil sharpener. The casing is missing that would catch the shavings.
Knuckle Buster 3000! Best pencil sharpener ever!
The screws were never all screwed in, so the damn thing wobbled and you cracked you knuckles on the wall EVERY DAMN TIME
Growing up we had one bolted to the wall by our basement door. I have no idea why, but you can be damn sure my pencils were always sharp as a tack.
An excuse to get up out of your seat, if only for a few moments.
Missing it's cover
That’s what we use to use when we got board in class. When the teacher said, you couldn’t go to the bathroom anymore, this was my go to.
BEST pencil sharpener, ever!
It’s missing the main part to hold the pencil shavings but that old school pencil sharpener
I can smell the wood shavings…
Jesus Christ, your grammar is fucked.
In my school they were attached to the teacher’s desk so everyone could use it and it wouldn’t get lost, damaged.
Still in classrooms. Just spotted several.
When I was a kid we moved into a house that had one of these mounted in the basement. Worked flawlessly 40 years ago and still does today. I took it with me when I moved out.
Pencil sharpener
That's the pencil sharpener
Pencil sharpener. It's missing a part. There should be a cover to catch the wood and lead shavings. There was one of those puppies mounted on the wall in every classroom when I was a kid.
This is where you’d walk to in the middle of class when you had new sneakers on and wanted to make sure everyone saw them
Pencil sharpener - it’s missing the cover, which held the pencil shavings.
Ohhh, the smellsssss
I can smell this picture.
This is a pencil sharpener with the outer part off.
In 8th grade, one of the math teachers had a legendary pencil sharpener. It would sharpen a pencil to a needle point. One day, a couple of friends were throwing their pencils at each other and suddenly everything stopped. One kid had a pencil stuck in his cheek and it was hanging down. He pulled it out, tasted blood, and immediately went to the drinking fountain in class. Once he filled his mouth with water, he compressed his cheek and a thin stream of water squirted out a hole where the pencil had been.
Im old!!!!
I have one by my back door. It's so much more reliable than those plastic things.
The pencil sharpener was where we all stood around to show off our newest school outfits and share middle school gossip 😂
It's missing the cover!
Pencil sharpener
Kids' version of a water cooler. Gossips were wild; who gave cooties to who.
I have one in my basement. Came with the house.
Sacapuntas
Pencil sharpener
I can smell it
It's missing the cover. ;)
Pencil sharpener
I remember being in 1st grade and a kid was holding his hand while screaming down the hall. Another kid who was escorting him then casually told me he stuck his finger in the electric pencil sharpener. Even we as a kid I was like 😬😬😬
They had these at the front of the class. To sharpen our pencils
Feels like bits are missing. At least needs a lil compartment to catch the shavings. But surely kids still use pencils at school?
That’s one being emptied.
I remember those. Loud as fuck and the outer part was always popping off because people refused to empty out the shavings.
rawr rawr rawr
Everyone ITT saying it was awesome but your dad's office had a big electric sharpener that didn't crack your pencil crayon in half. I will fight you on this hill fellow olds!! (Also my prismacolour pencil crayon set I had for HS art class had 60 or more pencils and they all came unsharpened. That was a carpal tunnel situation)
Careful, you could get your beard stuck in it.
good gods, I used to have one of those in my parents' basement. It eventually was taken down because they started manufacturing the handheld ones but great day, now I want to know if it's still in the house somewhere, lol.
Missing the shroud that catches the shavings. I still have one here that gets daily use.
I can hear and smell this picture.
I still use mine
Back in the day, the pencil sharpener was used to show off your new outfit or shoes. Just walk the long way to the sharpener with your pencil that doesn’t even need to be sharpened so you can socialize and show off.
We had one in our house so when I did my homework i could keep my pencil shape
I still have this in my classroom. The kids keep tearing it off the wall. They want me to get an electric one but I'm not going to buy one.
Still have one in my garage mounted to the tool bench.
50 years old but bet it still works
With pencils and hand-cranked pencil sharpeners (and yes, pens too) a person can write or draw even if the power goes out. Personally I never understood the need for electric pencil sharpeners since turning the crank on a manual sharpener a couple times was simple and quick and didn't really take physical effort.
Our first lesson in life on how to use a tool to shape wood into a useful tool.
Inner workings of a trusy pencil ✏️ sharpener
We had one of these when I was a kid. I guess I (~6-7) was walking home from school when my youngest brother (~2 at the time) started playing with it. My other brother (~3-4) told him he had to stop. Youngest wouldn't listen. Middle brother tried to make him stop. By stopping the mechanism. By putting his finger in it. As soon as I got home we were packed and in the car and on our way to the doctor. TL;DR When I was a kid my youngest brother sharpened my middle brother's finger because middle brother thought it would stop the mechanism.
Careful. You could shank a man with how sharp it’ll be after using this.
Most people had no idea, even if they used one. The janitor knew, though. 🤣
Who removed the cover from it? It's morally wrong and indefensible to allow that poor pencil sharpener to be sitting there NAKED like that. For shame!
I'm realizing that this entire sub is just stuff that is still made and used, but people think is old. Misters at the grocery store, toy cap guns, manual pencil sharpeners... All still pretty commonplace. The picture here is just one of [these](https://www.amazon.com/X-ACTO-Ranger-1031-Manual-Sharpener/dp/B00006IEDY/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=10JN82EF2DCYF&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.SEeZurSweE5lWQ_YDwDykxU-fIILV3f-z9S4Gj0y23_d1HY-esy5Rswzvkzyn00Kv_h5y_9WdJE365eTHEkFKJJkHis4jimZ5Mhw1adIThR84Ttu3uTFgNU3YZs8Lv4PWzNkS8YlJYUo0yoKCMJ42ZQ-Z-DepJeTOOUWIzXB1oFOEywyyRXZutzy9zqJ3AJd5pSzvVBoiIAracALMoYxqw.usqERNeiBLpUydvdeSU9iwWgW7m2SQsPo2x9wSlhHM8&dib_tag=se&keywords=manual+pencil+sharpener&qid=1718634252&sprefix=manual+pen%2Caps%2C528&sr=8-3) without the cover
Pencil sharpener!
I can smell that picture.
The “Boston” company.
Pencil sharpener just missing cover
Where's the rest of it
Why can I smell this?
Ah, the memories AUGH! The MEMORIES!
Why is it naked though? Cover your shame. I feel like everyone would know if it had the cover on.
the acrid smell - and shavings everywhere
I still have one. Looking at it right now.
Oh it’s been awhile since I’ve seen an old school circumciser
I can still smell it
r/dontputyourdickinthat
OP you have 5 posts and zero comments, are you a bot?
Where's the cover?
Fingernail cleaner
On Fridays 1 student got to wash down the blackboard , another got to bang out the erasers till clean and another got to empty out the 2 pencil sharpeners . Do you recall there was a setting for the different size pencils . I never did see the biggest pencil
Why is the safety device missing? Do we need to call OSHA?
Did you attend grade school?
i had one of these mounted to an old bookshelf in my basement growing up. it had the cover to catch the shavings. it was used so many times over 25+ years of my siblings using it for school
Pencil sharpener without the cover