Pencil sharpener

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

OK. Using a bench to sharpen pencils might be a little overkill. I mounted the pencil sharpener on a wood block but cannot seem to find a permanent home for it. In the meantime, the bench is a great place.

[DCM]

Jim - I'm liking the old school pencil sharpener

[Mike Brady]

  I do the same thing, Jim.  Otherwise, where is that third hand when I need it?

[tim_leo]

I do the same thing as well.

[cwarner]

Mine is mounted to the underside of my hand tood wall hanging cabinet.  Seems to work well for me there.

[Admiral]

I've motorized mine, picked up an electric version at the flea market for $2 that stays next to my battery charger.  They are really pretty good.

[AHill]

That's a pretty nice and uncommon pencil sharpener.  The old ones were so nice to use.  I'm somewhat of a pencil snob.  My favorite sharpener is the Carl Angel 5, pictured below.  You pull out the spring-loaded carrier, squeeze the pencil clamps on the top, insert the pencil, let go of the clamps, and then crank the knob. It's self-feeding, and when the pencil is sharpened, it won't keep removing wood and lead.  Leaves a longer and sharper point than most sharpeners, which is great for making thin lines, but not so great for lead strength.  I love the smell of a freshly sharpened pencil!

[Bill_Houghton]

I have a pencil sharpener of the type folks are showing, but haven't settled on where to mount it.  In the meantime, I'm using the Lee Valley sharpener, like this:

(here, in case you're interested)

[url=http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=32542&cat=1,42936,42452][/url]
as well as a German one of the same type but different shape, and finding they both work well enough that I'm not in a hurry for the bench/wall permanent one.

[JimBelair]

Mike and Jim, those are great old sharpeners!

On a related note, what are your favourite pencils?  Lee Valley used to sell house branded ones that I found nice but I can't seem to find them online now.

[Bill_Houghton]

Lee Valley used to sell house branded ones that I found nice but I can't seem to find them online now.

These?   Good, though not surprising, to hear that they're good pencils.  I stumbled over a box of Ticonderoga pencils at a yard sale that are currently serving me well, but I know I'll eventually use them up, and it's gotten hard to find good pencils.  I was given one that seems to have been made of plastic (like the plastic wine "corks"), which provided so little support to the pencil lead that it broke all the time.