This is something I have known about for decades but I wonder if others have heard of it. You can send your pencils to a guy who will sharpen them to perfection. He returns the shavings with the newly (certified) dangerous pencils.
http://www.artisanalpencilsharpening.com/about.html
Here he is sharpening the legendary Blackwing pencil:
On the one hand, he seems totally serious. On the other hand, he has a wicked sense of humor, to the extent that I wonder if I am being put on.
Yes, it’s a joke.
Hey. I can do this. I have a special knife I use.
It came from need.
Dang, money making opportunities abound.
(I believe any artist has learned to sharpen pencils pretty darn well)
One book I own:
I expected it to be funnier, but it is not bad.
Thank god. I thought this was serious.
Just give it time. Someone will do it.
Artisanal shaving has become a big business making millions.
Shame that every man doesn’t need to sharpen a pencil every day, or similar money might be made here.
I first saw this many years ago (over a decade, I think). I noted at the time that he claimed to be sharpening them with a knife, but that the shavings he returned were the sort one gets from a handheld pencil sharpener (the sort that every elementary student has in their pencil pouch), not the sort one would get from knife-sharpening.
I can’t tell if this is serious or not:
What would be unserious about that? Kiln-dried firewood is a product for which a real demand exists, and for which most folks who would want it don’t have the means to easily produce it themselves. Of course that means that someone will be selling it.
I live near Canary Wharf (huge commercial development housing all sorts of hotshot whizzkid financiers and associated law/media/high tech businesses, support services and upmarket retailers), and I notice there are now several “grooming ateliers” (i.e., barbers).
And a dedicated “sneaker laundry” service.
I am modestly embarrased to own up to the fact that I have three pencil sharpeners in view on my desk right now, including a complicated one that uses a two-angle process to get to the final point, and one made from a big chunk of machined and knurled aluminum.
Commercial and retail firewood is a billion dollar business, and for commercial cooking use kiln-dried wood is necessary to get consistent thermal output and eliminate pests that would be a sanitation issue. With the massive growth of home wood fired pizza ovens and wood grills, that market continues to grow, with projections of a US$1.5B by 2030. Few people have the time or experience to collect and process their own wood, or have access to hardwoods suitable for cooking use.
As for pencils, while the service is a Portlandia-style joke about ‘hipsters’ flocking to any absurd trend of ‘handcrafted’ specialization, all of the sharpening instruments he showed are all real, and sketch artists have energetic arguments on the topic of how to properly sharpen a pencil and shape the tip for different drawing techniques, as well as whether to use wooden pencils, mechanical drafting pencils, or lead holders, et cetera. The Blackwing pencil he demonstrated on retails for ~US$40 for a box of 12, and that is by no means the most expensive wooden pencil available. So, while the artisanal sharpening think is a gag (although one that a lot of people apparently went for) the obsession with getting the perfectly sharpened pencil and shaped tip is a real thing.
Stranger
I’m just the right age to have learned both hand drafting and CAD as engineering student. I had three or four different pencils of various hardness and was taught how to sharpen them. Professional drafters had maybe eight different kinds.
He’s charging $100 to sharpen a pencil !!!
I’d be happy doing 1 a day.
I imagined some Japanese guy with some kind of specialized knife meticulously sharpening pencils in some fashion, when I read the thread title. Absurd, overly involved, but probably somehow technically better than using the old Berol crank sharpener.
I think that’s got three main components.
One, a lot of men like the idea of turning shaving from a daily task to a sort of ritual, complete with a more fiddly instrument, artisanal supplies, etc.
Two, if you do get good at it, you do actually get better shaves- closer, more comfortable.
Three, some people really like the idea of using artisanal products made out of donkey milk and scented with a fragrance created by an artisanal perfumer.
All that said, it’s definitely somewhere on the far right tail of the Pareto distribution of investment vs. performance in shaving. You can definitely get 80% of the way there with a disposable Gillette razor, a cheap can of Edge, and some Old Spice. These guys are trying to go the other 19.5% with a titanium Tatara razor, imported Gillette blades, Abbate y La Mantia soap, Simpson shave brushes, and Truefitt & Hill aftershave, and spending probably 10x or more to do so.
This sort of thinking isn’t limited to shaving; just go look up the fountain pen community, and you’ll find a whole weird world you never knew existed. To most of us, a pen is a pen, and we don’t have too much heartburn if it’s a Bic Crystal or a Uni-Ball Vision Elite, if we’re filling out a form, writing notes, etc But to these folks, writing is more than just recording information on paper, and the instrument/supplies they use are part of the experience/art.
This pencil sharpening thing makes fun of that mentality- it’s the whole idea that having a better, special pencil, specially sharpened somehow makes writing better than just using the old Berol on a Dixon Ticonderoga. Which is definitely true, but it’s also a bit off the mark in that the people going that route would spend their money on the pencils and the paper, and maybe their own sharpener, not on a sharpening service. They’d find pencils made by blind Armenian monks and paper made in Japan from camellia blossoms or some such, and a special NASA-grade sharpener that works just-so.
About 7 years ago I left my garage door open while I was busy in the back yard. When I returned to the garage, something was wrong. Someone had walked off with my battery powered drill and screwdriver. What really pissed me off was this person also stole my vintage Apsco pencil sharpener. That sharpener was in every house I lived in while growing up and when my mother passed, it was the first thing I grabbed. It would put a perfect point on every pencil. I have tried a couple other older sharpeners and a new X-Acto sharpener, none of them give a perfect point. It drives me crazy to see that little sliver of wood stuck to the side of the lead because the sharpener doesn’t sharpen on center. I have an older Baumgarten’s single hole manual sharpener that works good. I still miss my Apsco.
That broke my heart. I know it’s not the same one but there are a bunch of Apscos on eBay. Maybe you could find a replacement.
Yeah, I’m of the same age. I remember having three or four pencils of different hardnesses tucked into my hat while drafting, plus the blue one for hidden notes. Tombow pencils were my choice. HB up to 4H. Still have a few some 25 years later, along with the electric sharpener.
Now, as a glorified carpenter, I use Ticonderogas. Still tucked in my hat, but only 1. And my sharpener is built into my tape measure.