# Why do crank and electric pencil sharpeners leave an uneven point? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 14, 2017, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-crank-and-electric-pencil-sharpeners-leave-an-uneven-point/798791 "2017-10-14T06:57:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2017, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-crank-and-electric-pencil-sharpeners-leave-an-uneven-point/798791/21 "2017-10-14T22:14:50Z")
And yet, the pencil sharpener he’s actually shown using in the images, and which he presumably uses for his “artisanal pencils”, is a standard el-cheapo one like you’d find in any grade-schooler’s backpack. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2017, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-crank-and-electric-pencil-sharpeners-leave-an-uneven-point/798791/22 "2017-10-14T22:54:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And yet, the pencil sharpener he’s actually shown using in the images, and which he presumably uses for his “artisanal pencils”, is a standard el-cheapo one like you’d find in any grade-schooler’s backpack. In the short film linked on the site, he sharpens a pencil using only a knife and a sanding block while making deadpan jokes. He briefly displays a small plastic sharpener “from an Asian country called Japan” and a replica of an antique sharpener, but doesn’t use them. 😕 There’s a slightly less goofy [YouTube video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spMaP-_Cq_8) of Rees demonstrating “artisanal sharpening” with various tools. He uses a boxcutter (!) and several different sharpeners, including the El Casco mentioned in the book. ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2017, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-crank-and-electric-pencil-sharpeners-leave-an-uneven-point/798791/23 "2017-10-14T22:59:19Z")
In high school drafting class (circa 1966) we had pencil ‘pointers’. As I recall it, the pencil went in vertically, down/in from the top. I don’t recall a crank, I think you moved the pencil in a circular motion, as if you were drawing circles. It removed the wood symmetrically, leaving only graphite. And you would continue until you had exposed 3/8 to 1/2 inch of graphite. We also had small pads, or stacks, of sandpaper (like Post-it notes with grit, peel off the dirty or used up top sheet and a new one was exposed). Rubbing the pencil point at an angle on the sandpaper produced a sharply beveled edge. You worked to get a final edge that would give you whatever line thickness you needed. My point is (ha!) the pointer didn’t have any problems with asymmetry of wood removal. The only time I saw that was from the cheap crank sharpeners that were screwed to the wall in every classroom. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2017, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-crank-and-electric-pencil-sharpeners-leave-an-uneven-point/798791/24 "2017-10-14T23:02:36Z")
> [@mind\_the\_gap](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > I recommend you ask [this guy](http://www.artisanalpencilsharpening.com/), who calls himself an “artisanal pencil sharpener”. He wrote a 224-page [book](https://www.amazon.com/How-Sharpen-Pencils-Theoretical-Contractors/dp/1612193269) on how to sharpen pencils. And if, like the OP, you’re particular about your pencils, he’ll send you one that he’s sharpened for the low, low price of only five hundred bucks. > > > > Seriously, though, there is an email contact on the site. If anyone is prepared to answer the question, he is. > > I’m not positive about this, but seeing John Hodgman wrote the forward, and having read his “The Areas of My Expertise”, they’re clearly having us on. This ad has a very “Onion”-y feel to it. Can’t be sure though, because I live in wine country, and this shit would sell around here. 🙂 What I find interesting is how the price has changed over time. The earliest copy of the site I can find on The Wayback Machine is from June 2010 and he charged $12.50 per pencil (and you had to mail in the pencil you wanted sharpened). A year later, he charged $15 (although he started to provide the pencil, which you have to admit is a generous addition to the offering). In 2012, he charged $20. In 2013, he charged $35. In 2014, he charged $40. In April 2016, the price jumped dramatically to the present $500 (but, again, he’s very generously including the pencil in the offer). Sign of the apocalypse? Or a sign that there’s _way_ too much stupid money out there? Personally, I blame Trump. The sharpest price rise coincides with Trump’s rise to the top of the Republican primaries. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2017, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-crank-and-electric-pencil-sharpeners-leave-an-uneven-point/798791/25 "2017-10-14T23:03:56Z")
A boxcutter and sanding block won’t make the sort of shavings that he shows being returned to customers. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2017, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-crank-and-electric-pencil-sharpeners-leave-an-uneven-point/798791/26 "2017-10-15T00:00:27Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A boxcutter and sanding block won’t make the sort of shavings that he shows being returned to customers. Yeah, those look like shavings you’d get with an ordinary pencil-box sharpener. He probably used those for the photos and video because they look better. The “[exhaustive review](http://warburtonlabs.blogspot.com/2010/07/lets-get-sharp.html)” linked on the website includes a photo of the bag of shavings received by an alleged customer. It looks more like what you’d get from sharpening a a pencil with a knife. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > What I find interesting is how the price has changed over time. The earliest copy of the site I can find on The Wayback Machine is from June 2010 and he charged $12.50 per pencil (and you had to mail in the pencil you wanted sharpened). A year later, he charged $15 (although he started to provide the pencil, which you have to admit is a generous addition to the offering). In 2012, he charged $20. In 2013, he charged $35. In 2014, he charged $40. In April 2016, the price jumped dramatically to the present $500 (but, again, he’s very generously including the pencil in the offer). Maybe he got tired of actually having to fill orders and is trying to price himself out of business. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2017, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-crank-and-electric-pencil-sharpeners-leave-an-uneven-point/798791/27 "2017-10-15T02:30:22Z")
No, it looks like what you’d get from sharpening a pencil with a grade-school pencil sharpener, after the shavings have been crushed into a flat plastic bag. Click on the picture for a closer view: Some of the individual pieces have multiple corners on them, which would be impossible to do with a knife held in any way that won’t lose you fingers. I think the simplest explanation here is that there are no (or a negligible number of) real customers, and that he’s just doing exactly the same thing that you could do at home for free. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2017, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-crank-and-electric-pencil-sharpeners-leave-an-uneven-point/798791/28 "2017-10-15T02:35:08Z")
Sure, but at home you have to _buy your own pencils_. He’s actually providing one as part of the deal. Plus he’s not just an amateur; he’s an artisan. That’s what makes it worthwhile. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-crank-and-electric-pencil-sharpeners-leave-an-uneven-point/798791.md?page=1)