
How to Sharpen Pencils (2012) - Tomte
https://blog.etsy.com/en/2012/how-to-sharpen-pencils/
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po
I encourage everyone to watch what is basically a film version of this to get
a sense of his humor:

[http://vimeo.com/60718161](http://vimeo.com/60718161)

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pling
Funny but this sort of annoyance is actually why I use a mechanical pencil.

...which incidentally I was laughed at when I started at my current company as
everyone had IBM X60 tablets apart from me.

I have the same pencil after 8 years though.

~~~
fennecfoxen
Ordinary mechanical pencils are nice but the 0.7-0.5mm tips the layman is
likely to see aren't always the best option. I recommend the use of a 2mm lead
holder, because it acts a lot more like a regular pencil, and because no one
except architects seems to know these fascinating little implements exist (and
the architects are all doing things on computers these days anyway). And I can
easily see you having the same one after 8 years :)

~~~
ics
Right?! (Sincerely, an architect.)

Also, we're pretty obsessive about them:
[http://leadholder.com/](http://leadholder.com/)

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aaronem
You're not the only ones:
[http://davesmechanicalpencils.blogspot.com/](http://davesmechanicalpencils.blogspot.com/)
\-- granted the man has almost no perceptible taste, but he does make a decent
Exhibit A for the propelling-pencil side of the argument.

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buyx
When I was in school, we used pencils until we were in standard 1 (now called
grade 3). After that it was mostly pen. In fact, I remember my teacher saying
that I'd have to use a pen if I wanted to progress to grade 4. Pencils were
perceived as infantile, outside of a few niches (technical drawing, geometric
constructions and automated tests).

It therefore surprises me to see their widespread use in, especially, the US,
if movies are to be believed. I would never be able to write an essay in
pencil, for example. Are there any particular applications to which they are
better than pens?

~~~
keerthiko
I grew up in an Indian school in the middle east, and know what you're talking
about with pencils considered infantile (grade 5 we HAD to write with pen, and
until then we almost HAD to write in pencil). As soon as I came to college in
the US and realized I could submit work in pencil, I ditched all my pens like
termite-infested bricks.

In my opinion, pencils are clearly superior for everyday tasks. Basically,
just with the fact that they can be better erased. To me personally, they feel
better to work with because they have finer pressure-based control. This is
why a lot of artists always draft in pencil, and leave a lot of details in
pencil too. Manga artists, architects, proofreaders, some stenographers, etc
use a lot of pencil. Several of these end up inking their work afterword, or
using pencil-work just for drafts that are later digitized.

However, I can go on about objective reasons why pencils are just better
regardless, no particular applications necessarily.

They're cheaper. They're not going to go dry because you 'lost the cap' or
it's old. You know a pencil is going to work if it has any lead poking out.
It's consistent and reliable compared to pens suddenly not working mid-word.
They're lighter to hold (less tiring and strenuous on your wrist to write for
a long time). If they break they're not going to get everything in your bag
stained. They can write well on many more surfaces than most pens. If one
pencil fails for some reason (lost?) you can just get almost any nearby pencil
and resume (unless you're in an advanced application field like technical
drawing or manga artistry) without your work looking strange (2-toned).

I keep a pen around for the sole purpose of signing forms and writing checks
(where the fact they're harder to modify is actually a good thing), and
filling things people ask me to fill in pen.

~~~
pling
This, although I use a Rotring Rapid Pro mechanical pencil. I only use that
because it's less messy and much heavier than a normal pencil so it's easier
to write with, plus the end doesn't break off in your pocket.

I have a pen for signing as well but it's got a Fisher space pen refill in it
they flow reliably meaning no grinding on a sheet of paper to get ink out.
Plus it works upside down and all sorts which is handy for signing pizza
cheques on my doorstep :)

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jorjordandan
A tip for aspiring professional pencil sharpeners - On step 7, after
correcting the collar, make sure to clean the tip with strokes TOWARDS the tip
of the pencil. Your client will not be happy with the product if graphite
residue has stained the wood. Don't learn the hard way like I did!!

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borkabrak
There seems to be something very Japanese about this to me. I get that there
is a humorous component, but there's also something precious about putting so
much time and focus into doing something obsessively well. This point is made
more apparent in this case by the choice of pencil sharpening -- a practice
that is easy to see as less important than many other things he could be
doing. But that's kind of the point. It helps to bring the focus away from the
utility of the practice, and point it more towards the idea of doing something
well, regardless of what that thing is.

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sambeau
If only someone would write something similar about making a cup of coffee.

~~~
praptak
There do exist serious tutorials on making espresso and don't even get me
started about what is and what isn't ristretto.

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pandatigox
I like how he likened the tutorial to a science prac. "Did closely does the
sharpened pencil correspond to your desired outcome?"

We often take the most basic tasks and just do it without much thinking, but
when once you do, like in the article, it's amazing how many different
outcomes can be produced (i.e the table)

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gopalv
Table 5.1 is my favourite graphic from this article.

In particular the "23 rotations" and "25 rotations" rows.

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Eathys
For anyone who liked the article. Here is an informative video on David Rees.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KabOfnbS4TQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KabOfnbS4TQ)

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bagosm
I fail to see the humor in this. Maybe if it wasn't that extensive? It got a
bit tiring..

~~~
po
The extensiveness is the charm of it. It's not strictly a humor piece, I think
you can consider it more of a performance art that he does. You could buy a
pencil sharpened by David Rees in this manner and he would ship it to you. I'm
not sure he still does it though.

[http://www.artisanalpencilsharpening.com](http://www.artisanalpencilsharpening.com)

As far as I know, it's not a joke but the absurdity of it is part of the point
of doing it.

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artificialidiot
I fear that someone will take this seriously and create "an app for that".

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Eric_WVGG
This was written by David Rees, whose comic strip Get Your War On had to be
the single best thing to come out of the 2001 wars.

