You all know by now that I have a wee tendency to overanalyze, right? Like...a LOT?
At this point, I kinda have several pencil sharpeners. The Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpeners get the most use at work and at home, because the seriously long-but-sturdy point they produce is my favorite. However, sometimes it's convenient to jam a pencil one-handed into the electric sharpener I keep in the living room. (What, keeping a pencil sharpener in the living room's not normal?) And when I'm out and about, I sometimes use the little brass Kum (which, incidentally, seems to have gone walk-about, which makes me sad, and which is completely out of the scope of this post). Also, in a ridiculous fit of spendthriftiness awhile back, I acquired a Carl, because I sincerely hoped it would function just like the CFPS except without leaving flea bites all over my pencils. (I should review it one of these days, but the short version is that while it is a great sharpener, it doesn't create quite the same terrifically long point.)
So...basically, all of these are a little different, which means any time you switch from one to another, you end up shaving a bit of extra pencil in order to reshape it for that sharpener.
For those of you who use lots of pencils and multiple sharpeners, do you even think about this? Do you actually stick with one or another sharpener for given pencils? Does it worry you that you might lose .002 cents worth of graphite if you switch from one to another? Please, tell me.
Showing posts with label Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener. Show all posts
Thursday, April 03, 2014
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Score another point for the Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener...
I keep a handful of pencils at work, but since at the moment I just have the one Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener, I cart pencils home for sharpening and back again. A few days ago, my boss (another pencil user) got her battery operated sharpener working after a hiatus, and went around the office sharpening pencils. When she got to mine, she looked those lonnnng points over and said, "Wow, yours sure don't need sharpening. How do you do that?" I just smiled and told her I have an *awesome* sharpener at home. I should demo it.
In a meeting the other day she complained about the quality of the pencil she was using to take notes. I'm thinking I may have to bring in some Forest Choice and General's Semi-Hex and such. May have another convert.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Rehashing, Revisiting and Re-reviewing
For various reasons, I've found myself returning to some old posts, reviews, and thoughts, and I thought it might be fun to do a little recap post.
1. Remember this leather composition book cover I was so excited about? I'm still thrilled with it. For the last little bit I've mostly used it as a cover for my journal, since I keep coming back to using cheap composition books as journals--fancy notebooks intimidate me, I guess. The cord has held up well, the leather still feels and smells great and if anything has become more beautiful with time. I look forward to using it for years to come. Have any drawbacks arisen? One minor one, I suppose: it left what look like slightly oily spots on the inside cover of a few of the first notebooks that passed through it, maybe from the adhesive used where the edges fold under? A small price to pay for the use of that lovely leather, I'd say, but possibly a concern.
2. The Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener: a few months in, I'm still pretty psyched about this thing. I love the point it produces and the way it stops when a point is reached. No additional downsides have arisen since my initial review, but just to reiterate the two that I encountered: first and foremost, the gripping mechanism leaves little bite marks on the pencil, which may or may not bother you. Some days it bothers me more than others. Secondly, though this isn't really a fault of the sharpener and can happen with other sharpeners as well, if the pencil lead is off-center, the sharpener won't automatically stop sharpening after a point is reached...because the point will be lopsided and still sort of catch the mechanism. Just something to be aware of--if you run into a pencil that has this issue, just turn the crank a few times when sharpening and then stop.
3. Index cards: I admit, for story ideas, quick notes, poems, etc., I've mostly returned to using the small notebook I carry everywhere. Why? Because even though it's cluttered and jumbled and can't be reorganized, it's all in one place, bound together so it can't be lost unless I lose the whole thing (an idea so scary I refuse to let it fully take shape in my mind). I like being able to flip through it when I'm looking for inspiration, and not having to search for a card I used last week. I still use index cards a lot for to-dos, lists, addresses, etc., so they are always with me...but not as I had envisioned. I tried to use them for story outlining a few more times, and again found that no matter how much or how little detail I tried to include, once I started writing the story, the story veered away from any outline. Maybe this dooms me as a writer, I don't know. I have stacks of scene cards and character sketches that meant nothing four or five pages into the actual writing. Will this prevent me from trying again to plan ahead? Of course not. There's a fine line between an eternal optimist and a fool, and I walk that line.
4. My use of Circa things has also undergone some revision. I use Circa for my work notebooks quite a bit, since I like being able to move pages around and like that I can reuse scrap paper by just Circa punching it. I still use it some for binding typewritten pages, too: one of these days I'm going to put all my old typecasts into a Circa notebook, I think, since I can easily mix all the different sizes of pages I use for typecasts--not something I could do with a three-ring binder. But for everyday scribbling-in-a-notebook use, I keep coming back to the composition books. No, I can't reorganize the pages, which means I have page number references and arrows everywhere as I try to make sense of the jumble. But I like the size, the sturdiness, and they soothe my paranoia about pages going missing. And they're just so doggone cheap and friendly.
5. Yesterday I stumbled across a post I wrote about a lumberjack throw I made for my first little nephew, who's now...um...three. Actually had to check the date of the post to remember. Time flies when you're having fun! I had every intention of making several more of these in different color combinations for other family members, since they look pretty cool, work up pretty fast, and aren't too terribly difficult to do (I'm not exactly a master of crochet). I bought at least some of the yarn...but never started. Story of my life. Last night I decided to take the first step toward remedying this situation, and finished the first few rows of a second throw, which will use a slightly darker red. Crocheting is soothing--the rhythm of stitching, the feel of the yarn as it moves through your fingers, the way the piece slowly grows in your hands. Nice to come back to that.
1. Remember this leather composition book cover I was so excited about? I'm still thrilled with it. For the last little bit I've mostly used it as a cover for my journal, since I keep coming back to using cheap composition books as journals--fancy notebooks intimidate me, I guess. The cord has held up well, the leather still feels and smells great and if anything has become more beautiful with time. I look forward to using it for years to come. Have any drawbacks arisen? One minor one, I suppose: it left what look like slightly oily spots on the inside cover of a few of the first notebooks that passed through it, maybe from the adhesive used where the edges fold under? A small price to pay for the use of that lovely leather, I'd say, but possibly a concern.
2. The Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener: a few months in, I'm still pretty psyched about this thing. I love the point it produces and the way it stops when a point is reached. No additional downsides have arisen since my initial review, but just to reiterate the two that I encountered: first and foremost, the gripping mechanism leaves little bite marks on the pencil, which may or may not bother you. Some days it bothers me more than others. Secondly, though this isn't really a fault of the sharpener and can happen with other sharpeners as well, if the pencil lead is off-center, the sharpener won't automatically stop sharpening after a point is reached...because the point will be lopsided and still sort of catch the mechanism. Just something to be aware of--if you run into a pencil that has this issue, just turn the crank a few times when sharpening and then stop.
3. Index cards: I admit, for story ideas, quick notes, poems, etc., I've mostly returned to using the small notebook I carry everywhere. Why? Because even though it's cluttered and jumbled and can't be reorganized, it's all in one place, bound together so it can't be lost unless I lose the whole thing (an idea so scary I refuse to let it fully take shape in my mind). I like being able to flip through it when I'm looking for inspiration, and not having to search for a card I used last week. I still use index cards a lot for to-dos, lists, addresses, etc., so they are always with me...but not as I had envisioned. I tried to use them for story outlining a few more times, and again found that no matter how much or how little detail I tried to include, once I started writing the story, the story veered away from any outline. Maybe this dooms me as a writer, I don't know. I have stacks of scene cards and character sketches that meant nothing four or five pages into the actual writing. Will this prevent me from trying again to plan ahead? Of course not. There's a fine line between an eternal optimist and a fool, and I walk that line.
4. My use of Circa things has also undergone some revision. I use Circa for my work notebooks quite a bit, since I like being able to move pages around and like that I can reuse scrap paper by just Circa punching it. I still use it some for binding typewritten pages, too: one of these days I'm going to put all my old typecasts into a Circa notebook, I think, since I can easily mix all the different sizes of pages I use for typecasts--not something I could do with a three-ring binder. But for everyday scribbling-in-a-notebook use, I keep coming back to the composition books. No, I can't reorganize the pages, which means I have page number references and arrows everywhere as I try to make sense of the jumble. But I like the size, the sturdiness, and they soothe my paranoia about pages going missing. And they're just so doggone cheap and friendly.
5. Yesterday I stumbled across a post I wrote about a lumberjack throw I made for my first little nephew, who's now...um...three. Actually had to check the date of the post to remember. Time flies when you're having fun! I had every intention of making several more of these in different color combinations for other family members, since they look pretty cool, work up pretty fast, and aren't too terribly difficult to do (I'm not exactly a master of crochet). I bought at least some of the yarn...but never started. Story of my life. Last night I decided to take the first step toward remedying this situation, and finished the first few rows of a second throw, which will use a slightly darker red. Crocheting is soothing--the rhythm of stitching, the feel of the yarn as it moves through your fingers, the way the piece slowly grows in your hands. Nice to come back to that.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
One For the Pencil People: the Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener
For Pencil Revolution's full review with morebetter pictures, click here...
So...I went through an entire NaNoWriMo-by-pencil with just my trusty little brass Kum wedge sharpener, but there is definitely something to be said for the speed and tidiness of the big guys. Every time I went to Staples or Office Depot, I eyed the big honkin' permanent mount metal sharpeners warily, and the electric sharpeners more warily still. I remember how many times the old crank type sharpeners ate the pencils of my youth, and while I'm sure the electric ones are efficient, using an electric sharpener for my good old-fashioned wooden pencils causes me mental pain. OK, not really, but I don't really have a place for one, and I like the idea of the manual crank.
I'd seen mention of these "Classroom Friendly" Pencil Sharpeners awhile back (the "classroom friendly" bit refers to their being very quiet as burr sharpeners go), and I'd sort of tucked the information away for future reference. When John of the Pencil Revolution blog recently did a very nice full review of them, I was reminded of them again and decided to spring for one. They're under $20 shipped, putting them in line with most of the basic electric sharpeners out there.
First off, it came *fast*. Unbelievably so. Troy, the seller, lives on the east coast, while I live in Western Washington. I still got it within four days of ordering, and that's factoring in my ordering it on a Sunday. Wow.
It's pretty plain, as you can see. The streamlined shape kind of reminds me of a retro toaster. It's cute. On the top, there's a sticker that says simply, "Pencil Sharpener." Gotta love that. It has a nice hefty feel to it: except for the shavings bin, most of the parts are metal.
How does it work? Pretty simply. Here is a strangely mesmerizing rather slow motion video demonstration.
I held off on sharpening most of my current arsenal, so I got to put it through its motions pretty thoroughly when it arrived.
I think this accidentally ended up becoming a "Some of these things are not like the others..." game.
So...my first thoughts:
- First off, it's nicely stable. It comes with a sort of vice mount (that's what the hole beneath the drawer is for, I think), but it's heavy enough that you don't really need that. It does just fine free standing.
- Secondly, whoaaa, it produces a long point. Yeah, I saw the comparison photo on Pencil Revolution that shows points made by different sharpeners, but it didn't really sink until I saw them in person. The points it makes are crazy long, yet--as is mentioned in that review--with a very slightly flattened end instead of the needle-point most hand-held sharpeners produce. It takes a little care to write with such a long, thin point, but I did find I could write for several pages without feeling like I needed to stop and resharpen, quantifiably longer than the usual point.
- It also does a pretty good job of only sharpening until the pencil has a point. I did have trouble with a few pencils, but it wasn't the sharpener's fault, I wouldn't say. The lead in some of the Mirado Black Warriors is off center, and it didn't automatically stop sharpening those as quickly as it should have...not really surprising.
Instead of the thick curls I get from the Kum, it makes little curly sawdust bits. Neat.
Oh, and speaking of neat, I do like how all the shavings just drop down into that tidy little acrylic bin for emptying. It sure beats the way I used to spill shavings all over the floor trying to empty the twist-on barrel of the old style metal sharpeners. And, I admit, a lot of the time it's a lot handier than sharpening with the Kum wedge and getting my fingers dirty.
All in all, it's likely to become my primary sharpener unless I need to sharpen something on the go, or for pencils I want to be particularly careful with. I know some homeschooling moms who might be interested as well. It's a nice piece of kit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)