Tuesday 7 April 2015

Pencils that defy sharpening

For some years I've found that all attempts to sharpen a pencil fail. I have various devices called 'pencil sharpeners' They remove the outer layer of wood, but as soon as a little graphite is revealed, they break it off. Today I tried kitchen knives, but none was sharp enough.

As a schoolboy I carried a penknife that sharpened pencils quite well. I wonder if penknives are still available, or have they been banned by self righteous busybodies ?




1 comment :

Gerard Mason said...

Sounds like the blade is at the wrong angle. There seem to be a lot of cheap products on the market nowadays where the feedback link between the user and the producer has been broken, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the makers test their sharpeners using a type of pencil that hasn't been made for 50 years, if indeed they test it at all.