Shades of grey

[taimatsu]

Something that's bugging me right now:

Do you remember at primary school when people would want to borrow your pencil-sharpener, they'd ask 'Does it break pencils?' meaning, does it break the point off over and over? I believed (and still do) that this phenomenon is to do with the pencil, not the sharpener - but I have no proof! And why do kids believe in the 'bad pencil-sharpener'?

Or is it just me?

Comments

[sea-cucumber.livejournal.com]

wow, I remember that :) :)

I think it is when the pencil has been dropped and the lead is all broken inside? But I don't know :)

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I could imagine it being to do with the wielder, too.

[simont]

I don't think I ever encountered this concept as a child, but my team leader at work has a pencil sharpener which is bad in a different way: the blade doesn't reach all the way to the end of the point, so that instead of sharpening the pencil into a cone with a fine point, it leaves a thin cylinder of lead sticking out of the tip of the cone so you still get thick lines. (And I'm sure that's his sharpener, because it didn't happen with my sharpener. Unfortunately, mine got nicked.)

I wouldn't have a hard time believing that a sharpener of that type could easily break the lead if you were incautious in removing the pencil after sharpening: the excess bit poking out of the top could get caught on the blade.

[crocodilewings.livejournal.com]

I have such a sharpener. It's shaped like a little globe.

[imc.livejournal.com]

Do you remember at primary school when people would want to borrow your pencil-sharpener, they'd ask 'Does it break pencils?'

Not at all…

However, I have encountered the phenomenon of the point breaking off while you're sharpening it, and I would tend to believe Simon's explanation of this (i.e., it could well be related to the sharpener rather than the pencil).

[miss-corinne.livejournal.com]

Of course! I was always stuck with the stupid sharpeners. It was definitely the sharpeners, though. I think they blunted them specially for primary school use. Remember when you'd try and sharpen it and the wood would come off like sand? Or like a snake sloughing it's skin, lumpen piece after lumpen piece.

[chrisvenus]

I never had it in school and the theory I've alwasy subscribed to was from my school days. Like sea_cucumber I reckon its to do with the pencil and having been dropped. Some pencils when sharpened have lead that is broken off a little way into the wood and I find it hard to believe that a pencil sharpener would break things under the wood. It is possible of course that there are two separate breaking phenomenon that get confused, one to do with the pencil and one more related to the sharpener. I still don't really believe the sharpener theory though.

[purplepiano.livejournal.com]

Any mention of primary school children borrowing stationery reminds me of kids saying "Can I borrow your rubber, Johnny? Ahahaha - rubber johnny!". Was that just at my school?

[akcipitrokulo.livejournal.com]

y'know I wasnt to do an experiment now!

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Not just at your school, no. At a certain age it gets very tedious being called Jon/John/Jonathan.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

The thing about the lead inside pencils being broken is certainly true.

However, here is a mad theory I have just made up for you:

Once you have a pencil with lots of broken lead inside it the sharpener you use can make a difference. If you have a sharpener that makes the point of the pencil a small angle (ie makes the pointy bit at the top bigger) then there will be much much more exposed lead, so you're more likely to expose an entire broken bit of lead that will then fall out. If you have a steeper sharpener, that makes a shorter pointy bit at the top, there will be less lead exposed, so the pencil lead is less likely to fall out.

Therefore, once you have a rubbish pencil with all the lead inside it broken, some pencil sharpeners will be more likely to make it a usable pencil than others.

[purpleheather.livejournal.com]

*nods* From my vast experience sharpening pencils as a classroom helper for 5 years, student teacher for 3 and teacher for 2, once they're dropped then the lads fall right out when they are sharpeend.

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

If you break a pencil lead in a sharpener and it sits there (in the point of the conical groove) then it will forcibly snap any subsequent pencils to be inserted.

[wyrdness.livejournal.com]

I think I agree with this.

I believe that "pencil eating" is caused by the pencil being dropped and the lead breaking, but I have noticed that some pencil sharpeners tend to shave more wood off one side to expose the lead than on the other. This means that any section of broken lead is more exposed and will tend to fall out, so if a pencil sharpener could be made to only sharpen the very top then the pencil should be more usable because the lead will have more support on both sides and will therefore not fall out when used.

Good theory :)

[mhw.livejournal.com]

No, carbonivorous sharpeners do exist. If the orifice by which the pencil is admitted is slack, and the user puts a downward (away from the blade) pressure on the pencil, the blade's angle of attack is altered, putting a shearing force on the lead which frequently fractures it. Cheap plastic sharpeners are the prime culprits, which is why I buy only good quality metal ones.

[mrdreadful.livejournal.com]

It depends on the pencil and the sharpener... if the pencil is inferior then no sharpener in the world will stop it breaking... on the other hand a sharpener with a blunted blade will bite into the graphite and snap it off.

[nassus.livejournal.com]

I noticed this too. It was often the good metal ones that worked well on dodgy pencil rather than the cheap plastic ones.