During this three-decade period, commercially successful mechanical sharpeners embodied a wide variety of approaches to the central problems involved in sharpening a pencil, namely, to remove wood from the point and sharpen the lead, and either to rotate the pencil or to rotate the cutter around the pencil, all without breaking the lead.Īntique mechanical pencil sharpeners can be divided into three categories based on the cutting medium or mechanism.
between 18, scores of machines were introduced between 18. While a handful of mechanical pencil sharpeners were patented in the U.S. On the European continent, sharpeners with different technologies continued to be sold as late as the 1960s. (Click here to read about the history of lead pencils.) In the US, the period of innovation virtually ended in the mid-1910s, when pencil sharpeners employing twin planetary cylinders with spiral cutting edges (image to right) drove from the market machines with numerous alternative sharpening technologies that had co-existed for as long as twenty-five years. This work commenced in earnest shortly after mass production of wood-cased lead pencils with round leads began in the late 1870s. 650, Eagle Pencil Co., New York, NY, patented 1906īetween the 1880s and 1910s, numerous inventors and companies took up the challenge of supplying offices, schools, draftsmen, artists, and eventually homes with efficient machines to sharpen lead pencils. Left: Eureka Pencil Sharpener, patented 1869 (Two images immediately below) For our exhibit of Small Pencil Sharpeners from 1837 to 1915, click here.
Small handheld pencil sharpeners were popular beginning in the mid-19th century.
Until the early 20th century, the most common method of sharpening pencils was whittling with a pen knife.
#Handheld pencil sharpener code
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