Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1891 — How to Sharpen a Pencil. [ARTICLE]

How to Sharpen a Pencil.

"If really makes me tired to see the average man sharpen a pencil,” said an old newspaper man in a stationary store to a Washington Star reporter. “He will cut his fingers, cover them with dirt and blacken them with lead dust, and still will not ’sharpen the pencil. “There is but one way to sharpen a lead pencil and that is to grasp it firmly with the j>oint from and not toward you. Take your knife in the other hand and whittle away as though you had lots of pencils to waste. By following these directions and turning the pencU " ovef you“win soon have it neathrand sharpened, and your fingers will be unsoiled and you Will not need any court plaster to put on the wounds because you cannot cut your hugers when whittling from them. “This method is the best, whether the knife is dull or sharp. If the pencil is a soft one there is no sense ia sharpening the lead. Simply cal away the wood, and in writing turn the pencil over, thus writing with the sides of the lead. “Another disgusting and senseless habit is in placing the pencil in the mouth when writing. This is a relio of the days when peucils were.as hard as flint and before the munuhicturera were able to produce the smooth, soft pencils that are used to-day. The eonj tinual dampening of the lead will I harden even a good graphite pencil aud make it hard acu gritty. It ia simpif a habit, any way, and most I habits are bad ones.”