People have been using pencils - colored and graphite rods in a wooden "shirt" since the 16th century. They were sharpened for a long time with a knife, and this is a laborious and slow process. A special cleaning device was invented by the French in the mid-19th century. It was a mechanical pencil sharpener. Since then, not one person using pencils has agreed to do without this little thing. The variety of types and design of this useful accessory is amazing.
Sharpeners of the past
These rarities today can be found in the closets of our grandmothers and in the collectors' piggy banks. Yes, you yourself can recall plastic rockets, boats, irons and hatchets with a steel blade inside. There were sharpeners in the form of fish and animals. A serious competitor of these pocket copies was a massive and equipped with a handle pencil sharpener. A mechanical model, similar to a meat grinder, was usually screwed to the table. The writing instrument was sharpened in this unit easily and beautifully.
Modern mechanisms
The industry of convenient devices did not pass by such a trifle as a pencil sharpener. The mechanical model has found a fashionable "sister" in the form of an electrical device. Such a sharpener uses the same principle of rotational movements of the cutter, but it works on batteries or from the mains. She sharpens her pencil in a few moments. Some samples at work delight the owner with funny and melodic sounds. But manual specimens, which the manufacturer seeks to equip with a convenient chip collection tank, have not lost their former popularity. The "great-grandmother" of modern appliances, the earliest pencil sharpener - a mechanical stationary construction with a pen - is being improved in the most prestigious stationery manufacturing companies. And this is not just a tribute to history. The fact is that such a device still demonstrates the best consumer characteristics. It sharpens quickly, a lot and with high quality. In addition, such a machine is reliable because it does not have easily breaking parts. How does this pencil sharpener work? Its mechanical part is a cutting mill and a drive handle, thanks to which the blades come into action. The clamp, with which the mechanism is attached to the countertop, may not be present in modern models.
How to choose a sharpener
A good pencil sharpener is expensive. A pencil sharpened on a high-quality machine has an ideally smooth cachet, in other sharpeners it will be rough, the lead will crumble. In the best devices, three cutters are installed, and in cheaper ones, one or two. A feature of elite sharpeners is that the blades themselves are cleaned of lead.
Cars of the German company Centrum cost about 200 rubles, more expensive samples (from 300 to 600 rubles) are offered by KW-trio (Taiwan). The cost of mechanical sharpeners of the most popular companies on the school stationery market - the Russian brand Erich Krause and the German brand Silwerhof - ranges from 200 to 400 rubles. In expensive stores, the cost of a machine can be from 5,000 to 15,000 rubles. These are desktop accessories from El Casco. But these specimens with gilding and blackening are representatives of the clerical elite. The choice is yours.