Here are a few different way to use pencils to the very end

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/11/27/here-are-a-few-different-way-t.html

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I have wanted a Tsunago¹ pencil device for some time. Tsunago + inexpensive but nice pencils + wood glue + Blackwings= I could extend my Blackwings, perhaps for ever. Though at around 30-40 U.S.$ (27.5-36.3€, 23.25-31£) shipped, I don’t think I would make my money back, even on Blackwings. (I like the wide replaceable eraser, even though I cary other erasers.)

Other uses, making stacked pencils in different colors for no particular purpose other than to give to my kids because they will find it odd. Perhaps vexing color changing color pencils to keep my kids busy. I could make color pencils that were color gradients from light to dark if I chose.

I could make very long pencils. Why wait for a pencil to get too short, just make one huge, long conjoined pencil.

Note ¹: Actual website for the manufacturer of the Tsunago, translated by same. Click new products. They look like a muji (no name brand) producer of inexpensive plastic sharpeners in all sorts of colors and for all sorts of uses like cosmetic pencils, less their weird Tsunago device.

Edited post comment to add this:


The Nakajima Jukyudo catalog is a fun quick read. “This type is the global standard for 40 years.” - Indeed!
Image source: Captured and edited by me, from Nakajima Jukyudo products catalog, English, 11-27-2019.

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I have a drawer full of Blackwing stubs that are too short to use even with my pencil extender (because the extender bumps up against my manual sharpener and/or doesn’t hold the pencil in place firmly enough to allow sharpening). This seems like an excellent solution to that problem. Thanks to @frauenfelder for sharing it!

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Tsunago… I never knew this thing existed - gotta get me one!

@DeadWriter: thanks for the link!

Also: this is the kind of stuff I’d like to find at the Boing Boing Store.

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RIGHT? Wouldn’t it be great if the Boing Boing Store were also mostly wonderful things?

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Right. My guess is they’d make more money from the store that way, too.

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THIS!!!
(And just in case he won’t otherwise see it - @frauenfelder )

I think BB’s problem might be that the store is a probably a generic third party service that can be configured to a limited extent for each client (such as BB). I suspect there is little influence over what is in the store, just over which of its contents are configured to appear to the client’s audience. But that’s pure speculation. If BB has any influence over what products are actually listed and merely uses the ‘store’ software as a way of presenting them, then…

Yes. Yes it would.

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Apart from the above suggestions of creating hybrid pencils to preserve certain wanted features, how does the Tsunago save anything? The hole you drill in the stub wastes that lead, and I don’t know for sure, but I suspect some lead is sharpened off when you reshape the other pencil’s tip. It’s neat, I guess, but I’d rather just get a cheap sharpener and as many new pencils as that gadget’s cost would pay for.

I use a pencil extender and sharpen with a scalpel. If it gets right down to the end I will use a sandpaper block to keep a point for as long as possible.

By which time I think I have had my money’s worth.

Using old graphite pencil stubs as lubricant is another use.

We are looking into it. Thanks for the idea!

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