Fun Fact : The Chicago unit will sharpen your tips with a different accent than Boston units. I found I was writing too many aaaaaaahhs with the Boston unit.
I was blown away at how nice this turned out. I used one in the 60's but it was all metal. Busted my knuckles a lot. You did a great job and cheered when I saw JB-Weld come in to save the day.
They still had these "this design but all metal as well" in some of the 90's elementary schools I went too. I don't really remember the knuckles thing but I do feel like part of me remembers pain being involved in these. I mostly remember having to always end up emptying them out cause they would be so stuffed of shavings and no one else seemed to know how to empty it. And they were almost always placed above a trash can for easy dumping.
Have one of these all rusted up in the tool shed, it belonged to my old Grandpa, I’m going to search it out and clean it up after seeing this. Jolly well done on the restoration and thanks for posting, now I know how to disassemble and rebuild the unit.
Best of luck! If you have any questions, just drop a comment here. When you finish I'd love to see the finished photos! You can find my email in the about section of my channel.
I grew up with this exact same pencil sharpener in my parent's basement. Funny, I used it hundreds of times not even thinking about its age. One of my siblings grabbed it several years ago.
Vaseline may be rubbed on the cellulose to restore it. I think. Dont get mad if it doesnt work, its just an idea. The twin helicle is superior to the modern single helicle cutter. Youve got a really fine pencil sharpener there! Im envious!
Thanks Chris! I have another one to restore sometime in the future (a very old Giant) so I might try some Vaseline in a small inconspicuous place and see what it can do!
Above all, I'm surprised how little yellowing there was on the celluloid. The end result is just gorgeous! Would be awesome to have one of these, but they were never a thing in my country.
Enjoy your trip back in time! The video quality and editing gets a little rougher the further you go back, but we all gotta start somewhere and the charm is still there! 😇👍
Went to the site and was amazed at the sharpener battles over patents. One unit pictured looks a bit like a meat slicer and would definitely be barred from elementary class rooms.
Wow ! I’m so amazed of what you’re doing! First: your vision of seeing things of what they can become and what we think is impossible Second: You are a truly artist, how can someone see the truly potential God bless your hands !
Thank you so much for the kinds words! Truth be told it's a combination of researching before I start the project and then just diving right in and seeing where it takes me until it almost tells me what it wants to be by the end.
I have a “Giant” model from the APSCo. With a tunable face dial for different pencil diameters. Otherwise the internals, celluloid and crank are all identical.
The guy who I bought this from said he bought from an estate sale of someone who had this in their basement and hadn't touched it in like 50 years. So I *think* it's safe to assume there's no dead kids involved. But definitely still SOME dead people.
Il est vraiment dommage que vous n’avez pas joué aussi, au petit chimiste, avec la partie en pexiglass, pour retrouver sa transparence ! Pourtant il existe des tutoriels sur RU-vid, pour cette technique !
"It is really a pity that you did not play the little chemist with the pexiglass part, to find its transparency! However there are tutorials on RU-vid, for this technique!" Hi! I really wish it were possible to de-yellow the celluloid! Unfortunately, the de-yellowing process, commonly performed with hydrogen peroxide and UV light, only really works on opaque plastics. The process only 'attacks' the outermost layer of plastic, so in the case of transparent plastics you will never be able to de-yellow the 'inside' plastic. This process also embrittles the plastic to some degree, and in this case the celluloid is already extremely fragile so just a gentle cleaning is best in order to keep it in one piece.
You certainly get a like from me 👍. It looks fantastic. And thank you for leaving in mistakes during the process. We all make them and the viewers appreciate honesty. I am amazed that the piece of celluloid survived 100 years. I would venture a guess that if 200 of these still exist yours would be the only one with intact celluloid.
I make mistakes on every project and it's how I learn for next time - figure I might as well give others the chance to learn too! And yeah, of all the sharpeners I've come across from this era I have never seen one with the celluloid perfectly intact. Basically a miracle!
@@CatalystRestorations I have this same model in my basement workshop. I use it regularly, and the celluloid is still perfectly intact, just a bit yellowed.
nice result, especially that you repainted in similar color and the preservation of the original casing. but I think you could be more gentle when sanding areas with remaining text. on the other hand could the sanding of the tri-broken piece have been more intensely after the cold welding. but nevertheless great restoration of this fragile piece.
Thanks Miktas! It's always a careful balance and game you have to play when you've got an extremely pitted surface and delicate, shallow text! Luckily in this case I was able to carefully remove most of the pitting and deep scratches and keep the text legible.
Me atrapó esta restauración ya que también tengo un "sacapuntas" muy similar. Fue un magnífico trabajo pero tengo una duda, con el paso del tiempo y su uso regular, este tipo de sacapuntas requiere una "afilada" en su mecanismo. ¿Cómo sacarle filo a sus "cuchillas"?
"I got caught by this restoration as I also have a very similar "pencil sharpener". It was a magnificent job but I have a doubt, with the passage of time and regular use, this type of pencil sharpener requires a "sharpening" in its mechanism. How to sharpen its "blades"?" Great question! Luckily on this one the blades were still plenty sharp (as you saw in the video). If you find the blades on your pencil sharpener are dulling, you can try soaking them in vinegar overnight or for a more aggressive chemical you can use ferric chloride. It slightly etches the blades to give them more "bite". Best of luck!
I could read it, so you have my sub. 😄 I would have anyway; the end result was a beautiful piece of history brought back to life. I had no idea how you were going to handle the clear center piece without marring the crest and the lettering, but it's a lot more well-made than I thought. Now I have some binge watching to do!
I didn't know there were transparent ones, that's so cool. Though it was probably for the best that I didn't, since I would have wasted every pencil to a useless nub so I could watch the insides moving 🤔
@@CatalystRestorations It was not a hit. It may be called a humorous nudge, made with a smile. I am well-established in my 80s and age does define me do a degree, to the good. I was not infrequently kept after school (really?) to sharpen all the pencils. I cranked some serious RPMs on those sharpeners, and they held up like champs. And always a clean, smooth, sharp point. I don't they have ever improved on the cutter blades. Yout restoration is an excellent piece of work. Thanks for sharing it.
Wonderful job. I hope you have a place for that in your workshop! I have a Boston pencil sharpener in my workshop. I think its appropriate since I'm from Boston.
Thanks Stephen! This does indeed now have a dedicated place in my workshop! I have a Boston pencil sharpener too that I bought with this one at the flea market. I think it's from the 1980's or so. Works like a charm too!
I've read and seen other videos that soaking the blades in ferric chloride or even just vinegar to help sharpen the blades a bit. Luckily the ones in this sharpener were plenty sharp still!
"I had one like this but made of metal when I was a girl and I was in high school." Cool! It seems almost everyone has the shared experience of using hand-crank sharpeners :)
I'd say maybe trying brazing is a step before casting an entire new piece, haha. But sure, you could create a mould and sand cast an entirely new part but that's waaayyyyy outside the setup that 99.9% of people have, and that's what I'm trying to go for.
I wonder how they crimped those last tabs on the inside at the factory when they made these. Probably some rig that slipped inside and had a place on the outside to give a hammer blow and easy peasy it's done.
I tried sooooo hard to decipher how they might've assembled it. My best guesses are a special jig like you said or the celluloid was simply much more flexible in its prime and it was easier to just slip it in after the metal casing was assembled.
