I keep a Schrade Old Timer in my pocket at all times, though it is 
making modern life more difficult (I head into state buildings pretty 
regularly) and the sheeps foot blade is my go to blade for sharpening 
the kid's pencil at homework time. A dozen or so crappy plastic pencil 
sharpeners have given up the ghost just since the beginning of third 
grade, and the family cannot agree on the correct and proper location 
in the house for the hand cranked Boston pencil sharpener. Don't know 
what the GIT did with the aluminum Lee Valley belt clip sharpener I 
gave her.

Anyone else have an pencil sharpener in the house? Where did you put 
it? For some reason when I was a kid the thing was hung in the basement 
workshop/laundry room. Personally, the stairwell to the basement calls 
to me as the perfect place to hang the old Boston,  and said 
discussions start with scenarios involving hitting heads, shoulders etc 
on it in the dark stairwell, other locations envision similar household 
injuries and I give up and sharpen my penknife again.

Sigh......

Michael-San Francisco, lamenting a democratic (small d) household. 
Dexter #3 Sharpener in the shop, over the bench.

[mailto:oldtools-bounces@r...] On Behalf Of scott
grandstaff
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 11:45 AM
To: porch
Subject: Re: [OldTools] marking knives

> http://rhpwood.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/tools-marking-knives/

 Hey Bob
  Nice knife.
  If you get tired of trying to explain the blade shape in longer words? 
Just
tell 'em it's a sheepsfoot blade.
 I use a sheepsfoot roughly 1/2 the time in everything I do.

   When you can raise up a handle high approaching verticle, a spear 
point or
diamond point is a good blade, but when you are dealing with a lower 
handle
angle than that to reach in, sheepsfoot does the trick.
  If you have to go really low angle, hawksbill. Slight downward curve.

 They made up names for blade shapes roughly when they invented language
:-)
   It's possible to come up with a new blade shape people haven't 
thought of
yet, but I never have.
   Whatever I think up, that I think is new?  I can always go back and 
look
at the old charts and, sure enough, it's close enough to one of the
established shapes to call it that, everytime.
 yours, Scott

*******************************
   Scott Grandstaff
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