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By Garland Pollard
At Staples yesterday, I bought a manual Boston Pencil Sharpener. It was $15.98; the model was the X-Acto KS. I got this manual one after an electric sharpener died. I hate to think how much electricity I wasted with the electric one over the years.
After I screwed it in the wall, it was a big hit with my five-year-old, and everyone else in the house who had suffered from the scourge of dull pencils.
It looks remarkably like the classic Boston KS that I remember in most of the classrooms; the only thing odd was the X-ACTO name on the sharpener. X-ACTO is a great brand and every desk ought to have one, but it doesn’t have much to do with Boston sharpeners, and it shouldn’t be on a Boston sharpener.
It seems well made, and comes with a two-year warranty. That being said, it was made in China, and I would certain have paid a few more dollars for it to be made in the U.S. The joy of using a pencil is not just in the writing with it, but the whole process. If Boston promised me a lifetime warranty, and made it REALLY well, I would have paid $25 for it.
China or not, every house in America ought to have one of these, as well as every classroom. I would love to see research on how many American houses still have manual sharpeners.
Great History from OfficeMuseum.com
Boston was founded in 1899; in 1999 they celebrated with a 100th anniversary sharpener. In 1913, their sharpener, the Boston Pencil Pointer, was selling for about $6. In the past, people were used to more expensive sharpeners or having to sharpen pencils by knife, which wasted the lead.
Time was when every classroom in the U.S. had a sharpener, most probably a Boston KS. We found a great photo of an old Boston sharpener from the excellent office history website www.officemuseum.com. The site has all sorts of great history on old office products, including some of the other old brands of pencil sharpeners, including A.B. Dick, Jupiter, Webster, Lakeside, Climax, APSCO, Babcock, McDivitt, Beebe, Everett, Graffco, Dima, Iduna, Olympic, Dixon, Gem and others.
Boston goes down with the classic American desk brands that I want to have near me, including Swingline staplers, Artgum erasers and other assorted great pencil brands like the Dixon Ticonderoga and Venus Velvet. (There are other pen brands that are favorites, but not all are American.)
Some brands are no longer cool or interesting; for instance Mucilage comes in a cruddy looking bottle, and is no longer that funky nipple-topped LePage’s Mucilage, the brand I trusted.
Today, Boston is owned by Elmer’s Products, Inc. of Columbus, Ohio. not only makes Boston but also makes Krazy Glue, X-ACTO knives and Bienfang arts and crafts products.
Elmer’s is growing. They recently purchased the English brand James Galt & Co. Ltd. (see www.jamesgalt.com). Galt dates from 1836; James Galt himself was born in Ayrshire and set up as an educational retailer in Manchester in 1836.
See
1 response so far ↓
1 Yosef Pessin // Jul 18, 2010 at 10:04 pm
I would have to disagree a little bit with your views. Boston made great pencil sharpeners, we still have some of their model KS in our school from 20 years ago and they can sharpen a new pencil in under 8 seconds.
Unfortunately, when they were taken over by Elmer’s and merged under the names of Boston, X-acto, and Hunt, they started using cheap parts and their pencil sharpeners are pieces of junk. I vehemently disagree that X-acto is a great brand – they are a cheap brand that makes terrible pencil sharpeners. Unfortunately, nowadays there are very few companies that make pencil sharpeners, and there are very few alternatives for teachers.
But when there is a void, there is always someone to step in. A teacher decided to make his own pencil sharpeners and sell them on ebay. Now, hundreds of teachers are buying his pencil sharpeners in place of the garbage put out by Boston, X-acto, Hunt, and whatever other name they are using. (Just as an aside, you can tell what kind of company they are when they have to sell the same pencil sharpeners under 3 different brand names.)
I do not know this person selling the sharpeners on ebay personally, but I am glad someone stepped up to fill this void. In case you are interested, his user name on ebay is mr.decoffs_classroom_supplies (You can find his pencil sharpeners by going to ebay, clicking on advanced search, and on the left click on find by seller).
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