Tool-belt pencil sharpener

All carpenters know that a dull pencil can lead to inaccurate measurements, and wasted material and time. To avoid these problems, I installed a small, hand-spun pencil sharpener in the pencil pocket of my tool belt. To keep it in place, I drilled tiny holes in the side of the sharpener and in the bag pocket; then I attached a small screw with a washer to keep the sharpener stationary. To prevent shavings from accumulating, I removed a few stitches from the bottom of the pocket.

Now when I am on a ladder holding up a piece of trim to scribe and I pull out a broken or dull pencil, it’s a quick fix. Instead of putting down the trim and sharpening the pencil with my knife, which eats up time and the pencil, I just give the pencil a few turns in the sharpener, and I’m back to getting the job done. Incidentally, I prefer regular pencils over carpenter’s pencils for the precision and the eraser (not that I use the eraser all that much).