The question is this, why are carpenters pencils this strange rectangular shape? Well stay tuned and you're going to find out. A lot of the things that we use in our daily life, I think it's pretty easy for me anyway, to take them for granted. You just assume that they've always been around or everyone's had access to them, but that's not really the case. I've been thinking about doing a few videos kind of digging deeper into some of the things that make our lives easier and some of the things that we are working with day in and day out and find out why are they the way they are? So I went and did a little research on the carpenters pencil and I found out that the very first carpenters pencils are pencils that were used by by men were sticks of graphite that were wrapped in string and it wasn't until the year 1662, I believe it's to the Germans, the clever German said well that's just not suitable, we have to find a better way and they actually started manufacturing the first carpenters pencils and they were actually this kind of shape, they were a piece of graphite that was sandwiched in between wood and to answer the question you guys are all dying to find out about. The reason why a carpenters pencil is this rectangle shape is so it won't roll off the work surface. Yep, you've ever tried to do carpentry work on a pair of saw horses on a slight incline with a round school pencil? Yeah, you'll be chasing that all the time. So that's the way it is and we also see that with some of those old screwdrivers, you'll remember that some of the screwdrivers that I have in my woodworking shop have oval handles, same principle, a round screwdriver will roll off the bench and oval screwdriver handle will not. Another reason for this shape is with with big calloused hands from big manly construction workers, they're easier to grasp, easier to get a hold of and the thing that's kind of interesting, I think that most people don't know and I didn't I didn't never learn this growing up in the trades until actually recently when we sharpen carpenters, when you sharpen a carpenters pencil, a lot of guys use these little handy dandy hands and guys, right? It's kind of a some clever guy invented a pencil sharpener, just sharpened carpenters pencils and I actually have really enjoyed these. I enjoy them so much that I keep one in my tool belt, but what I have found traditionally this is all wrong. So you see these two, these two tips here, this is sharpened with the Hanson sharpener, this is sharpened the way it's supposed to be. And the reason for this is this, the old guys wanted to have the ability to draw fine lines, maybe we can see here. So by turning it sideways and filing this or cutting that with your carpent with your knife to a nice chisel edge like that, you could make a precise line like this or if you were working on something that was a rough surface, maybe stone or cinder block or something that was uneven or something on dark wood that you wanted to see, you could turn it sideways and make a long line like that or a line that would be more recognizable than your height, your precision line. I've even read in a couple places that some guys back in the day would take a small file, we'll attempt it, we don't have a file here, we'll attempt it with the knife and cut a V groove, cut a V groove in the end of the graphite like this here, we'll try it, we'll try it together. And in so doing, be able to draw a double line, which indeed it does. I don't know when you would use an application like that, that seems a bit far fetched to me. So I want to close up by showing you how the proper way to sharpen these is, it takes, actually takes a little bit of practice, I always went to a point. And what I found with the point is yes, it's very nice when it's sharp for doing fine lines, but it's very fragile and I ended up, I'm always constantly sharpening and I burn through pencils like crazy. So the proper way to sharpen is this, you want to take your knife, you can use your pocket knife, you can use a razor knife, whatever, but what I do is, is a press cut, meaning you put your hand here and you're using your thumb, it's a powerful cut and you can cut, you go and you, and nice even cut, you should build it about three cuts there until you expose the, the graphite, you come back to the backside here, do the same, you're lightly going up a little bit each time because you don't want to break, you don't want to break the core right there, you can clean that up there. So we got that, then I'll come off to the corners here and I'll match it, now being careful, not to undermine and come in and to notch that graphite because it makes it, makes it fragile and it tends to want to break off. So there you go, see right there, I'd even notch it a bit, but that's okay, a little bit of practice, but you can do it, go make a big cut on the first one and then come in like that. Okay, that's what you want, just something like that, because you've got that whole core exposed, you can see I've got a little bit of a notch right there, you can clean it up a little bit. Then, now you guys, if you're an apprentice and you're going to be on a construction site, you can look very smart when you show up and your pencil is properly sharpened. This is where it's important to have your sharp knife and you scale it and you work that down, we're just working it down to a nice point. And if you do it this way, it will last you a lot longer and you can do those fine lines for those precise cuts, it'll last a lot longer than using that, like the handstands self sharpener right there. First time, take it a little bit longer, but you can maintain it quite easily, and I'm getting impatient here. We just have it right there. Nice even. There we go. That's the way it should look. We've got a we've got it tapered down to a pretty good point right there. If you need to be really precise doing super precise work, if you're a trim trim guy, you can even go further, but that will be a really durable, durable, durable tool. So, very interesting, these little things that we take for granted, but how nice is it to have a pencil? I even read when I was doing some research that a lot of artists like to use the Carpeters pencils and that they're perfect for doing the old English scroll. You know, those big fat sweeping letters that you see in Shakespeare's time that they use that because of that long wide edge that they can get those nice long sweeps. Kind of cool. So in wrapping up, a lot of folks ask, how do we get a Wrangler Start pencil? Well, we've never sold the pencils. We've always missed W and I have them honest and the only way to get one is if you meet us. So if you meet us in the in the store or somewhere in town, ask me because I usually have one on me and I'll be happy to give you one. So that's that's how you how you get your Wrangler Start tool. So, or pencils, excuse me. So put it in the comments. If there's anything out there, I was thinking also, and I don't know the answer to this, but I'm going to do some research on it. Why do logging boots have the great beheal on them? I think I know. I know, I know, I know for you from using them, a couple of the different reasons, but it'd be interesting to find the history, but I'm going to dig into that and we'll we'll find out exactly why that is. But put in the comments, anything that you're curious about that we did day-to-day items, things we use on the homestead that you'd like me to do some research on. And if I don't know what it is or the answer, I'll find out and share it with you in a video. So thanks for watching and we'll see you guys on the next video.