Meredith HeuerWe have a hefty amount of respect for good writing instruments here at Gear Patrol. The No. 2 pencil holds a place near and dear to our hearts (nod to the Dixon Ticonderoga) both for its functional excellence and standardized testing nostalgia — fact: there are now three sections to the SAT’s. So, when we learned of Artisanal Pencil Sharpening we couldn’t help but hold back the excitement. Seriously. Former political cartoonist and current Hudson River Valley craftsman David Rees is carrying on the dying tradition of manual pencil sharpening. He literally whittles each pencil into such a sharp point that they’re shipped with a certificate authenticating the pencil as a dangerous object. Mr. Rees allows customers to send in pencils of their own choosing to be professionally honed, or you can order a pre-sharpened pencil directly from him. If you’ve always found the symmetric sharpening of a mechanical sharpener to lack that organic imperfection you yearn for, David Rees is your man.
Buy Now: $15