Hand held 19th century pencil sharpner

[Gary Dombrowski]

Though I know a pocket knife can serve the same purpose, I'd like to be able to find a working example of a hand held mid 19th century pencil sharpner. Any suggestions? Thanks. ~Gary

[Jessamyn]

Do you mean an example to buy, or just an example to show that they existed, and what they were like? If the latter, here's a great collection:

http://www.officemuseum.com/sharpener_small.htm

Cast lead seems to have been a popular material for them. There are several dug examples on this page (which loaded very slowly for me, but did load):

http://finds.org.uk/database/search/results/objecttype/pencil

Nice one here:

http://objectquality.com/product/1855-w-k-foster-antique-pencil-sharpener-first-american-patent/