What's on my desk!

Today I'm going to start a new series on the Product Superior blog titled "What's on my desk". As the smarter amongst you will gather I will feature a single item, or related group of items that currently reside on- you guessed it- my desk. Hopefully this will prove much more interesting than my previous ideas, some of which included the novel but ultimately speculative "Who's sock is in my laundry" or the scintillating but rather crass "What's in my pants". Both of these ideas luckily fell prey to editorial revue.

So what is on my desk? Today it's a Frederick Post Tru-Point pencil pointer circa 1960, variable taper, Model D-3046 complete with original packaging. For those of you thinking "Nice orange thing dufus, what's it do?" the Tru-Point is a lead pointer, used for putting a point on a now relatively obsolete form of mechanical drafting pencil known as a leadholder. Leadholders, such as the two (one vintage, one new) in the foreground of my photo, acted as ratcheting holders for a stick of 2mm graphite and just like a wooden pencil, they required constant sharpening to stay pointed. The Tru-Point sharpened by scraping the graphite along the inside of an abrasive drum rather than with razor blades like the small sharpeners we all used to sharpen our No. 2 pencils as schoolkids. And wow does it sharpen. Despite the fact that the design is some forty odd years old it points better, breaks my lead less, and spills far fewer shavings than all of the newer designs I've tried.