A pencil sharpener and the executive.

cbl51 · **on:** January 24, 2019, 07:15:28 PM

"My pencil sharpener won't work anymore!"

The definitive statement came from the nine year old sitting at the kitchen table doing some homework that had been assigned over the Christmas vacation. A couple of yellow number 2 pencils lay on the table and the offending battery powered pencil sharpener was in her hand.

The old man wandered over and took a look.

"Well if it's a sharp pencil you want I can just whittle you good point" he said, taking a small black scaled SAK from his pocket.

"That's good for now, grandpa, but what about at school? I can't have a knife in school." the girl told him.

"We'll, lets have a look." the old man said.

He put a pencil in to see if maybe a new battery would do, but it went around and ground away with misshapen little shreds of wood flaking off. Seeing it was dull, he took of the clear plastic bubble that caught the shavings and saw the blade was held on by a small Phillips screw. He took out the nail file tool of the small SAK, and carefully started to unscrew the dull blade. His granddaughter was was watching carefully as he worked.

"You use the nail file as a screw driver, Grandpa": she asked.

"Yup. Makes a pretty good one once I did a little file work on the tip. I put a tiny bit of flat so it sits down in the screw for a better bite on the Phillips head." he told her. In a minute he had the dull blade out and was examining it.

"Bree, go get me a coffee mug, please. " He said.

The girl ran ran over to the kitchen counter and grabbed a mug, and asked if he wanted coffee? The old man said no, just the empty mug. The girl brought it over and watched puzzled as he sat it on the table upside down. They he carefully stroked the edge of the pencil sharpener blade on the rough unglazed ring on the bottom of the mug.

"I can't believe you're sharpening on the coffee mug, Grandpa!" the girl said.

"Don't be, Bree." said the girls mother as she came into the kitchen. "I watched dad do that a lot of times when I was your age. He made it almost a morning ritual at the breakfast table, honing his pocket knife on the bottom of the coffee mug. It drove mom nuts sometimes."

The old man felt the edge of the little blade carefully and nodded as if he seemed pleased. Then he took the pencil sharpener and placed the blade carefully back into position. He looked for a moment and muttered "Uh oh."

'Bree, putting this blade back may be a three handed operation. Your fingers are smaller so I may need a third finger for a moment. " he told his granddaughter. Then he took out the tweezers from the handle of the little SAK and picked up the screw and placed it over the hole while he held the blade in place with his opposite thumb.

"Now Bree, take the knife and very gently while I hold the screw, use the tip to screw it back in."

While the old man held the tiny screw with the tweezers and held the pencil sharpeners blade in position with his thumb, his granddaughter took the executive and holding it like it was a priceless jewel, gently placed the filed tip of the nail file into the Phillips head screw. Ever so gently, so as not to disturb the tweezers grip, she twisted the SAK's handle and screwed the thing down snug.

"Good job, Bree!" the old man told her as took hold of the execute and gave the little screw head a final snugging.

"How about my other one, grandpa?" Bree asked

"Other one?"the old man asked.

The girl grabbed her school bag and dug around, coming up with a regular manual little pencil sharpener in bright green plastic. He looked at it a saw the same kind of construction with he cutting blade held in by a small Phillips screw. Carefully he repeated the process while his granddaughter and daughter watched. But this time with the little green sharpener, the screw was not so recessed, and he didn't really need to use the tweezers, but he did anyway. He had his granddaughter use the SAK to screw down the fastener and snug up the screw. She did fine.

"Grandpa, can you fix anything with a SAK? " she asked him.

Before he could answer, his daughter Jessica chirped in; "Don't let him kid you, Bree, if he was on the Titanic he'd have go it into New York, or maybe Boston."

"Nah," the old man said with a wry grin, "I doubt I could have got any further than St. Johns or Halifax."

The girl looked at her mother and grandfather. "Whats the Titanic?"

"What's the Titanic?" the old man asked amazed.

"She's nine years old, dad. They haven't got to twentieth century history yet." Jess said.

"To be honest, Bree," the old man said; "I can't fix everything. But what a Swiss Army knife does, is give you options in a very small package if you're out someplace and don't have a real tool kit with you. Sometimes just having a plain old screw driver can let you get into something to fool around with it and get it working again. Like that pencil sharpener. It can buy you some time."

The little girl thought about that for a moment, then turned to her mother.

"Mommy, I want a Swiss Army knife!" she stated.

"Bree, with he zero tolerance in schools, all that has to happen is you forget to take it out of your pocket one time and it's too-doo hitting the fan."

The girl made to protest, but the old man stepped in.

"Bree, your mom has one her keyring and another in her purse, so there's always going to be a SAK for you to have access to. But I make you a promise that the day you graduate high school and don't have to worry about the school rules anymore, I'll give you a set of Swiss Army knives, big medium and small, and you can pick the colors and patterns. Hows that?"

The girl threw her arms around the old man and said, "I love you, grandpa."

The old man hugged her back and said;

"I love you too little girl."

RF52 · **Reply #1 on:** January 24, 2019, 07:20:24 PM

Great story!

Sent fra min FRD-L09 via Tapatalk

Greg Jones · **Reply #2 on:** January 24, 2019, 07:25:07 PM

zrxoa1 · **Reply #3 on:** January 24, 2019, 09:45:05 PM

The man needs to publish a collection of short stories!!!

That was awesome read!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

SirVicaLot · **Reply #4 on:** January 25, 2019, 04:24:37 AM

Nice story!

I noticed lately that all pencil sharpeners i have around the house suck. So i use my SAK’s. Which makes my wife go

But darn it the pencils are finally sharp and the tip does not break off anymore

cbl51 · **Reply #5 on:** January 25, 2019, 05:31:14 AM

Quote from: SirVicaLot on January 25, 2019, 04:24:37 AM

Nice story!

I noticed lately that all pencil sharpeners i have around the house suck. So i use my SAK’s. Which makes my wife go
But darn it the pencils are finally sharp and the tip does not break off anymore

Agree about the pencil point sharpened by a knife. It's far more durable it seems, and lasts longer.