I learned drafting initially in the 1980's using wooden pencils, we used exactly this type of instrument. When we had a half-inch of bare-lead sticking out of the pencil, then we'd spin it in another machine that would sharpen the point only, using a sanding action.

This type of sharpener looked like a regular crank-manual Boston. I've just looked on google and ebay and don't see any, but I suspect they still exist.

Early 60's for me. The sharpener was a black thing with a hole in the top, that sat on the desk. They were heavy, and had a replaceable cylinder of sand paper inside.

I became a draftsman in the late 40's. The heavy thing was used with mechanical drafting pencils which held sticks of bare lead of various hardness. I never saw colored lead for these pencils although they might have been available. The drafting software now available has just about eliminated the old paper drafting so all that technology has more or less disappeared. Computerized drafting is so far superior to the old techniques that there is no reason to use the old stuff. A sharp surgical knife or an exacto does nicely for sharpening colored wood pencils and a strip of sandpaper backed by a strip of wood which we artists used in the 30´s gives you a reasonable point. We Neanderthals could cope.

sand, I find it amazing that I'm routinely conversing with someone that did art in the 1930's and drafting in the 40's.

When I look at the mechanical things people designed in the those era's, I find them to be truely amazing. Steam locomotives, thrashers, planes; I realize that the tools don't count for nearly as much as the imaginations of the designers.

I imagine you have some interesting history yourself.

In my professional career, I've only made one paper drawing, released in 1989. Took me too long, so I started coming in early to get a computer, which we had to compete for. My paper-drafting tools are in a box in the basement. I suspect I'll never use them again.

The great thing about AutoCad is that repeatable parts can be blocked and revolved and duplicated as many times on the drawing as it requires. And that all sorts of information can be placed in layers and evoked as needed. And that the drawings remain forever unsmudged and transmittable on the web etc.,etc.,etc. I worked on missile cabling and wiring diagrams several yards long the had to be erased and redrawn in parts as changes were made. A real pain. Nothing beats computer drawings. Too bad considered too old to be hired.