Most people learn how to write using pencils first before moving on to ink pens. You might have remembered how huge pencil sharpeners used to be with their cranks and tiny, removable drawers filled with pencil shavings that had to be thrown out and cleaned every once in a while. Then came the manual sharpeners that were smaller and definitely a whole lot more convenient to carry around, although you had to sharpen over a trash can so the shavings fall directly into it.

The next sharpener in line is the Twist pencil sharpener.

It’s basically one of those manual sharpeners, except it’s very minimalist, extremely simple, and just cuts everything back to the basics. It’s simply a bent sheet of metal, formed into a cone. A sharp edge shaves the pencil, and a gap at allow shavings to fall out.

It was designed by Tianyu Wu, Yinbin Shuai, Mingya Wei & Zhengyu Lin and is an entry to the International Forum Design in Hannover.

[via Yanko Design]

The manufacture of hundreds of millions (or even billions) of wooden pencils all over the world also results to the cutting down of a whole lot of trees.

For these two problems, there is but one very simple solution: the Eraser Pencil.

It’s the pencil that lets nothing go to waste. There’s no wood to shave off, no metal components to hold the eraser at the pencil’s other end. That’s because, instead of wood, this pencil is made up of (you guessed it!) eraser.

Sure, you might end up with eraser shavings instead of wood pencil shavings, but if you’re the conscientious recycler, then you can just melt it up over a flame and form another eraser with the shavings instead.

This is still a concept though, designed by Deuk Young Lee. The pencil has been around for ages, and it’s refreshing to see someone still come up with such a concept that’s not exactly new, but still novel at the same time.

[via Oh Gizmo!]

If you miss the good old days when you still had to sharpen up stuff, then look no further than the Parmesan Pencils. Aside from letting you sharpen to your heart’s content, you can also serve it up and top the shavings on your food to complete your dishes.

The brainchild of these cheesy pencils was Germany-based ad agency Kolle Rebbe, who took on the project for a cooperative called The Deli Garage.

The Parmesan Pencils came in three flavors: truffle, pesto, and chili. The shavings make for a different way of topping your food off with cheese and gives you more choices and leeway to come up with cool presentations of your food.

The bad news is that the pencils were made in a limited run of 500 and sold out in just two weeks. But maybe Kolle Rebbe will reconsider and start churning out these Parmesan Pencils for good, because I’d sure love to have me some sharpenable cheese.

[via Tessie and Motley Food via Oh Gizmo!]

These Pencil Dice aren’t exactly the same, but I think they’re on the same wavelength as my friend’s line of thinking, don’t you think?

You won’t be able to use these when you’re dancing with Lady Luck in the casino, but what you can do is use these Pencil Dice to help you make decisions sometimes. You can even bring them during your big finals and give them a good throw down when you’re at a loss for answers.

Although I doubt you can bring these in during exams given by strict professors who won’t tolerate any rolling around during the test.

These are designed by Sebastian Bergne and are available from his site for about $5 for a set of two.

[via Oh Gizmo!]

While it’s form makes it pretty stealthy, the Maharaja borked his own stealthy design by engraving the words “Gun Shop Jodphur, 1948″ on the pen. Kind of a giveaway, don’t you think?

The golden plated pencil-pistol is just one of the many antique weapons that will be auctioned off on June 24 by Holt’s Auctioneers, and is expected to fetch between £700 to £900 (approx. $1,000 to $1,300 USD). The lot also includes the pen’s “its original red celluloid velvet lined display case with makers label, provision for ten rounds of ammunition, a cleaning rod” and papers that prove its heritage.

A 20th-century pistol shaped like a pencil that’s wrapped in gold made by a Maharaja and given to the last Viceroy of India for the price of a MacBook Pro? Now that’s a good deal.

[via Bornrich]

Art Academy: First Semester (do I smell a sequel already?) is a complete art training course in the form of a DSiWare app. Just download Art Academy from the DSi Shop, and you’ll be a junior Rembrandt in no time. The program teaches you the basics of pencils, paints, blending colors, basic light and shadow techniques and more. Plus, you can either start with a blank canvas or embellish photos from your DSi’s camera album. Here’s a video showing off what you can expect in the Academy:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

While it’s not as sophisticated as natural media PC apps like ArtRage (one of my personal favorites), Art Academy looks like a nifty way to express your creativity on the DSi.

The idea is that the pre-chewed pencils will somehow discourage students from chewing on them–because someone’s already been at the wood–and that slight change will magically result in lengthening attention spans, raising grades, and, in all likelihood, curing cancer. Sign me up for a dozen.

Of course, Concentrate never says whether or not the pencils really are pre-chewed, or if it’s artistry only. If they really do retain a posse of gnawers, their plan just might work.

[Concentrate via TechEBlog]

Designed by Adafruit (in collaboration with Jay Silver), Drawdio is an analog synthesizer circuit that straps to any soft-leaded pencil, and lets you crank out electronic sounds while you sketch. The kit takes advantage of the conductive properties of the graphite in the pencil lead, and produces a veritable cacophony of sounds as you put pencil to paper.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

So maybe you can’t call those otherworldly bleeps, beeps and squeaks “music”, but with enough practice you might be able to carry a basic tune… or you could give one of these a try the next time you have to fill in all those perfect little circles on your SAT or GMAT exam. I’m sure the test administrator would love that.

Adafruit sells the Drawdio kit for $19.50 (USD), including the circuit board, all necessary hardware and a 2B pencil. You’ll need basic soldering skills to put Drawdio together, so don’t expect it to work without some experience building electronic kits.

Seriously, this is a pretty cool idea, but there is one problem: they don’t actually resemble lightsabers. Staging them with Star Wars pencils is definitely helping, but I’m pretty sure people would just think you had a random wad of felt wrapped around your pencils. Unless, of course, you started battling with them while making the appropriate sound effects. But then your pencils would fall out and you’d be back to square one.

You can make your own with this handy how-to guide. So if your kids are the type who begged you to take them to The Clone Wars on opening day, give yourself a break and leave them alone with some felt, glue, scissors, thread, and the instructions and let them get to it.

[via Craft:]

It was made by David Cook (not the American Idol winner, though, it’s a different David Cook.) The process of making this bot is detailed, and I do mean detailed, on his website Robot Room.

You can see a really quick video of this robot vs. a block of wood (?!?!?!) below:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Of course, the sadist in me wants to flip those pencils around and sharpen them to a point to make it a more stabby robot, but that would be more offensive than defensive, I suppose.

[via Make:]

The little hand-cranked shredders are also great for getting rid of business cards from unsolicited sales visits, that fortune you didn’t like from your Chinese lunch, and the occasional ATM receipt.

You should be able to find these for about $12 bucks over on Stupid.com, but they’re currently sold out, so you might have to settle for a crummy elephant shredder instead.

The Official Nintendo DS Pencil Stylus really does look like a pencil, but has a soft tip that protects your DS screen from any scratches. They’re imported from Japan, so they’re a little pricey at about $10 each (although with a little shopping around you can find ‘em for as little as $8 each.)

Insert your dull pencil into the cat’s “third eye,” and it lets out a meow and sharpens your pencil. There’s nothing more I can really say about this, exect that all you sickos who want one can pick one up from I Want One of Those for about $13.

[via Random Good Stuff]

Now you too can create 3D images using the classic red and blue method using this fun little kit. The $6 Incredible “3D” Doodle Kit (that’s a self-proclaimed “incredible”,) comes with a pair of 3D colored paper and plastic glasses, two colored pencils and a special holder that lets you draw with both pencils at the same time. As long as you follow the instructions to keep the blue pencil on the left side of the red one, your drawings will produce a fun 3D-esque sensation when you put on your pair of oh-so-dorky looking shades.

[via UberReview]