Woodworker Amusingly Transforms Dozens of Wooden Shoe Shipping Pallets Into 1,000 Handmade Pencils

Pallet Wood Pencils Paul Jackson

Woodworker Paul Jackman of Jackman Works quite humorously set about transforming dozens of wooden pallets from Carolina Shoe into 1,000 handmade pencils. Aware of the work in front of him, Jackman very calmly cut and recut the wood into smaller and smaller stacks, added in the pencil leads, glued top and bottom together before he hand-cut each individual pencil into a rounded shape.

When he was completely finished, Jackman celebrated, though he did admit to himself that this project was truly an exercise in futility.

Pencils, so many pencils… Do people even use pencils anymore? I don’t think so, but that’s never stopped me! Now the question is, how do I make the stupidly repetitive process of handcrafting 1,000 pencils interesting? … In total, I made 6 different pencil designs, all from over a dozen different species of pallet wood. I found some really fun species in this batch too which gave me great colors to play with including butternut, meranti, sweetgum, and some stuff I haven’t even identified yet. Strap in and enjoy the ride that is the most pointless project. ever

https://www.instagram.com/p/B4isP-0lKf-/ https://www.instagram.com/p/B4nbF4PB9it/ https://www.instagram.com/p/B4svWJNBi1d/
Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.

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