Quirky Museums

Logan, OH   The weather was pretty much the same the whole time we were in Ohio. Highs in the 80s and Lows in the upper 60s. We did have one day of rain. And lots of humidity.

We love strange little museums so we go out of our way to find them. Lucky for us, there were two of them in Logan, OH.

Pencil Sharpener Museum

The Paul Johnson Pencil Sharpener Museum is located at the Visitor’s Center.

When the Reverend Paul Johnson retired, he needed something to do and his collection started with two metal cars that his wife bought for him in 1989.

Paul died in July of 2010 and he continued to collect pencil sharpeners until his death. He collected over 3400 of them from sharpening cars, toys, Garfields, Mickeys, Tweetybirds, transportation, US Presidents, and panda bears.

Did you know they even wrote a book on how to sharpen pencils?

Washboard Museum

Jim went to the Washboard Museum while I stayed in the truck with the dogs. It was too hot to leave them by themselves. I honestly thought he’d only be gone a couple of minutes because “it’s a washboard museum”. But he was gone for a lot longer and when he came back he had really enjoyed the tour. They took him back into the factory where the washboards are made and explained the whole process to him.

The Columbus Washboard Factory is the only remaining washboard manufacturer in the U.S.A. They use many of the original presses and machinery to make their washboards.  The Company was started in 1895 and it has been estimated that fewer than 1,000 washboards were produced and sold in any one year during their first 30 years of operations.

During the second world war, wage and price controls and the inability to secure metal for the rubbing surfaces led to the creation of the glass washboard. 

Today the single largest market for washboards in the United States is for display, crafts, laundry and musical instruments.

They offer washboards with a variety of rubbing surfaces including spiral metal, galvanized, stainless steel, brass, and glass. They also have chalk, cork, and mirror surfaces. All of these boards are hand assembled one at a time with equipment dating back to the 1900's.

Washboards are shipped from the factory to places such as ACE and BEST Hardware, hobby stores as well as internationally.

A couple of fun places to visit if you’re ever in the area.