A Decent Pencil Sharpener That Works!

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 18 total)
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  • October 5, 2011 at 3:17 am
    thepinkballerina
    Participant

    Can anyone recommend a pencil sharpener that actually sharpens without breaking the pencil lead (or color pencils)?! I have only tried the battery operated ones from walmart and then the small ones for kids. They all break my pencils!

    Thanks!

    Tara

    October 5, 2011 at 3:21 am
    missceegee
    Participant

    Art supply stores sell good ones like these – Maped and others.

    October 5, 2011 at 3:50 am
    AngieG
    Participant

    Great question!! We’ve had so many lame pencil sharpeners here too!  I followed missceegee’s link above (looks like a great site, thanks!) and noticed this one:

    http://www.dickblick.com/products/prismacolor-pencil-sharpener/#description

    Haven’t tried it but that is a good brand name.  I watched a Prismacolor video and they said to hold the pencil and turn the sharpener instead of the other way around.  Otherwise, the pencil wobbles too much and breaks.

    October 5, 2011 at 12:12 pm
    Gem
    Participant

    A couple of years ago I got fed up and bought a wall mounted pencil sharpener.  This is the one I have:

    http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Bostitch-Antimicrobial-Sharpener-MPS1-BLK/dp/B000GP0VIU

    I didn’t know it had antimicrobial coating when I ordered it, and that kind of put me off because I generally avoid anti-bacterial stuff, but the sharpener works well.  

    Love having a wall-mounted sharpener – it never gets lost LOL.

    October 5, 2011 at 12:33 pm
    pianogirl363
    Participant

    Hi Tara,

    I bought a vintage Berol Giant Apsco Pencil Sharpener like this one off of Ebay a few years ago – the kind that you mount on the wall. We’ve been very happy with it. It is still in awesome shape, never breaks the lead, and sharpens the pencils very quickly. I’ve found that generally an older, made in the USA product will work better than the cheap stuff made today – even if it’s listed as “vintage”!

    Hope this helps!

    ~Anna

    October 5, 2011 at 12:59 pm
    ruth
    Participant

    Thanks for asking this question and all the great responses.  I never would have thought to ask.  Our first year of homeschooling and we have gone through 3 sharpners already.  I had just accepted it was a fact of life to not have a decent sharpner.  Now I will look for a good one that won’t drive me crazy and use up the whole pencil to sharpen it.  L.O.L. 

    October 5, 2011 at 1:22 pm
    thepinkballerina
    Participant

    Thanks, ladies! I’ll check out the sites you’ve shared and order one asap! Laughing

    October 5, 2011 at 4:05 pm
    AngieG
    Participant

    I noticed that some of these wall mount kinds have replaceable blades.  Anyone had to replace blades?  Sounds like a good option rather than having to replace the whole sharpener!

    October 5, 2011 at 6:24 pm
    thepinkballerina
    Participant

    I have a question about the mountable sharpeners also: do the fronts come off like the reviews say on Amazon? My cheap one from walmart did that!

    Has anyone bought a sharpener from Office Max or Home Depot that works? It’d be nice to be locally if we can.

     

    Tara

    October 5, 2011 at 7:10 pm
    AngieG
    Participant

    I bought an electric one from Office Depot that is horrible. It’s a Bostitch.

    October 8, 2011 at 6:43 pm
    thepinkballerina
    Participant

    I ended up buying an X-ACTO school pro at Office Max for $50 and so far I LOVE IT. I haven’t seen pencils so sharp and it doesn’t break my color pencils. It has a 10 year warranty.

    October 8, 2011 at 8:20 pm
    RobinP
    Participant

    I have an old hand cranked sharpener that I’ve had for decades.  My dad had it mounted onto a VERY HEAVY thing they used at the factory he worked at.  That’s been probably 35 years ago.  I love it. 

    October 8, 2011 at 10:45 pm
    LillyLou
    Participant

    This is so funny, because I thought I was surely the only one who had the pencil sharpener issue LOL  Another problem we had was finding the sharpeners as they would “walk away” if I didn’t have it connected to something.  I finally bought an iPoint Evolution electric sharpener from Target.  I have artsy girls, so the thing’s used often, and so far, we’ve had no problems.  It was about $20.  Good luck!

     

    October 9, 2011 at 7:29 pm
    Rebekahy
    Participant

    We also have the i-point one, we had it for about 8 months and it just quit working, so I took it back to Costco, because they are THE best about returns and they gave me my money back and said something that inferred it was brought back by a number of people, despite that we bought another one… from Costco and will again return it if we have a problem – that’s just one reason we LOVE buying things from Costco (it was about $16 and at the time they had an instant rebate of 3 or 4 dollars.)

    October 10, 2011 at 1:46 am
    Christine Kaiser
    Participant

    I had to laugh when I read the headline.:) I was just thinking the other day what would I do without my Mom sending me pencil sharpeners from Germany *lol*.Seriously – I haven’t found one working sharpener here yet! Maybe a business oppertunity?;)

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