Manual Pencil Sharpener, Black - No Cords or Batteries, No Need to Pull the Pencil With Auto Suction Function

A very simple sharpener ... and very small and very light (note: I do not sharpen 20 pencils a day like many educators). After reading many reviews on electric sharpeners, most of which had negative reviews regarding failures, I decided to risk just a few dollars on a mechanical sharpener. It is pretty cool: Insert pencil; turn crank and the device sucks the pencil the rest of the way into the bur grinders, sharpens the pencil, and then when the pressure lightens on the crank, signaling that the sharpening process is complete, reverse the crank and the pencil is pushed back out. Remove pencil and voila- a super-sharp point. I don't know how many pencils it will sharpen before a failure but for light office use in home, seems to be a winner. Oh, and you do have to hold the unit down with one hand as you crank with the other; it does not have a fastening system to secure the sharpener to a desk or table top but not important. You can pick this one up and take it to another location very easily. It is actually more fun to sharpen a pencil with this little guy versus a huge, heavy electric monster. It doesn't over-sharpen tips. (Another note: I have only tested this on #2 lead pencils and colored pencils).

I'm amazed at this sharpener for five minutes and then it stopped working. After the fifth colored pencil I sharpened it wouldn't work anymore. I was able to unscrew it and find out that a piece of the pencil got stuck inside. When I finally got it out I put it back together but the same thing happened again four more times. Through trial and error I found out that I cannot use this sharpener to sharpen CRAYOLA colored pencils. It works fine with CRA Z ART colored pencils and no. 2 pencils.

I purchased this just over a month ago. As some others have written, it worked great at first, but has steadily gone downhill. My colored pencils have been chewed up, points have broken off, and sometimes the pencil will not even go in. Not being able to use your other hand to hold it just adds to the frustration, as it moves around, cheaply made. Two other things: you cannot see the actual sharpener; would have to entirely take it apart, and it is not easy to get a grip on the shavings receptacle. I have another entirely different sharpener in my shopping cart right now, as it is too late to return this one. What a waste.

I have spent SO much money on pencil sharpeners for our 5 girls over the years and this one is unbelievable!!! The only hesitation I had was the reviews that state that if the tip of a pencil breaks off you cannot get it out. This is definitely true and I was disappointed when it happened on the 5th pencil I was sharpening (I was so excited to try it, I pulled out our girls' giant box of colored pencils and figured I'd surprise them will all sharpened pencils next time they open the box.) HOWEVER, I'm a handy person and a do-it-yourselfer. I took a large paperclip, straightened out about half of it and used some needle nose pliers to bend the paperclip to have a bit of a hook on the end. After a few tries and a few adjustments to the angle of the bend in the paperclip, I managed to make myself a little tool to clear out the broken tips in a jiffy! I pull out the shavings compartment and slip the hook end of the paperclip into the underside of the metal sharpener (a tiny flashlight helped the first few times until I found the "sweet spot"). I got the broken tip to come right out and after a few tried I was a pro. I kept the plastic box it came in and decided to store the sharpener and my new "tool" together in the box. Out of about 60 colored pencils and 10 regular #2 pencils, I'd say around 6 of them had the tip break off inside the sharpener. If you're handy enough to bend a paperclip and fashion a little hook small enough to slip into the underside of the sharpener part, then I'd say this is the best pencil sharpener I've owned in 40+ years! I love the old fashioned kind that install on the wall, but the shavings are always a mess. This one contains the mess MUCH better, plus it's portable. And by the way, I don't blame the sharpener for breaking off the pencil tips. Some of them were likely already broken and I didn't realize it, and others I oversharpened...totally my own fault. I love how it sucks the pencil in and pushes it back out too! Took me a minute to get used to it, but I don't think I'll ever go back to an electric sharpener again!

This is a fantastic sharpener. Put the pencil in and start cranking. You can't over sharpen it. It holds the pencil by itself and pulls it in by itself and stops cutting when it is perfect. You can feel the crank turning free so you know it is done. Turn the crank backward a couple of turns and it pushes it out for you. So all you really do is hold the sharpener with your left hand, crank with your right, and let the sharpener do the rest. so you don't need to mount it permanently. Use it and then put it away until next time. Great long points on the pencils.The only thing I do not know about is it's long term durability, since I just got it, November 2018. If it craps out in future, I will update this review with any appropriate criticism. For the low cost just get one, its great!

Nice little pencil sharpener. Sharpens pencils fast and to a fine point. Since it simply sits on the table it takes two hands to operate, which is not a problem as pencils are fed automatically into the sharpener. Not quite perfect, though: The black and white design certainly looks nice, but the dark, barely translucent drawer front makes it hard to see when the sharpener is full. The drawer is also a bit sticky and not easily removed (it takes some fiddling). That's probably a good thing: who wants pencil shavings all over the desk, but it drops the score from five (perfect) to four (pretty darn good) stars.