Swordfish ‘Ikon’ Desktop Manual Pencil Sharpener with Replaceable Helical Blade and Auto Stop Function [40100]

My daughter of 5 years professes to be an artist, but despite owning somewhere in the region of 5,000 pencils she never seemed to have any that she could actually draw with. The wife's solution to that issue would always be to buy a new pack of pencils which would have their ends snapped off within 5 minutes of opening the pack.I'd therefore be presented with a mound of pencils to sharpen every weekend. I'll be honest, I've got better things to do than sharpen pencils on the weekend. I only found one of those little sharpeners that worked well; but as soon as I'd bonded with it and developed an efficient process of sharpening the pencils the wife noticed and then she lost the sharpener. The usual snag with little sharpeners is that they can't get through the wood of most pencils very easily and end up snagging the lead and snapping it (this could be an issue with cheap pencils rather than the sharpener, but a cheap sharpener is bad on all pencils).I did a bit of investigation and found this little beauty to have some good reviews and for sale for a very reasonable price (I wouldn't have bought this for the £22.96 it was apparently originally selling for). For £7.45 I now have a very good sharpener. It produces sharp points every time and doesn't lead to the snapping of leads of a small sharpener. Whilst it is made of plastic and isn't overly attractive, the mechanism is well made and the whole unit is solid and feels like it will last a good few years. The wife failed to break it when she decided to have a go; it fell off the kitchen table and onto the floor and didn't even come apart. I've now put some muscle behind tightening the bracket up so that the wife can't move it from the study.The little bin can cope with about 25 pencils worth of shavings. The sharpener produces a lovely long point to any pencil and it is easy and intuitive to use. Owing to the long point, pencils do get shortened significantly on the first use and subsequently if the lead has been broken right back. Unless you have pencil thin fingers it is impossible to get them stuck or sharpened.A great piece of kit for sharpening pencils quickly and effectively.

This item is an absolute game changer for my art, no exaggeration, I literally got excited when I saw how well it worked.I was finding it very difficult to get my pastel pencils sharpened with regular sharpeners -, I had to use blades and spend two or three mins carefully getting a pencil sharp enough for detail (and I’d still end up with breakages and the mess it made was unbelievable too by the way). I also was finding my coloured pencils were getting the soft cores snapped in my manual sharpeners and my electric one and my pencils aren’t cheap. Anyone who does pencil art knows the importance of a really sharp point for detail, especially with colour pencil portraits and pet portraits (where hairs, eyelashes, eyes and fine lines are essential).This crank sharpener holds the pencil still for you and rather than shaving it with a single blade, it grinds several blades on a rotating mechanism against the pencil while catching the fine shavings beneath nearly. Because it holds it perfectly still for you, there’s less error and chance of you pulling the pencil one way and snapping the cores during the sharpening, so I see far less breaking of my pencil cores with this than with any other sharpener I’ve ever used. And this does exceptionally sharp. These points are lethal, lol.This sharpener doesn’t do the “standard” sharpen most sharpeners do, it gives you that sort of longer thin tapered edge more popular with coloured pencil artists (so you can use the side of the core for glazing down colour). It might class as “long” sharpener or “extra long”, but I’m unsure, I’ve only ever tried the “standard” and “chubby” manual and electric ones but this is far more of a point and finer than anything I’ve achieved with other items.Keep in mind if you’re getting this to sharpen soft cored pencils or pastel pencils that more of your cores will be exposed from the wood than the average sharpener would allow. I think this is worth mentioning because if you’re remotely heavy handed and don’t have a lot of control of the strength in your hands (maybe limited mobility in hands) you might be looking at wearing through your expensive pencils more quickly with tips breaking off at the slightest pressure. I definitely had to adjust my technique a bit as I’d never managed to get pencils so lovely and sharp before. Keep in mind, it takes a bit of hand strength (not exceptional strength) to turn the crank too (I mention this because I know not everyone has strong hands).Do note, it might not fit all pencils - all my graphite pencils, coloured pencils and pastel pencils fit but the charcoal pencils are a bit snug in it and the grip will chew up the casings a bit when trying to get them out - it still sharpened them great and they fit (just) but not all pencils are created equal.Anything else worth mentioning? It’s quite large (about the size of a teacup - fits in a bag if you need it for school or college, it can be attached to a table with a clamp BUT if you do art on the couch or in bed and don’t have anything to attach it to, not to worry as you can actually use it without the clamp, either hold it down or just hold it in one hand while turning the handle. It catches all the shavings and the shavings tray doesn’t come out accidentally so it never ever makes a mess.One other feature I love, you “set” the amount of the pencil you want sharpened off. There’s a mechanism you pull out as far as you want the pencil to be sharpened (let’s say you pull it out generally about a cm), insert the pencil at that length and then release the latch and turn the handle...once it’s sharpened to the amount you set it to, you can turn that handle all you like but it won’t wear down any more pencil. Takes a bit of learning though to visually gauge how much of the mechanism needs to be pulled out depending on how blunt the pencil is (but you’ll love this)..If you’re a pencil artist, whether it’s graphite, coloured pencil or pastel, you’re probably going to love this item, and the price for this is absolutely fantastic too. Highly, highly recommend it.

Great for pastel pencil, but sometimes will break end off but mostly gives a great point never had such a long point before, great for details.

Nice and gentle on the pastels, unlike the electric one I previously had, and creates a better point. I'm very pleased with it and delighted I can purchase replacement blades.

Fantastic! Didn't realise how good these sharpeners are.recommend.

Pros: it is nice and compact, comes with a clamp for the desk, pencil shavings collected in a removable pot underneath.Cons: I bought this as recommended by an artist colleague, unfortunately I’ve only used it <12 times and it no longer sharpens but just breaks the pastel and chews the wood surround. I’ve used 2 different kinds of pastel pencils but no difference, and they’re quality pencils too not cheap. Bought in mid June not fit for purpose by mid July. Really not good