Review on Derwent Manual Helical Sharpener 2302001 by Sasha Hsiao

This sharpener creates an amazing and beautiful point on typical wooden colored pencils and graphite pencils. I had HB pencils and a set of Crayola Crayon colored pencils. If you turn the handle four times, you get a very high and very sharp point. At first I thought it was too high and would break easily, surprisingly all the points held up. To make the tip less sharp, twist it twice, although this places a small slab of wood vertically on the edge of some pencils. I snapped it with my finger, leaving a small crease in the wood. I think the different types of wood the pencils are made of might be to blame, not the sharpener. There was no such thing with the HB pen. It works stable, has no legs and sits flat on the table, comes with a table clamp but I didn't use it. Since the pencil does not have to be held when sharpening, it can be held with the free hand. A note: the pencil should arrive in its own box with a small instruction booklet, fully assembled and with a desk clip. Not in a plastic bag, but in parts and without a collar, like our first one. Someone happily sent a replacement which arrived the day after I contacted Revain. On the negative side, it didn't sharpen my watercolor pencils, nor my Caran d'Ache, Prismacolor, or Faber-Castel brand pens. A hint that he might not sharpen them should have been on the list. Using it was annoying. Of course I have arthritis in my fingers, which doesn't help. You need to squeeze the two square handles on top, pull out the mechanism, insert a pencil, sharpen, and then twist the handle back to release the pulled out section (see video in listing). Sometimes he came back, sometimes not. What isn't mentioned is that you can manually push it back by lifting a shiny metal stick (check the diagrams to see what I mean) over where you place the pencil. Repeating all of this for each and every pencil that needs to be sharpened seemed uncomfortable, tedious, and annoying. I usually grind multiple parts at once. When the tip broke off in the sharpener this of course prevented further sharpening. I had to turn the thing upside down and smack it with my hand to try and loosen the dot that was left there. The gear isn't totally inaccessible if you need to take a look or reach under it (remove the chip tray), but there's no way to easily take it apart. I used a straightened small paper clip to remove the misplaced point. If I didn't have posable hands, I'd generally buy a class/office pencil version of an old-fashioned manual sharpener that adjusts to fit a variety of pencil sizes. It definitely wasn't for me. I haven't come back and need to invest in an electric version that adapts to different pen sizes. It definitely wasn't for me. I haven't come back and need to invest in an electric version that adapts to different pen sizes. It definitely wasn't for me. Didn't come back and will have to invest in an electric version,