I have a battery operated pencil sharpener from Radio Shack. It's horrid. Anyone have a suggestion for a good one? I'm not a teacher so I don't need some uber expensive awesome one. I just need something at home I can stick a pencil in and have it sharpened. Most of my pencils, when a tip actually gets sharpened, it breaks off in the razor part and then I have to struggle to get that out. HATE IT! And here I sit sharpening her 20 pencils for school....
I bought one of the old fashioned metal hand crank ones like we used to use at school. I had my husband mount it to the wall inside the pantry. LOVE IT!!
http://www.amazon.com/X-Acto-Table--Wall-Mount-Pencil-Sha...
I went through 3 or 4 electric ones before I decided that the old fashioned way was better.
That is why I use mechanical pencils. I find that some of the handheld manual sharpeners work better than the cheap electric ones.
I have accepted that any sharpener under 30 dollars are disposable and don't feel like paying more. The ones we have in our office are great but cost around 150 dollars.
Nah, I just use mechanical pencils, so much easier.
I don't have an electric, but if you can find an old school hand-crank one like we had in school when we were kids, they really are the best, I think. I was lucky my house is 100 years old and we bought it with a very sturdy metal hand crank pencil sharpener mounted inside the basement steps!
I have a battery operated iPoint by Westcott that works really well. It was about $20 at Staples I think.
Electric is always best,,look roe one on sale at the office stores. Or borrow one.
I went through the same frustration, but now I have an X-ACTO brand electric pencil sharpener that works great and it has a pretty large capacity for shavings so you don't have to dump it often. I've had it a couple years, sorry I don't remember where I bought it or how much it cost. I agree with the above posters about cheap pencils, yellow #2 or mechanical is the only way to go. You might as well throw away the holiday ones the kids get in treat bags! Moms, please stop putting them in the treat bags!
Actually the manual little ones you can buy at the dollar store are pretty decent. Otherwise, we have a plug in one "Boston" brand which I've had for years and it's going strong. It works fine as long as you empty the shavings frequently. You also cant push the pencil in too hard or it stalls.
I know the feeling! Last year I bought mechanical pencils but the kids took all the lead out. I found the best kind are the old fashioned crank ones.
I bought the one from walmart - works great!
The battery ones are pretty worthless. You can get a fairly decent electric (plug in) one for around $40 at an office supply store.
You may also want to look at the pencils you're buying. Cheap pencils are just that: cheap. Horribly made, easily broken, hard to sharpen, even by hand. I never knew there was a difference until I started working at our elementary school!
Mechanical pencils are also a good idea, though they are pricier, and if you tend to write hard, with a lot of pressure (like me) you'll find they break easily :(
