CARL Pencil Sharpener, CC-2000, Black, 5-Point Selector. Manual, Quiet for Office and Home Desks, School Classroom, CUI19018

As a teacher, I have purchased countless manual and electric pencil sharpeners. In the classroom, electric pencil sharpeners are noisy, messy, and continually break down. I don't care how well designed they are. I very seldom review products, but I have to for this, as it is exceptionally well-made. This, folks, is THE best and most thoughtfully designed pencil sharpener I have come across. The Carl Custom starts from long-standing "pinch/autofeed" manual sharpener mechanics and design, but re-does it exceptionally well. The sharpener case is much larger than comparable sharpeners, and is aesthetically appealing. The shavings bin is ample. The blades are very sharp, and, as anyone who has used this style of sharpener knows, sharpens very quickly and can do so to a dangerously fine point. Rubber feet and a substantial weight means that this will not be sliding around tabletops or randomly falling over, even when accidentally bumped. It is very sturdy and stable. All parts except the bin are metal. The pinch tabs and rotary arm are larger/longer than normal and suit every hand. Even the font choice and paint/finishing are very pleasing to the eye and touch. Throw in the fact that you have adjustable control over point, easy access to jams via the screw-in bezel at the back, and that it uses a replaceable rotary blade (looks to be an easily-sourced standard blade), this is a winner. I will note that the Achilles' heel of most sharpeners of this style is colored pencils, which tend to break off and get stuck in the blades. Not so with this model. Students love to use the sharpener. I have bought one for myself and 6 for colleagues.

Tried two other manual sharpeners and sent both back, and spent way too much time researching pencil sharpeners. This is by far the best one I have seen and tried. It is very solid - heavy weight solid steel. It is very well engineered. It clamps down to the edge of my table. I put the clamp on the handle side although it can work on either side and also put some double stick foam tape under it so it does not slide at all. I recommend using some double stick so it is rock solid with the table. It leaves no marks on the pencils unlike similar type sharpeners because it has rubber grippers instead of metal teeth. It sharpens perfect every time. The tip adjustment did not do as much as hoped as I wanted to make pencils really blunt for my 2 yr old, but it is good enough. When you load a pencil, I apply a brief force opening the levers so that it clamps harder. This is recommended especially for round colored pencils. The pencils may spin a little especially round colored pencils, but it doesn't matter as the pencils sharpen perfect. The spinning is because it clamps with rubber instead of other sharpeners with metal teeth leave ugly marks in the pencil, which I do not want. I never write reviews, but I wanted to on this sharpener. I highly recommend this pencil sharpener.

Pencil sharpener works very well , but the clamp that is supposed to attach it to a counter or desk top is very flimsy and easily knocked out of place rendering it useless . In order to sharpen you need to hold the sharpener still or have a second person do it for you. I will try to figure out an alternative way of holding it in place.

I rarely leave reviews but this pencil sharpener is among the top best things I have ever purchased. I am not even kidding. We for years used sub-par color pencil and school pencil sharpeners. Then we came across this baby. You ask yourself is it really worth the money and does it really work? The answer is a resounding YES! It lets you select the pencil tip sharpness and sharpens so smoothly it is actually amazing, even for cheap color pencils or lead pencils. You will not regret this purchase. If I had to give you a CON it is only that it does not stop sharpening even when the pencil tip is just microns thin. You have to check it or you could sharpen a long pencil down to a nub. But that drawback is so small compared to the PRO’s that it is a very enthusiastic thumbs up! Get it.

The pencil sharpener was beautiful! It makes perfectly sharp pencils....AND it can also (if you wish) make a duller pencil. It has yet to fail to make the perfectly sharpened pencil. The only minor problem that I had was that there is a very minor learning curve to how to use it. It isnt as easy as just put in the pencil and sharpen. You have to load the pencil, then pull out the loader, and then normally sharpen. It is more quiet than regular classroom sharpeners and electric sharpeners, but it is more loud than a handheld small sharpener. Aside from the minor amount of noise and the minor learning curve (which can challenge students the first time they use it) it is by far the best sharpener I've ever used. The efficiency of the sharpener far surpasses the minor downsides of it.

Smooth operation, nicely centered, excellent tips, won't damage the lacquer. Actually my favorite pencil sharpener. Important info: OK, you know the part that holds the pencil while it sharpens? When you pull that out, it stays in place, so you don't have to juggle it AND squeeze the levers to open the jaws AND insert the pencil. You can do the whole operation with only two hands. Not all sharpeners do this, and those that do don't always advertise it. This one does. Also the jaws are plastic coated or something so they won't chew up your pencil. You love to see it. Size info: some mini jumbos are OK, some aren't. Jumbos are right out, they're too big. Recommend the fancy Dahle 166 for those. Hex pencils work best, round ones can spin some (remember, plastic coated jaws) but that's really only an issue on the first sharpen... Just reinsert and it'll finish the job on the second pass.

This is the best pencil sharpener that I’ve ever used. It’s well-made, works very efficiently and doesn’t waste a lot of the pencil as electric versions tend to do. You can set it for various points depending on your writing/drawing tasks. It can be mounted to the edge of a table but is heavy enough and stable enough that it isn’t necessary to do so.

(I don’t normally post reviews but this product made my teacher heart happy!) Definitely a MUST HAVE in a classroom! Check out how sharp my pencils are from this sharpener! It’s amazing, fast, and quiet! The only downside is that only regular pencil sizes fit (no fat pencils). Other than that, put it on your classroom wish list!