Swordfish 40305 OmniPoint Mechanical Versatile Manual Pencil Sharpener, 8-12 mm - Purple

A great solution to a major frustration! This sharpener is a gentle giant. In the photo attached, the top nine pencils are Stabilo Carb Othello pastel pencils, the bottom six are Conte a Paris pastel pencils. The lovely result acheived, as shown in the photo, is not even the sharpest setting. The Swordfish OmniPoint sharpened both entire sets beautifully, with the exception of one pencil which was defective. It out-performed all the expensive hand sharpeners I have, and did far better than any blade I've tried. Despite a lot of practice and care taken, even the blades often break off tips. Yes, I did try the blades with these two sets before the Swordfish arrived in the mail. It left all other types in the dust! Hurrah! A sharpener that really really works well on PASTEL PENCILS. So happy.Helpful tip: I sharpen a solid graphite pencil (break off the point if necessary) after sharpening a batch of pastel pencils. Doing so helps clean the cutter and lubricates it, too, helping the cutter blade stay sharp and the sharpener working smoothly. As with most tools, it will benefit from this regular maintenance and will last much longer.

For the first month, it worked well, I work with Carbotello and Faber-Castel pastel pencils. According to the directions, it should be able to sharpen them to a fine point. I followed the directions, but all it made was a dull point, and ate my pencils. I contacted the manufacturer and all they did was referred me to the directions. Now it is too late to return it. Very disappointed. Do not buy this

This swordfish sharpener is the best I have found. It’s easy to operate and it sharpens my pastel pencils perfectly. As with any manual sharpener, it will not last indefinitely due to using pastel pencils in it. I knew this going in, and I am fine with this. It has an excellent auto stop feature so that you do not over sharpen your pencils, and it even has the ability allowing you to choose the sharpness you desire. I would recommend this sharpener to anyone needing a high quality sharpener.

Finally found a sharpener for my soft pastel pencils. no more torn-up outer wood casing or crushed pastel pencil lead. Smooth action. Can hold it well, no need for clamping. Minus rating for clamp feature. If used on a desk front the sharpener is facing the wrong way for ease of use. Perhaps try putting the clamp device on the side?

This sharpener has a small learning curve, but is easy to use once you learn how. It has "teeth" to grip your pencil and keep it from moving, which is helpful to prevent breaks and produce a very sharp point. Prismacolors, which have soft cores and are notoriously prone to breaking, have fared very well with this sharpener, in my experience.My greatest complaint is that the sharpener does not always cease to sharpen when the point has been achieved, so you have to exercise some restraint with the crank, especially if you have pricy pencils. I oversharpened a few new Prismas because of this. Don't rely on the sharpener to tell you when to stop; you will soon learn with a bit of practice.Another complaint, though minor, is that even with the desk clamp and the anti-slip padding, it does move around a little while in use. You may have to hold it down sometimes to make it easier to turn the crank. Since the pencil is secure, this won't cause any breakage.

I bought this because I absolutely love the smaller Swordfish pencil sharpener for sharpening my pastel pencils and thought I could use this one for the larger Conte a Paris pencils. It did not work out at all. I know the Conte a Paris pencils are softer, but I have success sharpening them with a small manual twist sharpener, so I thought it might work. Nope. Broke every single tip off.

This sharpener was recommended to me by an artist. I now have a sharpener that can handle any pencil type, even problematic Prismacolor and soft pastel pencils. You can adjust for the sharpness of the point. I don't usually sharpen pastel pencils to a very sharp point, but all other types of pencils, including oversized do great. And I've only broken one tip in many sharpenings. And it's a great price compared to other brands.Highly recommended.

Wouldn't it be nice to find a sharpen for pastel pencils that actually works and doesn't dull immediately? I'm sick of using a blade to whittle. I had high hopes for this sharpener as it came highly recommended by another pastel artist. And it worked great the first 15 times but then quickly dulled and won't sharpen - not even regular graphite pencils now. Wasted $25.