Sharp pencils are important in an art room, right? I'd say so. The problem I've run into is how to consistently keep the pencils sharp. This is the sixth year I've been at Thomas, and I have lost track of how many different electric pencil sharpeners I've had. They all work great for a while, then, without exception, FAIL MISERABLY. I only allow my students to sharpen regular pencils (no colored pencils) and I even have hand-held sharpeners at each table. Nothing has helped.
Two years ago, I thought I had finally found the best sharpener out there. It was very nice X-ACTO sharpener with auto shut-off, a little blue light that came on when the pencil was sharp, and an 8 year warranty. I thought I'd buy two so they got half the use and would last twice as long. Both failed before the end of the year. True to the warranty, X-ACTO has sent me replacements (3 now), but each of these has eventually died as well. One I'm currently using still sharpens well, but makes a sound like a dying animal.
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| The culprit. |
Have any of you ever had much success with electric (or even good hand held) sharpeners? I would love to have something that actually works for multiple years. Is there even such a sharpener out there? The best sharpeners I've ever used are little metal hand-held sharpeners, but I really don't want to deal with the mess from the shavings. Maybe I just need to hire this guy-->
