Not too long ago, my wife picked up a book, David Ree’s How to Sharpen Pencils. Being a curious fellow, I read the book and found the subject matter piqued my interest. A few weeks later, I ordered some pencils and a pencil sharpener recommended by the book. So now, a Carl Angel-5 sharpener sits on my desk and I occasionally keep it busy sharpening.

Turn the crank and the sharpener does the rest…even stopping when the pencil is sufficiently sharp. Since the Angel-5 pulls the pencil into the single burr sharpener itself, there is no need to grasp the pencil at all after it is placed. All you have to do is turn the crank. It’s method is a bit different, as shown in my video below, but so far has produced consistently sharp pencils for me.

For those curious, I am sharpening a General Pencil Company Cedar Pointe #333 in the video, though I frequently use Palomino Blackwing  602 pencils.

One downside is that the hold mechanism consists of three spring-loaded serrated “teeth” that dig into the pencil and leave notches.

This affects nothing aside from the pencil finish.