If you have kids then you have pencils and unless you invest in
automatic or
mechanical pencils you are going to need a sharpener. Annabelle used to love the
Boston School Pro pencil sharpener until she inserted one of her prized Hallo Kitty pencils and it chewed it to bits. Now she braves the dark steps that lead to the basement and makes her way over to the wood mounted, old school Hunt pencil sharpener. What makes this an awesome thing to have? Lets put it this way, if it is a pencil that is wood cased, this thing will sharpen it. I can even use this for the larger expensive art pencils that I have that can't be sharpened by hand because they are too thick for standard hand held ones.
Hunt Manual 8 Hole Pencil Sharpener
Made of metal and intended to be mounted to wood, this is a slightly updated version of the old school sharpeners that most schools had. You would line up in the morning, slide your pencil in and turn until you got a nice point. The only thing that has changed is the adjustment wheels along the side. Instead of it having one prong, there are two. This means you do need to be a little coordinated to press the prongs in and turn the wheel to pick out the correct sized hole. Why are there so many holes? Because there are so many different sized pencils on the market. The only size this will not sharpen are those humongous 20 inch novelty pencils that are, honestly, too large to write with in the first place.
Sharpening a pencil with this is easy. Pick out the size that best suits your pencil, insert and turn the handle. There is a possibility of over sharpening if you have a kid that really gets into it but that sort of fascination doesn't usually last all that long. The body of the sharpener detaches by turning it and pulling it off; this is so that you can empty it once it is full. It is helpful to turn the handle a few times to knock shavings loose and you can also give it a little tap on the top to do the same thing so you don't end up with shavings all over the place. When you empty it make sure you aren't standing right over it as there can be a lot of dust that comes out of it.
The blades are manufactured by
X-Acto Light Duty Knife, one of the leading names in cutting tools. They are 'forever sharp' as they grind against each other and self sharpen as it is used. Hey, that's what the lady said at the homeschool supply store said and so far we have never had to remove these and take them to get blades sharpened anywhere. Mounting this to a wood surface isn't hard not is it complicated. Place the base where you want it, drill in the screws and you are good to go. Make sure that you leave enough elbow room so when you are sharpening you aren’t going to bump into things. This can be mounted horizontally or vertically depending on your needs. If you need to move it at any point in time just remove the screws and repeat the fastening process.
What does a baby like this cost? I purchased this at a local homeschool supply store for $11.00 and it's been worth every penny. This has been in use for five years and has been mounted and moved at least six times with no problem. It did go missing for a few months when we moved but it's now in the basement ready to go to work whenever it is needed. There are a lot of sharpeners like this on the market so if you are looking for this exact model, make sure it has the Hunt name on the side of the box. Cutter pieces are also available if you need them but after five years old solid use I can tell you this, if we haven't worn them out or dulled them yet, chances are that you won't have to buy replacements for it either.
The Bottom Line
Some friends were in the basement helping me move a freezer and started laughing about the sharpener mounted to the work bench. "We had one of those when I was a kid". Exactly. Something like this doesn't really evolve or change that much because the design of it is simple but highly effective. Likewise, it is something that is going to last for years and years without ever needing maintenance beyond emptying the chamber and occasionally using the Shop-Vac on the blades.
As always, thanks for the visit…
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2007 Freak369
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