My New Favorite Pencil Sharpener

Usually, I sharpen pencils as needed, a few at a time, and don’t think much about it. But this morning I sat staring at 9 dozen brand new pencils I needed for a workshop I’m teaching. I found myself procrastinating this simple task all week, just due to the sheer number of them. But once I got going, I was completely surprised by how quick and easy it actually was, so I had to share this!

I’ve had this iPoint Ball Sharpener by Westcott on my desk for the last year or two (mostly because it’s cute, and red – my favorite color) but I never fully appreciated its awesomeness until today! I was able to quickly sharpen over 100 pencils in just a few minutes, resulting in perfect uniform points with no breakage, overheating, or leads getting stuck in the blades.

I should add that this sharpener is not for sharpening colored pencils, which are too soft for this type of sharpener and will bind up and break every time. A small handheld sharpener is best for those! But for sharpening your standard No.2 graphite pencils, this little sharpener is a clear winner!

Small, inexpensive (and super cute), the iPoint Ball Sharpener runs on 4 AA batteries, making it easily portable. It’s lightweight, so you’ll need to hang onto it with one hand, while holding your pencil in the other. (I found it easiest to hold the sharpener sideways when doing lots of consecutive sharpening.) It sharpens a new pencil from unsharpened to a perfect point in just 3 seconds, so I was able to sharpen all 108 pencils in less than ten minutes, including emptying the shavings receptacle after each dozen.

As with most things I procrastinate about, it was best to just dive in and begin! If you have a big sharpening job looming with Back to School, I highly recommend the iPoint Ball Sharpener by Westcott.

(By the way…. this is not a sponsored post. I’m using Amazon affiliate links, but I wasn’t paid or otherwise compensated for this review… just sharing a product I love!)

Question: What Back to School tasks have you been procrastinating and what solutions have helped you get unstuck??