Manual Pencil Sharpener Review & Giveaway

manual pencil sharpener review

How We Learned About “The Best Sharpener Ever”

This school year, my friend Rickee, a homeschooling mom, and talented and certified art teacher has been so gracious —not to mention extremely generous— to host a weekly art class at her house for a few children. Naturally, the moms get to join as well, as it’s usually the case with us homeschooling families.  Rickee introduced us to “the best sharpener ever”, as she calls it, from ClassroomFriendlySupplies.com. Nora, another one of the moms, and I instantly wanted to get a hold of one of these little gems.

I quickly went to the website to buy one, excited that our pencil-sharpening woes had come to an end. I found out I could apply for a free sharpener in exchange for my review. I applied immediately, and my approval returned only a few minutes later. Talk about quick customer service!

 

What We Received

Super Hero and I received the “Hello Yellow” manual pencil sharpener from ClassroomFriendlySupplies.com for free. In return, I agreed to post our thorough and honest review.

best manual pencil sharpener review

 

Using the Manual Pencil Sharpener

We’ve been using Hello Yellow for the last month, and we will definitely continue to use it forever!  Super Hero prefers to write with a pencil rather than with a pen, so we have to sharpen them often. We’ve tried a slew of little sharpeners, big sharpeners, electrical sharpeners, and everything in between. Most do work well for a while, but inevitably, they lose their charms.  Some sooner, others later, but lose them nonetheless.

Does that sound familiar to you? If so, you, too, might want to give this precious little pencil sharpener a try.  We live happy pencil-sharpening times these days. But the most telling testimonial is certainly Rickee’s. She’s had it around for years, at her classroom when she was teaching, and now at her homeschool.  She recommends it to almost every teacher and homeschooler she knows. Heck, she’s even given “the best sharpener ever” as birthday gifts!  Wow, she must really like love it!  Make sure to watch the video so you can see her raving about it, and giving us a few good sharpening tips. 😉

 

What’s Our Opinion About “The Best Sharpener Ever”?

We couldn’t be more pleased with this lovely pencil sharpener. First, the funky design gives it a hip look. And as you can see in the vendor’s photo, with so many eye-catching colors, the tough part is to pick only one. Each has a cool name:  Precious Pink, Groovy Green, Firehouse Red, Cool Blue, Midnight Black, Popular Purple, and Hello Yellow, whom you’ve already met.

Both, Super Hero and I, prefer to use it clamped to the edge of the table. it’s much easier to manipulate this way, it allows you to pinch the pencil gripper and to turn the crack with much ease. I suppose very young children would require help clasping the pencil in, but a child older than, say, 6, would do so effortlessly.

I love Hello Yellow is a mechanical sharpener, no electricity, no batteries needed. We still have an electrical pencil sharpener, but we were rarely using it anymore.  Aside from a loud roar, it’s a needy fella. It demands a ton of pressure pushing down the pencil to do its job. And it never produced quite the fine tips Hello Yellow does. Impossible to push in short pencils, which Super Hero loves. For those, we would need to use the regular, run of the mill pencil sharpeners.  Actually, we were using those all the time before Hello Yellow. None of them was sharpening anymore either.  Their blades had all become totally dull.

Well, Hello Yellow’s an expert sharpening both, long and short, little pencils. Its clasp doesn’t need pulling all the way back. As long as there’s at least half an inch or so gap, Hello Yellow has no trouble sharpening away.  Now, thick pencils are another story. Those will not fit in the hole at all.  Thus “the best sharpener ever” becomes “the best standard-size pencil sharpener ever.”

Hello Yellow is quick, sometimes just two or three turns of the crank get it done!  It produces a long, fine point each and every time. Since we’ve been using Hello Yellow, we have not had a broken end, except only once! Broken tips were a daily occurrence before, but it’s good not to have them around anymore.

We tried it with color pencils, too.  Rickee had warned us, “the best sharpener ever” is not really meant for color pencils because they have a much softer lead, not suitable for this type of sharpener.  We did go ahead a tried sharpening a couple since we wanted to include our experience in this review.  Sure enough, the lead got stuck inside. Thankfully, Rickee had also warned us how to get the sharpener unstuck should it happen:  “Just take a regular pencil, push it in with a bit of extra pressure while turning the crank, and the offending lead should get sharpened out.”  Indeed, that’s exactly what Super Hero did. He cleared it in no time. No tweezers, no banging, no aggravation. Perfect!

In a Nutshell
  • Open and Go!
  • Easy Prep
  • Kid Approved
  • Fun
  • Quality
  • Pedagogy
5

Bottom Line

We love this pencil sharpener. I love it’s manual, no messing with batteries or wires and plugs. I love it sharpens effortlessly, really! I love that it delivers a perfect pointy tip every time.

If you’re frustrated with dull, noisy, ineffective pencil sharpeners at your homeschool, you have to give this one a try!

 

Vlog

 

Can’t Wait to Own “The Best Sharpener Ever”?

Now, you got the chance! ClassroomFriendlySupplies.com is generously offering one of our lucky readers their very own manual pencil sharpener. This giveaway is open to residents of the US only. It will end March 31, 2017.  Enter now, the more your entries, the more your chances!


 

Disclaimer

I received a free copy of this product from ClassroomFriendlySupplies.com in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions are my own or those of my family (and friends.) I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Pin It on Pinterest