Customer Reviews

Royal P60 Electric Pencil Sharpener 29342C

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I bought this unit for my wife - she hates the old hand crank sharpener in our basement. This unit works great - My 4 year old grandson and I sharpened a dozen pencils for her in just a couple of minutes -its very attractive on her desk - I bought it because it has a pencil holder built in and the different pencil size adjustment - Granted we only sharpen a few pencils a month and I can see how it might not work in a school setting where someone sharpens a dozen a day but for the home office this is sweet.

I have now bought two of these sharpeners at Sams club and both of them broke after 6 months of use. Granted we homeschool so they both got lots of use everyday, but I was very disappointed and frustrated to have my second one break on me. They work good for a while, but the insides are very fragile and do not hold up over time. We will be going to another brand.

I use pencils all day long and sharpening is important to me.
I must first say that my unit did not function properly. When the pencil was inserted, I had to wiggle the pencil around in order to get it to start. That was unacceptable and I had to return it to Amazon (which was absolutely no problem. I Love Amazons return policy).
I will point out a couple of things that I noticed that turned me off as well.
The yellow wheel on the front that is used to set the pencil diameter is difficult to turn. Not finger friendly. Also, in the image it looks like the storage compartment is deep. It is not. The pencils that are in the picture must be at least 1/3 there original size. When sharpening, occasionally the blades grab the pencil and the unit starts to turn, requiring your second hand to hold the unit. When doing this, it is easy to dislodge the shavings container, thus stopping the sharpener.

I purchased a different model (X-Acto 1744 Heavy-duty electric pencil sharpener, black, 1 Unit. It is perfect. It is WAY more powerful and sharpens a pencil to a perfect point.

I am returning this after 3 pencils. There is absolutely NO WAY this could last in a school setting and was frustrating in a home one. It takes a long time to sharpen and you have to apply force. (Both are bad news for a school setting.) It then sharpened one side of two of the pencils and not the other. I am sure the company would blame the pencil. I have had battery operated ones work better than this one.

I guess I'll have to sock big money into one that will finally work and last. :(

This is a great sharpener! It is quick and quiet BUT it does not stop automatically when the pencil is sharpened (as stated on the package) and it can be messy to empty. I purchased mine from SAMs Club also for about $16.00, so this is either a really inflated price or I got an excellent deal (Hint: come down a bit with the price Amazon to be more competitive)! Otherwise, there is a red light that lets you know when the pencil is sharp - which happens within seconds. I keep mine in my classroom, so it really gets a workout. I have had it now for about a month. Some of the other teachers on my floor saw it, borrowed it and then ran out to SAMs Club and cleaned out their supply! So, for $16.00 it is, in a word, WONDERFUL!

BOUGHT THIS AT SAMS CLUB FOR $16.00 BUT THIS IS A GREAT SHARPENER. WORKS FOR ADULT PENCILS AND FAT PENCILS THAT MY KIDS USE. CREATES A SHARP POINT. IT ALSO HAS A LIGHT ON SIDE (KIDS LOVE THIS) THAT TELLS YOU WHEN YOUR PENCIL IS DONE SO NO OVER SHARPENING!

I bought this sharpener for my daughter, who loves sharp pencils. It looked great; lightweight, compact design and upright sharpening position, but it just doesn't work. Position of the pencil is crucial to activating the sharpener, and doing so is very awkward. As other reviewers have noted, it grabs at the pencil and begins to rotate around the pencil. My daughter took our old heavy electric sharpener off to school, and loved it.

Not recommended.

I use Prismacolor pencils for artwork, and I need a sharpener that won't break the leads. My optimum price point was around $20. My first electric sharpener was a Westcott Titanium iPoint for about $12. It seemed to work okay, but like many cheaper, non-helix blade sharpeners, it's basically rotating a hand sharpener for you, and the result is the same as using a hand sharpener. The single-blade hand sharpener shaves slivers of wood in a circular path around the end of the pencil. From my experience with hand sharpeners and knives, the angle of the blade and its sharpness must be very well controlled, and the wood should have a constant density with the 'grain' of the wood perpendicular to the length of the blade for an optimum, smooth cut. When the grain is against the blade or the wood is knotty or riddled with density changes, it won't cut smoothly, and it causes the blade to jerk its way through. This results in a relatively ragged cut with some smooth shavings and some sharp splinter-like cuts. (I've included a photo of the pencil shavings from the iPoint and the Royal P60 for reference.) Any jerking of the blade can cause breakage of soft-leaded pencils, and colored pencils are the softest, and most expensive to waste.
The helix-bladed sharpeners rotate a small cylinder of helical-shaped blades around the pencil. It's the same principal as the crank-operated sharpeners used in public schools, but motorized. This cylinder not only rotates around the pencil, but also rotates as it circles the pencil. The effect is the same as if you were rotating both the blades and the pencil at the same time. Only a small area of any particular blade is in contact with the wood resulting in a more efficient gnawing away of the wood, and the resulting shavings are smaller and more uniform in size and shape. It is also a faster process. There is very little 'shock' to the lead from 'blade jerking', so less breakage. All of the more expensive sharpeners use one or two helical sets of blades.
I can't believe the number of references to this sharpener as having a sharpness indicator light And stopping when the point is sharp. The indicator is there as a reference to let you know the point is probably sharpened. As you insert the pencil into the sharpener, the pencil hits a small lip of plastic that acts as a switch to turn on the motor. Inserting further puts the pencil in contact with the blades. The indicator light merely lets you know that the tip of the pencil has reached a certain point that usually means the tip is sharp. You have to pull the pencil out to stop the motor at that time. I've read complaints that some of the sharpeners that shut off the motor when the point is supposedly sharp may do it prematurely. I myself have experienced this sharpener indicating the point is sharp when in fact the tip broke off inside. When the tip breaks off inside you should partially insert the pencil again until the motor starts to spin, and wait a few seconds for the broken tip to work its way out. Then insert the pencil all the way to try again.
If your pencils seem to be breaking a lot, you may be forcing the pencil in too quickly. As I said, you have to allow time for a single blade or helical blade to rotate completely around the tip as you're pushing the pencil in. Or it could be that you have a bad batch of cheap pencils or the pencils have suffered internal breakage due to the shock of being bounced around or dropped during shipping. For wax pencils, you can compensate for this by placing them in a microwave oven for several seconds or in the stove for a few minutes to melt the lead back together. Some suggest freezing the pencils before you sharpen them, but that's probably overdoing it.
Most of the helical blade sharpeners that I've looked at say somewhere in the documentation that you shouldn't sharpen crayons or wax lead pencils, which I assume means colored pencils, because the waxy material will clog up the blades. This is mentioned as a problem by other artists also. The solution seems to be to sharpen cheap regular pencils often to keep the blades clear of waxy contamination.
Thus far this one seems to work much better than the iPoint, but I have to remember to push the pencil in slowly so the helical blade has time to move around the tip for an even sharpening. I have no complaints.

I purchased this pencil sharpener before the start of the 2010-2011 school year to be used in my sixth grade classroom. I'm glad I didn't spend more than $20 in it because it sure is a hunk of junk. It worked great for the first couple of months but it's on its last leg right now. If the pencil isn't in there "just right" then it won't sharpen. I don't expect an electric sharpener to be quiet by any means, but this one doesn't even come close to quiet. I typically stop talking while a student is sharpening their pencil. It overheats if you sharpen 10+ pencils at once. I like the size of the receptical, but if you take it off to empty the shavings, it should be done over the trash bin since shavings from above it fall below to make a mess. If I were purchasing this for my personal use I would probably be able to put up with it but since it's for a classroom full of kids I'll spend the money on a bettery quality sharpener.

I am very disappointed with this product. I purchased it at Sam's Club. Worked only 2 months before breaking... It never seemed to have the same "powerful motor" as previous sharpeners I had used by this same company.