Generally speaking, technology improves a particular product or device. Consider telephones, airplanes or even pens for that matter.
The anomaly to this truism must be the pencil sharpener. After years of informal testing and research (as a graphic designer I use wooden/graphite pencils on a daily basis), I have to insist that the best form of pencil sharpener is the good, old-fashioned, screwed into the wall, hand-cranked beast which was probably invented in the 1800s or 1900s.
Electric pencil sharpeners, be they the plugged-in or battery operated kind, too often break the pencil lead so often that sharpening does nothing more effective than grind through the entire pencil.
Thank you for validating this Mr. Graphic Designer! I have suspected as much since grade school when I was first able to compare different pencil sharpening options side-by-side, and frankly the simple single blade sharpeners and the electric sharpeners simple DO NOT compare.
In the case of this planetary sharpener, I feel like the key to the success is that you can really feel (via the pencil and the crank handle and then through your hands) the tip of the pencil being sharpened and you know exactly when it’s perfect.
Excellent observation! Take that iPhone, I don’t see you with a pencil sharpening app!
@ Conall,
And leave it to the Product Designer to precisely describe the specific advantage of the old-fashioned pencil sharpener: the ability to feel the sharpness of the pencil through the tension in the crank shaft. Cheers for that!
Now you’ve done it….some engineering type out there is going to “modernize” this old fashioned pencil sharpener by applying some sort of motor to the crank handle along with a sensor that will then determine the optimum sharpness of the pencil.
Just you wait….