Classroom Friendly (Left,) vs. Uni KH-20
I’ve been focusing on pencils in the month of October, and recently realized I’ve never reviewed either of my favorite two desktop pencil sharpeners: the Classroom Friendly Sharpener and Uni KH-20 Hand Crank Sharpener. Let’s break down each of these popular sharpeners, and see which one I prefer.
I’m looking for one thing with any pencil sharpener: a long point. That goes for hand-held and desktop sharpeners both. Not sure what the difference is? One image says it all:
The Dixon Ticonderoga (top,) is on the extreme end of the “short” scale.
The short point, top, is how many types of pre-sharpened pencils arrive. I knew there were sharpeners out there that offered a deeper sharpening, but what I didn’t know is that a long point sharpener was a thing. Once I found out, and shopped accordingly, I’ll never go back to a short or medium point wooden pencil. Long point only for me.
Both the Classroom Friendly and Uni KH-20 provide the point I’m looking for, with only slight differences between the two. Yes, I’ll go ahead and tell you up front that I rate these two sharpeners closely, but one does see more action than the other at the end of the day.
Classroom Friendly, top.
The Classroom Friendly sharpener blade provides a slight concave shape on the tip. If you look closely, you can see a slight swoop starting from where the barrel paint ends through the end of the graphite point. In comparison, the Uni KH-20 blade finishes its sharpen cycle with a straight line from paint to tip.
I’d say the very tip of the core is also sharper from the Classroom Friendly. That’s not always a positive. With softer graphite you’ll find that part of the tip crumble as soon as it hits the page. That’s not a huge issue since you are wearing down the tip the moment the pencil hits the page, but I don’t see that one first use from the Uni sharpener.
Every Other Facet, the new Alt-J song.
There are almost no negatives with they way either of these sharpeners do their job, with on visible exception: the teeth of the Classroom Friendly sharpener bite into the barrel. This is an annoyance, but it is fixable. I use washi tape to buffer the area where it clamps onto the pencil barrel to prevent the bite markers. Other have recommended products like Blu Tack adhesive to smooth out the teeth in a more permanent way.
Metal teeth!
Washi tape as protection. Is there anything it can’t do?
Other differences involve construction - the Classroom Friendly uses a mostly metal exterior, which the KH-20 is mostly plastic. Both have a large capacity slide-out shavings bin. The KH-20 does have a blunt tip setting that the Classroom Friendly doesn’t have, which is great if you use color pencils that don’t require the ultimate in stabbiness.
Blunt tip from the KH-20 for color pencils.
In the extras department, the KH-20 comes in three colors, while the Classroom Friendly has seven. The Classroom Friendly also ships with a clamp to mount the sharpener to a table or other surface.
At $25 for a single sharpener (plus discounts starting with three or more,) the Classroom Friendly checks in at $7 less than the $32 Uni KH-20 sharpner. The Classroom Friendly also offers a replacement blade ($15) if you ever need it, which Uni doesn’t offer for the KH-20 as best as I can tell.
In this battle between sharpeners, there needs to be a winner. There is no wrong choice for quality, but I reach for one of these sharpeners over the other about 80% of the time, and that’s the Uni KH-20. Why? It’s rock solid, quiet, and consistent. And I do use the blunt tip setting on occasion for color pencils, although I admit that’s not a deal-breaker. The bite marks on the barrel are my biggest hangup with the Classroom Friendly, and while fixable, the point it provides isn’t worth the extra fidgety-ness most of the time.
I will say I am glad to have them both at arms reach, and after many years of ownership, neither seems to be slowing down.
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