"Absolutely agree. Recently I bought a X-Acto. What a piece of crap. Hard to sharpen on center unless you're really careful, but then the lead so sharp it can't be used. It's like trying to draw or letter on paper with a needle. So I've gone back to using an old Boston crank thing. What a disappointment in modern technology.What I really am sorry about is that I threw away my old battery powered sharpener, the greatest ever made - the Merz-O-Matic. Years ago I worked in the Detroit area engineering job shops, thousands of us did, and most had Merz-O-Matics. Draw some lines, touch up your lead, draw more lines. Lines were money. You could hear those Merzes all over the room. They were made by a guy named Merz in his garage, and to buy one you went to his house. Maybe later they were sold by Du-All Drafting supplies. Anyway, there were thousands of these things. Why the hell did I throw mine away?That was another time. Of course we all went to cad eventually, mostly AutoCad. But, retired for some twenty years now, I had a pangs of nostalgia and bought a beautiful Neolt drafting table with a Vemco drafting machine. Great stuff, much better than we used in the job shops. Got a nice drawing room office set up now, complete with a Steelcase tanker desk and Steelcase filing cabinets. And then I bought the X-Acto sharpener. I mean come on now, X-Acto has such a name and then make this thing? Guess I'll have to check out the resale shops for a Panasonic."