Comments on: Kum Automatic Longpoint Sharpener

By: earlnavy

earlnavy — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 04:07:52 +0000

I experienced the very same problem with mine, too. I think the name “Automatic” means that it automatically breaks the lead. A fall from grace.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:53:58 +0000

Nice blog!

Typo fella.
“The Kum Automatic Longpoint Sharpener (Automatic Langkonus Spitzer in German) is definitely *known* on the net.”

By: Owner

Owner — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 14:31:03 +0000

I am writing in response to John C’s comments about the Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener. It is true that some of the pencil sharpeners that were sold had plastic gears. As soon as I realized this flaw, I contacted my supplier to correct this weakness. Since then, my Classroom Friendly Sharpeners all have the durable steel gears. This has corrected the problem and extended the life of the sharpener indefinitely. I apologize to you John C, and any other customer that may have received a faulty gear. Please email me your address so that I can send you the replacement gears for your sharpeners. I stand by this sharpener as one of the best on the market.
Kindest regards.

By: Eisen 402 » Bleistift

Eisen 402 » Bleistift — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 08:07:11 +0000

[...] can find a review of the Kum Automatic Longpoint Sharpener at pencil talk. Lexikaliker has a review of Möbius+Ruppert’s grenade (Google Translation). I [...]

By: memm

memm — Tue, 11 May 2010 09:24:58 +0000

Thanks for that, I’ll try that.

By: James

James — Tue, 11 May 2010 00:45:26 +0000

I’m not sure what hardness is of the Arkansas stone I have. I bought it many years ago at a hardware store that is no longer around. Yes, you can hold that blade in your hand and get the angle right. You just have to get the “feel” of full contact when it’s on the stone (just tip the blade back and forth a few times to get that feel). I have also made a contraption for holding the blade at the proper angle, but frankly, the job is done so quickly that it’s not worth the fuss of using gadgets. Just a few passes on the angled and flat sides and you’re in business!

By: memm

memm — Mon, 10 May 2010 09:41:39 +0000

What kind of grid do you need for that, a stone in the hundreds like for a knife or something in the thousands like for a razor? My guess would be something in the high hundreds. Do you hold the tiny blade with your hands? I imagine it would be difficult to get the angle right.

By: James

James — Sat, 08 May 2010 16:50:57 +0000

Thanks for the tip Seamus. I took the second blade out of my KUM sharpener and gave it the treatment you described, except I used my trusty old Arkansas stone and some oil. It worked very well and took very little time considering the benefit. The sharpener now easily puts a very sharp point on softer pencils such as H or HB. Harder leads like 8H are a horse of an entirely different wheelbase though. For those I’ll stick with my old standbys, the X-acto electric, and emery cloth. It’s a lot messier, and more work, but when you’re done you have a needle sharp point ready for some serious work.

By: Seamus

Seamus — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:27:25 +0000

The KUM Automatic Longpoint Sharpener is still my all time favorite sharpener with that one concern of the blades dulling after about 200 or so sharpenings. But dear friends do not lament so sadly as this is one of those sharpeners with the easiest of all fixes. You can remove the blade and hone it and it will work even better than when you first bought it. Yes those little 15/16″ blades are slightly convex, and really tiny, but it’s still easy peasey to hone them. If you’ve ever sharpened or honed a pocket knife or kitchen knife then you already know how to do it. If not it’s easy and cheap to do it and it’ll only take a couple minutes. The cheapest way to hone your blades is to get yourself a scrap piece of leather and impregnate the flesh side with a little bit of that jewelers rouge you can find at any Home Despot or Waly’s Mart type store in the Dremel tool section, it’ll set you back around two bucks. Swipe the angled edge a few times and then swipe the back flat a few times and look at that your sharpener blade is sharper than when you first got your sharpener.

I have three KUM Automatic Longpoint Sharpeners and as soon as I received each one I removed the blades and honed them and now even many of the most difficult pencils and leads sharpen up easy. Oh and if you do strip out the threads on your sharpener you can put a very small dab of crazy glue or 5 minute epoxy in the hole, insert your screw and your good to go. If you ever need to remove the screw again just take it slow and easy and screw gently in and out until the glue releases its hold. The trick is using an almost microscopic dab of glue as it will give the screw enough strength but it won’t be so much to glue it in place permanently.

By: penciladmin

penciladmin — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:57:38 +0000

John, thanks for that detailed summary. I hope it can benefit other teachers – it sounds like there is a serious need for a good heavy-duty wall-mount sharpener.

Alex, I looked up the Variabel on Google, and found that very sharpener listed in the 1971 Alvin catalogue, with the same name, at leadholder.com! It is a classic. I should get one.

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 15:07:23 +0000

for all who look for the perfect sharpener, for me Ive found the solution DUX Variabel in solid heavy brass

By: John C.

John C. — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 18:26:24 +0000

My Classroom Friendly sharpeners (I have 4) do not have all metal gears and that is, IMHO, their design weakness. The rotating gear is metal but the stationary gear is plastic. I had 3 of these all year (2008-2009 school year) in my high school classroom (130 9th grade math students) and they worked great for the first half of the year. But one-by-one each sharpener had a plastic tooth on the stationary gears break off. The sharpeners still function, but they have lost their delightful “smoothness” (they have a hitch in their giddy-up) and they don’t produce as clean of a point. They break a lot of leads now whereas before they almost never broke any. A replacement gear is not available. I looked for and found a similar design with all metal gears by Kikkerland (Amazon.com) but the two I bought as test units have a moderate in one case, and severe in the other case, tendency to sharpen unevenly (where one side of the point still has wood on it). They are wall mountable and not really made to be portable (the opposite of the Clasroom Friendly’s). I installed one and stored the second :-(. The Classroom Friendly’s were the perfect sharpener but I can’t recommend them because of the plastic gear issue. An adult could probably use one a lot longer but teens are very tough on everything…teachers, sharpeners, you name it :-). Anyway, I am still looking for the perfect sharpener, until then the manual black Bostitch wall mounted (MSR1) is still my workhorse.