Of course the very first pencil sharpeners were knives and blades, but the first patent for a tool especially for sharpening pencils was made by Bernard Lassimone, a French mathematician, in 1828. It looked something like this:
This isn’t Lassimone’s sharpener but it is similar.
However the first mechanical pencil sharpener was invented by Therry des Estwaux, also from France in 1847. It looked something like this:
The Marion pencil sharpener
Now there are sharpeners with revolving handles, and even battery operated electric sharpeners, but I like the simple wooden ones like this:
Simple is best
