Walmart Art Supply Review: Casemate 2-in-1 Sharpener

Casemate 2-in-1 Pencil Sharpener

  • According to the box, it sharpens No. 2 and jumbo pencils and crayons.
  • Casemate is a registered trademark of Walmart.

The pickings were pretty slim at my Walmart for hand operated pencil sharpeners.  I didn't want something mechanical, as those tend to chew up pencils rather than sharpen them, so I grabbed the cheaper of the two hand sharpeners they had in stock.  I had some doubts about it's potential performance, but for under a dollar, I figured it wasn't too big a loss.

The Packaging

Like almost everything in my Walmart review, the Casemate 2-in-1 Sharpener comes blister packed in a plastic and cardboard package.



Casemate makes no grand promises- simply states that this sharpener will sharpen No. 2 and jumbo pencils/crayons.  

The Sharpener







The plastic feels cheap and flimsy, but that doesn't really matter so long as the blades are sharp.  This is not a pencil sharpener designed for color pencils, so be careful when sharpening those as the leads have a tendency to break off in any sharpener not designed for them. 

The bottom pinches off to release the shavings, which is a little different from most hand sharpeners, where the top is removable.  The top not coming off may be an issue, as it'll be harder to remove broken leads from the blades.

The Field Test


 I use color pencils (mainly Prismacolors, these days) for my warmup and cooldown sketches, so I had plenty of opportunities to put the Casemate 2-in-1 Sharpener through it's paces, at least for No. 2 pencils.  I don't have any jumbo pencils or crayons, so I was not able to test that sharpener.  My apologies.








So I used my Casemate 2-in-1 sharpener for a couple weeks, instead of the other sharpeners I have around the apartment, and I found that the Casemate does a better job of sharpening fickle Prismacolor color pencils than most sharpeners I own.  The only real issue is that the Casemate 2 in 1 sharpener is prone to jamming, and since you can't take the sharpening end off, you can't clear the jam.  Even using a sharp object to try and scrap away the built up pencil shavings doesn't do much to clear the jams.

The Verdict

Although it eventually did jam and I couldn't clear it, I easily got my 49 cents out of this little sharpener.  Although it feels cheap, it never exploded shavings all over my bag, and the razor was nice and sharp, and did a great job of sharpening even finicky Prismacolor pencils, which are notorious for having brittle, sometimes even pre-broken lead inside the wooden casing.  For a cheap sharpener, I highly recommend the Casemate 2-in-1 Sharpener from Walmart.

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