The best sharpener for colored pencils. I used prismacolors primarily and I use erasable prismas for daily sketching and laying down ground work for finished pieces. Considering soft lead you need a very sharp blade to get them sharp with out snapping off ten million very expensive pencil tips.
It's got a huge storage compartment for pencil crud, which is awesome cause you don't actually need to shave off that much to get a very nice point with this thing. I'm sure I'll sharpen like fifty pencils before I have to empty that thing. Probably. This does mean it's a bit large.
Totally worth it if you're a colored pencil user. Hopefully it lasts a good long time.

This sharpener is AWESOME! I kept breaking my lead every time I sharpened my Prismacolor colored pencils when using a cheapy sharpener, i I was blowing thru them rather quickly. Not only was it so frustrating but I couldn't get a sharp point to color the intricate designs. I asked the community on this page which gave me some insight on choosing an electrical sharpener or the small oval sharpener. I am so very glad I went with this one, I've only had it one night and i I couldn't wait to come post my review. What a difference a good sharpener makes! I really thought all were the same, I now realize how very wrong I was. Maybe an electric is good too as suggested, but I really like this one. I'm not an artist but I can't imagine any sharpener could do this good if job, but I'll test that eventually. This sharpener is good size (a little bigger then my hand) Great quality and as described, has two sharpening holes. One for a thinner, sharper point for intricate work, the other for a wider point for shading. It has a lid which I will never underestimate the importance of again after constantly spilling my shavings on my with my old sharper, it's important!. The lid snaps shut for easy transport, top pulls off for cleaning. Both sides are super sharp and I w using my pencils (Prismacolor of course) for well over 4 hours, I haven't had a single pencil not come out perfect. So much so that I am no longer frustrated and can enjoy these awesome pencils once again. I ordered the 132 piece set tonight (shhh don't tell my husband, he thinks I am too old to color...you are never too old to color. Overall this is thee best pencil sharpener I've ever used and you'll be glad you did, I'm now enjoying my coloring again. All sharpeners are not created equal, thank you Prismacolor!

Love this sharpener! The blades are super sharp and I have no waste to any of my pencils. I use Prismacolor pencils and I can't afford any breakage or waste, with this sharpener, I have no worry! It only sharpens the thinner pencils but has 2 sharpening choices. One will give your pencil a super sharp point to get those hard to reach areas and the other will sharpen it more bluntly. There is a resivoir to hold the shavings so no mess and it's easy to empty, there is also a cap on the top to cover the holes to prevent accidents. No little fingers getting cut. Well worth the money, a great sharpener!

After reading the reviews here I almost didn't purchase this sharpener.
I went on to look at other sharpeners instead but found more of the same in regard to negative reviews.
So I came back to this one, and it arrived this morning.
It's great!
Let's address those 1 star reviews:
In regard to build/construction quality - I'm sorry, but it's not the manufacturer's fault that you're a ham-fisted oaf. I'm a big guy with very large hands and sometimes have troubles with small &/or delicate objects. No problems with this though. Opened easily, closes well and stays shut. Easy to empty too. I've sharpened about 15 pencils with it today - & NO BROKEN CORES!
Which brings us to the "it breaks the leads" complainers. Yes, if you jam a pencil into the hole and start cranking away at it you're definitely going to get broken pigment cores with torn up wood. Learn how to sharpen a pencil (see previous ham-fisted oaf comment). Remove the pencil from your dominant hand, place it in your non-dominant hand and grip it firmly with the pointy end toward your dominant hand. Use your dominant hand to hold the sharpener with its open end (the end with the holes in it!) and gently )yet firmly) place the pencil in the sharpener. While holding the pencil steady gently rotate the sharpener instead of twisting the pencil. Don't forget to apply a bit of pressure on the sharpener (toward the pencil!). Watch as pretty long curls of wood appear in the chamber. Remove pencil to find it is now even more pointy than before!
........
Man, what a condescending jerk, eh?
Seriously, it seems it's much easier to just point fingers and lay blame than it is to have a little patience &/or accept accountability for your own failings.
Would I recommend this item? Absolutely.
(I'd also recommend buying some better quality pencils too).
Would I buy it again? The only reason I can think of that I would need to is that it will probably be more of a pain in the neck (and possibly ridiculously expensive) to track down replacement blades when these eventually get dull than it would be to simply buy a new sharpener - so yes, I would.

Only real complaint? Pencils come out almost too sharp - but really that's on me. 100% user error.

I believe this is a good pencil sharpener for the price, and it sharpens my Prismacolors very well. As a general rule, I prefer manual pencil sharpeners that have a small compartment to hold the shavings. The blades were sharp, and I could tell by the long and even shavings I got when I sharpened my colored pencils. I just recently purchased this sharpener, so I cannot testify to how long the blades will maintain their sharpness. It is a small compartment to hold the pencil shavings so don't expect to sharpen more than 6 or 7 pencils before having to empty it. Also, it is plastic but I have not had any issues with breakage up to this point.

I notice a couple of reviewers mentioning breakage of the leads in their pencils. To my knowledge, and experience, Prismacolors (only colored pencils I have used) are wax based and extremely fragile. You can drop one and literally break the lead inside. When I have a lead break, I place the pencil in the sun for a few minutes (it's wax and will melt) so the lead can adhere back together again. If you keep having lead breaks the pencil just may be defective, but again they are fragile. I also sharpen my pencils by twisting the sharpener, and not the pencil.

Not that anyone needed my thoughts or advice on color-pencil lead breakage; but, I just thought I would throw that out there for anyone who wanted to know.