All of those seem like a lot just to sharpen a pencil! I found a nearly new, 1950's Boston pencil sharpener at an antique shop in Wabash, Indiana (which, incidentally, was the first electrically lighted town in the USA. I mounted that pencil sharpener to the wall in my workshop and tried it out on a few Ticonderoga #2s. So smooth and a perfect point! I'll never use my razor knife for that again!