Abstract: The present invention relates to a pencil sharpener designed to be used in sharpening pencils having an elongated cross section such as, for example, elliptical or rectangular. The sharpener includes four cutters which are disposed in the casing thereof in facing pairs with one pair of blades being perpendicular to the other pair. Gearing is provided to allow all of the blades to rotate simultaneously and at the same speed.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is an improved pencil sharpener specifically designed to sharpen the end of a carpenter's pencil. As is well known, a carpenter's pencil has a substantially rectangular cross-section and as such can not be sharpened in a conventional pencil sharpener since conventional pencil sharpeners are designed to be used to sharpen pencils of circular cross-section. The inventive pencil sharpener is able to sharpen a carpenter's pencil by virtue of four cutter heads each of which having a cross-section subtending only a portion of the circumference of a circle and interconnected through gearing so that opposed cutter heads engage the pencil surface while the other cutter heads are spaced away from the pencil surfaces. As the first mentioned cutter heads move away from the pencil surface, the latter mentioned cutter heads rotate into position engaging the pencil surface so that a carpenter's pencil with a rectangular cross-section may be sharpened.