Soft lead sharpener with pivotable profile knife

A sharpener for sharpening a pencil and lead thereof, comprising:

• a sharpener housing defining a conical sharpener channel;
• a sharpening knife disposed in said sharpener housing and tangentially entering said conical sharpener channel;
• and
• a shape-cutting knife mounted on a rotating shaft in said sharpener housing to permit swiveling into a conical end tip of the conical sharpener channel, the shaft extending transverse to an axis of said conical sharpener channel;
• said rotating shaft having a manually operable member to allow movement of said shape-cutting knife into and out of engagement with said lead of said pencil when inserted into said conical sharpener channel;
• and
• said shape-cutting knife having an arc-shaped cutting edge for shaping of a front end section of the lead.

A double sharpener for sharpening pencils and leads thereof, comprising:

• a sharpener housing defining coaxially extending first and second conical sharpener channels having conical tip portions opposing one another;
• first and second sharpening knives disposed in said sharpener housing and respectively tangentially entering said first and second conical sharpener channels;
• and
• first and second shape-cutting knives mounted on a common rotating shaft in said sharpener housing to permit swiveling into respective ones of said conical tip portions of the first and second conical sharpener channels, the shaft extending transverse to an axis of said conical sharpener channels and between said conical tip portions;
• said rotating shaft having a manually operable member to allow movement of said first and second shape-cutting knives into and out of engagement with said leads of said pencils when inserted into respective ones of said first and second conical sharpener channels;
• and
• said shape-cutting knives each having an arc-shaped cutting edge for shaping of a front end section of the lead.