The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch

First - a customer service announcement. Clare is taking richly-deserved time off. The UK office was closed from 3-7 August and will be again from 24-28 August. No orders will be despatched during these weeks. By all means order away, and everything will go out on the Monday following. I (Stu) will be monitoring email and social from the mountain hideaway - so any problems, yell.

Now then, the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. (HHGOA)

From memory, these were released in February, and I have finally got hold of one in August - so this is hardly a hot-take.

Regrettably, it’s not actually called the Holy Hand-Grenade of Antioch, it’s called the Blackwing One Step Long Point Sharpener. Wow! It must have taken ages to come up with that catchy moniker.

Reviews have been mixed. Brad @penaddict got a duff one. One of our first buyers did too. To their credit, Blackwing and their distributor replaced both quickly and efficiently.

What do I think?

Wait for it…

Does it demonstrably sharpen pencils better than other sharpeners? No. Not really.

Is it superb value for money? No.

Is it beautifully made, flawless in design and manufacture? Nope.

I like it.

Look, I like Field Notes, which aren’t demonstrably better than other notebooks, nor superb value for money either.

The HHGOA sharpens my pencils and looks pretty cool. So, I like it.

If it’s excellent sharpeners at an astonishing price, that you’re after, then don’t tell anybody I told you, but go here.

20 for £12.99! And they do an excellent job.

Back to the hand grenade. It’s made of aluminium, with a black coating. I’m certain that it will chip and and mark swiftly and definitively. Time in my pencil case will batter it. To my taste, the wear will improve the looks. A bit of faux-vintage, if you will…

The curved blade produces the much-desired concave point, which is shorter than I’m used to from my older two-step long point sharpeners. I have had no quality issues with it at all. It sharpens well and easily.

Fancy one? Buy it here - or you will be able to, once we have more stock. 😳