A pencil sharpener (also referred to as a parer or topper in Ireland) is a device for sharpening a pencil's writing point by shaving away its worn surface. Pencil sharpeners may be operated manually or by an electric motor.

Specialized pencil sharpeners

Carpenter's flat pencil sharpene Specialized sharpeners are available that operate on non-standard sizes of pencil, such as the large art pencils used in primary schools. Sharpeners that have two holes, one for normal pencils and one for larger art pencils are still fairly common. Some mechanical sharpeners have a large hole with a rotating disk in front of it that has several holes of different sizes.

An artist's or draftsman's pencil sharpener leaves the graphite untouched and sharpens only the wood. (Some models can switch from standard to wood-only by an adjustment.) The graphite lead is then honed to a razor point with a lead pointer which sharpens only the lead without wood. Lead pointers are also used with mechanical leadholders which have removable/refillable leads.

Sharpeners of similar design for use on wax crayons are also available, and sometimes included in boxes of crayons. These often have plastic blades for the softer wax.

Carpenters may use carpenter pencils, the shape of which stops them from rolling away, while still providing a constant line width. These pencils were traditionally sharpened with tools conveniently to hand, such as a plane or sandpaper. Rotating pencil sharpeners are now available for these too, where a rotating plastic collar holds the pencil in position.

Because mechanical pencils dispense the graphite stick progressively during use, they do not require sharpening. Such pencils are sometimes called "self-sharpening". But prolonged writing often causes the graphite stick to become lopsided and dull. Specialized versions of pencil sharpener, known as graphite pointers, may be used by drafters and other mechanical pencil users who need constantly sharp points

Pencil sharpener, a pencil tool, can be molded into shapes. Series production of high quality plastic pencil sharpener, stylish compact, can be done using the display.