Just a quick note – actually: two.
First: It looks as if Staedtler will release a new sharpener next year. What makes it really interesting is the article number: 501 180. The article number of their current rotary (i.e. hand crank) sharpener starts with 501. …and number 180 is associated with another, very nice product from Staedtler. 
Second: I came across this article: The coloured pencil’s 180th birthday – a Franconian invention used around the world. [1]With such a title I couldn’t resist displaying my Franconian pencil logo again.
Unfortunately the original article is in German, but here’s a link to the Bing translation and to the Google translation. The article talks about Johann Sebastian Staedtler’s coloured pencil breakthrough in 1834.
References
| ↑1 | With such a title I couldn’t resist displaying my Franconian pencil logo again. |
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Oh! Where have you heard about the new sharpener and its article number? A quick Google search for this number pointed me to this retailer who even has an image. Thank you also for the link to the article!
Excellent sleuthing!
Bleisleuthing?
I’ve got it (for the next time you have business cards made):
Dr. Meckel, Stiftsleuth 🙂
Gunther, it started when you posted a picture of the 511 65’s predecessor ( http://www.lexikaliker.de/2014/10/schreib-und-zeichenzubehoer/ ). I then tried to find out more about it, but wasn’t that successful on the web, so in the end I did contact Staedtler and Eisen. Staedtler about the 511 65 BK, which I thought was still on sale in North America because it was on Staedtler Canada’s web site, and Eisen about the 405. That then lead to more discoveries including the 501 180, which makes me very excited. In my imagination it’s going to be the best new thing in stationery since Staedtler released the Wopex – but of course we’ll have to wait until next year to find out.
Sean, there really wasn’t much sleuthing involved. My first Eisen blog post and some other posts involved some sleuthing, but those posts are rare. If anyone is a Stiftsleuth it might be you, the way you uncover those treasures from the pencil archives. I’m just thinking how your business card might look like.
(small font) By appointment to His Pencil Highness, the Count of Faber-Castell
(show posh Faber-Castell logo)
(bigger font) Dr. Malone
(smaller font again) Gentleman pencileer, honourable purveyor of pencil values and master stationery-knowledge venator
(I would have liked nimrod instead of venator, just because nimrod sounds cool, but I think in America it also has the opposite of its original meaning).
Thank you for these details! “That then lead to more discoveries” makes me even more curious 😉
Sean: “Stiftsleuth”is a great neologism 🙂
Many of those discoveries are difficult to put in a blog post, e.g. information linked to some recent offers from Lidl (btw the good stuff is always gone by the time I get there), or that there are two trade fairs going on at the moment (which is why it will take longer for me to find out more about the Eisen 405).
One other interesting thing though: if you look at the picture from the 501 20 link you can see that it has clamps that will damage the pencil, but if you look at the link you posted the 501 180 has rubber clamps. I really don’t like the clamps that will damage the pencil.
I’m new to all this, but in some recent looking around, I found that the Staedtler 501 20 sharpener seems to be a custom-colored Dahle 155 as is Faber Castell’s 1809.
If you look at the sharpeners from the big Franconian pen manufacturers you tend to find sharpeners that look like those of the big Franconian sharpener manufacturers (except the high end stuff, like Graf von Faber-Castell), but also like those of other (non Franconian) sharpener manufacturers.
Some look exactly the same, some look similar. I assume Staedtler and FC focus on pens and buy other stationery, like sharpeners, instead of making them themselves.
Since you mentioned Dahle – One of their an old sharpener that was used as the steering unit in an old German SciFi series ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raumpatrouille_%E2%80%93_Die_phantastischen_Abenteuer_des_Raumschiffes_Orion ).