Pencil sharpeners and paper knives from China

2% duty

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 26 September 2026, other articles of cutlery, heading 8214, carried 2% on goods from China on all three lines: paper knives, letter openers, erasing knives, pencil sharpeners and blades for them; manicure and pedicure sets; and other articles such as cleavers, choppers and mincing knives, with no anti-dumping measure.

Manicure sets are covered in our manicure sets guide, and ordinary kitchen knives in our kitchen knives guide. Electric pencil sharpeners are machines rather than cutlery, so confirm the commodity code for powered models.

Product safety

Sharpeners and letter openers sold to consumers must be safe under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005. Sharpeners sold for school use are handled by children, so the blade must be fixed so it cannot be removed without a tool, and small sharpeners should not be designed or marketed as toys; if they are, the toy safety rules apply to them.

Children's stationery sets that mix sharpeners with crayons or pencils are covered alongside our pencils and crayons guide.

Specifying sharpeners

Specify body material (magnesium alloy, aluminium, plastic), hole sizes for standard and jumbo pencils, blade steel and hardness, blade fixing screw, shavings container, printing or branding, and the pack format. For letter openers and cleavers, specify blade steel, edge and handle material.

Worked duty example

Suppose, purely for illustration, you import 200,000 metal and plastic pencil sharpeners under 8214 10 00 00. At £14,000 free on board and £1,200 to ship and insure, the customs value is £15,200. Pencil sharpeners at 2% pay £304 of duty; VAT is then worked out on value plus duty, £15,504, giving £3,100.80. Of the £3,404.80 paid at import, only the £304 of duty stays a cost for a VAT-registered business. The method is set out in how UK import duty and VAT work.

Inspection checklist

Blade and cut: sharpen a set number of pencils with sampled sharpeners and check the point, the shaving and that leads do not break, and check blade hardness by a Vickers test to ISO 6507-1 against the agreed range.

Fixing and edges: check blades are held by a screw that needs a tool to remove, check the blade does not move in use, and check bodies and containers have no sharp edges or flash.

Finish and packing: check printing and colours against the approved sample, run neutral salt spray to ISO 9227 on metal bodies and blades for the agreed hours, and check packs and barcodes.

What goes wrong

Pencil sharpeners fail on blades, fixing and finish. Blades are blunt or soft so they tear the wood and break leads, blade screws loosen so the blade moves or comes out, metal bodies and blades rust, and hole sizes do not suit the pencils sold alongside them.

Test sharpening and blade hardness on samples, check blade fixing, and salt-spray metal parts. See our quality inspection guide.

Cambridge China Bridge sources pencil sharpeners, letter openers and stationery for brands and retailers, and has no minimum order of its own; the factory's minimum per design applies. See small orders.