Good Morning Lappa
Baz uses an electric planer blade (Makita ?) in his pencil sharpener. It is aligned parallel to the sides of entrance chamber of the pencil sharpenner.
The exit chamber of the pencil sharpener is the bearing surface for the rotating dowell and is very marginally larger than the diameter of the dowel.
The entry chamber is cone shaped with the cone starting well before the blade. The cone guides the rough dowel towards the blade and also centrallises it in the cutter.
You do not need to start with rounded blanks; we ften use square for smaller dowels and octoganal blanks for larger dowels.
Attachment 464179
Hope this makes sense.
Fair Winds
Graeme