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denisejhoward
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Most people don’t give a second thought to pencil sharpeners, especially now in this all-digital era. If you’re “of a certain age”, you remember when every schoolroom had a hand-cranked one mounted somewhere, every back-to-school supply list included a little hand-held one, preferably with a reservoir to capture the shavings, and every home had at least one in a drawer to service the pencils by the telephone. They were ubiquitous.
Two types of sharpeners: helical vs. blade
For an artist using pencils, sharpeners are so important that one of the questions I’m frequently asked is “What’s the best pencil sharpener?” I don’t have a good answer for that, since models come and go almost as frequently as athletic shoes. But there is a best type of sharpener: ones with a helical mechanism.
Helical sharpeners contain a cartridge of cylinders that have spiral grooves. The pencil is inserted in the center of the cartridge, and the cartridge rotates around the pencil so the cylinders grind away little bits. This is how those hand-cranked school sharpeners work. They seem to last forever, stand up to heavy use, and do a consistently great job. Some can be adjusted to vary the length of the pencil tip. Some accommodate pencils of various diameters. Some have a “stop” that holds the pencil centered for you and stops sharpening when the stop is reached. Some are hand-cranked, some are electric. After 15 years of heavy use, I’ve yet to need to replace the cartridge in either of my helical sharpeners. I recommend helical sharpeners as much as possible.
These wonderful helical sharpeners are too cumbersome to carry around, though, so there’s still a big market for cheap blade sharpeners. These are typically hand-held, and have a simple blade inside that shaves a peel of wood off the pencil as you turn it. Manufacturers can make them for a few cents, and often give them as freebies at events. The quality of the blade inside determines how long it’ll be useful. Some go dull very quickly, others last awhile. They’re made to be used and discarded. If you’ve ever shaved a face or legs regularly, think of how quickly those razor blades go dull. The same applies to the little blade in your sharpener! And the more heavily it’s used, the faster it goes dull. For colored pencils, we’re sharpening very often, so that’s fast, indeed.
The warning signs
Which brings me to the point (no pun intended) of this post: how can you tell when it’s high time to replace your sharpener? When it starts chewing instead of shaving. A picture’s worth a thousand words:
Left: Sharpened with dull blade. Right: Sharpened with new blade.
The pencil on the left is dull because I didn’t dare stick it back in the sharpener after I noticed what it had done the last time it went in there! Just to confirm that this wasn’t due to a flaw in the pencil wood, I tried another pencil, and it came out even worse:
So chewed up by the dull blade!
Another symptom: When it frequently breaks tips. When the blade is dull, it can’t cut effectively, there’s more resistance from the wood, the wood twists a little and the core tip breaks under the strain, right at the place where it emerges from the wood. Sure enough, I had experienced 3-4 broken tips in only a couple of days. I hadn’t noticed the extra resistance while sharpening because it’s something that developed slowly over time–like that extra five pounds that sneaks onto your middle and then surprises you when you try on last year’s swimsuit!
I replaced the blade, and the pencil on the right shows what a difference it made: the wood is smoothly shaved. I also felt little resistance while sharpening. Like buttah. Here’s a closer look at that lovely fresh point:
Perfectly sharpened by fresh blade.
You may be able to replace just the blade
In case you’re wondering, these were all done by the same sharpener, my little portable battery-powered Xacto sharpener (which has been discontinued–remember what I said about how models come and go?) that I take to all my classes and workshops. I think I paid around $20 for it, so I sure didn’t want to throw it away over a dull blade. So I noticed that the blade was secured with a little Philips screw and a nut, and I found a blade in one of my decent (not a freebie) hand-held sharpeners that was the same size, so I swapped them out. Voilá!
So, if you’re using a cheap little hand-held blade sharpener and your pencil core tips are breaking inside it or the wood is coming out looking chewed, don’t just toss it back in the drawer to torture another future victim. Throw it out and get a new one. It’s a cheap investment to help get the most out of your expensive artist-grade pencils.
Two types of sharpeners: helical vs. blade
For an artist using pencils, sharpeners are so important that one of the questions I’m frequently asked is “What’s the best pencil sharpener?” I don’t have a good answer for that, since models come and go almost as frequently as athletic shoes. But there is a best type of sharpener: ones with a helical mechanism.
Helical sharpeners contain a cartridge of cylinders that have spiral grooves. The pencil is inserted in the center of the cartridge, and the cartridge rotates around the pencil so the cylinders grind away little bits. This is how those hand-cranked school sharpeners work. They seem to last forever, stand up to heavy use, and do a consistently great job. Some can be adjusted to vary the length of the pencil tip. Some accommodate pencils of various diameters. Some have a “stop” that holds the pencil centered for you and stops sharpening when the stop is reached. Some are hand-cranked, some are electric. After 15 years of heavy use, I’ve yet to need to replace the cartridge in either of my helical sharpeners. I recommend helical sharpeners as much as possible.
These wonderful helical sharpeners are too cumbersome to carry around, though, so there’s still a big market for cheap blade sharpeners. These are typically hand-held, and have a simple blade inside that shaves a peel of wood off the pencil as you turn it. Manufacturers can make them for a few cents, and often give them as freebies at events. The quality of the blade inside determines how long it’ll be useful. Some go dull very quickly, others last awhile. They’re made to be used and discarded. If you’ve ever shaved a face or legs regularly, think of how quickly those razor blades go dull. The same applies to the little blade in your sharpener! And the more heavily it’s used, the faster it goes dull. For colored pencils, we’re sharpening very often, so that’s fast, indeed.
The warning signs
Which brings me to the point (no pun intended) of this post: how can you tell when it’s high time to replace your sharpener? When it starts chewing instead of shaving. A picture’s worth a thousand words:
Left: Sharpened with dull blade. Right: Sharpened with new blade.
The pencil on the left is dull because I didn’t dare stick it back in the sharpener after I noticed what it had done the last time it went in there! Just to confirm that this wasn’t due to a flaw in the pencil wood, I tried another pencil, and it came out even worse:
So chewed up by the dull blade!
Another symptom: When it frequently breaks tips. When the blade is dull, it can’t cut effectively, there’s more resistance from the wood, the wood twists a little and the core tip breaks under the strain, right at the place where it emerges from the wood. Sure enough, I had experienced 3-4 broken tips in only a couple of days. I hadn’t noticed the extra resistance while sharpening because it’s something that developed slowly over time–like that extra five pounds that sneaks onto your middle and then surprises you when you try on last year’s swimsuit!
I replaced the blade, and the pencil on the right shows what a difference it made: the wood is smoothly shaved. I also felt little resistance while sharpening. Like buttah. Here’s a closer look at that lovely fresh point:
Perfectly sharpened by fresh blade.
You may be able to replace just the blade
In case you’re wondering, these were all done by the same sharpener, my little portable battery-powered Xacto sharpener (which has been discontinued–remember what I said about how models come and go?) that I take to all my classes and workshops. I think I paid around $20 for it, so I sure didn’t want to throw it away over a dull blade. So I noticed that the blade was secured with a little Philips screw and a nut, and I found a blade in one of my decent (not a freebie) hand-held sharpeners that was the same size, so I swapped them out. Voilá!
So, if you’re using a cheap little hand-held blade sharpener and your pencil core tips are breaking inside it or the wood is coming out looking chewed, don’t just toss it back in the drawer to torture another future victim. Throw it out and get a new one. It’s a cheap investment to help get the most out of your expensive artist-grade pencils.