Pencil Sharpeners

Hey all,

In the last couple weeks I’ve lost more than my fair share of prismacolors to subpar pencil sharpeners- and so has just about everyone else in my studio. I’ve tried a number of portable manual sharpeners, brass sharpeners, etc…but nothing is working.

So, what do all of you use? Anyone have a consistent, tried-and-true solution?

Look forward to hearing responses,
Ben

I remember I had a manual pencil sharpener my Junior year of college… my professor gave me ten bucks and told me to go to staples and by an electric. To really sketch you need to sharpen all the time. A manual breaks the flow.

Electric but not battery. Spend a few bucks, it will be worth it.

Panasonic, hands-down the best, in either battery or plug-in versions. But as Dan said, plug-in is preferred.

Another thought on the Prismas: I’ve found their quality has really slipped over the years; lots of loose “leads”, unbonded to the wood, falling out in big chunks. Frustrating. A work-around for this is to heat them up in the microwave for a VERY short time (start w/5 - 10 seconds, depending on the power of your microwave). It melts the color a bit and helps it bond better to the outer wood layer.

Jacob- I’ve noticed the same thing. Unfortunately, they’ve also started using metallic paint for text and details on the pencils, which means when you try to microwave them the paint sparks and splits open the wood. Really frustrating. Microwaving them for 2 seconds at a time sometimes helps, but most of the time the pencil tip breaks off in the sharpener anyways.

Another thought on the Prismas: I’ve found their quality has really slipped over the years; lots of loose “leads”, unbonded to the wood, falling out in big chunks.

And here I thought it was just my sharpening technique. At least Prismas’ have been consistent over the years; they’ve been like this since I was in school … in 1969 :confused:

Yes. They are the best. It will sharpen the pencil about the dead center of the axis of the lead so you’ll have an even wear of the pencil while you’re sketching.

We’ve all done the pressing the pencil against the side of the to get that perfect sharpened pencil.

Love my classic electric dahle. Pricey, but the apple of my eye.

I stopped using pencils to draw with because my hand and entire arm hurts after a while of sketching with them. Great for shading though. Also thinking of getting tablet cause its easier on the finger, I don’t have to press down as hard just a tap is enough to make a line, I think its amazing product getting it for Christmas. Getting one of these Ben will make life a lot easier. Yes I prefer a traditional sketch but with digital sketches they can be rendered faster on the computer, its just super efficient.