Pencil sharpener review

These are excellent sharpeners. If you get one Robert go for rge round one. I have an oblong and a round and I also have funny fingers , the round one is easier to grip. Paddy yhe guy who sells them is lovely. http://www.topcolorsharpeners.com Just r itterating the website that Thomas posted .

Syd has a sharper pen-knife than mine: mine was my father's - and pre-war. I think it's probably been sharpened once too often, and now would have trouble cutting through the skin of a mandarin orange. So, I have today bought one of the deluxe sharpeners - in for a penny, I thought (with startling originality of mind) in for a pound - and await its arrival. I've also bought, and have received, a Staedtler clutch pencil, and its dedicated sharpener (which you can't use with any other brand: very cunning). It's a marvellous implement - with a pack of 2mm Mars carbon leads; Mars pencils are my favourite brand, and while they MAY be a little more expensive than others, they're worth it. Try the 8B - very black, waxy, and not at all shiny, which is what makes most brands of very soft pencils so unpleasant to use. (Pleased to see our spammer gone, and banned from the site: Dawn has swooped into action like the avenging eagle she really is.)

Excellent service - my pencil sharpener arrived today, reassuringly heavy, with adjustments for different lead lengths, three spare blades, and a rather handsome little leather carrying case. Top Colour Sharpeners, as stated above. No more carefully achieving a point with the knife, only to slip and break it ....

Thomas - I've used it on a Mars Lumograph 8B pencil, on which (great pencil though it is) I've never really succeeded in getting a sharp point before, and it is utterly, superbly, supremely, fantastic: as you can doubtless tell, I'm delighted with it. It cuts through the wood like butter without mangling the lead or splintering the wood. This is going to make all the difference to my drawing, because I've not been able to handle a knife properly for some time and had huge trouble getting sharp points on a length of usable, cylindrical lead. So thanks indeed for pointing us to Paddy Usher Smith. You paint an interesting picture of yourself .... I don't get stopped and searched, but carrying a pen-knife in public is a bit of a risk these days, even if one doesn't look like the local axe-murderer ... you don't really look that fiendish from a photo I remember you posted of yourself; but then it was only head and shoulders.....

Yes, (in relation to knives) it's the ones that lock that get you taken in for further questioning. (My then 85 year old mother had her nail scissors confiscated when she took a flight - she took it in her stride, but I was furious - what did they think she was going to do, rip down the cockpit door and snip at him?) And yes again, the different settings enable you to get the length of point you require - I wouldn't worry though if yours just gives you one lead length (I wonder why that sounds vaguely obscene.... once a dirty young man, always a dirty old man..): if that's all you want, and your sharpener gives you the result you're after, well you've got your ideal implement. Being greedy, I just wanted the extras; and I was fascinated to discover how it would work. It's so well crafted that it's a pleasure to use. The memory being wobbly, I can't recall exactly how much I paid, but it was under £15 - and for that, I've got a high quality product, that has given me the ideal result - it really isn't often you can say that these days; well worth it - I'm now scouring the flat, looking for pencils to sharpen.... I have hundreds of 'em, so may need a new blade slightly earlier than you did. I mentioned elsewhere/earlier that I've also bought a Staedtler HB clutch pencil, with its own sharpener and a pack of spare Mars Lumograph leads: well if I can't draw now, I'll never be able to - it's another excellent product (German, it has to be said, like our brass sharpeners) and I can sharpen it to a needle point, and still sweep around objects with it in broad strokes. I've been drawing like a thing possessed over the last couple of days. In short, do not despise your sub-de luxe model sharpener - mine just gives you a few more options, but you've still got a great little product which will serve you well for many years to come. You can always persuade someone to buy you the other model as a treat for your birthday (or loom over them, threateningly, of course...). I think the lesson of all this for me is this: there are always cheaper options, and sometimes we frankly have no choice other than to take them, but if you can buy the best you soon discover it's a false economy not to buy it. There are exceptions - some synthetic brushes are, I believe, as good as a fine sable, for example: but there aren't many - cheap canvas is invariably a big mistake; cheap paper, or anyway the cheapest, ditto; and cheap paint is a bit like disabling your painting hand and using the other one; you're handicapping yourself for no good reason.

I think I will invest in one of these brass sharpeners. My Derwent Pastel sharpener does well for pastel pencils, but I need something better for watercolour pencils etc. However, can anyone recommend an electric sharpener? When I go to my weekly life class, I seem seem to spend a fair amount of time sharpening and not drawing. So I am looking for a quicker option.