Thank you for your report!
We have received your report and it is currently under investigation by a forum moderator.
Pastel pencil sharpener
Welcome to the forum.
Here you can discuss all things art with like-minded artists, join regular painting challenges, ask questions, buy and sell art materials and much more.
Make sure you sign in or register to join the discussions.
Showing page 1 of 2
- 1
- 2
Message
Posted
If I use a sharpener its for wood removal only (I buy cheap plastic ones and replace when dull) as I tend to find pencil sharpeners break the pastel before a good point is achieved so I favour a small retractable snap off stanley knife. I also use this to scrape an edge on my soft pastels when using them for detail.
Posted
Just a word of endorsement for Tony's point - I have one of Paddy's Dux pencil sharpeners, and it's a very high quality product: sold brass, extra blades, and you can order more at any time although I've not yet had to. In general, pencil sharpeners are useless for pastel pencils because the pastel is fragile, and very often the wood encasing them is horrible cross-grained stuff which splits and cracks in all directions, invariably shearing off the pastel. Even the best sharpener will struggle with those, and a cheap one invites the ruination of your entire collection. But if anything can tackle the pastels and coloured pencils, the Dux sharpeners can.
I don't know if Tony's experience would be different, but I did find they struggled with carbon pencils - I'd still use a craft-knife or sharp pen-knife with these, because carbon black can split very easily (and did).
Posted
I recently bought a n electric (Chinese) pencil sharpener to use in my portrait class as I loose a lot of precious time sharpening in the class. The hilarious instructions told me to keep my fingers off the balde and out of the hole. My husband was most offended at this. It caused such a racket in the class, that I had to stop using it there. It does make pencils very sharp though, perhaps better for normal pencils, rather than pastel ones.
Showing page 1 of 2
- 1
- 2