Sharpen Your Pencils

Whether you sharpen your pencils with a handheld or electric sharpener, it is best to use gentle pressure. The harder you jam the pencil into the sharpener, the more likely you are to break the lead.

HANDHELD SHARPENING

If you use a handheld pencil sharpener, hold the pencil either horizontally or verti- cally. Hold the sharpener in your other hand and insert the pointed end of the pen- cil into the sharpener. Do your best to keep the pencil straight in the sharpener. If your sharpener is in good shape, the wood pencil shaving will come off in a long, unbroken ribbon. If, instead, the wood shavings are coming apart as you sharpen, it’s time to buy a new sharpener.

ELECTRIC SHARPENING

You have less control over the sharpening process with an electric sharpener. You push the pencil in and hope for the best. But, when they work, electric sharpeners are fast and cut a nice, clean point. Buy an electric sharpener that is easy to open and clean. The grooves where the grinding happens inside the sharpener will get clogged with the waxy colored- pencil lead. If you sharpen a graphite pencil every now and then, the grease from the graphite may help to clean and clear the blades. But if the build-up is bad, you’ll need to clean out the grooves.

WHAT IF THE LEAD KEEPS BREAKING?

Do your pencils keep breaking as you sharpen them? Check if the sharpener is dull. Dropping pencils on a hard surface, like a floor, is another possible cause of broken lead. Even if you never drop your pencils, you can’t know whether or not, between the factory and you, the pencils have been dropped. If you are working with wax-based colored pencils, you can warm them in hope of fusing breaks together. On Prismacolor’s website, they recommend “setting the pencils in a warm, sunny spot for a few minutes, which can soften the wax-based colored pencils.”

You might find suggestions online for putting colored pencils in the microwave on low for a few seconds, possibly with a cup of water, or in an oven set on low. We have not tried any of these suggestions, but if your pencil is unusable because you can’t get it sharp, you might want to try one of these warming methods.