Coloured pencil-sharpener

[Bert]

This may be the wrong forum, but here goes. Why can't you sharpen a coloured pencil with a pencil sharpener? I remember seeing a box of coloured pencils years ago that warned against trying it. If you do try it, as I did, the point just keeps on breaking off. The blade must be pretty sharp if it can slice through the wood of the pencil. When you buy coloured pencils they look as though they have been sharpened with a pencil sharpener.

[Ice.Maiden]

Eh? I sharpen all my son's coloured pencils with one, and there's no problem. The only time the points break, is if you try and take the wood too low.

[wildwood]

You are supposed to use a sharpener that is designed for colouring pencils.

The center of a colouring pencil is softer than a graphite one so needs to be sharpened at 30� instead of the standard 22� giving a stubbier but stronger working point.

If you use a standard sharpener on a colouring pencil an officer from the sharpening police will come and pick you up and stick your head in a giant sharpener designed for shaping the point on a telegraph pole, so don't do it!

[heathfield]

For a sharpener that can handle anything from hard graphite to soft womens makeup pencils, you could invest in one of these.

[Bert]

Thank you, all, especially wildwood. I certainly never knew that the standard angle for a lead pencil was 22�, and that there was a special sharpener with a larger angle for coloured pencils. By the way, I was talking about using the simplest of hand-held pencil sharpeners - not one of those that fixes to a desk and you turn a handle.

[honkytonkman]

I prefer to use a Stanley knife or scalpel. Sharpeners can be a bit rough on the wood.

[Painterpete]

Most sharpeners with a helical blade will work well with coloured pencils - those are the sharpeners which have a grinding mechanism inside rather than a small sharp blade which eventually goes blunt. You can get a manual desk top type ( like the old school sharpeners with a handle ) for around �10 and mains sharpeners for up to �80. Some of these are designed specially for Coloured pencils and sharpen to a long point with litlle breakage. Softer pencils will break more easily than the harder ones - Derwent Artists and Studio are no problem, Derwent Coloursoft will be more likely to break.
If you get jamming in a helical sharpener, run a graphite pencil through it to lubricate the cutters and to remove excess wax build up.
A cheap pencil sharpener with a blade will work well while the blade is new and sharp, but as soon as it starts to go blunt, it will stress the pencil point and be more likely to break it as the blade is cutting sideways across the grain of the wood and the grain of the colour core.