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| Three hand-crank sharpeners. The one on the right does not accommodate my favorite colored pencils. |
When a pencil costs more than $4 each, you can bet I want
to use it all the way down to its shortest stub. At some point, a pencil gets
so short that it’s difficult to hold. Until I found a pencil extender that
would accommodate my favorite Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelles, I simply
stopped using them at the point of discomfort. Of course, I kept all the
semi-stubs, waiting for the day when I would find an extender that fits.
Thankfully, I finally did – it’s made by Derwent.
The second issue with pencil stubs, however, is that they
eventually become too short to sharpen with a sharpener. My electric Bostitch Quiet Sharp 6, which is my fastest and most efficient for sharpening those
Museum Aquarelles, has a long tunnel before the pencil reaches the blade, so a
pencil must be at least 3 inches long.
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| The Uni KH-20 can sharpen a Museum Aquarelle all the way down to the end cap. |
That’s the point where my latest sharpeners come in. I just
reviewed two hand cranks, the Uni KH-20 hand crank and the Carl Ein,
over at the Well-Appointed Desk, so please go read the review for all
the details. One thing I didn’t mention there because I didn’t know it yet is
that both the Uni and the Carl Ein can take pencils as short as 2 inches. Now I
can use either hand crank (I prefer the red Uni only for esthetic reasons) to
get my Museum Aquarelles an inch shorter. And yes, both hand cranks accommodate
them!
When they are shorter than 2 inches, my Museum stubs require
an M+R brass portable hand sharpener to get them a bit shorter. After
that, it’s a knife.
A practical person might look at this progression of
sharpeners and suggest: Why not use the M+R brass at any length? Wouldn’t one
sharpener be simpler than four? Certainly. But what’s the geeky fun in that?
Four sharpeners (as if I have only four!) are better than
one.
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| Top: the shortest stub I can sharpen with my electric Bostitch. |
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| The Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle and the Derwent extender were made for each other! |
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| Plenty of life left in this little stub. |
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| A few other sharpeners. |
This is fantastic. I love using the tiny stubs of pencils, and actually find myself slowing my usage once I get them down to the perfect shortness, just because I don't want to use it up. These sharpeners sound nice, I loved your review at the Well Appointed Desk!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lucas! Glad you are enjoying the reviews.
DeleteYou can also make a "Frankenstein's pencil" by using a pencil recycler (as linked). I reckon they're best done when reached the Steinbeck stage.
ReplyDelete