Pencil sharpener

Sharp instruments are important.

-Determines the line thicknesses and the marks you make.

There is no perfect sharpener that will last forever.

-Cheap sharpeners work until they get blunt. 

-Expensive sharpeners work until they get blunt.

Handheld sharpeners:

-Some experts on sharpeners (?!) insist that better made sharpeners angle the pencil in a certain way within the sharpener, but also agree that eventually the blade gets blunt.

-There is a correct way to sharpen: Rotate the sharpener in your dominant hand around the stationery pencil.  This does not feel intuitive.

Hand cranking sharpeners: 

-Some say this will destroy pencils.

-Some swear by it.

-They all say the lead (pigment) in colour pencils is different and will jam up pencil sharpeners so you have to grind a whole graphite pencil through to clean and lubricate it. 

Electric sharpeners:

-Again, some say this will destroy pencils. Some say it won't.

-Some amazing model of electric sharpener that used to be made by Derwent isn't sold anymore.

-They're battery powered. 

-Same problem above of waxy buildup from colour pencils

So after all this.. 

I bought a cuttle little switchblade from Daiso. It was cheap (AUD$2.80). It came with 5 replacement blades.  The biggest reason I use this is I'm cheap and can't stand "wasting" pigment that's been sharpened off.  

Pros:

• They work! You know those pencils that you sharpen and sharpen and just when you think it's nice and sharp, the tip completely falls off. You know that frustration?  Well, all those pencils that were driving me crazy and sharpened to an inch of length but were still broken, are now finally sharp and usable!
• You can conserve pigment by just cutting off the wood and not the pigment.  They don't look as nice and smooth and pretty as when they came out of the boxes.
• You can sharpen ANYTHING: pencils, crayons, charcoal, graphite..
• They are multi-purpose: you can cut open boxes, you can cut hightlights out of watercolour pictures.
• You can determine the shape of the tip: flat and wide, chiselled, pointed. Sand paper to make them sharp.  A steep point = breakage = FRUSTRATION.  A short point = less breakage but, more sharpening.  Having said this, there are some art schools which teach students to desire and extra long lead point.