Here’s how you sharpen a pencil with a knife: Grab the knife in your dominant hand and hold it between your thumb and index finger. Learn more... Perhaps one of your friends has mentioned that they prefer to sharpen pencils with a knife. Be conscious of anyone around you. Method 2: How to Sharpen a Pencil with a Knife wikiHow is where trusted research and expert knowledge come together. However, unlike a handheld pencil sharpener, you can easily re-sharpen a knife (or in the case of box cutters, snap off the used piece of the blade) and bring it back to being as good as new. A knife is the most versatile method of sharpening a pencil. This article has been viewed 129,969 times. There are several brands on the market. ️ How to Sharpen a Pencil With a Knife (for Drawing) - YouTube I prefer the Box cutter knife with a retractable blade because it’s very sharp and easy to grip. Be extremely careful. The strips of wood should be thin enough to ribbon or curl as they separate from the pencil. Scissors can also be applied, just repeat the same moves as ruler requires but with scissors’ sharp edges. If your pencil is not sharpened yet, use the conventional pencil sharpener to start the process, this gives you a point to work with already. Don’t ever push or pull the blade towards your fingers. By using our site, you agree to our. Hold the pencil by your dominant hand and hold the knife or scissor by your non-dominant hand. If you use a normal manual pencil sharpener it tends to crack the lead. The pencil tip points away from the user as well as the sharp edge of the knife. How long does it take to sharpen a pencil with a knife? If a pencil point is sharpened in a pencil sharpener the ultra-sharp lead makes grooves or pierces the paper, which makes erasure difficult. Utility Knife: A knife is required to sharpen the charcoal pencil. A bowl for shavings To begin, using your dominant hand, take the craft knife and rest the BLUNT of the blade against the thumb – you need to hold the knife … 8 replies on “Hand Sharpened Pencils: Guest Post.” Don’t worry as much about precision and consistency with carpenter’s pencils. Learning how to sharpen a pencil without a pencil sharpener is very dangerous, so safety first. Cap your newly sharpened pencils. At no extra cost to the customer, a portion of the sale goes to support the channel. Sharpening a Pencil With a Knife Hold the pencil right. Make movements directed away from yourself, rotating the blade a little, creating an arched movement. Similar in appearance to lead and graphite pencils, this type of drawing medium is made by enclosing compressed charcoal within a jack of wood. All you need to do is insert your pencil inside the hole, apply a little pressure on it and the sharpener will do the rest. Supplies. In your weak hand, place the pencil towards the base of your fingers and wrap them around to secure it in place. All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published. If you’re going to learn, remember to be safe! Use your knife hand to maintain a consistent blade angle. Dan Pencil sharpeners don’t sharpen pencils correctly. Press the bottom of the knife’s blade (the thickest part) against the honing steel and, working at a 15-20 degree angle, pull the knife down and towards you. Sharpening a pencil with a knife is a useful and even artistic skill, but it’s not necessarily easy to master. Once you hit the graphite core, you can begin shaping the lead to your desired shape. Have fun! Shave away small pieces bit by bit and rotate the colored pencils while doing so. Already having a separation between the wood and graphite will make for easier sharpening. Dont face the blade toward any part of your body while sharpening the pencil! Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 129,969 times. Take care and remember to dispose of blades responsibly. The lead also has a tendency to break off. Grab the pencil with the other. It’s one of the favorite art supplies for those looking to save a lot of time. The alternative to pencil sharpeners is to use a knife with a replaceable blade. Sharpen with a craft knife. It must also be said that the twisting action of a pencil sharpener can break brittle lead, where a knife will not as the scraping action is gentle. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. Both the wood and the graphite core are thicker than in other pencils, and they can handle some variability in your stroke. Tools you need: Utility Knife. In fact, I bought a knife over the weekend that is designed specifically for sharpening pencils. With the edge of the knife facing the charcoal tip of the pencil, place your non-dominant hand’s thumb on the non-sharp edge. Among artists, the most popular is the X-acto precision knife, with a perfectly sharp razor blade. Make sure they know you are holding something sharp. The electrical sharpeners are not too bad but there are two problems with them. Whether you plan on drawing on a smooth or very coarse surface, you can use this dry art medium to leave light or dark markings. 2- … AFMAT Artist Pencil Sharpener, Long Point Pencil Sharpener,Charcoal Pencil Sharpener for Artists, Manual Pencil Sharpener for Art Pencils/Drawing/Sketching Pencils(f6-8.2mm), Adjustable Points 8/10 We have selected this product as being #6 in Best Knife For Sharpening Pencils of 2021 It shouldn't take longer than 5-10 minutes. Do not face the blade or knife towards your body and do not force these tools too much and unnecessarily over the pencil. Make sure to use the knife away from your body. Hold the pencil with your non-dominant hand, and place the razor blade or utility knife on top of the pencil. Construct the Base Unit. We know ads can be annoying, but they’re what allow us to make all of wikiHow available for free. Make sure you cut away from yourself and preferably over a bin. If you really can’t stand to see another ad again, then please consider supporting our work with a contribution to wikiHow. Knife sharpening a cheap pencil is like having a saw get stuck in a piece of wood, the effort and frustration are the same. You can go completely old school and use a sharp rock, too! "Article was informative; language terse. Cut away from yourself, be aware of the positioning of your fingers, and go very slowly. Use a utility knife to remove wood starting roughly ¾ inch from the end you want to sharpen. 1- A knife- You can sharpen it with this! Hold the pencil near the point firmly in your hand. Knife-sharpened pencils offer more variability in terms of the shape and utility of the pencil’s tip. The knife usually gets used for sharpening watercolour pencils, where I may well need to use the pigment for … Use a utility knife to remove wood starting roughly ¾ inch from the end you want to sharpen. Use your non-dominant hand to grab the pencil, and your dominant hand must handle the knife. Hold the drawing pencil near the end, around 1 ½ inches. There are many options to sharpen Pastel Pencils, a craft knife and sand paper is pretty good. Gently peel the wood with the blade, such that you reveal a thinning cone of wood. Done correctly, a hand sharpened pencil will rival or surpass any machine sharpened writing instrument, but it has to be done correctly to achieve top results and be accomplished safely. Typically the action is to take the knife in your dominant hand, the pencil in your other. Use both thumbs to push on the back of the blade if you need to. Please help us continue to provide you with our trusted how-to guides and videos for free by whitelisting wikiHow on your ad blocker. The higher the graphite rating, the harder the graphite core, and the lighter the mark made by a pencil applied with a constant pressure. Use your knife hand to maintain a consistent blade angle. The knife is used to remove the wood from the pencil. Even if you’ve never carved anything before, you can safely learn to sharpen a pencil with a knife. You Do It! Love it.". Either way, sharpening pencils with a knife is not only especially practical, it is an art in itself. With softer leads try cutting smaller bits at a time to prevent breaking. At one end of the piece of wood that serves as the base, drill a hole using … Don’t ever pull the blade towards your body. Using a knife to sharpen your pencil. In fact, if you sharpen a carpenter’s pencil often enough using a utility knife, you can get pretty good at it, and create a decent marking lead with minimal waste and time. wikiHow's Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/5\/56\/Sharpen-a-Pencil-With-a-Knife-Step-1-Version-2.jpg\/v4-460px-Sharpen-a-Pencil-With-a-Knife-Step-1-Version-2.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/5\/56\/Sharpen-a-Pencil-With-a-Knife-Step-1-Version-2.jpg\/aid10766-v4-728px-Sharpen-a-Pencil-With-a-Knife-Step-1-Version-2.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"