For the longest time, I've been looking for a travel friendly pencil sharpener that produced a nice long point like the electric sharpener I have at my desk. I've had to rely on clunky, messy, battery operated sharpeners or this piece of crap:
I hate those stock sharpeners so much that I just carry several pre-sharpened pencils with me or just stick to mechanical pencils when I'm on the go. For years I searched for a long point sharpener at brick and mortar art supply stores with no luck. It finally dawned on me to search online, and BEHOLD I've found the answer: the Kum Automatic Long Point
They're fairly cheap, easy to use, and travel well.
First off, here's the kind of point you get from a stock manual sharpener:
It's fat and won't last very long.
To sharpen a pencil using the long point sharpener, sharpen the pencil in hole 1 to remove the wood from the lead. You wind up with a rod of lead which is useful by itself for loose broad sketching or shading.
Then sharpen the pencil again in hole 2. This refines the lead rod into a desirable long point.
Here we have pencils sharpened with (from left to right): stock, kum long point, and an electric sharpener.
The Kum comes in a smidge shy of being as nice as an electric, but it's astronomically better than your standard manual sharpener.
Some folks complain about the stage 2 sharpener breaking their point off, but I have yet to have this happen. I've used the Kum for about 6 months now without issue.
Enjoy!
4 comments:
I bought one of those a few years ago ago and it's great! Although the lid hinge wore out and I somehow snapped off one of those rounded orange parts on the front, it's still hanging in there!
I picked one up after reading this. I really like it. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for the recommendation. I might have to check it out. I recently discovered flat lead art mechanical pencils for drawing. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Art-Mechanical-Pencil-For-Drawing-/130667896680?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e6c69df68
They work almost like a regular pencil but require no sharpening. I have been in love with it.
PS. Love your work.
Somehow I missed these comments when they posted originally.
Mike: Great to hear that they can take a beating!
Jason: Glad I could help. I find this baby indispensable for drawing on the go. No longer have to carry numerous pre-sharpened pencils with me.
Jeanie: No prob. Hope it finds a home in your arsenal. I'm totally picking up the flat lead mechanical pencil. I had no idea they existed. Thank YOU for the tip. Checked out your blog. Amazing work!
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