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I love to use colored pencils and years ago bought the prismas because everyone on SCS said they were the best. I love the way they color but I am having a hard time with breakage. Everytime I sharpen one it breaks inside and I have to pull the little broken piece out and tenderly try to sharpen it again without breaking. Is it me??? Or do I have a bad set? TIA
Get the Prismacolor sharpener and you'll never have this problem - it's the sharpener, not the pencils (says the voice of experience after reducing some of my favorite pencils down to almost nothing...).
Thank you for the link to the sharpening technique tutorial. Very informative. Never would have thought about the motor heating up affecting it's sharpening a wax lead pencil.
Have Prismacolor pencils and like them but must remember to use them more often.
Although I agree that prismas should be manually sharpened, there is also the problem of breaking. If your tin of pencils/pencil has been dropped, the lead breaks inside. Some people have had luck putting the pencil in the microwave for ten seconds. However, if breaking is a persistent problem, Prisma will replace your set/pencil free of charge.
Thank you everyone and thank you for the sharpening tutorial. I have been using my SU pencil sharpener and gently sharpening. I'm going to try the tip about rotating the sharpener and not the pencil and see if that helps.
I also use an electric sharpener for mine - it's a battery operated one that I got from Staples at back-to-school time for only $5, and it works great. Back when I first learned about colored pencils and OMS (also known as Magic Colored Pencil), I read that if you want to use an electric sharpener, you should find one that has the opening on the top, so you point the pencil straight up and down to sharpen; and you should make sure it has the kind of blades that look like cylinders with grooves around them, not the kind that looks like a manual pencil sharpener on a post.
You should also make sure to sharpen a regular graphite pencil in it every so often to help clean and lubricate the blades, so the wax from the colored pencils doesn't build up on them.
Honestly, if I had tried sharpening my entire set with a manual sharpener, my hand & wrist would have been so sore that I wouldn't have been able to color with them for a week. And I was able to sharpen all of them with the electric sharpener without a single lead breaking.
I keep a "bullet" sharpener on my desk. It is only a few dolllars and they sharpen nicely that way. Learned that from a class with Dina Wakley. I had luck with some of my other sharpeners too, but for the portablity and ease, I like this one.
I found the same thing no matter what type of colored pencils i used and trouble sharpening them. I went to an artists supply store at home ,and they recommended a sharpener that is for colored pencils that artists use. It is made in Germany. I think it was a Staedtler (sp?) product and since then no problem.
I still swear that a good sharpener is the solution, whether it's electric or manual! I haven't had any problems at all since I got the Prismacolor sharpener. I had a similar problem with eyeliner pencils until I got a "higher end" sharpener - no more broken eyeliner pencils, either! Test a couple until you find one that works for you, I would suggest...
Prismacolor pencils
