T'Gaal Sharpener - review, tips
general journal junk
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idealog
A good sharpener is any pencil user's dream.
Pros:
- selection of point types and lengths to suit your work
- inner reservoir to hold shavings
- seems to cause less breakage than other hand-held sharpeners
- easy to hold
- can be found on Amazon in multiple colours, though by different sellers, so pricing can fluctuate depending on who sells it in what colour; but the price I paid for this one was reasonable at $7.32 CAD
- very sturdy for being light-weight and plastic
Cons:
- the resevoir is small, so it would need to be emptied frequently
- the resevoir became clogged up in around the blade area, and it isn't the easiest to get in there to clean out - I had to use a cotton swab to loosen what was stuck up there
I once came upon the tip that one should turn the sharpener around the pencil, rather than turning the pencil inside the sharpener, when it comes to using the hand-held type; as this apparently causes far less breakage. I was never able to manage it easily, so finding a decent sharpener, rather than going the sandpaper route, was always a thing for me. I quite like this one, and the tip choices; as the lower number tips will lead to less tip breakage, but still offer a nice point. You also still have the option of the pencil version of a rigger brush with point 5, if you need something long and thin and need to get into a tight area.
On the note of pencil breakage, I'm sure you're aware of the issues with Prismacolor Premiers, so I won't go into that; but will tell you that my own personal fix is a hair dryer - and I'm guessing you could use a heat tool also. Lay the pencils down somewhere they won't get blown around much by the dryer, and blow-dry each pencil end to end for at least a minute or so - it doesn't have to be a minute or so for every centimetre of the pencil, but so long as the whole pencil gets heated for a good amount of time, it'll be suffice. I'd rather this method than the microwave option, given the shiny lettering. I've found the hair dryer method works well, and can be repeated if necessary. If a tip does break off in this sharpener, just turn it so the pencil hole is facing down, tap it against something a time or two, and the lead should fall right out.
Also, remember to every once in a while sharpen a regular graphite pencil with your sharpener, to help clean the blade of the waxes and oils from your pencils.