How to Hand Sharpen a Pencil
To many people this post may seem like a joke. I mean seriously, who can’t figure out how to sharpen a pencil. Well, truth be told, like many things that appear simple from the outside, there are tricks to hand sharpening a pencil? In fact, I bought a knife over the weekend that is designed specifically for sharpening pencils.
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. Here’s how to hand sharpen a pencil.
Knife Sharpening a Pencil
Considering the long history of pencils and the relatively short history of pencil sharpeners, it is safe to say more pencils have been sharpened with knives than by any other method. The process below is a tried and true method for top results.
What you will need
- Pencils
- A knife, the sharper the blade the better; use a razor knife or a craft knife if you have one.
- Patience
Technique
The key thing to remember, throughout this entire process, is the old saying “slow is smooth, smooth is fast”.
- Grasp your pencil with the fingers of your non-dominate hand approximately an inch to an inch and a half behind the tip to be sharpened, keeping your thumb free on top.
- Take your knife in your dominate hand in a standard cutting grip.
- Place the blade of your knife at a slight biting angle to your pencil.
- Using pressure from your thumbs only, not your arm, and holding a steady angle, cut as slight a sliver of wood as possible from the end of the pencil.
- Pay close attention to maintaining a steady angle through the entire sharpening process.
- Turn pencil just enough to catch the ridge, made by your last cut, with the blade of the knife and repeat.
- Visually inspect your work often and smooth any uneven areas.
- When you start shaving the pencil, lead work even more gently.
The slower you work and the shallower you make each cut, the smoother and more uniform your finished results will be. Think of this as a form of Zen meditation. It is a journey to perfecting an ancient art.
Note:
Never put any part of your body in front of the knife. Always cut away from yourself and use no more than gentle pressure, from your thumbs, on the back of the blade, when sharpening a pencil. If more pressure is needed, your knife is too dull for the job.
Finishing the Point
What is a pencil without its point? (It’s pointless, har har har) But seriously, the point is by far the most important part of the sharpening process, and here’s how you can hand sharpen the perfect point.
What you will need
To achieve a truly fine point you are going to need:
- Basic Sharpened Pencils
- Fine abrasive sheet (emery cloth or board)
- A strip of Denim (can be cut from old blue jeans)
Technique
The idea here is to remove as little material as possible, while sharpening only the very tip of the graphite itself.
- Hold the pencil in your off (non-dominant) hand.
- In your dominant hand hold your emery as flat as possible
- Gently stroke, the last few millimeters of graphite at an angle slightly steeper than the sharpened angle; stroke to the point, never against it.
- Rotate the pencil slightly after each stroke to keep point rounded and even.
- Visually inspect the tip often and smooth any uneven areas.
- To achieve a needle sharp point, switch to your soft denim and repeat the process above.
well, I know it’s a typo, but I love the idea of “Pay close attention to maintaining a steady angel through the entire sharpening process.” steadying one’s angel while working with a sharp knife . . .
My father taught me to hand-sharpen pencils when I was a small person. It was his preferred method, whether for mundane writing or artistic drawing. He was using pencils well before his country farm life world introduced him to new-fangled things like rotary-grinding sharpeners! I still smile at the lovely sculpted sides of a hand-sharpened pencil, and still enjoy doing it.
Thanks for resurrecting a time-honored, useful, quiet way of contributing to the ways of an artful life.
Thanks for the catch Kate, and for sharing that lovely story.
You’ve described my technique almost exactly – except I usually don’t point the pencisl unless I’m doing really fine details … I prefer to work with blunt-ended pencils – Prismacolour is my brand of choice. One suggestion – while I had no problem envisioning the instructions, including photos of each step might be helpful for anyone new to this technique …
ops – that’s “pencils”, not “pencisl” – in the first line
Thanks for the feedback Sharon! We’ll be adding images in the near future.
Thanks for this! I find this sharpening technique especially useful for drawing. Where did you buy your knife btw? It looks really nice and useful!
Hand Eye Supply in Portland. It’s an AWESOME shop!
I liked your detailed description of sharpening graphite, but doesn’t it need to be done differently for soft wax pencils? They are getting more and more users every day and sharp points are important for them to and they are fragile.
Could you please tell us about your special knife and what makes it special?
I read on the Derwent website that the best way to sharpen the very fragile pastel pencils was with a knife. They market a stand to lay the pencil in.
Mythros