Right

Wrong

Keep your pencil and sharpener in a straight line.

Don't tilt, push, wedge or "stir" your pencil in the sharpener.

Clean your sharpener from graphite grease with Q-tips, toothpicks or another wood-cased pencil.

Don't try to clean your sharpener's blades with a paper clip, compass tip a knife or biro.

Allow your watercolour pencils (water-soluble pencils) to dry completely before you sharpen them.

If you don't let your watercolour pencils (water-soluble pencils) dry before sharpening the lead may crack or break.

Always keep your sharpener in dry places.

The quality of your sharpener's blades will suffer from humid storage conditions (danger of corrosion!) as humidity will corrode the blades.

Empty the canister of your sharpener in time.

Your sharpener's canister will be blocked if you do not empty it regularly.

Graphite pencils

Coloured pencils

Generally, graphite pencils feature robust leads and need a long and sharp point.

To sharpen graphite pencils we recommend our high-quality metal sharpeners, tub sharpeners and sharpening machines.

Please note that our tub sharpeners for graphite pencils show a "graphite" imprint so you can be sure to use the right sharpener.

Coloured pencil leads are generally softer than graphite leads which means that they require a shorter and blunt point.

Our STAEDTLER Noris Club range offers tailor-made sharpeners for coloured pencils and watercolour pencils as well as for graphite pencils with hardness degree 5B or softer.

Please note that our tub sharpeners for coloured pencil leads show a "colour" imprint so you can be sure to use the right sharpener.