I received a new studio tool for Christmas, the AFMAT Long Point Sharpener.
I have had my eye on it for a little while after seeing what it can do with charcoal pencils, even softer leads. It can put a very long point on the pencils, with a slight curve to them that makes for a really wonderful drawing point. It can handle standard pencils as well and even Prismacolors, though the fit is tight.
The sharpener has two options, the standard point which is longer than a typical pencil sharpener and the long point, which is very long. It doesn’t put a needle tip on it, but it does give you are very long, tapered point that you can very easily bevel or point with sandpaper or just a few swipes across your paper.
My primary use for it will be sharpening General’s Charcoal and Chalk pencils. I use them for life drawing and also to do preliminary drawings for paintings. The charcoals sharpen really well and I don’t get much breakage. Maybe 1 out of 10 times do I have the tip break. The white chalk pencils are a little softer and it does seem like they tend to break a little more, but still very successful.
It cannot accommodate the larger diameter charcoal pencils though, like Conte Charcoal Pencils. Normal graphite pencils work really well and Blackwings are tight, but fit well.
Switching between the standard and long-point is very simple. You just rotate the top to change between the two. To empty the reservoir of shavings, you just twist the lid itself and it opens up for easy dumping. I will say the first time I went to empty it the lid was very stubborn!
The unit is chargeable and the four lights on the front show how much charge it holds and when it is charging.
The power adapter allows you to plug it in to a USB port, charge it and use it wirelessly, or add batteries.
The build quality isn’t in the ‘buy it for life’ category, but it also doesn’t feel overly cheap. I think it will hold up to regular use for years. I hope so, because the one downside is the price. It is a bit more than I would want it to be, but it works so well and saves me the time of sharpening my charcoals with a utility blade, that I think it is worth it. If you are interested, you can find it on Amazon.
Cool! Thanks for sharing this tool.
I was looking at this too for a while but decided not to go for it. I’ don’t do much traditional work ans Amazon sometimes frustrates me on their deliveries and was doubting the product. Glad I read this though. Will consider it for the future!
How do you clean out any broken lead in the sharpening shaft?
When I’ve had that happen (only once) I emptied out the shavings and then tipped it upside down and tapped on the base until the stuck lead came out
This has come at the perfect moment. Thank you- just bought one. I have been starting to use charcoal again and getting very frustrated with the tips breaking in my small hand sharpener. And while I don’t mind sharpening with a knife it is time consuming and i never can get it as sharp as a sharpener. Looking forward to trying this out.
What a sexy little wismo. I admit I have come to like the process of sharpening by knife, but that was mostly built out of necessity as I have never run across anything like this! Cheers
It makes a very long point for sure, but looking at the pictures, the point profile seems a bit concave, thus negating the possibility of using its side to make broad marks on paper (for me the main reason to make long points in the first place).
Usually, when sharpening by knife, I always make sure that the profile is such that the whole lenght of the point can touch the paper.
Any thoughts about that?
I’ve used a sanding block to shape the lead a little if I wanted to get a straighter profile. It does most of the heavy lifting, getting the point, but then a few strokes across the sanding block and you can get the shape you want.