Pencils, erasers and sharpeners

[NotAnotherChinHair]

Hi there everyone. I realise this is not a big problem, more of a pet hate, but I thought some of you might have some brands you swear by and wouldn't mind sharing. I have a silly issue with most of the pencils, erasers and pencil sharpeners I buy for my DC. No matter how much or how little money I spend on them, the pencils always seem to break when sharpened (are they already broken inside??), the sharpeners become blunt pretty much after the first use, and the erasers don't erase cleanly but leave a dark smudge on the paper, making my DS's homework very untidy. I know my ds would love a battery operated pencil sharpener but would like to have a brand recommended before I part with my money as I seem to have a rather large collection of useless sharpeners around. Same with pencils and erasers, could anybody recommend a tried and tested brand/make? Cheers all.

I have to say that pencil "leads" do break if dropped often enough so can result in the problem you are experiencing and battery or mains powered sharpeners don't solve the problem they just sharpen the pencil away to nothing more quickly.

We use a swordfish mains sharpener at school but they also produce battery versions.

Staedtler?

Staedtler rubbers work well, almost all others are rubbish. Except one we got from sainsburys which is in a little plastic wheely thing.

Not sure about pencil sharpeners, I think the problem is often the cheapness of the original pencils, and dropping them does break the leads.

I always used to use those twisty Staedetlr (sp?) pencils at school. Officially they are called 'propelling pencils' - they come in packs of 4 or so and are usually in some luminous colour. You just twist the top to get the lead to come out. Okay they're more expensive than normal pencils, but you don't have to sharpen them and the leads don't break :)

The rubbers from this brand are good quality too.

Friend (HEdder of 4 kids, so gets thru a lot of pencils) swears by Staedtler.
I have an expensive desk-mount sharpener from Staples (26 quid) which I ADORE and use daily. :)
I think the trick with rubbers is to look after them, don't leave them in the sun or on the floor or let them generally get abused.

This or this look like the right kind of sharpener. My mother had one like it that lasted and worked well for decades, I badly regret I didn't take it home with me after she died.

Anther vote for Staetdler rubbers. The ONLY ones I've had that ever work. Come in a little blue card cover.

I lied, my sharpener came from Ryman not Staples. This Jakar model. (Is it unhealthy to love your pencil sharpener so much?? [hgrin]).

But ragged, £25 or a pencil sharpener????????

Swordfish sharpeners from Amazon (about £2-3 each). They are the only ones that last! I buy them in bulk!

Staedtler pencils and rubbers - always.

If Stoatsrevenge is buying the Swordfish ones in bulk, what's that mean?.... 10 at a time? At 2.50 each that's 25 quid. And how many years do they really last? Makes my 25 quid Jakar sharpener look positively reasonable! :)

I use them in a year 2 class - some inevitably meet a sad end. I'd say 8 last me and the children a year!

Faber-Castell do some good stuff, also Staedtler and Berol for stationery in this house.

Do not buy anything with characters on or merchandising; it's always utter junk.

If you want to be anal about pencil sharpeners you can unscrew the blade on the metal ones and sharpen it!

I know just how you feel chin hair ... but I have recently discovered the answers...
Sharpeners and rubbers are Maped you can buy them WHSmiths singularly and are FANTASTIC!
I think it's the same on Choccy meant...
coloured pencils are Staedtler ergo soft These cost £5.50 in Tesco at the moment
They are beautiful colours, triangular pencils (great for ds2's dyspraxia) and have a case which stands up so the dc's can take them out easily and can see if any have been borrowed at school. Definitely worth the money.

They look good Ingles. We have something similar; Faber Castells Colour grip pencils Half price in WHS at the moment.

Excellent ideas and suggestions; thanks so much!

My swordfish sharpener died a miserable death quite rapidly to be honest (the Brownies did for it!). The one that's kept going is a Staples cheapie I only bought because it had a wide end and a narrow end so did the infant sized chunky pencils as well. My electric battery operated sharpener died when one of my cherubs fed a paperclip into it.

As for rubbers - Steadler ones take some punishment, unless you're somewhere where there are people with latex allergies (I used to work in a school where we'd had to ban all but those horrible plastic rubbers because we had both a colleague and child with these... also couldn't have normal elastic bands among other things). Pencils - I've got a batch of WHSmith cheapies that are standing up pretty well at the moment (I'm supply so tend to lug tonnes of them around to cut down on the "I can't find a pencil" work avoidance). Schools tend to buy the Steadler class pack boxes (the yellow and black stripey ones).

Generally just avoiding anything with cartoon characters on works well enough - and not dropping pencils on the floor repeatedly.

Don't buy Colourland coloured pencils! We used to get the massive class orange boxes of them and they're dreadful to sharpen with broken leads all over the shop if a kid looks at them funny! Ended up cracking halfway through the year when they'd been sharped to oblivion in an attempt to actually get a point on them and going out and buying 6 packs of colours from Tesco with my own money in sheer desperation!

Oh and cheap glue sticks are normally poo!

Personally I use a lot of propelling pencils but if you've got a slightly heavy handed kid - they tend to be a snapped lead ping fest - I think you need quite a degree of control and a light hand to use them really well, which some kids at primary won't have yet.

Colourland are terrible.

Staedtler Noris are the best or Staedtler Tradition.

LOL Euphemia it's quite why half of my class felt the need to take a pencil into assembly that always got me - they just blindly walked around holding them, as if it wasn't school if they didn't have a pencil in their hands.

Oh well Euphemia, now nothing else will do! Thanks.

Oh and they always claim they've brought blu-tack in from home... yes you've really brought that one-corner-of-a-bit-of-paper-sized bit of blu-tack all the way to school... oh is that a poster coming off the wall on one corner directly behind where you sit?

I did once teach a child who chewed EVERYTHING - and at one point the other kids on his table lost their rag totally with him moaning that, "there isn't a rubber or pencil on this table you ain't chewed" - rubbers were like some kind of gourmet snack to him (he'd slum it with a ruler when one wasn't available)... said child even ate a chunk out of the seat of his dad's new car at one point!