Sharpeners That Do Not Crack Colored Pencil Cores: The Two-Step Method

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You sharpen a pencil, and somewhere in the twist a faint tick travels up the barrel — that is the sound of a colored pencil core starting to crack. You will not see the damage until three layers deep, when the core drops out of the wood casing mid-stroke and your page gets a scar it cannot recover from. Sharpening is the least glamorous topic in colored pencil work and the most expensive to get wrong: every cracked core is pigment you paid for and cannot use. The good news is that core-cracking is almost entirely a sharpener problem, and the fix costs between $6 and $20. Here is the method, and the sharpeners that make it easy.

I put five sharpeners through a season of coloring — soft-core pencils, watercolor pencils, and the cheap 5-cent cores that crack if you look at them — and kept score on broken cores, point length, and blades that stayed sharp. Here is what held up.

Kum AS2 — The Two-Step Sharpener That Protects the Core

Kum AS2 Long Point Sharpener (about $8) is the one I reach for first, and the reason is the two-hole design: the first hole shapes the wood, the second exposes the lead in a separate, gentler pass. That split is the whole trick — a single-hole sharpener grinds wood and core with the same blade angle, which is exactly how cores crack. The AS2 makes a long, tapered point that Prismacolor Premier cores take without complaint, the blade is replaceable (spares ship inside the lid), and “Made in Germany” here means something you can feel in the shavings: clean ribbons, not dust. The honest cons: it is small enough to lose in a pencil case, the shavings reservoir is tiny, and at about $8 per unit, losing three of them costs more than one heavy-duty unit.

My take: the default recommendation for colored pencil work — buy two, keep one in the kit and one at the desk.

Kum AS2M — The Same Blade System in a Body That Holds Itself

Kum AS2M Long Point Sharpener (about $8) is the AS2’s magnesium-bodied sibling: same two-step sharpening, same replaceable German blade, but a wider body that seats better in the hand and two spare blades included in the tin instead of stored loose. For colored pencil specifically, the magnesium body adds a small but real benefit — it does not flex under pressure the way thin plastic bodies do, so the pencil stays centered and the point stays symmetrical. The honest cons: the blue finish scratches fast and shows wear, the lid mechanism is fiddlier than the AS2’s, and it is the same price as the AS2 for what amounts to a preference in body material.

My take: pick this over the AS2 if you sharpen hard or want the spare blades in the tin; the points are identical.

Dahle 301 — The Precision Unit for 2mm Lead Holders

Dahle 301 Lead Pointer (about $20) sharpens a different animal: the 2mm leads that live in lead holders — the refillable, all-lead pencils that artists use for coverage and burnishing work that wooden pencils cannot reach. The 301’s rotary canister grinds lead to a needle point with measuring guides for writing and precision lengths, and the shavings stay contained. The honest cons: it does nothing for wooden colored pencils — this is a lead-holder-only tool — and at 3.9 stars it carries the most mixed reviews in this field, mostly from buyers expecting it to work like a pencil sharpener rather than a lead pointer. If you do not own a 2mm holder, skip this section entirely.

My take: the specialist’s tool — buy it when you own a 2mm lead holder and a reason to needle-point it, not before.

Tamaki Dual-Hole Sharpeners — The Class Set, Four for Six Dollars

Tamaki Dual-Hole Sharpeners 4-Pack (about $5 for four) is the budget answer for the class, the kids’ table, or the “one in every bag” problem. Two holes cover standard and jumbo pencils, the pastel bodies make them easy to spot in a crowded case, and at about $1.25 each, losing one to the couch is a shrug instead of a loss. The honest cons: single-pass blades that grind wood and core together — so soft-core pencils will crack here more often than on the Kums — and the blades dull after a few months of classroom volume. As a main sharpener for serious colored pencil work, they are the wrong tool; as the backup fleet, they are unbeatable.

My take: the class-set pick — buy the Kum for the desk and these four for everywhere else.

AFMAT Electric Sharpener — The Hand Saver for High Volume

AFMAT Electric Sharpener (about $24) is the high-volume option: it handles 6mm to 12mm pencil diameters (including the jumbo Prismacolors and oil-based cores that stall manual sharpeners), stops automatically when the point is done, and takes the wrist work out of an evening of coloring. At 4.4 stars across 22,000+ reviews, it is the most-reviewed sharpener in this field, and the auto-stop means it does not keep grinding the core after the wood is cleared — the electric version of the two-step principle. The honest cons: it is a corded desk appliance (an AC adapter, not batteries), the point is medium-short rather than the Kum’s long taper, and electric sharpeners chew soft cores faster than hand-turning — expect more lead lost per sharpen if you push the softest pencils through it daily.

My take: the right buy when volume or wrist pain is the problem — pair it with a Kum for final points on your best pencils.

The Method: How to Sharpen Without Cracking the Core

Two passes, not one. Wood first, core second — the Kum’s two-hole design makes this automatic. On a single-hole sharpener, stop the moment you see lead and finish with a knife or sandpaper block instead of pushing the core through the blade.

Turn the pencil, not the sharpener. Rotating the pencil distributes blade pressure around the core instead of grinding one side — the single highest-impact habit change for core survival.

Sharp blades only. A dull blade tears the wood and shocks the core. Kum replacement blades ship with the sharpener; a dull cheap sharpener is a core-cracking machine regardless of technique.

Skip the electric for soft cores. Auto-stop electric sharpeners are fine for hard cores; soft-core pencils like Prismacolor Premier lose less lead to a slow hand-turn than to a spinning blade.

Cold pencils crack. Cores are wax-based; a cold pencil in a winter room is a brittle pencil. Let the pencil warm in your hand before sharpening and the breakage rate drops.

Where the Money Goes

• The one-sharpener kit: Kum AS2 at about $8 with spare blades — 90% of the benefit for the price of a coffee.
• The serious kit: Kum AS2M plus the AFMAT electric for volume — about $32 total, one desk and one hand that does not ache.
• The class fleet: Tamaki 4-pack at about $5 — one per kid plus spares, with the Kum kept for the adult table.
• The specialist: Dahle 301 at about $20, only for 2mm lead holder work.

And sharpeners are only half the kit — pair yours with How to Burnish Colored Pencils and the pencils themselves in How to Color Gemstones and Crystals.

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