This is going to be a pretty short review, which I know is quite odd for me, my reviews on occasions resemble a draft of War & Peace, but this little tool I have stumble upon will mostly speak for itself.

I am not a hundred percent sure where I seen the Pencil Grinder for the first time, it was either on Facebook or Instagram with someone displaying it. I immediately looked for the tool on Amazon as I thought it would be excellent to review and bring to the attention of you guys, after all, us pencil artists need all the help we can get and I hope to bring as much help and awareness to you all as possible.

Such as pencil grinder is a difficult tool to research with regards to the actual company who manufactures it, nevertheless, this is not incredibly important. When I first received the item in the post, I wasn’t sure if it was a tool specifically for pastel pencils or pencils in general.

Pencil Grinder Characteristics

The Pencil Grinder is a really simple concept and design yet such a versatile tool and one I feel many pencil artists, especially pastel pencil artist. Although this item is called the Pencil Grinder, it has more than one function and I will brake down those functions further into the review.

The overall design is simple and looks similar to a black clog type sandal, on the base of the Pencil Grinder is a tin plinth with a rough textured design on it. On the base of the Pencil Grinder there is a clip clamp which enables the Pencil Grinder to clip and hold your work in place whilst on an easel or wooden board.

As I mentioned, the Pencil Grinder is not only for Pastel Pencils, however, I do think that the Pastel Pencils work best in terms of the tool collecting the pastel dust and being able to reuse the dust, nothing goes to waste. The Pencil Grinder does however work well with traditional colored pencils and water-soluble pencils.

Pencil Grinder or Sandpaper Block

I am sure every one of you have a thin sandpaper block, a few strips of sandpaper, neatly stapled to a stiff board which allows pencil artists to refine points. So why would anyone use the Pencil Grinder over the usual sandpaper block? First of all you don’t have to change from one to the other, but the option is available, the biggest difference between the Pencil Grinder and the Sandpaper Block is that the Pencil Grinder is completely reusable.

Pencil Grinder Price

Here in the UK, the Pencil Grinder will cost you £7.49. Unfortunately I could only find this tool on eBay US so make sure you check out the details before purchasing, but in the US you can expect to pay $14.47. I much prefer to stick with Amazon when providing links and prices as in my experience, Amazon has always proved to be reliable and amazingly competitively priced. Finally in the EU artist can expect to pay €12.99