After Pencil Revolution’s Wopex post and the following discussion on how to sharpen a Wopex: a photo of a Deli 0668 sharpened Wopex.
For many months now I have hardly ever sharpened my Wopeces with anything other than a Deli 0668. For that purpose I have one Deli 0668 at home and one in the office. The 0668’s angle of 20° is more suitable for the Wopex than the more acute angle of ~17°-18° the Deli 0635 will produce.
One warning though, the hardness of the Wopex can make the auto-stop fail. If you notice that the sharpener doesn’t stop, release the pencil holder (back to it’s original position) to avoid more of the pencil being fed further towards the burr cylinder. To finish the sharpening process just keep turning the handle until there is no more resistance .
*Love* “Wopeces”, though I lean toward Wopexen. 😉
Nice POINT! In my experience, it takes quite a bit of skill to get that point on a Wopex, even in the Deli. 🙂
Do you have it on the ‘sharp’ or the ‘dull’ setting, or in between? I have one of these sharpeners and the point doesn’t look the same as yours.
Sean, I think this is the most natural form as it works just like ‘index’. I think it’s the first plural (link) I used that’s different to the singular.
Johnny, I think the auto stop is the only thing standing between a great point every time and a great point with some tweaking that involves some skills. I think the auto stop in my newer Deli works better than in the old one. I’m not sure though
-whether that is because it has been used less,
-whether the auto stop of newer model works better or
-whether it’s just random as there will always be small differences between the sharpeners coming from Deli’s conveyor belt…
Wesley, I have it on sharp, then dialled half a turn back, so the end of the point is slightly flat. Even though I think of myself as someone using very few pressure when writing (at least compared to my wife) I regularly break the tip of the point if I don’t dial back.
How do you normally sharpen your Wopex?
I don’t often sharpen a Wopex, but when I do, I usually have it on the sharpest setting. I’ll try out your method next time.
My auto-stop works, and I have the setting turned back a bit. But my points still don’t look that good. I still say it’s your skill. 🙂
Wesley, I prefer the point on the sharpest setting, but if the point breaks you lose quite a lot on the Wopex, so I turn it down a bit.
Johnny, Thanks for the compliment.
Regarding turning back, my dial can be dialled approx. 4 times (4* 360°). I have it on the sharpest setting and turn it back half a turn (180°).
One trick if your auto stop should ever start failing: don’t extend the holder until it locks in, only extend it a few millimetres, before you grasp the pencil, that prevents too much of the pencil being eaten up inside the Deli.
I was in my local Staples over the weekend and noticed the light green Staedtler Wopex pencils. I remembered your posts regarding how difficult it is to sharpen them properly and therefore didn’t buy any. However, this morning I was in my university book store and saw some Staedter all-graphite pencils (no wood), 5 for $2.99, I think it was. The packaging stated that they were lacquered, so your hands would stay clean. Any experience on how they are to shrpen and use?
Thanks for your comment.
The Wopex is more difficult to sharpen, but doesn’t take too long to get used to and when using the Deli sharpener mentioned in this blog post it’s quite easy and you get very nice results.
I was lucky enough to get to try the Staedtler all-graphite pencil thanks to Johnny from Pencil Revolution who sent me a sample. I don’t have it at hand, but as far as I remember it was lighter than a traditional pencil, maybe even lighter than a Wopex. Sharpening was easy I think.
I’d give the Wopex a try, it’s really nice.
This is a great tip, and has worked well for me since I accidentally burned through nearly a third of an Eco Noris using my cheapo Lidl sharpener. (I realised something wasn’t right, but kept going because I was sure the auto-stop would kick in. It didn’t!)
Strangely, the auto-stop on the sharpener does sometimes engage – and then other times just doesn’t. The first couple of times I used it, the auto-stop worked fine and I didn’t even realise there was an issue there. I wonder why it worked some times but not others?