The housing, milled from solid brass and correspondingly solid, houses two blades made of hardened steel, which precisely sharpen normal pencils of 7.8 mm diameter as well as thick crayons up to 11 mm diameter. The blades can be replaced, replacements can be found here: the blades for the Dux sharpeners also fit here.

The best way to sharpen leads or coloured pencils is to use a scalpel or a small, sharp knife; this way you can sharpen one side of the lead for broad lines, the other for genuinely fine lines. A real connoisseur would also have a small piece of sandpaper to hand, to rub the tip of the leads from time to time: the pencils remain sharp without being shortened continuously. However, if you prefer to use one of the usual small pocket sharpeners, you should make sure that its blade is always sharp. Dull blades will tear the wood and cause the lead – especially with the more delicate coloured pencils – to break at the slightest hitch. Therefore, we searched after the quintessence models of this commonplace article. Now we offer you our findings plus proper replacement blades.