Studio Tools: Charcoal Sharpening Box

This simple little charcoal sharpener is painless to make, compact, and easily transportable.  I was introduced to it by Anthony J. Ryder during one of his workshops.

The first thing you will need is a small box.  Oil paint manufacturers ship their tubes to the retailers in containers which hold three 40 ml tubes of paint each, and these are the perfect size.  Your local art store would probably be happy to give you one of these boxes at no charge.

Next, you'll need several pieces of sandpaper of a medium grit.  A coarseness of 120-150 would work well.  The sandpaper will need to be cut so that it is the same length as the box, though slightly wider (approximately 1/2" wider).  

It's important that you have enough sheets of sandpaper that when you curl the paper, it has a nice spring to it.  Three or four sheets will probably do it, depending on the paper's grit, and the manufacturer of the paper.

Insert the stack of paper into the bottom lid of the box so that it makes a barrel shape, and you're ready to go!

While you "saw" the charcoal from side to side across the arched paper, make sure to rotate the charcoal stick in your hand so that the stick is sharpened evenly around its entire circumference.  The barrel shape actually creates a smaller contact area of charcoal to abrasive than if you were to sharpen the stick on a flat piece of sand paper, much like a tangent touches a circle at a single point.  This gives a nice control to the sharpening process.

Here is a piece of medium Grumbacher charcoal sharpened with this box.

What's great, is that the charcoal dust created from sharpening falls back into the box, eliminating some of the mess.

When you're ready to travel, just put the lid back on and go.  It's always best though to put the box in a ziplock bag first, as the charcoal dust still has a tendency to find its way out of the box, lid or no.

Here is an example of a charcoal drawing done directly on gessoed canvas using sticks sharpened this way.  It is easy to make precise and delicate lines with the charcoal, which can then be inked with diluted oil paint, and simply brushed off before the final painting is begun.