BECAUSE I LIKE TO USE Staedtler’s Mars plastic 526 50 erasers* to remove colored pencil** from artwork or in general to erase graphite,*** I go through quite a lot of them. I prefer to use these Staedtlers (the 65 x 23 x 13 mm right-rectangular prisms) over the refillable stylus type because I find I can get a stronger, more controlled “push” against the paper.
When new, these erasers have eight nice, sharp corner points I can use very precisely to remove stray marks or even a ground I've laid down and changed my mind about. Obviously, over time, graphite or color will adhere to the corners and sides and the erasers will get worn down.
At first I used to “scrub” my Staedtlers onto scrap paper to clean them, but sooner or later they'd end up so “dirty” and round cornered as to be useless for my purposes. At one time I had quite a growing collection, which filled a 32-ounce wheat-germ container almost to the top.
Eventually I figured out a way to prolong their life. Now, whenever I run out of clean points, edges, and sides, I clean my erasers a few at a time, this way:
> First, I rub them with a small amount of coconut oil (I use Trader Joe’s Organic Virgin Coconut Oil, sold in a jar).
> Then I use a little paper toweling or TP to rub the pencil and the coconut oil off all the surfaces.
> After that I use a mild detergent (in my case, a shard of NaturesPlus Natural Beauty Cleansing Bar neutral-pH nonsoap “soap”) to “cut” the coconut oil.
> Then I rinse off the erasers and dry them with a towel.
> Finally, if I want my corner points back, I put the erasers on a cutting board and slice about 1/4” off each end of them. I use a vegetable knife (IKEA’s Vörda works well) to get a nice, flat, straight cut. I’ve also tried serrated knives, a paper cutter, and scissors, but they don’t work as well.
Some Miscellaneous Notes about Color
• One thing I especially like about these erasers is that they don’t transfer the color of their own material to a paper surface, which some erasers do.
• I’ve found that with these Staedtler erasers it’s possible to remove virtually all evidence of colored pencil laid down on a paper surface. The parameters are that (1) I’m using good drawing paper and Polychromos pencils, (2) the area in question is relatively small, (3) I haven’t applied more than one color there (although sometimes I’ve in fact been able to lift off a combination of two mixed colors), (4) I haven’t applied the color so thick or with so much pressure that it’s now too embedded in the paper to be lifted off it, and (5) the sooner the erasure is done after the color is applied, the better.
• Sometimes colored pencil will leave a light, permanent tint on the eraser which even the coconut-oil cleaning will not remove. If you want to preclude any possibility that it will retransfer to your paper, you can simply cut it off as noted above.
• These erasers can also be used like blending stubs. They give mixed colors a smoother look, with a blend that looks different from what you get when you mix only by adding layer upon layer of color. While both methods work, if I want a piece to have a consistent look throughout, I use just one method.
• If color is erased from a noticeably large enough area, since the paper surface in that area now tends to be smoother (pressed down from the concentrated force that was applied to erase the color), any new color laid down there will no longer exhibit the same underlying “bite” (slightly rough paper surface) as elsewhere and it may be noticeable. However, if the color to be laid down afterward is to be quite strong (heavily applied), this underlying smoothing won't be noticeable since the strong pencil pressure will compress the paper and smooth it just like an erasure does.
*These erasers are phthalate and latex free.
**I use Faber-Castell Poloychromos colored pencils, which are oil based, not wax based, so they blend exceptionally well. Before ultimately choosing to proceed with the Polychromos pencils to do my artwork, I did research on a number of different brands of colored pencils and tested them against each other to see how brilliant the colors were and how well they mixed. I also did an eraser test (with the Staedtler Mars plastic 526 50), and the Polychromos pencils were the only ones that gave me the result I wanted—their color came off the paper clean.
***I use Pentel Super Hi-Polymer 0.5 HB leads in my mechanical pencils, which are the BIC Matic Grip 40692 kind that you end up having to manually refill from the bottom once the original leads are used up. I don't use the soft original leads, or the provided eraser, for artwork.
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