Whether for erasing guidelines or letters in pencil, an eraser is every calligrapher’s friend.

Out of habit, I use the big black Boxy eraser for everything. It costs more than other erasers where I live, so I like to think that it does its job better, and takes less effort in my part (read: less pressure needed to erase cleanly). But ever since I had read about ‘kneadable eraser’ in Mastering Copperplate Calligraphy, I wondered what it’s like.

Recently I stumbled upon an affordable option by Lyra in my local bookstore and I snapped it up. I opened the container and found that it has a gum like texture, just like tack-it. So I separated a tiny bit and tried it out. Happily, it didn’t leave any residue on the paper but seemed to have absorbed it. However, being gummy, it’s hard to get a good grip, so how was I supposed to ‘shape it to a point’? So I Youtubed around and figured I should have used the whole thing, so that might help.

Wow, this eraser is inexhaustible, so do I need just one for the rest of my life? Sadly, no. The more it absorbs pencil the less absorbent it is, so we’re going to have to get a new one eventually.

When I read that an eraser is ‘dust free’ I thought it would leave no residue, like the kneadable one, but that’s not what it is. It might just mean that it leaves no smaller dust that cheaper (orange and blue) erasers leave. I even tried the ‘color eraser’ to see if it erases ‘color pencil’ better than ‘regular’ erasers, but it doesn’t. Maybe it’s just an eraser with nice pink and green color. Oh well.

All in all, kneadable eraser is a great way to erase your pencil letters and guidelines without needing to brush off the residue from your artwork and desk. It needs more time and patience to use, though, because it’s soft, and keeps molding this way and the other. The idea is you only erase the visible pencil marks so you can’t just scrub the whole page like you would with a normal eraser.

S.