Hi gals and guys! I've got a uni e-knock but I find the eraser a little too hard. I want something softer that can remove pencil markings efficiently (cleanly without too much pressure). What would you recommend? Thanks!

My goodness! The vinyl in the E-Knock is as about as soft it gets! The lighter the mark (less pressure applied making it) the easier graphite erases. Just about every stick eraser that I can think of is going to be as soft or harder that the vinyl in the E-Knock! There are other types of block erasers, like Artgum, but they are not going to be any better! Maybe someone else knows more about erasers than I do (I'm sure) that can help. :(

Sounds like you need softer pencils, not a new eraser ;)

Based solely on what onelonegunman said, because I don't know anything about erasers. I just buy the pretty ones!

:lol: :lol: :lol:

I've been using the Pentel Ain Clic Knock Triangular Eraser, which I got here from Jet Pens, because I like the triangular shape, and I've always liked Pentel erasers. Also the Staedtler Mars Plastic eraser comes in retractable stick form and it is excellent. They're usually in big office stores or art stores. I've never used the Uni e-knock so I don't know if they're softer or harder, but the Pentel and the Staedtler are both very efficient.

Generally speaking, I think block erasers are softer than stick erasers. The Staedtler Mars Plastic block eraser is widely considered to be the best eraser of all, and I would rate the Pentel Hi-Polymer as a close second.

Thanks, SF Susan! By coincidence, I bought the Ain Clic when I went to the stationery shop that day, before seeing your post! The corners do help with erasing indeed, but it's also a hard eraser. :roll: You're indeed right about stick erasers being harder than block ones.

Not so, ladies, not so, at least not always! True some stick erasers are made using a formula that increases their hardness as well as their abrasiveness but PVC (vinyl) erasers are all pretty much the same whether they are made into a block or a long cylinder. I used a Staedtler/Mars block eraser for years before discovering refillable stick erasers. It was no softer than the Staedtler/Mars Razor stick eraser, or the Pentel Click Eraser of the Mitsubishi Touchmatic/E-Knock that I now use. Believe me, I bought several of the harder stick erasers before finding the ones I now use. The formulas for the PVC are pretty much the same, so if you buy a PVC stick eraser (like the Pentel Ain Clic Knock Triangular Eraser) it's going to be as soft as the PVC block eraser. :P :lol:

The reason that I switched to a stick eraser was because when using a block eraser I couldn't see what I was erasing so I often erased something I didn't want to. Or I had to use an eraser shield to protect what I didn't want to erase. The stick erasers, having a much smaller foot print, are more precise and offer me better control over what I am erasing. I will grant you this, for erasing large areas of graphite, such as a large block of text or a large area of a drawing, block erasers are the best! Stick erasers are just too skinny to efficiently erase large areas. :roll:

You know what? I think you're right! I just realised that I find stick erasers hard because I don't extend the eraser enough! I found that out with the Pentel Ain Clic because I kept gouging lines (thankfully not holes) into my paper with the 'prongs'. The E-knock doesn't have those prongs, so I never encountered that problem. So I'm back to the E-knock and will save the Ain Clic for another time. The latter is pretty though; like the shimmery barrel very much!