How to make a KNEADED ERASER - DIY

Kneaded erasers are quite affordable, but since we're all in quarantine right now, you may not be able to easily buy one, so here's how you can make it yourself. You can make a kneaded eraser out of pretty much any solid eraser, even the one on the end of a pencil. Just rub the eraser on a piece of paper to create crumbs, and then knead the crumbs together into a putty. Make sure you knead the putty very well, until it becomes one single piece that can be molded into different shapes. But the results will be varied, because some erasers just crumble instead of stick together, no matter how hard you work it. But I'll show you how to fix that. So I tested 10 different erasers, and they can all be turned into kneaded erasers, although some work better than others. This one is immediately usable after just a few seconds of kneading. If you experience that, you're good to go. But if your eraser is crumbly like this one, it'll actually still work. All you have to do is add something sticky to make the crumbs stay together. The best way to do this is to use something like masking tape, painter's tape, or the sticky part of a sticky note. Just rub your eraser along the sticky side, until the sticky stuff or adhesive comes off. This works very well with tape that isn't too sticky, such as this masking tape. If the putty consistency is way too sticky for your liking, you can always add some dry eraser crumbs, until the consistency is just right for you. A test that I like to do, is see if I can easily roll it to a point, and also flatten it down without it changing shape or crumbling. If you don't have any tape, just go around the house looking for stickers that are easy to peel off, like barcodes or labels that you don't need. Some water bottles will actually have adhesive under the label. If your crumbs do stick together, but the putty isn't quite soft enough for your preference, or it's a little crumbly, you can either use tape adhesive to make it softer, just rub your eraser along the adhesive a few times, and then gather the softer putty and mix it with the hard or crumbly one. Keep doing this until it's soft enough for you. Here's a comparison between a piece of putty before and after adding the adhesive. As you can see, it's a lot softer and more putty-like now. Now every eraser and adhesive will give you different results, so experiment with your own recipe to come up with something that works for you. The other solution is to try erasing a bunch of pencil scribble marks, and then kneading your eraser to incorporate that graphite into it. After a while, this will help the putty become softer, more pliable, and more effective at erasing. It's totally normal for the putty to become grey, as it takes on the colour of the graphite particles. This is also how you can break in a brand new store-bought kneaded eraser. Keep tweaking your eraser recipe and testing how well it can erase until you're satisfied. I prefer a fairly sticky eraser because it can easily pick up graphite with just the slightest touch. That means I can work on very detailed areas of my drawing by just pressing and lifting the eraser, instead of rubbing it. Do keep in mind that some erasers work a lot better than others at picking up graphite, so I'd recommend trying this with a few different types of erasers. I was able to convert all the erasers that I tested into actual working kneadable erasers. Some worked perfectly right after I kneaded them, others required different amounts of adhesive added to them because they were either not soft enough, not sticky enough, or they were too crumbly to begin with. Even extremely crumbly erasers, like the Pink Pearl, can be converted into a kneadable eraser. All the solid erasers that I tested worked well, but the ones that I found worked best are these. In putty form, they're able to hold their shape when molded and pick up graphite easily using the dabbing technique. Check the description for more detail on my results with each eraser that was tested. Here's an extra tip. The more eraser crumbs you make, the bigger your eraser will be, of course, but it can take hours and a lot of hard work to turn a large eraser like this into a big pile of crumbs. A safe way you can speed up the process is by rubbing your eraser on a more textured surface. Here I'm using the textured plastic grip on my mechanical pencil. And that's how you can make a kneaded eraser at home. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you did, please like, comment, and subscribe for more. Thanks for watching!