Rubber pencil erasers get hard and brittle over time and don't work well because the rubber is oxidized.
You can't really stock up on erasers because they dry out.” (This idea inspired the slogan on a t-shirt the Erasable podcast sells: “Pencil is forever.”) Advincula explained: “Over time, some of the rubber properties can be lost because of oxidation or chemical degradation.
Pencil erasers are made from thick rubber. When exposed to direct sunlight, pencil erasers become hardened and brittle. They can be reactivated by moistening them.
“These days they're usually colored to be pink because that's the color we've come to expect them to be, which can be credited to the trusty Pink Pearl.” Pink Pearls are still produced today, under the Paper Mate brand. They're now made of synthetic rubber, rather than natural rubber and pumice, says Weaver.
1. Don't use them dry. Part of the magic of these erasers is that all you have to do is add water to activate them. However, it turns out that these plushy pads are even more abrasive — and can, therefore, do more damage — when dry, so adding water actually helps soften them.
Imported from Japan, the Pentel Ain is made of PVC, a specialized polymer material that produces less dust and causes fewer abrasions on paper: just a few light, gentle strokes are able to remove any unwanted marks.
Here's why you need to ditch the pink eraser:
Eraser is fresh, not hardened, and first time used. Here's the deal with white erasers, not only do they erase pencil marks better than the old-school style pink eraser but because they're non-abrasive, they leave the paper fibers relatively intact.
Gum Erasers
If the integrity of the paper is a concern, then a gum eraser may be your best bet because they will not tear the paper even with aggressive rubbing. Gum erasers are best for erasing graphite on paper. These erasers are usually brown in color and some are even semi-transparent.
While these erasers were cheap and plentiful, they had a distinct disadvantage: They were, you know, made of bread. They were susceptible, like all bread, to mold and rot.
The warmth you feel is the heat generated by the force of friction created by the rough surfaces of your hands rubbing together. As the abrasives in your eraser are rubbed against paper, friction produces heat, which helps the rubber become sticky enough to hold onto the graphite particles.
There are several different materials used to make pencil sharpers, such as synthetic rubber, soft plastic and many more. Using these materials on high-temperature surfaces will cause the physical condition of the eraser to change (become brittle, or hard,) or it will begin to melt.
Today, erasers are usually made from synthetic rubber, which is a polymer. When it is made, a chemical called an accelerator is added to help join the monomers, or small molecules, into a polymer. The original accelerator had a pink color; the erasers sold well and the tradition has been maintained.
Black and coloured erasers do not leave any colour from the eraser on the paper. They are dark so that when erasing on dark paper a white ghosting effect is not left as can happern with white erasers. They also look less grubby when they are dirty.
Swallowing a pencil eraser may lead to an intestinal blockage, which can cause abdominal pain, nausea, or vomiting.
White plastic erasers not only erase pencil marks better than the old-school style pink eraser but because they're non-abrasive, they leave the paper fibers relatively intact. ... Sometimes the pink residue won't scrape off - it's embedded into the paper and is at some angles, a very noticeable discoloration.
The blue end is meant for erasing pencil marks on heavy grades of paper or dark marks. The soft end (pink/orange) is useful for light grades of paper which the hard gritted side would tear apart, and also for precision erasing, such as removing a light stray mark from among dark marks.
What are erasers made of? The base material of an eraser is rubber, which can either be synthetic or natural synthetic rubber can be found in a range of materials, and can even be derived from chemicals like butadiene and styrene. Natural rubber, however, is formed from the latex produced from rubber trees.
Rubber – The most common eraser in the world of graphite drawing applications will be your standard rubber eraser (usually always pink).
2) Gucci eraser, $130
It's been called “the world's most expensive eraser”.