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Beth,
I hand-sharpened pastel pencils for twenty years because I could not find any mechanical sharpeners that worked. Until - I ran across an old wall crank sharpener last summer in my attic - you know, the kind we used in school with the variable size hole? It has been around the attic for thirty years! I took it to work, and it is dynamite!!! It very rarely breaks the Conte Paris pastel pencils, and is easy to eject the tips just by reversing the crank.
As to charcoal pencils, I gave up on them many many years ago, because they do break off incessantly. I use sticks; soft vine. I don't have much experience with the compressed sticks, but they do allow for more control. You will need a sanding block to sharpen them.
When it comes to graphite, I stick to 4B. It is soft enough to give me the darks, and hard enough to not break off too easily. I use Staedtler Mars leads with a lead holder so that I do not have to shave the wood, which I hate. I simply use the sanding block, and the eject button to release more lead as I need it.
A little side note. Those little plastic pencil sharpeners are a total waste of money when it comes to pastel pencils, with one exception. When I go into courtrooms to draw in pastel, I am not allowed to bring any blades or knives. My crank is too loud. So, I bring in one of those cheesy little plastic pencil sharpeners with the blade showing (except I have loosened the little screws.) After showing the guard the little sharpener with blade in place, he passes me through the security check and I go on in to the courtroom. I then remove the little screws and sharpen my pencils when I need to with the blade in hand so as not to break off the point!
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