Wednesday, February 8, 2012

The Grim Reaper's Own Pencil

At the January Scott Antique Show, I was walking along one aisle when I noticed one of those boxes of junk that looked as though someone had simply emptied out a desk drawer into it.  Mmmm... my kind of fun....

In the bottom of the box, I saw something that looked like a plastic Scripto pencil from the 1950s or 1960s.  However, because I am so easily amused, I decided to pick it up for a closer look, and when I did, I saw that this clearly was no Scripto:

NOTE:  This article is now included in the print version of The Leadhead's Pencil Blog, available anywhere you buy books, or also from The Legendary Lead Company.

To order, here's the link:  Volume 1 at Legendary Lead Company


4 comments:

Michael Quitt said...

I'm reading this at work, so don't have access to my pens/pencils at home. I, too, have a pencil that has a knife enclosed in the side of the pen...but, it certainly isn't as dramatic as the one in your pencil.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I believe that this is actually a compass for drawing circles. No safer than those little metal ones we all used to use, but certainly cooler! Nice find!

Gary Rubendall said...

Depending on the date of manufacture, how about a leather 'awl' and a knife to repair reins for a horse or saddle or some such thing.
Gary Rubendall

George Kovalenko said...

It's a mechanical pencil with a folding compass point, specifically the one in patents 1,611,835 and 1,674,726. By the way, the eraser top should pivot on that screw to align with the compass and make it easier to twirl the pencil in a circle.