Leftovers Are Good

The headline from this year's Triangle Pen Show in Raleigh, North Carolina was the staggering collection Ross McKinney brought to liquidate.  The frenzy that surrounded him for the better part of the day was an indication of just how good that stuff was.

One of the advantages to being a pencil guy is that while the pen guys are doing their thing, we are generally content to sit back and wait until the activity dies down, then we come in and pick over all the pencils, which are generally left behind.  Believe me, it's great for the blood pressure!

So that's what I did -- and I found some great stuff that I haven't gotten around to writing about just yet.  Joe Nemecek was over there a bit before I was, since I had a table to look after, and he got some great stuff, too.  But there was plenty to go around.

After a few hours, all of us predators had picked the proverbial wildebeast down to the bones, and what were full pen cases full of prizes were now mostly empty, with just  a few lonely stragglers that no one wanted left behind.  Mostly, the things that were left were things that should have been.  But late Saturday, as the show was slowing down, I had some time to peek around a bit and I swung back around the carcass of this collection, after everyone else had spent themselves silly, for some quality time looking at what was left.

One of the last remnants was this . . .

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