The "Leadies"

When I started this blog, the day after the end of the Ohio Pen Show last year, I set out with the goal in mind to write an article daily for a year and see how things stood at the end of it. One well-wisher commented that he hoped I could find enough material to write about.

Obviously, finding stuff to write about hasn’t been a problem. In fact, every time I dip my toes into the infinite pool of pencil history I usually end up doing a cannonball. Here’s just part of the pencils I’ve got waiting to be photographed and given their due here . . .

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

Leadhead's Tread: The Ohio Pen Show

It feels good to be home.

As it is every year, I’ve been running around across pretty big chunks of the country all year long, meeting people, talking pencils and even buying one or two . . . give or take a few. Each November, when I walk in the door at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Dublin, Ohio, it feels like crossing a finish line after a long, long journey home.

There’s more to that statement than it might sound. Yes, I live a mere forty minutes or so from the hotel – close enough that I usually commute back and forth for a couple days – so of course I’m home. But the more people I talk to at this show, the luckier I feel that I live here, because I think most of us that come to this show agree that it wouldn’t matter in what city this show is held. No matter how far away you live, this show feels like home.

People usually start trickling into Columbus on Wednesday afternoon. I picked up Michael Little at the hotel on Wednesday. We said hello to a few people in the hotel bar, but since we didn’t see any trading going on in the trading room, we scooted on home to Newark where, as Janet described it, we looked like a couple kids playing with baseball cards. By the time it was over, in the wee hours of Thursday morning, Michael and I each had a big pile of things we’d pulled out of each other’s stuff. The next morning, we started trying to figure out who owed money to whom, but after we horsed around with the math for awhile we decided we both felt like we’d gotten a good deal so we called it even. . .

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

Gilliam's

In two separate online auctions, I found pencils marked "Gilliam’s".  The small ringtop is marked "Gilliam’s EZERITE 14k Gold Filled Pat," and the larger one is marked "Gilliam’s True-Point Sterling." . . .

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

Worth The Price Of Admission

For the bargain basement price of 99 cents, I won a small group of tired pencils in an online auction, including this one.

It’s a leadholder, and the barrel is so thin that someone actually cracked it in a couple places just by tightening the clutch around the lead. But it has a few interesting features. Around the top is a name I hadn’t heard of before:  "Beegee." It seems that the only reason I hadn’t heard of this one is that so few of them survived (did I mention how thin the barrel was?), not that there weren’t many made. The earliest advertisement I could find for the pencil was in the June, 1914 edition of The Magazine of Business . . .

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

The Pencil Formerly Known as Prince?

I’ve had a few of these over the years, and sadly I let them all go, because the pencil itself is pretty unremarkable.  And the only marking appears to be what looks like the letter W, or maybe an M.

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

EVRDA

Here’s another great one from the "why haven’t I ever heard of this one before" file. 

Around the top is imprinted "Nickel Silver Pat. Applied For EVRDA" . . .

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

The Second Carey

The Carey pencil I scrounged up at the DC show and blogged about here on August 22 ranks right up there as one of the most significant things I’ve found this year. So imagine my surprise when I received an email from Tom Heath shortly after the article ran: he had another one!

With a last name like Heath and my discussion of the Heath clip and the pencil’s manufacture by the George W. Heath Co., I took his email as adding additional information to my knowledge of the pencil. But still, I remembered one of the rules of life one of my friends used to live by: "It never hurts to ask." That rule served me well this time, and a second example of the Carey made its one-way trip to Ohio. Here they are shown together, the smaller example from DC and Tom Heath’s full sized one with floral engraving . . .

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

Lebolt

After the DC show, in the afterglow of my Cary and Heath leadholder finds, I was much more in tune to leadholders than I have been in the past. When this one popped up in an online auction, I thought at first I was onto another Carey or Heath.

This one is in sterling, with a fine engraved pattern that calls to mind a sterling engraved Wahl Eversharp . . .

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

Another Dorky Pencil

My daughters have been coming to the Ohio Show with me as long as they can remember, usually just for a couple of hours (not much there to entertain them, since I’m pretty preoccupied throughout the show).

Several years ago, early in my collecting, my primary interest was in finding Eversharp Doric pencils. Many of the examples pictured in The Catalogue came from those early years. When my older daughter was maybe all of nine years old, she came to the Ohio Show and we spent some time roaming around and looking at all the pencils in the room. At one point, she saw an attractive pencil she thought I’d like and excitedly she pointed it out to me. "Daddy, there’s a really nice pencil!" she said.

So we looked at it together. I pointed out all the things I liked about it, and after we’d admired it for a little while, I put it back on the table.

"Aren’t you going to buy it?" she asked me.

"Sweetie, it’s a really nice one," I said, "but it’s not a Doric."

"But Daddy," she said without missing a beat, "I thought all your pencils were dorky."

There wasn’t a person within earshot that didn’t break out laughing at that one – myself included.

Anymore, I don’t buy Doric pencils very often. They are featured on pages 65 to 68 of The Catalogue, and any more I find it difficult to find one that adds much to my display. However, when this one came along, I had to bite . . .

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

A Little Piece of Chicago

At the Chicago show, this cute little ringtop caught my attention, just because I liked the look of it. 

"Pratt Food Co. W.L. Hill, Jr." This pencil has classic Chicago lines, with a squared off top and that black band around the nose. It appears to have been made by National Pen Products in Chicago, but there’s another imprint on the other side:  "Welty’s." At times like these, it’s both a blessing and a curse to have one of those brains packed with useless bits of information, kind of like a garage filled with spare parts you keep because you might need them someday. I knew I’d heard that name before, and I thought it was in a pen magazine article I’d read a few years back.

So I dug out my stack of Pen World magazines and started digging, and I finally found what I remembered: in the February/March 2004 issue, Michael Fultz wrote an excellent article titled "Welty on his Way," providing a fairly comprehensive history of the exploits of William A. Welty (1873-1958), first as founder of The William A. Welty Company of Waterloo, Iowa, which he founded in 1905 and left in 1915, then later in Chicago, where he founded William A. Welty & Co. of Chicago around 1920. Although Fultz indicates that Welty returned to Waterloo in 1925 to form the Waterloo Pen Company, he also indicated that a 1927 catalog for Norris, Alister-Ball Co. of Chicago advertised Welty pens – and pencils!

I haven’t been able to lay my hands on that catalog, but I bet if I ever do, this little guy is pictured in it!

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

What The??

There’s a guy who has been set up every month I’ve attended the Springfield Antique Show. In the busy months, like the Extravaganza weekends, he’s in the same place as he is during the off months, when he looks like he’s been stranded aground ‘way out there after the tide went out. He has display cases out in the direct sunlight, and only recently – after many of his pencils had warped into writing instruments suitable for a Salvador Dali painting thanks to the heat – did he think to keep the lids propped open a bit to prevent his wares from cooking.

Don’t get me wrong. He’s a really nice guy and I have bought some things off of him over the years. This summer I found something on his table that I just haven’t been able to explain. Here’s the pencil part . . .

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

OK, Maybe I Had The Second Prettiest Wasp . . . Or The Third

I’ll never learn not to put "est" on the back of a word. When I found a lovely rust and teal example of a WASP pencil (that’s the Sheaffer brand - WASP stands for W.A. Sheaffer Pen Company), I’d proudly announced over at Fountain Pen Network that I’d found the prettiest WASP.

As I was cruising around the online auction sites a while back, I saw a picture of another one, but I just wasn’t sure what the true color of it was. I figured what the heck- at worst its another example in the same color, and I love that color. But at best. . .

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

One Wild Goose Chase

Today’s story started for me a few weeks ago when I found this pencil at the Springfield Antique Show.  When I pulled it out of a dollar junk box, I thought it was probably a Presto that I could use for parts. However, my expectations were exceeded when I looked at it more closely:  "Selfeed Made in USA Reg.U.S.Pat.Off." Now that’s different!  Here it is next to what I normally think of when it comes to an oversized Selfeed . . .

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

A Word About Wahl's Military Clip

Joe Nemecek brought this one along to show off in DC.  This is truly a pristine example of a Canadian Wahl Eversharp . . .

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

Now That We've Got The Name

Back on September 21, when I was talking about Rite-Rite "Torpedo" Pencils, I’d included an image of the Rite-Rite trademark. I’ve got a confession to make about that: I never would have found it without a little help from Syd Saperstein, aka "The Wahlnut" on Fountain Pen Network. I’d posted those pictures over on FPN, and Syd casually mentioned, just in case I didn’t know, that Rite-Rite was established by Hyman Golber.

Once I had an unusual name like Hyman Golber to hook up with the search term "Rite-Rite," it was as if the clouds parted. Finding that trademark went from "wouldn’t that be nice to know" to "oh there it is" in a matter of seconds. And the trademark wasn’t the only thing I found!

Here’s a pencil I found some time ago . . .

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

My New Mascot

Pencils with the name "Mascot" on the clip don’t get much respect from collectors. Usually, they are tacky-looking gold plated numbers, often times with an equally tacky looking plastic "jewel" mounted on the top. Occasionally you might find a hand painted, but it will still be hand painted over a tacky looking gold plated number with an equally tacky looking plastic jewel on top. Lipstick on a pig, as the saying goes.

However, when I saw this one I knew I had to have it . . .

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

Scoping Around For Some More Information

Sometimes, after one of my stories runs here at the blog, I’ll get an email that gives me more pieces to the puzzle that I just haven’t been able to find. On those occasions when I thought I knew the whole story but didn’t, that can be a little embarrassing. But I don’t mind, since I never would have learned the story if I hadn’t lobbed something out there.

This is not one of those times. This is an occasion where I’ve got some random information but I just don’t feel like I’ve been able to connect the dots yet, so if anyone out there has the scoop to tell, I’d love to hear it.

Here are the pencils . . .

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

Can You Repeat That?

I picked this on e up in DC, thinking it might be an early Dunn or Selfeed, either of which would have made my day.  But on closer examination, it was neither – in fact, it was much better:  "Nupoint Repeater Patent Pending." Wow! The good news about this one was that I got it on the cheap . . . the bad news was that the reason it was cheap was that it isn’t working . . .

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

You'll Flip Your Top For These

Joe Nemecek’s looking for one of these now, and I promised I’d keep an eye out for one for him. I have, but I haven’t found one that’s a duplicate yet. This one turned up in DC, and I just couldn’t part with it.  It’s a Nupoint, and this one is just cherry. The clip bears a strong resemblance to the clip used on early Parker "Lucky Lock" pencils . . .

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

Do Two Centuries Make a Bicentennial?

One of the pencils Joe Nemecek brought with him to DC for me to photograph was this one. That was our deal when he called dibs in the online auction: he gets the pencil, I get to photograph it.

Joe’s pencil is stamped "Century Pen Company Whitewater Wis." on the side . . .

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

Closing Out In Style

The Eversharp Skyline Press Clip I is a relatively common pencil. Here’s the picture from page of The Catalogue.  Recently, I couldn’t help but splurge on 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

DeWitt-LaFrance Roundup

Although I’ve listed several variations of pencils made by DeWitt-LaFrance in The Catalogue (pages 36 to 38), I didn’t list them all. Here’s another one,  marked "Redypoint/S.Ward Co. Patent Pending" . . .

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

Chiltonpalooza

I’ve been thinking about this article since the Chicago show last May, tucking away little pieces of information until I felt I had enough to write something about Chilton. Chilton is another of those "cult" brands that has a hardcore, dedicated group of devotees who have forgotten more than I will probably ever know on the subject, so I can almost hear the corrections filling my email box as I’m writing this.

First, a quick history. From what I’ve put together, Chilton was formed in late 1923 when Seth Crocker sold assets from the Crocker Pen Company to a partnership in which he was one partner, and at least one of the other partners was the DeWitt-LaFrance Co. Chilton began producing pens in 1924 in Boston, Massachusetts. After the stock market crash, Chilton moved its operations to Long Island City, New York between 1929 and 1931. In 1937, the company moved one more time, to Summit, New Jersey.

My recent Chilton odyssey began in Chicago, where Rick Propas was staffing a table stocked with a lovely spread of Chiltons. They weren’t for sale – not yet, anyway. Rick had just taken a position in the Fine & Vintage Writing Instruments division of Swann Galleries, a New York auction house, and he was at the Chicago show to generate interest in an upcoming auction of pens and pencils, in which most of the lots were the Chilton collection of William Baisden. Although I couldn’t take any of them home with me, Rick did allow me to take some pictures of some of the pencils . . .

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

Adding Both Color and Texture

This was just another face in a crowd of pencils in an online auction, and it wasn’t the one I bought the bunch for.

The pictures online weren’t the best, of this one anyway. I knew it was a large and impressive pencil, but what I was hoping for, and what it turned out to be, was a pencil with an angled top.  Does this look familiar? Remember the Colorgraphs I wrote about here back on December 8? Here is the new find posed next to those other two . . .

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

I Guess I Didn't Read It Closely Enough

A lot of the stories you see in this blog are about looking more closely at something that looks otherwise ordinary. For example, take this one, which turned up at the DC show.

Looks kind of like a military clip Eversharp, doesn’t it? But on closer examination, this is no Eversharp.  This one reads "Neo" Duplex U.T.M. Patent No. 10130. There may be more numbers at the end of that patent number, since the stamp trails off a bit. Since normally a "duplex" pencil will have more than one color lead, I unscrewed the nose cone to see what was going on inside . . .

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

B Who?

The road from my home to the Michigan Pen Show ran right past the Heart of Ohio Antique Mall in Findlay, Ohio, right on Route 75, and since I’d taken the day off Friday to make the trip up I decided to stop in. This was the same mall I’d found the Eisenstadt pencil in over the holidays last year ("The Blind Squirrel Finds a Second Nut," January 3), so I figured it was worth checking back in to see if the pencil selection had been replenished.

Nope. All that was there was the same items I’d passed on last time I was there. I didn’t have time to go through the whole mall – it’s pretty big and would have taken a few hours – but feeling a little skunked, I thought I’d check where I found the Nardi pencil before ("Long Lived, the Nardi," January 4).

That’s where I found this for the bargain basement price of $25 . . .

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

Could This Be The Key?

As I was musing about the "DK" logos denoting David Kahn, Inc., I went back through and checked clips on several other lower-quality brands to see if they shared the same connection. Enter the Keystone, one that I’ve long suspected might have a David Kahn (Wearever) connection. 

The clips on each of these have a "K" on the clip, all right. Duh. It could be Keystone, but could it also stand for Kahn?

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

ZABCO

In all the excitement that surrounded the flurry of neat items Tanya Hile listed, I tripped over Michael Little chasing after this one – I got so excited that I didn’t notice that he was the high bidder when I jumped into the fray.

This is a rear drive pencil, with a painted wood barrel . . .

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

The Fabers That Slipped Under The Radar

In general, between Joe, Mike and I, we were pretty successful in obtaining the key pencils we wanted from Tanya Hile’s listings. But when it came to anything made by Eberhard Faber, all three of us were generally skunked; someone out there in cyberland likes their Fabers, even more than the three of us did. And it wasn’t just one person – several different bidders were really liking the Fabers! So while I’ve got a lot of weird and wonderful things to show you, I don’t have much in the Faber department.

Not much, that is, that’s actually marked Faber . . . Take this one, for example . . .

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.

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When "20th Century" Was Forward Thinking

Here’s another in the parade of items that Tanya Hile listed.

The wood barrel has a spiral cut into the outside, and the metal sleeve that travels up and down the outside of the barrel, in between the two tabs that stick out of the slot pushes the lead forward or pull it back . . .

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

K Sei

I wasn’t going to bid too much on this one from Tanya Hiles, but apparently I was intrigued enough.

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

I Suppose You Can Point With A Baton

You gotta love online sellers who don’t know anything about the things they are selling, because in general, they tend to describe things exactly as they see them, not like they think they are supposed to see them. Tanya Hiles listed this one as an "Eagle Pointer" . . .

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

Crane's Manlier Side

One of the first articles I wrote here at the blog, back on November 10, concerned Newton Crane’s Self Sharpening Pencil Company and the partially stocked display case that turned up at a garage sale in Cambridge, Massachusetts just days after The Catalogue was published. At that time, these were the only examples of the pencil I’d ever seen, and all were painted in pastel colors.

But then along came Tanya Hiles with this one . . .

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

Like Taking Candy From Mr. Stough

"Wow. You don’t have a glass one."

Now that’s pretty high praise coming from Janet. I’ve shown her thousands of pencils over the years, and on many occasions tried to explain to her what makes this one or that one special, valuable or well, just pretty neat. Most of the time she’ll pat me on the head and say "of course it is, honey" or "I’ll take your word for it."

Or most often, "did you say something?"

Actually, it’s not quite like that. Just recently, I showed her a pencil and she said "Now, that’s a Skyline, right?" And she was. Coulda knocked me over with a feather!

But this time, she knew instantly that the pencil I was showing her, another from the Tanya Hile’s online offerings, was truly different from any of the thousands of others I’ve shown her . . .

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

Lamson Pencil Company

Here’s another from the "never heard of that one before" section of Tanya Hiles’ offerings.

This is an all metal pencil imprinted on the barrel "Pat. Nov. 22 ‘04 Pat. May 21 ‘07 The Lamson Pencil Co. Toledo, O." . . .

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

Lippincott Pencil Company

Here’s another from Tanya Hile’s parade of pencils, marked "Lippincott’s Push Point."

There were two of these up for auction. The other one was an earlier example and only had the November 1, 1898 patent date – I wasn’t the high bidder on that one, but this one, with patent dates of November 1, 1898 and April 7,1907, was the one in which I was more interested . . .

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

Following In Someone's Footsteps

An online seller going by the name of "vintagestuffrox" listed this group of pencils in an auction a few weeks ago.

The seller didn’t appear to know very much about pencils, and this bunch obviously hadn’t been cared for very well. When I received them, all were very grimy and each had a stripe of blue paint on one side – not intentionally painted, but it appeared that they had laid next to each other in a garage or in some other dirty place where paint had been spilled. That was ok with me – the seller had disclosed the condition of them in the listing. I knew to expect it, and it isn’t anything a little simichrome won’t take right off. Besides, there is more to this than meets the eye.

This group of pencils sounded an alarm bell with me, that whoever had amassed this grouping knew exactly what they were doing. Check out these Dur-O-Lites . . .

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

I Hear They Also Made Pens

Joe Nemecek brought a number of things for me to photograph at the DC Show. One of them I borrowed to bring home for some quality time.

This pristine example of a Carter’s "Coraltex" (that’s Carter’s name for it) ringtop pencil is in a really unusual purple color, and the graphics on the box are just beautiful.

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

While We're At It . . .

On the subject of Eagles, I don’t remember who I got this one from in DC. It’s the red one, shown next to the Eagle "Gleam" pattern pencil from November 22 ("More Stars and Moons for the Constellation").

It clearly shares the same lines as the other "deco Eagles," as I call them, but it’s a little bit longer and the clip is set much lower on the barrel . . .

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

I'd Better Correct This "Right Away"

Here’s an Eagle "Ritaway" I found amongst David Silber’s pencil hoard at the Raleigh Show in June.

Ritaways are really interesting pencils, sporting painted wooden barrels. This one has a particularly unusual paint job that looks more at home with a lava lamp than with a flapper . . .

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

Woof!

Old dogs quit chasing cars because they’ve learned they won’t know what to do if they catch it, and I’m kind of turning into an old dog when it comes to victorian pencils at a pen show. I know I can chase them all day long, but I know I’m probably not going to be able to afford one if I catch it.

But when this one rolled by at DC, I couldn’t help myself. I barked a few times and took off after it anyway . . .

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

I Believe So

Here’s another one of the things that popped out of Mike Bloom’s box o’ surprises from DC.

This is one of the Eagle "nonpointers," those pencils which were really Eagle Pointers but were not so marked (see "I Had to ‘Point’ This Out" on March 20). But the question in my mind when I first looked at it was whether that top really belonged on this pencil. I now think I can say for certain that it is; here it is, in between one of the Pointers shown next to the one shown on page 46 of The Catalogue and an Eagle "Magnum Pointer" from page 47 . . .

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

A Honkin' Big Clip

When I saw this one in an online auction a few months ago, I wasn’t really sure what to think, other than "Huh. That’s different."

Such a tiny little pencil behind that enormous clip. In fact, it’s a full sized roller clip, the same one used on the early Equipoised pencils. Here’s it is next to an Equipoised. . .

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

Leadhead's Tread: Michigan Pen Show

"Why do you want to go there?"

When I heard that in response to my comment that I was going to the Michigan Pen Show, I knew that I was going to start my report off with a heartfelt apology, on behalf of my people, for the way many of my fellow Ohioans behave around this time of the year when it comes to our northern neighbors.

See, I’m used to people asking me why I’d want to make a road trip to spend a weekend playing with pens and pencils. But that’s not what this guy was getting at. He wanted to know why I would choose to go to Michigan, home state of the Michigan Wolverines, since I am both an Ohioan and an Ohio State alumnus – after all, what right-thinking Buckeye would do such a thing?

Yeah. And I’m the one that needs to get a life, right?

So before I get started with my show report proper, I’ve got a neat story about the Ohio-Michigan rivalry that’s largely forgotten: how it started.  It had nothing to do with a gridiron battle, but it did involve a battle of another sort. Ever hear of the Toledo War?

In 1787, Congress (that’s the Congress under the Articles of Confederation – the current United States Constitution was enacted that year but had not yet been ratified) enacted the Northwest Ordinance, which defined a large area of land called the Northwest Territory and provided that no less than three and no more than five states would be created out of it. Ohio, along with Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota, were all carved out of the Northwest Territory.

Part of the Northwest Ordinance provided that the north-south border of three of these states – what are now Ohio, Michigan and Indiana – would be an east-west line intersecting the southern tip of Lake Michigan. Ohio was the first state admitted out of the Northwest Territory, joining the Union in 1803, and included within its boundaries from the earliest days was the Port of Miami, an important commercial port on the western edge of Lake Erie which is today known as Toledo.

Now it’s time to get out your map and take a close look at it. Is Toledo south of the southern tip of Lake Michigan? No, it absolutely is not. By all rights, under the Northwest Ordinance, it should be Toledo, Michigan.

It’s easy to understand how the mistake happened. Not only was it extremely difficult at the time to draw a straight line a couple hundred miles long through dense woods, no one was really sure in 1803 exactly where the southern tip of Lake Michigan was.

Whether it was an honest mistake or not, it didn’t help matters that in 1816, when the United States Government sought to clarify Ohio’s northern boundary, the U.S. Surveyor General was Edward Tiffin, a former governor of Ohio (and the man for whom Tiffin, Ohio is named), and the resulting survey found – surprise, surprise – that Toledo is in Ohio.

By 1835, when Michigan applied for statehood, improved knowledge of geography made it perfectly clear that the bustling port of Toledo was in Michigan, and of course Michigan wanted it – Ohio’s "dibs" notwithstanding. Both Ohio and Michigan raised militias in preparation for a border war, and both Ohio and Michigan passed laws making it treasonous to pledge allegiance to the other. The conflict was only averted in 1836 when Congress made Michigan a deal: give up Toledo, and we’ll give you (1) statehood and (2) the Upper Peninsula.

So whenever Buckeyes and Wolverines prepare to settle their differences, whether it be on the football field, a basketball court, or in a misguided display of "school spirit" between fans of opposing teams in a bar, just remember that no matter what happens, it will never be Toledo, Michigan if Ohio loses, and if we play double or nothing and Ohio wins, it still won’t be Sault Ste Marie, Ohio.

And yes, I did willingly venture across the once-disputed "Toledo strip," bearing nothing but a truckload of pens and pencils and the usual desire to reconnect with old friends and make a few new ones!

The Michigan show is different from the other ones I’ve attended this year. It is truly a club show, organized and put on by volunteers on a not-for-profit (in fact, little-bit-of-a-loss) basis. The ringleader of the bunch (show organizer) is Lih-Tah Wong, shown here multitasking as gatekeeper, communications director and possible ebay surfer . . .

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

The Holes Are OK This Time

You know, with all that talk about Dur-O-Lite lately, I really should have shown this one off.

I got this from Michael Little in Chicago, who has advised me that if I continue to be so obviously excited about the things I buy from him, he’s going to start raising his prices. Therefore, in the interests of self-preservation, I will state for the record that I’m not the least bit excited about this one. Geez, Mike, what are you trying to sell me here? This one has a hole cut in the top!

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

Dur-O-Lite Repeaters Revisited

It occurred to me that while I was discussing the Dur-O-Matic the other day, I didn’t include a full-length shot of the later-style Dur-O-Lite Ejector pencils.  This one is imprinted with "Loyal Order of the Moose" . . .

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

Neither Dis One Or Dat One

If you ever get the chance to go to Newfoundland, take it. It’s not a glitzy place, and my trips there have been hunting trips – woodland caribou and moose. But it’s home to the best people on earth, with the best sense of humor to match.

There’s two major airports on the island. One is in St. John, the only metropolitan area in the province. The other is Gander, which more towards the center of the province. While at most airports you fumble around trying to find the right gate, you won’t have that problem in Gander, because there are only two – which the airport workers refer to, in their Newfoundland dialect, as "Dis One" and "Dat One."

Incidentally (I’m getting a little off topic with this, but it’s a great story that should be remembered), on September 11, 2001, Gander is the airport to which all of the large international planes that were in the air were diverted and grounded, because while it lacks a lot of amenities it has several large runways that could handle them. That tiny airport in that small town suddenly had dozens of planes on its runway and thousands of terrified and uncertain people with only two small hotels to house them.

So how did so many of us get through that darkest day in modern times? Through an amazing display of kindness and love in a place none of them ever expected to visit. Hundreds of Newfoundlanders from the surrounding area showed up in their cars at the airport that day. They each picked up as many complete strangers as they had room for, and they took them back to their own homes. They fed them, housed them and let them call their loved ones so they would know they were safe. Gradually, things calmed down and they brought them back to Gander airport, to see their new friends off, waving best wishes as they left from either dis gate or dat one.

That’s what Newfoundlanders are like, and I still get choked up when I tell that story. So if you ever feel the need to make fun of Canada – and Newfoundland in particular – don’t. Particularly in front of me. They are my friends and they should be yours too.

OK, end of sermon and back to the story at hand. The reason all this came to mind was as I was thinking about the Gold Bond pencils (Montgomery Ward’s store brand), I was thinking about the two types I’ve seen. There’s dis one, the kind made by National Pen Products under the Rex Patents . . .

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

Drop The Quotations

Way back on February 14, I wrote an article on Eagle Drop pencils. A few weeks ago, I was rereading that article to see if I put the phrase "Drop pencil" in quotes – I’d always heard them called that, and the name fits perfectly for what they do, but the only words on the examples I’d found were "Eagle Pencil Co." and the patent dates.

I try to be careful when I don’t have any evidence that a title for a pencil is the formal name given to it by its manufacturer, because otherwise it’s simply a descriptive collector’s nickname that we use today as a matter of convenience. I probably should apologize that I didn’t say "drop pencil" is a nickname.

But I can’t.

A while back, a seller in an online auction who didn’t appear to know beans about pencils included in his description of a fuzzy picture showing several pencils that one was an Eagle Drop pencil. Here it is . . .

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

Dur-O-What?

When I first started practicing law twenty years ago, one of the old lawyers in the firm I was working for told me something I’ve never forgotten. "The whole trick to this," he said, "is to be able to read the words that are actually there. Not what you assume is there, and not what you think is there – only what is actually there."

Those words have served me well in life, not just in the practice of law but in a variety of situations, including the one that leads to today’s story. Were it not for that bit of wisdom, I would have seen an online auction listing for a "Dur-O-Matic" pencil and breezed right past it, assuming that the seller meant "Dur-O-Lite."

But I could hear the old lawyer’s voice in my head say, "Dur-O-What?" So I zoomed in closer for a second look, and by golly, that’s exactly what it said . . .

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

Rite-On!

"Ever seen a ‘Rite-O’?" Michael Little emailed me a while back. I hadn’t yet, but I’d seen something close.

I’d found this stocked display of lead and eraser refills in an online auction some time ago, and even though I didn’t know there were any pencils to go with it, I just thought it was too neat to pass up. The display indicates it was made by the "Tri-Ess Corporation" of Jersey City, New Jersey . . .

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