Death and Transfiguration Part I: The Death of Triad

"I don’t think that’s a Triad." Who would have thought that a simple statement like that could nearly start a rumble at a Pen Show?

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning.

Triads – the "real ones" – are worth a small fortune. A perfect storm of beauty, rarity and the fact that they are accompanied by beautiful and rare matching pens swirls around them and drives the prices they realize up into the hundreds of dollars. The last one that came along in an online auction went for well above $800.00 – and I wasn’t the high bidder. Dammit. I still don’t own one.

Here’s a picture of Joe Nemecek’s Triad collection, as pictured on page 157 of The Catalogue:

The rear drive, heavy pencils on the left are what I’m talking about. The colors on some of these look just like the wild celluloid Mont Blanc used on its Oscar Wilde pencils recently. They have a cool triangularish top and are imprinted "Tri-Pen Co." and either "Providence R.I." or "Pawtucket, R.I."

But then there’s those other ones, like the three on the right in this picture, that just aren’t the same and truthfully just aren’t nearly as good. Sure, they’re triangular all right, and the clips look something like the "real" Triads, but they are a lot lighter, made with cheaper, blander plastics and have a simple, cheap nose drive mechanism stuck in the end of them. What’s more, most of them are advertisers.

To learn more, this full article is included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 2, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and everywhere else you buy books, or you can order a copy signed by yours truly through the Legendary Lead Company HERE.