Was There a "Finestpointe?"

I really took an irresponsible chance on this one:

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.

Waterman Checking Pencils in Raleigh

George Rimakis had a few pencils in tow that I didn’t bring home with me, but we did spend some time taking pictures of them in my mobile studio:

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.

Never A Dull Moment

While I was researching Byers and Hayes for yesterday’s article, I found a reference in a couple places suggesting that the firm made "Never-Dull" pencil cases, a fact which surprised me as I had always known the "Never-Dull" as Eclipse’s early metal pencils:

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.

From the Mailbag: Byers and Hayes

Sue Hershey found a really nice pencil, and she sent me a few pictures to ask what I knew about it:

And what she found was that I knew absolutely nothing about it. At the top of the pencil, she’d found a cryptic imprint. Would that help?

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.

From the Mailbag: Roseville Novelty Works

Martha Nichols sent me an email with some pictures of an unusual pencil:

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.

The Other One I Thought Might Be Out There

Remember the "Roller Rule?"

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.

　
　

"Modern"

Since my article yesterday concerned A.A. Waterman & Co., this seems like the perfect time to bring up something else I’ve never been quite sure about. I’ve found two of these over the years:

At the top of each of these is imprinted "Modern / Pat. Jan. 20, 1920":

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.

A Different Sort of a Different Waterman

George Rimakis was full of surprises in Raleigh. After knocking my socks off with a couple Patricians right when I walked in the door, he had a couple other things about which he wanted my opinion. When he showed them to me, my opinion was that if I couldn’t talk him out of them, maybe I could talk him into a little quality time with my portable studio, so we headed up to my room to take a few pictures:

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.

The Waterman 96?

At the Raleigh (Triangle) Pen Show this year, I was flagged down almost immediately upon arrival by George Rimakis, a very young and energetic collector who I’ve seen at shows but with whom I’ve not had much chance to interact. He had some "weird Watermans" to show me, and Joe Nemecek (the earlier bird to whom he’d shown these particularly juicy worms) had advised George that between the two of us, I was the weird Waterman department.

I looked, I admired, and ultimately I decided to try to live up to my reputation as "Weird Waterman Man" and brought home three of the Watermans, two of which I’ll share today. While I don’t think I’m an expert on these, now that I’ve studied these more closely I think I’ve learned a couple things.

The first is what George called an "unfinished" Patrician in onyx, shown here at bottom next to a fully trimmed coutnerpart:

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.

Maybe It Stands for "Great Freakin' Pencil?"

Joe Nemecek knows that, while I may not be a rabid Buckeye fan, I am through and through a proud Ohioan. That’s why he brought this one with him to the Raleigh Pen Show and insisted on giving it to me:

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.

What the Very First Ever Sharps Looked Like

I’ve been particularly lucky in my pencil hunting over the last month or so. Here are three very early pre-Wahl Ever Sharp (that’s two words) pencils that have come my way:

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.

Is Next . . . Pocketvear

When I saw this one come up in an online auction, I had to have it because I just knew there would be a great story behind it:

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.

Now We Knew Who "R" and "G" Were

The Ritewell is sort of a cult classic among pencil collectors. It appears on page 129 of The Catalogue, and since the book was printed I’ve found a couple others:

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.

I Thought Wrong

When I finally found a second example of a Parker Vacumatic desk pencil on Terry Sell’s table at the 2012 Ohio Show, after the better part of a decade keeping my eyes peeled for one, I was beginning to notice a pattern. Of course, finding only two of these, years apart, didn’t make for much of a "pattern," but I was beginning to think a couple things. I thought that all these Vacumatic desk pencils were about thesame size:

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.