Something Even Cooler Than the Cap

Michael McNeil emailed me awhile ago to ask me if I might be interested in a hard rubber pencil with a cap. When he sent me the pictures to clarify, there wasn’t any question that I’d be interested in it, and we entered into one our strange negotiations in which he asks what I think it’s worth, I tell him, he says that’s too much, and we finally settle on a price that’s the most he will accept and the least I’m willing to pay:

No, I won’t show you a picture of it with the cap on, because it is really, really, REALLY tight, and I was on pins and needles gently rocking it back and forth to get it off there for this picture without cracking it. The capped pencil idea is one that never really took off: the idea grew out of Cross’ bread-and-butter business of making stylographic pens, which really did need caps. It was a great way to kill two birds with one stone, providing for the more efficient use of hard rubber parts on hand as well as providing us with one of the only vintage pencils out there with a cap.

But that’s not the cool part.

To learn more, this full article is included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 3, 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.