Inside and Out

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 3; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

As far as I’m concerned, "Eversharp copy" means more than a metal pencil that kind of looks like a metal Eversharp. It has to both look and operate like one:

None of these are American. Although I strive mightily to limit my collection to American mechanical pencils, when it comes to all things Eversharp, I do bend the rules on occasion. Have a look inside these:

OK, the bottom one isn’t exactly like an Eversharp, but I’ve got a thing for perpetual calendars, too. Sue me. However, the others match what you’ll find inside an Eversharp (that’s the ringtop example below in this picture):

None of the imposters are marked with a manufacturer’s imprint, but all are clearly foreign. The bolted-on clips are usually a pretty good indicator, but the clincher is the silver content stamped on the tangs of the clips:

Eighty three to eighty three and a half percent silver isn’t quite sterling, but it’s close. 

Here’s a "Dictator" that I couldn’t resist, either.

Inside, the pencil has something very close to an Eversharp mechanism, but with a sold slotted tube rather than a true Eversharp mechanism with separately formed "legs" inside which the threaded pushrod travels:

The "Dictator" is stamped "Alpacca" on the crown:

Alpacca isn’t a brand - it’s another designation of the metal content, which is also known as "German Silver." German silver doesn’t actually have any silver content at all: it’s an alloy usually comprised of 60 percent copper, 20 percent nickel and 20 percent zinc.

Even though I usually don’t go out of my way to pick up foreign copies of the American Eversharp, at the Ohio Show there were a couple things in the auction that I made a point to bring home:

True to form for foreign Eversharp copies, both have bolted on clips, and the silver is marked close to sterling:

But these don’t look anything like an Eversharp. In fact, the rounded tops and complicated groupings of rings look a lot more like something made by W. S. Hicks:

But only on the outside: