Eversharpish

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 5; 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.

I don’t remember who brought this one to me in DC:

This isn’t something I’d normally go for - clearly not American, and unmarked.  But look at what’s inside:

It’s so close to a first-generation Eversharp inside that were it made in the United States, it would most certainly have been the subject of litigation:

Yeah, I’m showing off a little bit . . . that’s a solid gold hand engraved Eversharp. 

What’s really cool about this piece is the way its design overcomes the first-generation Eversharp’s design quirk.  With the Eversharp, the lead is pushed forward as that plunger rod is screwed down into the barrel, which means when you’ve reached the end of your lead and need to reload, you have to manually unscrew it all the way back out.   In America, when the Eversharp was redesigned in 1924, the new mechanism only had teeth on one side, with a projection at the front end of the mechanism which kicked the rod in when the mechanism hit bottom and allowed you to simply pull it out.

This English example solves that inconvenience in an elegant way: the drive tube itself is swaged in a bit towards the front end, and the push rod has a split plunger:

So when the plunger reaches that point, it is pulled inward to disengage the teeth so the mechanism can be pulled out.  In fact, this mechanism can be pulled out at any point, rather than just at the bottom:

I’m sure there’s more to this story, and a tantalizing lead is stamped on the upper part of the mechanism:

“Patent.”  That likely indicates English manufacture.  I’d love to find out more about English writing instrument patents (since I’ve written two books on American patents and I understand the value of the information they provide), but they are not organized anything like our well-organized American system.  In fact, the Brits from what I understand have a pay-per-view system for looking at their historical patents.

Someone should write a book.  And no, I’m not volunteering.