A Nice Duet of Tripoints

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It seems that this blog has been promoting some interest in the Nichols Products Company’s Tri-Points lately, which is great since I’ve felt like the cult pencil’s entire fan club for so long, but it also means I face competition for nice examples these days.  I have turned up a couple interesting ones lately.  This one, for example, turned up in a dollar junk box at the Springfield Extravaganza last summer:

I’ve only seen one other all-metal incarnation of the Tri-Point, and it came from the Edgar Nichols estate (that’s the Nichols in Nichols Products Corporation).  I can’t say either way whether the cap, contrasting with the nickel plated barrel, is original:

It does fit nicely, and if it didn’t come with this pencil, I don’t know what it did come from . . . so I’ll give it a pass.  Besides, comparing it to my other, chrome-plated example, there are some design similarities, with two slightly flared rings:

But this one has a much earlier ball clip, and one other thing which sets it apart from the other examples:

Other than the earliest of Edgar Nichols’ personal prototypes I acquired from his estate, this is the only example I’ve found lacking a Nichols Products imprint.