Sunday, April 1, 2018

Coming to Ohio . . . But Not Home To Ohio

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.

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This one popped up online, and I had to bite for two reasons:


First, I hadn’t heard the name in connection with a pencil before:


“Whitney.”  Second, I was in a hurry at the time but with a few fleeting seconds of poking around told met here was a Whitney pen company in Cleveland, in my home state of Ohio.  Good enough: healthy bid, back to work, check in at the end of the day to find out it’s coming home.  It’s an ordinary nose-drive pencil, nothing too unusual, although the trim is kind of nice and that plastic has some great depth to it:



But . . . April Fools . . . any connection to the R.W. Whitney Fountain Pen Company of Cleveland is a pipe dream, since the company appeared to last only into the teens, probably fifteen to twenty years before this Whitney pencil was made.  Back to square one we go.  The Whitney is likely a new arrival to Ohio rather than a prodigal son returning to native soil.

I haven’t found out anything concerning who might have used the name, but I do have some idea who might have made it:


That’s the Whitney next to a 1930s Diamond Point.  The plastic, the three trim bands, the rounded top – all are too similar not to notice.

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