This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 6, now on sale at The Legendary Lead Company. I have just a few hard copies left of the first printing, available here, and an ebook version in pdf format is available for download here.
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The earlier metal Keene-marked pencils are a cult thing, known only to a few hardcore pencil guys since there were no matching pens. Later examples, accompanied by large matching fountain pens, are somewhat better known and were obviously made by Eclipse, as you can see from the use of Eclipse’s 1923 patent clips.
Yeah, that pen with a price tag is killer -- the “Big Bill.” I haven’t thought about it in years, and it figured into an article I posted here that has long since been the victim of Google’s image-cleansing purge. For those who have the print or ebook version of The Leadhead’s Pencil Blog there’s more about that one in Volume 2, on page 50.
I’ve heard of all-black barrel Keene pencils, in addition to the red and mottled (kinda) hard rubber versions. But outside of black, red and both, I never knew of anything else. It always seemed odd to me that the flamboyant Keene, hiring a manufacturer that used a lot of brightly colored plastics, didn’t custom order some pens and pencils with a bit more flair to them.
Until a chance find online turned this one up:
I’m loving that green swirled color. Eclipse clips are a pain in the behind to try to repair, adjust or replace, so I have no doubt that this Keene clip is what was originally installed. If there are other interesting Eclipse pencils out there with Keene clips, I’d like to know about them.
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