Back of the Virtual Milk Carton

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After the Hershey Metal Products piece ran, it was driving me crazy trying to remember what the other pencil was in that picture  – the long one with the clip:

I remembered that the only connection between the two was that they both came to me in the same box of junk, and that neither of them were the reason I bought that box of junk.  The pictures I shot were end-of-day shots, when I had finished shooting what I thought was the important stuff and I was just making sure I had these two documented.  I didn’t even care enough to shoot them separately.

But then I poked around and learned the story behind the little ringtop in that picture, which was marked “Hershey / Derby Conn.”  Maybe it’s the OCD in me, maybe it was a hunch that the other shoe might drop with that other pencil . . . I spent way too much time combing through hundreds of images in the dead letter office to find the shots of that other pencil.

Believe me, that was easier than going down and browsing through the museum looking for it.  I would have stowed it away alphabetically, and probably in a drawer since it isn’t really the sort of thing you’ll see on the wall o’ pencils (since the wall is the stuff I love looking at whenever I flip on the lights).

At last, it turned up.  Fortunately, I had made a duplicate of that full-length shot and named it with the other brand name, followed by a shot of the barrel imprint:

“No. 36 Kenrite St. Louis,” the imprint reads.   I did do a little bit of checking at the time I took these pictures, and I retraced my steps again in preparation for writing this, but I’m finding nothing about a Kenrite company (except the leather company in Australia, which I think I’m safe in ruling out) or any mention of a company turning out a pencil called the “Kenrite.”

So I’m left with comparing the Kenrite to other things in the museum.  That combination of design features had me first thinking David Kahn, Inc., makers of the Wearever and other third-tier lines.  Here’s why I thought so:

Slim model Wearevers aren’t as common as their full-sized counterparts; the clips are the same size as the bigger ones, so they share that similar, gawky appearance as the Kenrite.  Yet both of these Wearevers are nose-drive pencils, while the Kenrite is rear-drive.  So maybe, maybe not.

The Kenrite’s imprint reads “St. Louis,” which is the biggest reason I’m looking elsewhere.  After all, why would someone in St. Louis import product from North Bergen, New Jersey when there were two great sources for pencils like these locally – Ritepoint and Quickpoint?

Ritepoint wasn’t the logical answer to me, since I haven’t seen anything like this bearing the Ritepoint name.  Quickpoint, though, is a different story:

At first blush, these don’t look like a match.  However, all three of these Quickpoints are rear drive pencils, and while the company did turn out thinner models, none of the ones I’ve found have this older style clip.  And it is the same clip . . .