What I Knew Was Out There

This article has been included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 7, now available here.

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This was one of those that had me sit on pins and needles hoping no one else recognized what it was.  I did, and I’ve been looking for one for quite some time:

That flat ball clip and gold filled section was the last piece of a puzzle on which I’ve been working:

Sheaffer’s “Working Togs” line of utility pencils were graced with some models with higher end trim, and this one completed my collection of the cataloged variations:

The top two examples, with their flat ball clips, were cataloged in 1939.

The catalog is vague: the illustrations are accompanied by descriptions of “Gold capped” and “Gold center section” models, but the text mentions a “Working Togs Dressed Up” as model YLE and “Working Togs Full Dress” as model CLE.   I think the “full dress” version is the one with the gold-filled center section.

The remaining models are cataloged in 1940 and 1941. For 1940, Model ILE included a gold center section and cap, and model KLE included just the gold cap.  Both were described as having “ribbon” chasing on the metal, meaning groups of lines with plain sections separating them. 

For 1941, Model FLE had a gold center section and cap with ‘standard chasing,” and Model KLE was the same as described for 1940.

That means my black example with the rounded cap was offered as model KLE in 1940 and 1941:

While my two gold center and cap models are, from top, Model FLE from 1941, and Model ILE, from 1940:

That bottom example, a special pearl center model with Sheaffer’s factory pictured, came from Dan Reppert a few years back during the Michigan show and made an appearance here a few years ago (Volume 4, page 261).  Just seemed like it should be included here.