That Third Swing

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After the Baltimore 2020 Show, it had been more than a year without a U.S. pen show before Raleigh. During that time, online shopping was responsible for nearly all of the new acquisitions arriving on my doorstep; along with them came the freeloaders - other bits of collateral junk (er, little treasures) that were not the target of my bidding.

They accumulated in two small plastic totes – one contained nicer things, but duplicates of what was already in the collection, and one containing . . . little treasures.  

Both of these little totes were along for the ride as I went to Raleigh.  Once things were spread out on a display table, I knew I’d finally have the time (and space) to incorporate the items in the better tote into my show display.  As for the lesser of two totes?  To quote Rob Bader as I tend to do, I was looking for the opportunity to tell someone “I’m not taking them home with me, so the only question is how much you are going to pay me for them.”

Funny that it was Rob Bader who gave me the opportunity to say something close to that.  He had one really cool pencil that he had shown me during Thursday’s preshow trading.  We both knew I’d end up with it, and the only question was how it was going to happen.  

My goal when I go to shows is to come home with different crap, not less crap - but this time, I saw an opportunity to do both.  Since Rob and I rarely use cash as things pass back and forth between us, I put on my best Memphis drawl to make a proposal, puffing out my chest as I announced: “I . . . will trade you . . . this entire tote full of inventory . . . for just that one pencil.”  Rob liked my impression of him:

What’s so special about this one?  Give it a second . . . 

This Sheaffer Balance is outfitted for .075" checking lead, and it is only the second example I’ve seen.  The first was also at the Raleigh Pen Show, shortly after I started the Legendary Lead Company – Rob Morrison brought one exactly like this one over to my table looking for some leads that would fit it.  

I probably “shot myself in the ass” when I said that I had some, because any chance I might have persuaded him to part with the pencil evaporated once he made a few scrawls with my “Mighty 75" leads in china marker.  In fact, he scampered off so quickly to go play with his prized Sheaffer that I didn’t get the chance to take a few pictures!

Sheaffer also used the .075" mechanism – just as rarely – on earlier “Titan” flattop pencils.  A couple years ago I had a better shot at one of these, when Nathaniel Cerf had an example over at penmarket.com in jade.  Nathaniel let me share his picture of it here:

But there was a problem.  Yes, I’d seen Nathaniel’s post about the pencil on social media . . . yes, I was thinking about pulling the trigger on it . . . and yes, Nathaniel and I were talking about it.  However, while I was a’ thinkin’ about it, Matt McColm sent me an email, excitedly asking me “what the heck is THIS?”

After all Matt has done for me over the years, I wasn’t going to get in the way - Matt didn’t know Nathaniel, so I convinced myself it was better to introduce two good friends and let Matt have this one.  Besides, I'd be just as happy with Nathaniel’s picture as I would be owning an example.

OK, I’ll admit I’m lying about that last part.

Matt managed to wrestle a mechanism out of a regular-lead Titan for a better look at what's inside.  

Sheaffer pencils are among the most robust out there, but these checking pencils are really built like tanks – blindfolded, with a standard lead Sheaffer in one hand and a checking pencil in the other, you’d have no trouble telling which is which just by the weight.  

The Titan was cataloged in black with “oversize” lead as model SLCO – the “O” was for oversize – in 1930.  

Jade was also cataloged as model SJCO, although the illustration doesn’t show it that way, and “coral,” Sheaffer’s orange color, was SOCO:

A few years ago I took pictures of another, more common variety of Sheaffer’s checking pencils, in a form more like what you would expect – an all-metal utility model with an exposed eraser:

 

These were also cataloged in 1930 - as model SAA with standard leads, and AAA for oversized leads:

Models SAA and AAA are also found in Sheaffer’s 1935 catalog, but the AAA appears to be an ordinary bell top Sheaffer with ordinary lead.  By 1935, the “rigid radius” clips - introduced as the “First Lady Line,” were in production, but the catalogs report no pencils using thicker lead.  By 1936, neither model is listed, and whether Sheaffer’s checking pencils were geared towards utilitarian or the luxury market, all were displaced by the “Working Togs” pencils (see “Rise of Tog” at https://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2021/04/rise-of-tog.html).

Since these pictures of the model AAA were taken before I started the Legendary Lead Company, I didn’t have any lead to add to it at the time.  I’ve since added a piece of “Mighty 75" to it, and I’ve also managed to scrounge up a wooden tube of Sheaffer-branded checking leads.

Rob Bader’s Sheaffer was the second nicest thing I picked up in Raleigh this year.  He set up his wares on Friday morning, with boxes of pencils to paw through on his table . . . but nothing else caught my eye.  In fact, after I’d dug around a bit in one of them, I was recognizing some of them from that tote I had traded to him the day before.  I placed Rob on explicit orders to shoot me if I tried to buy something I had traded to him the day before.

Rob professes to prefer "less crap, not different crap" by show's end, but after he took my tote full o' gems he was behind in the count.  As is his habit, Rob headed home after the show closed on Saturday.  When the show reopened on Sunday morning, his table was arranged with a few dozen heavy, cast iron bits of ephemera . . . ink stand bases and such, and a sign:  first item is free, leave $5 in the cup for your second one.

He didn’t leave a cup.