Step one: observe. Step two: compare those observations to what you know. Step three: draw reasonable conclusions. That process always serves me well.
Still, when one of those reasonable conclusions runs contrary to a bit of our collective lore, I often get some pushback. We grow fond of the stories that are passed down to us, even when they are ludicrous – often out of the love and respect we have for the people from whom we heard those stories. If you said George Parker came out with ringtop Duofolds in pastel moire colors because he was really the Easter Bunny, you could do so with a straight face by prefacing that statement with “Fultz once said . . ..”
No, Michael Fultz never said any such thing. That’s intended as a tribute to how much I respect the man and how much influence he still has today.
When it came to the conclusions I drew regarding Wahl-marked Skyline pens (“A Better, Simpler Explanation” on October 18, 2025), I was bucking the time-honored story that the newly-minted Eversharp, Inc. slapped the Wahl name on a few Skylines just to preserve the exclusive rights to the Wahl name.
That never made much sense to me – from my own experience, when I purchased the assets of the failed Autopoint Company, I didn’t pursue Autopoint’s trademarked names – I renamed my existing Legendary Lead Company the Legendary Pencil Company. Many people have asked me why I didn’t want the Autopoint name, and I tell them all the same thing: Autopoint failed because it wasn’t paying anybody, including its landlord. My name was better than theirs.
Wahl was in the same boat in 1939, facing threats from the Federal Trade Commission, angry shareholders and litigation. Putting the Wahl name on a new Eversharp Inc. product would only paint a target on the new company’s back.
To my surprise, “A Better, Simpler Explanation” was well received. Several collectors looked at their Wahl-marked Skylines pens and without exception, everyone saw the same thing I was seeing: Wahl markings on the back of the clip for no apparent reason as well as on the front. All reached the same conclusion I did, that the Skyline was introduced before the first advertisements for them appeared in 1940, and before Wahl reorganized into Eversharp, Inc.
A Wahl catalog or official Wahl announcement would provide the concrete proof, but none are known as of this writing. No matter how reasonable the conclusion is, even if beyond a reasonable doubt, it’s a circumstantial case. If only there was some hard, primary evidence . . .
No, I didn’t do this on purpose, although the timing couldn’t have been better. Janet and I trekked over to Springfield last weekend to browse an antique mall we had not visited for some time, and one display case had this in it:
The slots are narrower, suggesting this case was intended for pencils rather than fountain pens, and the glass is acid-etched with words, including one that shouldn’t be there:
“Wahl Eversharp Skyline.” That is as clear a pronouncement as you could want that the Skyline was introduced in 1939 or very early 1940, before The Wahl Company ceased to exist. But wait . . . there’s more . . . the smaller text beneath the main title is extremely difficult to make out, but I was able to decipher it with a loupe:
“Super Flex Full Flex Medium Flex Oxford Demi”
The word “Oxford” is the one that stands out, because the name is one the Wahl Company used for its inexpensive lines during the 1930s; there is no evidence that Eversharp, Inc. ever used the name after the merger.
And wait . . . there’s even more . . .
On the top edge of the case, the dealer who originally used this case put handwritten stickers on the top of the lid, so that a salesman could see the model numbers and prices without opening the case for the customer on the other side of the counter. Of course there is no direct evidence that these stickers were there in 1939, rather than stuck on there by some random person for some random reason at some random time over the last 75 years or so. However, I’ll tell you why I do believe they were put there in 1939 – and this is where things get really interesting.
The stickers read:
#162 / $1.00
#8 / 108 / $7.36
#72 / 172 / $1.25
#72X / $1.25
#162 / $1.40
#165 / $1.50
#106 / (unreadable)
#166 / $1.40
These appear to be Skyline model numbers – almost. Skyline fountain pens had two-digit model numbers, and the pencil used the same numbers with the addition of a leading number 1.Therefore, for example, a standard length Modern Stripe Skyline pen was Model 75 and the matching pencil was model 175.
Chapter Fifteen in Eversharp: Cornerstone of an Industry, includes a comprehensive taxonomy of Skyline configurations and model designations compiled from period catalog materials and surviving examples with price stickers. The model numbers for nearly every surviving variant has been identified.
Not a single one of the model numbers on this display case matches what we know to exist. Each of these numbers, though, is tantalizingly close. Models 160 and 161 were demi and standard-size Presentation Skylines, respectively, with ribbed, gold-filled upper barrels. Models 162, 165, and 166, however, are unknown.
Models 170 and 171 were demi and standard-size “Presentation Vertical” Skylines, respectively, with their gold-filled upper barrels adorned with lines running lengthwise rather than around the barrel. Models 174 and 175 were the demi and standard-size “Modern Stripe” (nicknamed “moire” by collectors) – the 1940 price sheet on page 336 in Eversharp added a suffix of B, G, or S to denote the color (blue, green, or silver grey).
Model 172 and Model 72 (presumably, the matching fountain pen) are unknown, and the possible existence of a Model 72X pen is really exciting. Other known Skyline models with a letter suffix denoted special barrel materials: Model 78P was the unicorn all-Platinum pen, Model 78SY was the Command Performance pen in solid 14k gold, Model 78Y denoted a gold-filled cap and barrel, and Model 78W had a stainless cap.
The sterling-capped Skyline, like the one from that earlier article, has not been documented with an official model number; perhaps X designated sterling, although I’d think if that were true it would be Model 78X, not Model 72X. Maybe it was something else; since it only cost $1.25, it likely wasn’t any other expensive material – maybe it was the brown Modern Stripe, since “B” was already occupied by the color blue. Who knows – maybe these stickers set doorbuster prices to clear out old Wahl models after the reorganization.
Then there’s that crazy #8 / 108 designation, which appears to have been $7.36 for a pen and pencil set (if I’m reading the handwriting correctly). Models 100, 101, 102, and 103 were lower-tier press-clip models meant for utilitarian use, and press-clip pens were “especially for grade school use” (see page 348 in Eversharp for the advertisement which documents this). There was no Model 108, according to my research, and there was no Model 106, either. I’ve never seen a sticker on a press-clip pen – not surprising, since they were made to be abused and nearly every example I’ve seen was ridden hard and put away wet. Whatever this was, it was more expensive than anything known in the 100 series of Skylines.
Here is my theory, based on comparing these observations to what we know. The consolidation into Eversharp, Inc. was in the works for a year before it was consummated in early 1940. The Skyline was already well into development, and it was likely test-marketed by Wahl to be sure it would be a tremendous success for the newly-formed company.
The main reason for the reorganization was for Wahl to escape all of the obligations that were dragging the company down – one substantial obligation was the company’s repair obligations pursuant to its double-check lifetime warranty. Perhaps the model designations for the Skylines were already planned before the reorganization, but for Wahl's test marketing purposes, Wahl used different model numbers to differentiate those pens and pencils which the new company would have no warranty obligation to repair.
Yes, I know that part is conjecture – a reasonable conclusion, based on comparing what we observe here to what we already know. Now, as all of my Eversharp fans in the peanut gallery digest this article and look more closely at the examples they have, our challenge is to determine if there are stickered examples that bear any of these mystery model numbers to see if this conjecture is ultimately proven correct.
A few notes of caution as we undertake this new challenge: first, the fountain pens had price bands on their barrels, and to my knowledge all of the caps are interchangeable. Other than “junk box provenance,” there is no way to know whether the cap on a banded barrel is original to the pen. Finding a barrel with a price band of “72X” would be exciting, but not conclusive. Pencils, on the other hand, had one-piece barrel, so a pencil marked “172X” would be the clincher to tell us what the matching fountain pen looked like.
There’s another caution on the pencils, though: my previous article discussed the name “Wahl” stamped on the back of the fountain pen clips, as well as on the front. I went through my stash of Model 174 and 175 modern stripe (or “moire”) Skyline pencils, which from what we know were introduced at the outset – they are either marked “Eversharp Skyline” or they have no markings at all.
Again, this is just a theory: perhaps the pre-reorganization Skyline pencils lacked this stamp to indicate they were not made by Eversharp, Inc.
I continue to hold out hope that documents will one day surface to answer all of these questions once and for all. Until then, please observe and report. I’m reminded of a great quote by Tommy Lee Jones in the 1997 film, Men in Black: “1,500 years ago, everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the earth was flat. And fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.”
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