Straight From the Land of Shaw-Barton

As much as I’d like to say that Shaw-Barton’s pencils were all original, they weren’t. Nearly all of the Shaw-Barton pencils I’ve found were made by Ritepoint, probably supplied to Shaw-Barton with the company’s name on the clips, which Shaw-Barton then screen printed with the customer’s advertising.

Nearly all, that is, except for these:

These translucent pencils don’t fit the mold.

To learn more, this full article is included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 3, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and everywhere else you buy books, or you can order a copy signed by yours truly through the Legendary Lead Company HERE.

A twist on the Rite-Rite "Threadline"

I don't remember where I came across this one, which drives me a little bit nuts since it's only been in the last month or so.  It's the one at the bottom, shown next to a Rite-Rite "Threadline" pencil.  In my mind, I've got to group this with the "Threadline" family, although mechanically it is nothing of the sort.   It more closely resembles the Lipic unbranded pencils that are such a common sight (more on those later), but when I look at the tip, the clip, the profile and the color  . . .

NOTE:  This article is now included in the print version of The Leadhead's Pencil Blog, available anywhere you buy books, or also from The Legendary Lead Company.

To order, here's the link:  Volume 1 at Legendary Lead Company

Rite-Rite Threadline: new finds from the Hopalong Cassidy Museum

I mentioned earlier that while Janet and I were communing with nature on our recent getaway at Salt Fork State Park (near Cambridge, Ohio), we saw the insides of antique stores a lot more than we saw the outside at Salt Fork . . . not that I'm complaining at all, mind you.  One afternoon, we ventured into downtown Cambridge to explore the sights, one of which was the combination 10th Street Antique Mall and Hopalong Cassidy Museum.  A Hopalong Cassidy Museum, we thought?  That's something we had to see!

(As an aside:  the museum is not as random as it sounds.  The star of the Hopalong Cassidy TV series from the 1940s and 1950s was William Boyd, who was born in Hendrysville, Ohio, near Cambridge, in 1895.)

NOTE:  This article is now included in the print version of The Leadhead's Pencil Blog, available anywhere you buy books, or also from The Legendary Lead Company.

To order, here's the link:  Volume 1 at Legendary Lead Company