When I first established my website and started posting pages at my "Mechanical Pencil Museum," one of my earliest pages concerned the "Pato," which also appears at page 118 of The Catalogue.
I have characterized this as a public service announcement, for all those online sellers out there who have advertised "Pato" pens or pencils. The mistake happens frequently enough that I felt compelled to put something out there in cyberland – so that it would be found using the search engines – to let sellers know that it’s not "Pato" . . .
It’s Patd. As in "patented."
Over the years, I occasionally get emails from random sellers, to thank me for this bit of information and preventing them from making the same mistake so many others have made. I’d have to say, out of all the pages I’ve posted, I’ve made more friends out of this one than any other.
And now, as Paul Harvey used to say, I’m going to tell you the rest of the story.
See, these Patd clips appear on literally hundreds of lower tier pencils (and pens, for that matter). As an example, here’s a couple more well known brands . . .
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
