The Grim Reaper Unmasked

People had a lot of fun with this week's "Grim Reaper" post.  The Hampden pencil spurred lively debate online and several guesses concerning what purpose the pencil served, including an awl, a toothpick, and in the case of one disconcerting backchannel email, an instrument of divine retribution. 

The answer, which had eluded me, was easier to find than I had thought.  Although I had searched six ways to Sunday every route that might lead to the Hampden Manufacturing Company, what I should have done is simply searched the patent databases for "folding pencil."

Daniel Kirchheimer was first to suggest that the pencil might be a compass, with George Kovalenko chiming in just a few minutes later.  They cited two patents, both issued to Allan J. Keaney.  The first was applied for on July 8, 1925 and was filed December 21, 1926 as number 1,611,835:

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

The Grim Reaper's Own Pencil

At the January Scott Antique Show, I was walking along one aisle when I noticed one of those boxes of junk that looked as though someone had simply emptied out a desk drawer into it.  Mmmm... my kind of fun....

In the bottom of the box, I saw something that looked like a plastic Scripto pencil from the 1950s or 1960s.  However, because I am so easily amused, I decided to pick it up for a closer look, and when I did, I saw that this clearly was no Scripto:

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