A Long-Lost Cousin

I believe this one arrived in a boxload of stuff from the “catch up” Chicago Show in September 2021:

It’s a good thing that I am so obsessive in examining newcomers as closely as I do; otherwise, this would have been cast off as a kinda nice but unmarked pencil and gone right back into a junk box full of remainders. Even with the assistance of a china marker I had great difficulty bringing out enough detail for a photograph:

“Rite Away” it reads, with a diamond in between those two words. There are no other markings that I can find, but that was enough to send me plowing through American Writing Instrument Trademarks 1870-1953, so I could share with you the wonderful story of the Rite Away pencil.

It isn’t in there. Therefore, I’m going to tell you the other wonderful story about it.

The features that make this pencil stand out in the crowd are that great mottled hard rubber and the unusual shape of the top. As I perused the rest of the museum looking for similar characteristics, I found one:

There’s the Rite Away posed next to a General Manufacturing Company “Kaligraf,” one of the mostest holiest of holy grails known to pencil collectors. Kaligraf pencils accompanied the company’s Snap-Fil line of fountain pens, and it is the only “lever filled” pencil design known.

Well, it wasn’t exactly lever filled. You pull the lever up, and as the lever is pushed down again it scoots the lead forward a little bit. If you have seen one example, count yourself lucky – I don’t think you’ll ever see as many of these in one place as when I shared an image of the examples Joe Nemecek and I had put together in “Back to Sioux City” (January 5, 2017: Volume 4, page 334):

Now there is one big difference you can see between my Rite Away and a Kaligraf: the Rite Away has no lever. That meant I needed to take it apart and see what was happening inside: the noses on both the Rite Away and the Kaligraf unscrewed easily, and it was clear at least to me that both were made using the same machinery.

With the nose removed, you can see there is a rod inside the barrel that moves up and down by turning the cap at the top.

Does that sound familiar? It should, and if it doesn’t, hold on to your hat. The other day, I wrote about my suspicion that hard rubber Lead-O-Graph pencils were manufactured by the Eagle Pencil Company (see “Welcome Distraction” posted on September 4, 2025). Even before I found one in what I believe is an intact portion of Eagle’s factory archive, I thought that, and I told you why:

Because that hard rubber looked so much like these hard rubber Eagle Pointer pencils. The Leadograph pencils were based on another Eagle product, the Simplex; guess how the Eagle Pointer works? 

Exactly like the Rite Away . . . and Eagle held the patent on the mechanism by virtue of Alfred Michael’s patent number 1,406,056, applied for on March 26, 1921 and issued on February 7, 1922. Michael’s patent was assigned to the Eagle Pencil Company.

That’s not all.

I mentioned earlier that no trademark for “Rite Away” appears in American Writing Instrument Trademarks 1870-1953. I know why:

These painted wood pencils were made by the Eagle Pencil Company, and guess what they were called:

Both of these lines were called the Eagle “Ritaway.” There’s no trademark registration filed for the “Ritaway” name either, which is a bit odd for Eagle – the company filed a LOT of trademarks, so the absence of one . . . in this case, in these circumstances, with this theory tumbling about in my head, tells me something. I’ve got some new theories now:

1. Did Eagle make the Rite Away? I think that is a reasonable conclusion.

2. Did Eagle make the Rite Away for sale on its own account, for the General Manufacturing Company, or for someone else? I don’t have enough evidence to draw any conclusions on that point.

But here’s the big one:

3. Did Eagle manufacture the General Manufacturing Company’s Kaligraf pencils?

I think that is a distinct possibility.

The Tangled Web

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 5; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

Today’s pencil turned up, like so many extraordinary finds, in someone’s junk box.  It was at the DC show last August – all I remember is picking it up, thinking a casual “huh” to myself and parting with just a few dollars to bring it home and think about sometime.

I’ve thought about it a lot now.

At first blush, this unassuming pencil doesn’t stand out in a crowded box full of metal pencils.  What drew that “huh” and a couple bucks out of me was the name:

“Fine Point / Pat. Apl. For.”  Initially, I thought this might be a Mabie Todd ripoff on “Fyne Poynt” or something, and so it landed into a pile of things I was going to get around to photographing after I finished editing the very book you are reading.

As fate would have it, this is the same book that both makes sense of this pencil and also sends my mind reeling a bit regarding what it means.  I’ve seen the name “Fine Point” before . . .

That’s a page from an undated catalog illustrating products of the General Manufacturing Company, makers of Snapfil pens and Kaligraf pencils; the article originally ran in The Pennant in Spring 2015, and it’s reproduced earlier in this book, starting at page 41.  I’d forgotten all about that – I know, read your own damned books, Jon.

Before I show you a few things about the pencil, there’s a couple points to bring you up to speed on: first, that article originally ran as a sidebar to an article Daniel Kirchheimer wrote in that same issue, in which he established that Sheaffer lifted, borrowed or otherwise appropriated the “Balance” shape, name and concept from General Manufacturing.  On page 42, I noted that the pencil on the left in that catalog page resembled an early Sheaffer Sharp Point, but there wasn’t enough detail to be certain.

Now that I have an example of a Fine Point in hand, I can tell you it doesn’t just resemble a Sheaffer Sharp Point – it is one:

It has the same cap, eraser retainer and mechanism.  Also, there’s some details in the barrel chasing that are telling:

Note that extra ring at the nose end, in the same position on both.  Even though the patterns on these two pencils is not identical, note the way the machining “punches” in at the nose end, rather than being a smooth line.

And there’s more.

In that article on page 42, I was able to better identify some of the other pencils in the General Manufacturing catalog as having been manufactured by Hutcheon Brothers.  When the Fine Point is positioned between the Sheaffer Sharp Point and a Hutcheon “Finerpointe”:

We have a Sheaffer Sharp Point cap and a Hutcheon clip and similar name blended into one pencil.

The Hutcheon Brothers Sidebar

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 5; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

(Note: this article originally ran in Spring 2015 issue of The Pennant, Journal of the Pen Collectors of America.  Since I’ve got a couple articles coming up that assume you’ve read this, it made sense to republish it here.)

The Answer that Begs a Dozen Questions:

What a newly rediscovered Snapfil catalog tells us about the General Manufacturing Company’s pre-Kaligraf pencils

The General Manufacturing Company’s line of “Snapfil” pens, with their unusual backwards-lever filling systems are very desirable to fountain pen collectors.  Companion pencils, marketed by the company under the trade name “Kaligraf,” rank among the most highly sought-after grail finds among mechanical pencil aficionados.

An advertisement for the Kaligraf, as posted at www.penhero.com, showing the inner workings of the pencil. 

Collectors tend to refer to the Kaligraf as a “lever fill” pencil, but it is more properly thought of as a repeater pencil; to operate, the lever is pulled up and the “kickstand” is lowered into the barrel.  As the lever is pushed flush with the barrel, the kickstand engages the teeth on an internal pushrod and scoots the lead forward a bit.

Two examples of the Kaligraf, from the author’s collection.  Side clip models are exceedingly difficult to find; shown are a full-sized ringtop and a clipless model.

The lever pulled up, showing the hinged “kickstand” underneath.  Pushing the lever towards the barrel engages the internal pushrod.  

The patent for the Kaligraf, number 1,342,416, was applied for by Martin O. Borbeck in July, 1919 and was issued on June 8, 1920 – the same day Borbeck received a patent for an improved version of the Snapfil pen filling system.  Kaligrafs show up so rarely that we don’t have a vast number of examples to compare, but to my knowledge all of the surviving examples bear the 1920 patent date, suggesting that production of the Kaligraf pencils did not begin until mid-1920 or later.

Detail of imprint.  I am unaware of any examples marked “Patent Pend. or “Patent Applied For.”

Borbeck’s patent number 1,342,416.

When George Rimakis approached me at the DC Supershow last August and told me he had a Snapfil catalog he would allow the PCA to scan and include in our reference library, I eagerly opened his catalog to the back page, where most pen companies list their selection of pencils, to see what more I might learn about the Kaligraf.  Instead, George’s catalog illustrates only metal pencils available in either sterling silver or gold fill.

Elsewhere in George’s catalog there is reference to the “patented” Snapfil pen filling system, so I’m inclined to believe that his catalog dates to between 1918, when the first Snapfil pen patent was issued, and the first year or two of the twenties, when the new Kaligraf would have supplanted the metal pencils shown.  I have to consider the possibility that there was some artistic license taken in the drawings, but no amount of fudging can hide the fact that these pencils were probably not all supplied by any one manufacturer, and The General Manufacturing Company likely made none of them.

The first pencil on the left bears some resemblance to an early Sheaffer Sharp-Point pencil, which would tie in nicely with Daniel Kirchheimer’s preceding article on the origins of the Balance.  However, it’s unclear whether the illustrated pencil is shown with the top pulled out a bit or whether what is shown is a clutch pencil (with the top unscrewed to admit the lead).  In addition, the chasing doesn’t match a Sheaffer, but it does match what’s shown on the magic pencil at the far right – and Sheaffer never produced a magic pencil.

The second and fourth pencils, models 102, 103, 104 and 105, are shown with two ribs at the top and the shape and positioning of the clip, resemble pencils marked Ever-Rite; again, here is a possible Sheaffer connection: I recently posted a blog article illustrating the similarities between the internal workings of the Ever-Rite and the Sheaffer (for more information, see http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-evidence-continues-to-build.html).

From left:  the illustrated “No. 100”; an early Sheaffer Sharp-Point (note single rib at top); the illustrated “No. 102/104”; an Ever-Rite.  The resemblance is strong but inconclusive.

However, it is the third and fifth pencils in this illustration (No. 101, 106 and 107) that provide the clearest insight as to who might have supplied at least some of General Manufacturing’s pencils.  No, it’s not Mabie Todd (which marketed pencils under the name “Fyne Poynt”), but it’s close:  Hutcheon Brothers.

Hutcheon pencils from the author’s collection.  Note that among these pencils are full-sized pencils with the same distinctive clip shown in the Snapfil catalog, as well as utility pencils such as the ringtop illustrated.  The two “pregnant” pencils at bottom are examples of Hutcheon’s distinctive “Hutch Clutch” pencils.

Detail of the distinctive clip on Hutcheon pencils, identical to the Snapfil No. 101.

Hutcheon Brothers had its roots in Albert G. Hutcheon’s departure “with some regrets” from Mabie, Todd & Co. in 1913, when he purchased O’Neill & Co. and continued the firm’s business of making pencils, among other things.  By 1917, the firm was renamed Hutcheon Brothers and was advertising pencils just like the number 106/107 shown in the Snapfil catalog.

Hutcheon may even have provided the title for this page:  “Fine Point Pencils.”   Although the title could be referring in the generic sense to pencils with fine points, the Hutcheon connection suggests a more specific connotation derived from Alfred’s prior association with Mabie Todd:  Hutcheon marketed pencils under both the names “Finerpointe” and “Finepointer.”

Distinctive design features and the nearly identical names are too much to write off as coincidence.  However, as of this writing, the author is unaware of any pencils other than the Kaligraf marked General Manufacturing, Houston, Jiffy or Snapfil.  This catalog provides more questions than answers:  were unmarked versions of other manufacturer’s products supplied to The General Manufacturing Company? Did General Manufacturing openly supply Hutcheons, Sheaffers and pencils made by other manufacturers to accompany its pens before Martin Borbeck’s Kaligraf went into production?  Or are there General Manufacturing-marked examples out there which will turn up and provide additional clues?

Time and a sharp eye will tell: in the meantime, this catalog provides a fascinating glimpse into the connections between pencil manufacturers and producers in the late teens and early twenties.

Back to Sioux City

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 4; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

Here’s an updated family picture of my Kaligraf pencils, those lever-advance pencils made by the General Manufacturing Company of Sioux City, Iowa.  I won’t say they are “lever filled,” because the lever scoots the lead forward a bit as you press it flush with the barrel from the raised position.

I’ve written about these before here, at http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2013/02/martin-borbecks-busy-day.html.  Last year, Joe and I got all of ours together for another one of those shots you won’t see:

The straight side clip model was Joe’s until he traded it to me at the Ohio Show - he has picked up a second example with an unusual feature: a green top cap:

But what prompts me to revisit the issue is the really weird roller clip, the lowermost example in that first picture:

It attaches to the barrel the same way, but instead of an upturned tang at the end of the clip, this one wraps around a little metal barbell that remains free to turn:

Although it might look like a really elegant design, there’s only one problem: on the thin round barrel of the pencil, it doesn’t work as a roller clip because the roller’s don’t even touch the barrel:

There’s no record of this clip that I can find in the patent record, and the only markings on the pencil are the usual Borbeck patent imprint.  As soon as I had won this one in an online auction, I was excited to post a picture in an online discussion group, and I mentioned that I had not seen a clip like this one anywhere.  Andrew Timar, on the other hand, had:

Andrew’s clip is an accommodation model marked “Made in Japan,” fitted on a glass-nibbed crescent filling pen similar to those imported by Spors – but unlike most, not marked with the Spors trademark on the crescent.  Spors was an importer of German and Japanese novelties during the early 1930s; I wrote about them a while back after I figured out that their trademark was the one I had found on a pencil I had consigned to the dead letter office (http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2014/12/one-less-envelope-in-dead-letter-office.html):

The products Spors imported  were usually imitative of the products of others; hence the replication of a Conklin Crescent Filler.  Here’s a couple other examples of Spors imports I’ve picked up along the way:

The “Lady Spors” ringtop is nothing unusual, but note that the “Spors” incorporates a version of Conklin’s Mooney clip.

I’m careful to say at this point that we don’t know that Spors was responsible for importing all of them, so Andrew’s unmarked example might have come from another source.  Nevertheless, I am confident that whoever made Andrew’s pen copied the clip from somewhere – the Spors glass-nib pens were introduced around 1930, about a decade after the Kaligraf, so maybe that was the inspiration.

If, however, this clip is traced to another source, perhaps this might tell us more about the history behind them.  

Martin Borbeck's Busy Day

Snap-Fil pens, made by the General Manufacturing Company of Sioux City, Iowa, are a cult classic among pen collectors, with their pointy barrels, flattop caps and levers that open backwards from the direction you’d expect. I don’t have any on hand, but here’s a picture of one from the catalog in the online archives of the Pen Collectors of America (pretty handy membership to have, isn’t it?):

The patent for the Snap-Fil was applied for by Martin Borbeck of Sioux City, Iowa on March 23, 1919, and was issued as number 1,342,736 June 8, 1920:

But here’s the really neat thing: Martin actually received two patents on June 8, 1920. Earlier that same day, he received Patent number 1,342,416: for a lever-operated pencil, which he’d applied for on July 28, 1919:

To learn more, this full article is included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 2, 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.