What They Looked Like and Why Most Don't

This article has been included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 7, now available here.

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

A couple of years ago, Jimmie Cockburn sold me a pencil marked “Pencil Knife” on the clip, and I puttered around without success trying to find out who made it and when (see Volume 5, page 252).  I noted that the stepped top end suggested there might have been a cap on top:

“. . . but I really don’t know why there would be, since it would really interfere with how the business upper end works”:

Yes – and yes – I have learned, since a second, more complete example turned up in an online auction:

I still haven’t found anything out about who made these, but at least this new example does answer a few questions.  First, the earlier example I found does have a correct lower barrel – since the color was a mismatch, I had some quiet reservations about whether the two halves came from different pencils, but the jade example has the same mechanism, proportions and trim:

It also has a flat gold filled cap at the top, which confirms that a little something was missing from the one I found earlier:

It also shows why it is missing from the one I found earlier.  The cap itself is what limits the extent to which the knife opens – you can see where the metal on the cap has been bent where the back edge of the blade has pressed against it.  

If you actually used this as a knife, the pressure of the back side of the blade against that cap would pop it right off.  In fact, you can also see in this picture that someone has applied a dab of glue, maybe at the factory when it was installed, but more likely to reattach it after it came off.

The blade on this one shows more signs of use than the other, and the tang markings are more poorly stamped.  They appear to be almost identical to the other example I found, with one difference that might be telling.  I had noted in my earlier article that a trademark registration had been filed for the name “Pencilnife” by the Pencilnife Corporation, for a “pencil clip and knife combination”

However, I noted, the name on both the clip and the tang read “Pencil Knife,” spelled correctly and in two words – but it does say “Trademark”:

The tang markings on this new one are very poorly stamped, but you can just make out something:

The “K” is clearly missing, putting this “Pencil Nife” one step closer to the “Pencilnife.”   I’m still not convinced this is a product of the Pencilnife Corporation – the company filed a mark for a clip and knife combination, not for a pencil with a knife built into the barrel, and if it was trying to build brand recognition you would think they would be consistent in spelling its own name.

You would think.  But then again, not much about the Pencil Knife appears to have been well though out.

So Many Clues, So Few Answers

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.

I finally got to meet Jimmy Cockburn at the Baltimore show this year - I’ve quoted the veteran collector here at the blog, and it was nice to finally shake his hand.  It was also nice to pick something fun up from his table that I knew would make for a nice article here:

I know it’s an odd looking duck, and it looks at first like the top and bottom halves don’t go together – but this pencil is so much thinner than what you’d expect, and the pieces, neither of which I’ve seen separately before, thread together perfectly.  Besides, there’s plenty of other goofiness about this one that I’m convinced this is the way it was originally put together.

Let’s start with the top end.  The clip is marked “Pencil Knife,” and the top is stepped just enough to make me think there might have been some sort of cap on top:

 – but I don’t know why there would be, since it would really interfere with how the upper business end works:

Nice “stainless” marking on the blade, and two really good clues on the tang of the blade:

“Pencil Knife Trade Mark” on one side, and “Pat. Pend.” on the other.  I’ve got two great books that might be of assistance:   American Writing Instrument Trademarks 1870-1953 and American Writing Instrument Patents Volume 2: 1911-1945.  Starting with the indication that a trademark might have been filed, I found this one:

The “Pencilnife Corporation” of New York registered trademark number 187,102 for a “pencil clip and knife combination,” claiming a date of first use of October 15, 1923.  Although I’d love to say this is it, I don’t believe it is.  First, there’s not two words and a “K” is missing in Pencilnife.  Second, it wasn’t used on a combination knife and pencil - only for a clip which doubled as a knife.  Third, the date of first use - 1923 - is too early for this thing given the celluloid, which would have been made in the late 1920s at the earliest.

Maybe there’s something in the patent history?

There’s a couple knife/pencil combinations patented in 1914 - too early for a “Pat. Pend.” imprint on something from the 1920s.  Same for number 1,444,155, patented in 1923.  There was one patented in 1930 - the date is about right, but number 1,767,948 isn’t anything like this one.

The fact that “Pat. Pend.” is stamped on the tang of the blade suggests whatever patent was applied for involved the blade itself - maybe it was a patent for the knife only rather than for its combination with a writing instrument, which would have been outside the scope of the book. Maybe the “pending” stamp was optimistic, and no patent was ever actually issued.

Maybe, I thought, it was for the pencil mechanism itself?   There is something else which is unusual about this one, at the writing end:

When you pull the nose away from the body, you can see that there is a metal bushing mounted at the end of the barrel - that’s something you don’t typically see.  Unfortunately, in an otherwise conventional screw drive pencil, I wouldn’t expect to see a patent for it, and there’s pages and pages of screw drive mechanical pencil patents listed in my book.

A search of newspapers for the term “Pencil Knife” turned up surprisingly few results – all of which turned up only advertisements for “Pen, Pencil, Kinfe” three-piece sets.

So, sadly, I’ve told you all I know about the Pencil Knife to date: so far, my best chance of telling you something more would be to find an example with a more descriptive barrel imprint;  maybe one with a patent number for a patent that was actually issued; or maybe one of the odd and distinctive features it has that might turn up on something else and suggest a connection which will unravel the history of it.

I’m as frustrated as you are!