Not Quite Right

I know that I must have circled by this one three or four times at the Ohio Show last year:

It’s a Sheaffer "Titan" from the late 1920s, but there was something about it that just didn’t look quite right to me. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t anything about the pencil itself: it works perfectly and it’s in excellent condition, and I really like that classy black barrel. I just have never gotten around to organizing my Sheaffer flattops, so I don’t normally buy them at shows because unless I haul the ones I’ve got to the shows, I’m not certain whether or not what I’m looking at is a duplicate.

But there was just something about this one that kept drawing me back. After about the fourth time I picked it up, I decided that even if I did have one at home, I liked it well enough that I wouldn’t even mind having two.

Back at the house, I did find that I had another black Sheaffer Titan, and when I put them side by side, it became clear what it was that just looked a little strange about this new one:

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.

One Creepy Little Dude

When this thing showed up in an online auction last week, I felt compelled to bid on it.

I didn’t bid because it was a Sheaffer that would fill a spot in my collection, and I didn’t bid because it was in the best condition. I bid on it because of that frame welded onto the clip, with a weird little guy in what looks like a red nightshirt and yellow cap waving at me. The seller said that his sash read "Hospitality," but nothing in my preliminary poking about turned up anything that made sense about this.

There just has to be a story behind this one, I thought.  When the pencil arrived and I examined it more closely, the word imprinted on the little guy’s nightshirt wasn’t "hospitality," but "Hotpoint":

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.

The Art of the Metal Sheaffer

Normally, I don’t chase after early metal Sheaffer pencils.  With a couple hundred metal Eversharps laying about, I realize how stupid it sounds to say that most of them look alike to me, but it’s true – for whatever reason, a metal Sheaffer really has to stand out of the crowd to get my attention.

Twice at the DC show, metal Sheaffer pencils stood out of the crowd and really, really got my attention:

The sterling silver example is unusually long for a ringtop – that’s part of its charm to me.  And the pencil’s outstanding state of preservation is another attention-grabber.  But what struck me about this one even more is the quality of the engraving, which is more elaborate even than what you’ll find on a full jacketed sterling engraved Eversharp:

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.