When Wrong Looks So Right

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.

This one was not my target in an online auction including several other items.  I assumed I already had one:

The top pulls out to reveal the lead magazine and eraser.  It’s a rear drive pencil, just like Sheaffer’s early flattop pencils, but with a squared-off matching celluloid cap instead of the usual gold-filled crown:

And . . . it’s marked Univer on the clip.  When I compared it to my other Univers, all of the other ones I have seen are different.

Earlier examples, like the ones I thought were duplicates for this one, have a much longer nose and a gold filled cap that fits over a bushing at the top end.  These are nose drive pencils, so the lead advances by twisting the nose rather than the cap.   

Later examples, like those shown at the bottom in dyed celluloid (that’s actually black and pearl celluloid dyed red, green and blue, something Sheaffer did during the Depression to cut costs), have a rounded cap.  These have a similar lead magazine attached to the cap, but the cap is not functional – these are also nose drive pencils.

Univer pencils like these came in a wide range of colors Sheaffer normally didn’t use:

Roger Wooten just published an article in the Spring 2021 issue of The Pennant, in which he outlines the history of the Universal Pen Company, organized by Sheaffer as a Delaware Corporation on July 23, 1928.  According to Roger, Universal Pen Company operated under that name until November 29, 1933, when the company formally changed its name to the “Vacuuum-Fil” pen company.  

That explains these pencils, which notwithstanding their inability to suck up lead out of a box, proudly bore the “Vacuum-Fil” name on their clips:

Roger states that the company’s name was changed one last time to The WASP Pen Company on May 29, 1936, so in rough terms, my Univer pencils date between 1928 and 1933, and my Vacuum-fil pencils date between 1934 and mid-1936 – assuming, of course, that the names were switched close to the times the name was changed and also assuming the company used only its current name on the products it sold.

As far as the weird Univer pencil that started this article, it’s actually nicer than a Sheaffer Titan, more polished in appearance with the same function.  It had to be one of the Universal Pen Company’s earliest efforts

A Bit of Red and Green . . . and Blue

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.

Back on January 17, 2013, I posted an article about a Sheaffer Balance pencil in a red pearl and black:

The article, “This One Is To Dye For,” (http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2013/01/this-one-is-to-dye-for.html), explained how Sheaffer, in an attempt to offer new colors during the Depression while minimizing product costs, actually dyed existing black and pearl celluloid stock - as an example, I compared it to a green and black Univer set.

It was a shame I didn’t have a red and black Univer for a more apples-to-apples comparison at the time.  I had heard that in addition, these were offered in blue . . . and here they are.

While we are on the subject of weird colors and Sheaffer subbrands – and add a little more red and green for the day – here’s a Craig, which Dan Reppert had at the Michigan show this year:

At first, it looks like something’s gone wrong with the plastic, but on closer examination this is clearly an “end of day” sort of celluloid, with a little bit of green mixed in with the red:

Jade green Craigs I’ve seen.  Red ones, never.  A bit ‘o both in one pencil?  Wow.

A Specific Interest in a General Pencil

When this bland little pencil turned up in a lot of random items online, I had to bite:

This plain-looking pencil even has a generic name on it – "General":

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.

Seen At The Ohio Show

Hey, they don’t call them "shows" for nothing, right? At the Ohio Show, quite a few guys stopped by to "show" off some things they’ve found lately. Greg Christy wanted to show off this black and pearl Eclipse and a really nice Univer in turquoise and bronze:

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.

This One Is To Dye For

As I was passing up one of the aisles at the Ohio Show near the end of the day on Saturday, Bill Bender flagged me down to look at a few pencils. I don’t remember what the others were, but this was clearly the standout:

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.

To Revitalize a Craig

Not long ago, I bid on a bunch of pencils in an online auction hoping that this would be what I thought it was.

And it was . . . mostly.  Yes, it is a Craig, one of Sheaffer's subbrands and scarce as hen's teeth to come by, but when I cut off the large, gawky eraser that someone had stuck on the top of it I found . . . nothing . . .

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