Eversharp Week Part 3: The British Invasion

Here's a better picture of a series of early Wahl Eversharps shown on page 60 of The Catalogue.

Now as a rule, I try to limit myself to American mechanical pencils.  The two at the top are marked simply "Eversharp," so at the time I found them (the first at the Washington DC show a few years back) I thought they probably were American.  However, the soldier clip teal one came from England off of an online auction, as did the middle example.  I'm pretty well resigned to the idea that all of these are English, and I'm also resigned to the idea that I'm going to keep collecting them simply because they are so darned pretty.

At the Ohio Pen Show, I saw something in a junk box that just didn't quite look right . . .

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To order, here's the link:  Volume 1 at Legendary Lead Company

Eversharp Week Part 2: The Undersize

In sharp contrast with the oversized 800-pound gorillas featured yesterday, the Wahl Eversharp "Matchstick" pencil was the smallest the company made.  Here is one shown next to a standard Wahl ringtop for scale, as pictured on page 58 of The Catalogue, . . .

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

Eversharp Week Part 1: The Oversize

A big start to "Eversharp Week" deserves a big pencil.  A few weeks ago I was looking at a fuzzy ebay picture, trying to decide whether I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing.  I rolled the dice and got lucky, finally bringing home the "oxidized Grecian Border" oversized pencil, shown here with the gold filled version shown in The Catalogue. . .

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

Good Enough to Eat

I ran across this one recently, and it falls into the "why didn't someone else think of this" category:
The pencils is certainly made by Quickpoint, a pencil manufacturer in St. Louis that made a wide variety of advertising pencils.   That conclusion is based not only on the shape of this pencil, but on the advertising on the side:

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

A Mouthful of a Name

Today's pencil defies nearly everything that I limit myself to collecting.  It doesn't have a name on it, its not particularly old and it's not American.

It is, however, cool enough for me to ignore these things, and it came complete with some pretty neat paperwork that gave it a name:  The "Goldring Moneta Stamp-O-Pencil."  These quirky little guys have a built-in self-inking stamp, so you can . . . well, stamp things, I guess.  Pulled apart, they look like this:

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

No Really . . . "That Pencil"

Today's pencil du jour is as different as the path that brought it to my doorstep.  A few weeks ago, I was checking ebay when I noticed a listing that intrigued me (the item number was 130629325597, for those who want to pause here and check the listing).  The pictures clearly looked like they were of an Eversharp "Demonstrator" Pencil, with what is clearly a Wahl clip and the telltale football-shaped cutouts on the back side.  The description, however, said that the pencil was marked "That Pencil Patent Applied For."

The more I looked at this piece, the more excited I got.  Why would a Wahl-made Eversharp demonstrator be marked "That Pencil"?   I grew more excited as the auction neared its end, with little interest and no bids.  Towards the end of the auction, I threw in an outrageous bid -- not a snipe, but in the last couple hours -- and held my breath.  At auctions' close, I was the high bidder at only fifteen bucks.

As soon as the auction closed, I couldn't wait to figure out what it was that I had purchased.  I sent the seller a message and asked him to look more closely at the pencil to see if it was marked "Wahl," and the answer that came back was disappointing . . . he'd mixed up the pictures.  The pencil that was pictured was in fact a typical Wahl Eversharp Demonstrator he had sold weeks earlier.  The pencil I had won was a different one entirely.   

He asked what I wanted to do, and I asked him to send me pictures of the pencil I was actually bidding on.  The pictures he sent me weren't any clearer, but were intriguing enough that I said I'd go ahead and take that one.  When it arrived, on closer inspection I definitely think I got my fifteen bucks' worth:

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

A Pair of Gold Medals

There's been some discussion online lately concerning Gold Medal, the Sears store brand.  During the Depression, many of these appear to have been made by Parker.  However, before Parker became involved, it looks like National Pen Products was responsible for production of the Gold Medal brand.   Here's a pair of early Gold Medals I picked up recently . . .

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