Beating the Heat

If we Ohioans didn't have such a collective short term memory, no one would live here anymore.  See, once the leaves are down in the fall, most days from November until April are grey, wet and cold -- not usually so cold that it snows, mind you, but 38 degrees and raining is pretty typical.   The weather gets really nice in late spring, and then a month later we've forgotten all about how much we were complaining about the cold and we are complaining about the heat!

In honor of one of the more blistering Junes we've had around here for awhile, here's a couple of neat little pencils . . .

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

Man on a Mission

I've been on a bit of a mission lately to fill in the gaps in my Eversharp collection, so I've been making a point to check my collection when I see an Eversharp in what looks like a common color.

When this one came along in an online auction, I was surprised to see that I didn't have it. 

So I swooped in.  This is an Equipoised "clasp pencil", and for whatever reason a plain old black and pearl example had eluded me until this point.  These frequently slip under the radar, because other than a faint imprint on the barrel, only the shape and the unique clip give its identity away . . .

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

The "Other" Stuff Edgar Had

After my initial purchase of Edgar Nichols' Tri-point collection, Bill Adams contacted me a few weeks later to tell me that he had finished sorting through the rest of Edgar's things, and there were a bunch of other pencils in there, mostly other Nichols Products Corp. things, but with some other odds and ends in there as well.  He sent me some pictures, we haggled lightly, and I brought the rest back.  I just couldn't bear the thought of breaking up this group, and fortunately for me I don't think Bill could, either.

Here's one of the non-Nichols pencils that was in there . . .

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

Methodically Collecting Eversharps

Catalogue readers, if you check on page 84, you'll see this picture of a "Gregg"pencil.

This example should look familiar: it's a clipless Wahl Eversharp Equipoised (but Wahl didn't make a clipless Equipoised), made from mottled hard rubber (but Wahl didn't make the Equipoised in hard rubber).

The Gregg logo is the only marking on this pencil; the Wahl name is completely absent.  Gregg Shorthand, devised by John Robert Gregg in the late 1800s, was widely used and franchised in the late 1920s and 1930s, and a pen which carried the Gregg logo supposedly also carried with it sufficient ink flow for a secretary adept in the method to take dictation without fear of the pen skipping. 

Of course, that doesn't make any sense when it comes to pencils, because a pencil will leave a graphite trail as quickly as you can move your hand!  In that respect, maybe this example makes a bit more sense . ..

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

Perhaps they do deserve a sterling reputation!

The Eversharp "Ventura" series appears on page 78 of The Catalogue.  Introduced in 1953, the Ventura was Eversharp's last attempt to produce a quality writing instrument before the company was sold to Parker in 1957.  (Note: the company did produced a lot of writing instruments that lacked quality during this period.)  

By the time the Ventura was introduced, most of Eversharp's quality marketing personnel must have already jumped ship, because when this new flagship line was introduced, Eversharp ads of the day called it the "Burp" pen -- now there's an image that calls prestige and quality to mind!  Had the company survived any longer, they might have been hocking the "fart" pen . . . anyway . . .

Here's the shot of the gold filled examples of Ventura pencils 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

To - maaah - to

Recently I found a really neat pencil in a bunch that I got off of an online auction.  It wasn't the one I was targeting, but every bit as good.

And it reminded me of a funny story from right after The Catalogue was published.  I received an email scolding me for something I had written on page 62, concerning what I called the "Eversharp-Autopoint hybrids" . . .

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

What Sort of Jewel . . . Diamonds, Perhaps?

I've seen a few "Jeweltone" pencils over the years, always in blue, but until recently I never quite ponied up enough to bring one home.   That changed a little while ago, when this one was a sleeper in an online auction. 

The quality on these isn't the best. The plating is very thin, and they are your typical middle joint, nose drive pencil, although the plastic is really outstanding . . .

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