First Blood

This was the first thing that caught my eye at the DC show.

Ah, that first purchase at the pen show, when it seems nobody has anything smaller than a twenty, and this was only five bucks. People could have been selling Lincolns for six bucks all day long and done pretty well, I’d imagine.

This wasn’t quite what I’d remembered of the Trupoint, which usually turns up in a lizardskin sort of pattern, like that seen on page 158 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

Like Bread and Butter

Pen shows and cigars go together. It’s a tough call even to decide which is more fun – the action in the show room or the time spent talking and catching up over a few cigars in whatever area the guys decide to light up their cigars. In fact, it’s so much of a tradition that even at the Ohio show, a dozen or so guys will be huddled outside in the November wind, sitting on metal chairs that your tongue would probably stick to (not that anyone has been triple dog-dared to do so), puffing away furiously over some good conversation and a nip of scotch.

It’s probably no coincidence that the quintessential junk box at a pen show is a cigar box. Any box could hold the junk, but we usually have an empty cigar box or two on hand when the time comes to clean house.

So when Janet and I stopped in Barnesville on our way to DC, it was no surprise that this non-pen, but definitely pen-related item caught my eye . . .

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

Unique

Here’s one that comes up so infrequently that it doesn’t show up in The Catalogue.

This one, owned by Frank Tedesco, is a John C. Wahl "120," complete with the original box, which I saw and photographed at the Triangle Pen Show in Raliegh. I’ve been looking for one of these for a few years – the last one I saw was at an auction at the Ohio Pen Show, and Joe Nemecek took it home for around a hundred bucks. Frank’s is still owned by Frank, because he paid several times that amount for his.

These pencils represent an interesting footnote in history. John C. Wahl is one and the same as the founder of the Wahl Adding Machine Company, which later scooped up Charles Keeran’s Eversharp and got into the writing business overnight. Although John was the founder of the company, he wasn’t in charge. Not by a longshot. According to Syd Saperstien, he was vice president, with a phone line extension at the company and the title of "Experimental Engineer," but he had a lot of time to putter around and invent things on the side. Not much is known about his separate company or this pencil, but it appears that John C. Wahl applied for his patent for this pencil on June 9, 1939, and he was issued patent number 2,210,845 on August 6, 1940 . . .

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

Dixon Redux

As I was shooting photographs of Joe’s Victorian collection, one piece he had caught my eye.  Look familiar? This is one of those Dixon or Mergott pencils I was writing about a few weeks ago, and this one, unlike the stubby ones in those articles, more closely matches the design shown in the design patent drawing . . .

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

Score One For Joe

Joe Nemecek brought this one along to our photo shoot in DC, and I’m really glad he did.  This is a Parker Bridge Pencil, not to be confused with the bridge set from a couple weeks ago. . .

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

Not a Pencil

A few weeks ago, Janet and I were getting pretty stir crazy. After the big storm here in Ohio, we’d spent weeks cleaning up our three-acre property, which used to be heavily wooded. Nothing like a few weeks with a chain saw in hand to make you want to get out of Dodge for a bit!

Janet, ever the planner, explored our options for a trip to Northeast Ohio and suggested we hit the AAA Antique Mall in Ravenna, Ohio, and since that was the furthest one out, we decided to make that our first stop. And what a stop it was! This place went on and on (and on) and I found . . . well, as far as pencils went, one lousy pencil marked "Red Dot" on the clip (like the one on page 124 of The Catalogue); I was thinking the clip might be a little bit different, but it wasn’t. No story there!

But I didn’t get skunked, even if the pencil pickings were slim. Here’s something I found . . .

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

Stylish

You won’t find the Alexander Products Corporation of Bloomington, Illinois anywhere in The Catalogue. I knew the brand was out there, but I just didn’t see fit to include it because all I had seen out there were cheap, giveaway advertising pencils.

So when Joe Nemecek called me before the DC show to ask if I’d be interested in buying a fully stocked card of Alexander pencils if he brought them to the show, I agreed but I was skeptical. I think Joe could hear it in my voice, and since he has had the same general experience with Alexanders, he reassured me. "You’ll like these," he said. "They’re stylish."

When I saw them, I had to agree with him . . .

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