The Leadhead's Pencil Blog

Thursday, January 12, 2017

The Crossbars

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.

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When I took over the editorship of

The Pennant in the summer of 2014, I decided to try a few new things with the magazine. On the cover of issues before I started, a picture of a pen was used to cross the “A” in Pennant, but it had been either some cartoony stylized picture of a pen, or a real picture of some random pen that had nothing to do with anything else in the magazine.

My initial idea was to use the crossbar as a “teaser” for the next issue. Here was that first cover:

On page 3, I explained. “Crossbar: your new editor promises not to “pencilfy” your Pennant too much . . . but this unique item, relevant to the theme of this issue, will appear in our winter edition,” I wrote.

Unfortunately, it didn’t. Scandals over the way my predecessor had been relieved of his duties became a tempest in our little teapot. Some members, who harbored an almost pathological distaste of mechanical pencils, voiced objections that the editor of The Pen Collectors of America’s magazine wasn’t even a real pen collector. Frankly, I was more trouble than I was worth to the organization; had anyone else been willing to invest the amount of time it takes to put the magazine together, that first issue likely would have been my only one.

Nobody was. Still, I thought it might be wise not to put any pencil stuff on the covers of my second and third issues (I used a Houston Pen for the crossbar on my second cover, as a teaser for the third issue; my third issue featured a custom dip pen made by Carl Seidl). For the third issue, I included an article on Kaligraf and Hutcheon pencils, since the subject tied in so nicely with other articles in that issue, and . . . no cries of foul from the pencil-haters.

On the cover of each of my last four issues, I used a piece from my collection for the crossbar. Here they are, in order of appearance:

For each of the last four, I included a short writeup at the end of my “From the editor” page. From the top, after that first issue, The Parker Vacumatic pencil with the custom band and an emerald in the clip - not much to say about it other than it’s a killer Parker. The Redypoint was the piece which unraveled the story from “Wahl, Sheaffer and the Race for Boston.” The Dunhill smoker’s pencil led me to research the origins of Sheaffer’s white dot for the Summer 2016 issue, and for the last issue under my contract the Edward Todd golf club figural pencil seemed an apt symbol of my impending retirement.

I never had the opportunity to circle back around to explain what that top pencil is and what I thought it meant when I teased about it in my first issue a couple years ago:

I acquired the pencil from Tom Heath just a couple months before I took the job as editor. It’s an Aikin Lambert, identified by the hallmark next to the clip:

The pencil operates as a leadholder; a twist of the cap releases the lead, which can be moved by gravity or the push of a finger. The pencil has a version of William Ferris’ 1905 patented riveted clip, which appears on Waterman pens and pencils. That isn’t surprising, since Aikin Lambert was absorbed by Waterman in the 1910s:

The reason I chose this pencil for my first cover was because Daniel Kirchheimer and George Rimakis had written a significant piece, “Blotting Out The Truth,” which appeared in three installments, the second of which in my first issue. Their series traced the origins of the L.E. Waterman Company, and I was at the time researching the origins of Waterman’s mysterious “tree trunk” pens, the manufacturer of which remains somewhat of a mystery.

The more I think about it, maybe it isn’t such a mystery after all. Let’s compare the Aikin Lambert “tree trunk” pencil to the custom Eversharp made from the same molds as the Waterman Tree Trunk pens:

Note that, while the patterns are completely different, the Eversharp clip has been affixed to the outside of the custom cap using the same riveting found on Aikin Lambert and Waterman pencils . . . a manner which remained patented by Waterman at the time both were made:

Maybe this whole Waterman tree trunk mystery isn’t as complicated as we are all making it. David Nishimura has suggested that the markings on the base of Rick Krantz’ tree trunk pen suggest factory production of the pens, not custom overlays. It would make sense, if Waterman wanted a custom overlay and its subsidiary Aikin Lambert had the tooling and expertise to make them, that Waterman would keep the whole thing in house rather than farm the work out to some random jeweler – especially if its subsidiary Aikin Lambert had already made a tree trunk pencil.

Occam’s razor slices the mystery down to that simple explanation. Unless/until evidence to the contrary is discovered.

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Wahl's Other Precious Metal

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Collecting Wahl metal pencils from the 1920s requires extreme attention to detail; what would appear to be identical pencils to even a seasoned collector are often revealed on close examination to be interesting variations, differentiated by pattern, by design elements or by the composition of the metal in the barrels.

Solid gold Eversharps are relatively easy to spot even without reading the imprints, since they are found in patterns not shared by their gold filled cousins. But both green gold filled and yellow gold filled examples can be found in the same patterns, and vermeil pencils – gold over silver – are also found in those same patterns. Sterling and “triple plated” or “silver plate” pencils are also found in identical patterns.

But out of all the metals used by the company, this one has got to be the most rare of them all:

This one is imprinted simply “Wahl Eversharp,” without a second line to assist with either identifying the metal content or to narrow down the date of manufacture:

While English Eversharps are frequently found with an imprint reading simply “Eversharp,” it is very unusual to find an American version with a one-line imprint. The flat clip and short tip suggest pre-1924 manufacture:

Normally I would say “indicate” rather than “suggest,” except this is no ordinary Eversharp and it may have been a custom run made after 1924 from older parts. Although the metal content isn’t imprinted anywhere on the pencil, the inscription on the barrel indicates what this one is made from:

“Presented by / Central Copper Company.” That’s right – this is a made-to-order, custom copper Eversharp (note, though, that the clip is plated brass). This one isn’t just copper on the outside, either:

The mechanism, made of steel on every other metal Eversharp I’ve seen, is in this case made of copper-plated brass . . . even the plunger rod.

Several companies operated out west using the name “Central Copper Company,” but the most prevalent – and the only one which appeared to operate by just that name (without preceding it with “Ely” or “Butte”) -- was located in Arizona. The company was active in the 1920s.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

A Useful Chronology

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Online sellers of advertisements are rarely willing to tell you from what publication they clipped a particularly useful page – they know that if someone finds a copy of the whole magazine for $5, they won’t be able to sell them one stinkin’ page for twenty bucks.

That hurts twice: I paid a lot more for the advertisements in this article than I probably ever would have paid for the publications, but more importantly some of the provenance (sigh . . . had to use that word again) tends to be lost in the process. The following advertisements were dated by an online seller who refused to divulge from what publications they were clipped; however, on the positive side the dates were in the listing titles and they appear to make sense. If anyone recognizes where these came from, please let me know.

Our topic today is the Gold Medal, which I theorize is ground zero for the whole Gold Bond-Gold Medal-Diamond Medal-Webster and such family. I believe Gold Medal was Clarence E. Barrett’s own house brand of writing instruments – the ones he produced on his own account rather than for Sears, Montgomery Ward or what have you. If I’m right in believing that, a series of advertisements from the 1930s would be very helpful in assembling an evolutionary timeline for all of these brands.

The advertisements I acquired from this seller were dated (by him) 1932, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1938 and 1943. Starting with the earliest, from 1932:

This tells us a few things. First, the earlier Rex-made pencils, like these, had been discontinued by 1932:

Note also that the clips in the 1932 advertisement match those shown on these:

If I’m right and Parker’s patent litigation put an end to the production of the Rex flattops in 1929 (see “My Working Theory” at http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2016/12/my-working-theory.html), that would date these pencils in this picture to 1930 or 1931.

Here’s what’s next:

Note that the top one is fitted with a z-clip inserted through a slot in the barrel – that one is a match for what is in the 1932 advertisement. The lower example, however, has a pressed clip that is stapled into the barrel:

The 1932 advertisement does show some press clip models on the last page; note, however, that all are shown under a caption which reads, “Made by the Makers of the famous Gold Medal Pens” (all the other captions read simply “Gold Medal Pens”), and all have floral engraving on the clips rather than the Gold Medal name. The pens are shown with a number 3 nib for a lower price of $3.00, while the regular line was $5.00 sporting a number 5 nib. In 1932, the newer clip style was used with floral engraved clips on the lower-quality line of pens and pencils.

I believe that the Gold Medal name was applied to all of the newer style clips in 1933. Note that since both flattop and pointed top pencils are offered in the 1932 catalog, I should think this set would also date to 1933 . . .

. . . because, for 1934, short-cap pencils appear to have been replaced by middle-joint pencils:

If they made pencils to match all the pens in 1934, these were offered in both pointy and black flattop models, depending on which you preferred. These are the pencils I had concluded were made by Sheaffer – at least on the inside – in “What Lurks Within” at http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2016/08/what-lurks-within.html):

Did you notice in the 1934 ad those over-the-top clips and intricate center bands on the other models?

I’ve seen those and, unfortunately, let them slip through my fingers . . . all the ones I’ve seen were unmarked so I didn’t know what they were. I’ll have to make sure to divert the next one that comes my way. The band is nearly identical to what I’ve seen on pens marked “Ottawa Pen Company” and made by Conklin – could that be? There’s another research project for a rainy day.

These over-the-top clip models also appear in the 1936 advertisement, which appears to have been a transitional year in the Gold Medal line.

The pens at the top appear very Parkerish. Again, I’ve seen the pencils, which were unmarked; I’ve had those “professional” models like the ones shown in the upper left, which bore the later “Gold Medal Pen” logo within a small circle. Even though the 1937 ad was identical, I bought it anyway, just to show that the product line remained unchanged:

For 1938, the product lineup was noticeably lower in quality. I think I’ve seen the pencils, which were also unmarked - but I don’t have any to show you right now (I’ll have to comb through my junk boxes now). All of these appear to have been made by Parker - note the Parkette clips at the lower left and the Parker streamline Duofold profile on the pens at the top:

The last advertisement was attributed to 1943, for “most acceptable gifts”:

I can offer a picture of some of the things this advertisement shows:

The top and middle examples perfectly match the “Ink Lock” and “Men’s Pen,” respectively. The bottom example, which is actually marked “C.E. Barrett,” isn’t an exact match for the “Aristocrat” in the center of the picture, but probably reflects the stylistic popularity of metal caps and plain barrels after the introduction of the Parker 51.

Monday, January 9, 2017

Sharp In More Ways Than One

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Sheaffer’s WASP subbrand (for those who don’t know, WASP is an acronym for W.A. Sheaffer Pen) appears on pages 142 and 143 of The Catalogue. One of the more interesting patterns, nicknamed “circuit board” by collectors, appears on page 143. Here’s an updated (and better quality) family picture of the ones I’ve found:

The proper name for these was the “Clipper,” but Sheaffer applied hat name to several different styles of WASP products, including birdseye (“screaming souls”) pencils, lahn-patterned pencils and more. Matt McColm has done a great job analyzing the pens and pencils in these series, and he’s noted his observations over at fountainpenboard.com (the best post to look at, which references his other posts, is at http://fountainpenboard.com/forum/index.php?/topic/5768-circuit-board-wasp-clipper-generations/. I’m not able to add much in the way of observations regarding the pencils themselves. One quirky thing about these is that the trim bands on the smaller sized pencils are on the lower barrel, while the bands are on the caps on the larger ones:

And, as you can see, the plating quality wasn’t as good as what you’ll find on Sheaffer’s regular line, and WASP pencils are just as prone to the separation that occurs between the upper and lower barrels as their Balance cousins.

Matt divides the series into three “generations.” The first has a nearly flat top piece, and note how the clips have a little bevel right at the top:

The second has a more pronounced cap with more of a pointed taper, and the sides of the clip are straight:

The third replaces this metal top “jewel” with a black plastic one – very poorly (note how awful the fitment is):

You can debate all day long whether these are generations, or subgenerations, or eras or epochs. Matt identifies three, which I can live with, but I’d note also that within that third group, there was a change in the plastic, from little cubes accented by four scribbly stripes to little cubes separated by wide bands. Call it a fourth generation or what have you:

The earliest advertisements I’ve found date from 1938, and these show Matt’s “type I” pens and pencils:

Advertisements in 1939 show the same product lineup, augmented by the WASP version of Sheaffer’s “working togs” pencils:

In 1941, Bennett Brothers advertised WASP products. Note that in this advertisement, type I pens and pencils are advertised alongside type II pens and pencils:

The type II style is most evident in the set shown at the bottom, but you can also see the straight sided clips in the more obliquely displayed sets on the left:

I’m not aware of any catalogs or advertisements showing the black plastic top jeweled models. It would stand to reason, if in 1941 Sheaffer was advertising type II pencils for the first time, that the plastic jewels would have come later. The wide band plastic appears to have been added at the very end, since green and brown pens with either plastic have been found with the plastic top end. Blue, an uncataloged color, I’ve only seen with the wide bands and plastic jewels, suggesting they were at the end of the line, and reducing the metal content in its writing instruments might have been a priority after America entered the Second World War. Evidence may surface in the future to fill in these blanks.

What I do know is that the WASP plastics were not exclusive to Sheaffer – or even to pens and pencils:

The plastic also occurs on pocket knives made by the Syracuse Knife Company.