Lighter Pencil Week Part 3: The Penciliter (second generation)

After World War Two, Ronson resurrected the "Penciliter" name and introduced a radically streamlined version of the product, for which the company applied for a design patent on June 7, 1947 (granted to Frederick Kaufmann on November 16, 1948 as Design Patent 151,771) . . .

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

Lighter Pencil Week Part 2: The Penciliter (first generation)

It seems a little ironic that Ronson, after first introducing the streamlined Lite-O-Rite, would take what appeared to be a giant step backwards with the gawky Penciliter, introduced around 1934.

If you are familiar with the Ronson Penciliter, you are probably thinking to yourself, "Gawky?  What's he talking about?  The only thing more streamlined than a Penciliter is maybe a Skyline pen."

Ah, you are thinking of the second generation of Penciliters.  The first generation was definitely not as graceful as anything that came either before it or after it . . .

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

Lighter Pencil Week Part 1: The Lite-O-Rite

Welcome to Lighter Pencil week, focusing on combination mechanical pencils and lighters!

To start things off, here's a "Lite-O-Rite" that surfaced at the Chicago Pen Show last spring in a bunch of other stuff I bought at one go.  It's also pictured on page 130 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

If I Had a Nickel for Every Nichols . . .

From the fuzzy picture on ebay, this looked like a perfect match for the pearl Nichols "monopoint" I blogged about a few 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

Tweeten Revisited

When Michael McNeil and I had agreed on a price for a large group of pencils he was interested in selling, what had me camped out at the mailbox wasn't any of the pencils that I "should" have been excited about.  No, the thing that had me ripping open the box like a kid at Christmas was another example of the Tweeten that came with the bunch, and it wasn't until I unwrapped it and compared it to the one I had that I noticed there were two variations . . .

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

Have a Keene Friday

When The Catalogue went to press, I didn't have a Keene to include in its pages.  Every time I had bid on one or seen one, someone else had swooped in and snapped it up.   Of course, two of them surfaced right after I published the book . . .

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 Pioneer in Design

Most of the time, no matter what other interesting features a pencil may have, the barrel will be just plain old round.  Sometimes you'll find one that's faceted, and even more rarely, you'll find fluted barrels.

And then, every once in a blue moon, you'll find something 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