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WriteAway · Seasoned

Pencils that have crossed my workbench.

DWL · ***

Writeaways pencil post inspired me to share some of the pencils that have passed through my bench at one time or another.

�

Frank · Admin

Great stuff Dennis!

DWL · ***

WriteAway wrote:
�Can't compete with that collection, guys! Or the photograph quality, either!�
However, there's someone around here who's got a nice group of pencils he should show....�

-- Edited by WriteAway on Wednesday 19th of September 2012 11:27:07 PM

�OH do tell, do we have a pencil maven in the house?

�

The quality of those pics was a long time ago when I had a good camera setup station and those were sold long ago. I do have a weakspot in my collectors heart for those Coronet pencils. I LUST after an all GF Coronet FP but don't have a spare thousand bucks floating about.

DWL · ***

Here are some others from a much older photobucket album that passed my way.

�

Jonveley · Rookie

Like dem coronets, Dave. I've got a few shots of other variations at home from my book I could post -

DWL · ***

It's Dennis & I would LOVE to see dem beauties! Post away my good man!

Jonveley · Rookie

These are the pictures from pages 68 and 69 of my book. Here's the all metal ones:

Then there's the half metal ones.� Of these, I think only the first one on the left has a comparable pen:

And here's a special one of those, with an engine turned grecian border pattern on the top half and an unusual color on the lower barrel:

And then there's these.� The first seven on the left are "Pacemakers," then the next two are "Airliners."� The remainder are similar to the above half-metal Coronets, but with smooth caps and airliner clips:

Jonveley · Rookie

DWL wrote:
It's Dennis . . .

�Sorry about that, Dennis!� I knew that, but as I looked at that first case full of Wearevers you posted I was thinking "boy, that looks just like the case of pencils Dave Silber showed me in Raleigh" and I guess I didn't switch the gears of my brain fast enough.

DWL · ***

Give me a few minutes to compose myself........

Ok better now. My hearts still fluttering & I'm woozy, but I'll survive.

Damn man those are spectacular. I did not know the all metal came in 2 sizes. I wonder why they decided not to make matching pens to those gorgeous celluloids? I've handled most all of the Pacemakers at one time or another, but the Airliner is a whole new creature to me. What do you know about them?

the last group with elements of all 3 are pretty cool too. I like the cool chrome with the warm celluloid & vivid pattern/color. Very striking.

Chthulhu · Rawr.

I didn't have a Coronet, but today: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Eversharp-Mechanical-Lead-Pencil-/170913153262

DWL · ***

Jonathan, that IS the case. I sold a huge chunk of my Wearever collection to him some time back.

IMHO, early wearever pencils are of a decent quality. Pretty much anything post 1950ish are 100% craptastic & not worth bothering with.

DWL · ***

Come to think of it, I still have 2 displays to send him that have been in my closet for too long.

Jonveley · Rookie

DWL wrote:
Jonathan, that IS the case. I sold a huge chunk of my Wearever collection to him some time back.

IMHO, early wearever pencils are of a decent quality. Pretty much anything post 1950ish are 100% craptastic & not worth bothering with.

That's scary that I remembered that.�

I agree that early Wearevers aren't too bad, and the Wearever subbrands can be a collection in themselves.�� Not the best,�IMHO, but reliable and attractive.�

Jonveley · Rookie

DWL wrote:
the Airliner is a whole new creature to me. What do you know about them?

�The Airliner was a low budget brand Eversharp came out with in the late 1930s.� As was the case with most Eversharp products, the pens may have been lower budget, but the pencils were exactly the same as the regular fare, just trimmed out to match the pens.�

DWL · ***

If Dave still ha that case, you should try to get your hands on it sometime. There are a couple of pretty hard to find patterns in there.

One Wearever item I kept is the ONLY one I have came across in 15 years of hunting Wearevers. It oddly enough is neither BP, MP or FP. It's a humble black grease pencil with chrome trim.

Chthulhu · Rawr.

Regarding Coronets: the one I picked up last month, a simple black and chrome example, apparently uses square leads. Is this normal for these? I couldn't figure out why the standard round leads wouldn't drop through the slot into the reservoir, though they would feed just fine once "persuaded" through the slot. Thinking perhaps that something was gumming things up, I cleaned the slot with a toothpick and a little alcohol, then when that didn't help, I tried wiping the leads down, still with no success.

Then I noticed the square black jewel on top of the cap ...

Square leads drop right through the slot and feed very nicely, thankyouverymuch.

Jonveley · Rookie

Chthulhu wrote:
Regarding Coronets: the one I picked up last month, a simple black and chrome example, apparently uses square leads. Is this normal for these? I couldn't figure out why the standard round leads wouldn't drop through the slot into the reservoir, though they would feed just fine once "persuaded" through the slot. Thinking perhaps that something was gumming things up, I cleaned the slot with a toothpick and a little alcohol, then when that didn't help, I tried wiping the leads down, still with no success.

Then I noticed the square black jewel on top of the cap ...

Square leads drop right through the slot and feed very nicely, thankyouverymuch.
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�
That would be neat if Coronet pencils had round jewels or square jewels to denote what kind of lead it used, but unfortunately it isn't that simple.� All of the pencils in the Coronet/pacemaker/"coronet style" series had square jewels (if they had any at all).�
The only Eversharp pencils that were specifically designed for use only with square lead have a squared-off tip - you should be able to see four tiny indentations at the very tip of the pencil to denote that.� Otherwise, square leads were theoretically designed for use in all pencils - although IMHO it doesn't work very well in any of them (the corners tend to shave off inside the pencil, causing an inordinate amount of dust that frequently jams them up but good).�
It could be that you have a .9 mm (.036 inch) lead Coronet pencil- that's why square leads will work in it but a round 1.1mm lead won't.
I wrote an article over at Leadhead's awhile back about square lead.� I tracked down the patent and provided patent drawings and such.� Direct link to the article:
http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2012/05/hip-to-be-square.html

�

Chthulhu · Rawr.

Thank you, Jon. I didn't mean to imply an intentional connection between the shape of the jewel and the shape of the leads, only that the shape of the jewel caused me to think of trying square leads.

Thank you also regarding the tip shape. I'd made that connection myself some time ago, but haven't seen it documented anywhere yet.

0.9 mm leads drop right out through the collet and tip, so I doubt this pencil was intended to use them. It's been working very nicely with the square (actually 1.1 mm diameter round leads with flats) leads as my daily carry.