I hope you all don't mind me asking a pencil question here folks. Amongst my grandfathers old pens I was given, there was a beautiful little pencil that has imprinted "Made in USA by the makers of Eversharp".

Question is, it has a spiral break or fracture running down the body of it. It is perfectly symmetrical and does not cross over the stamping, running from the point where the pencil comes in half to fill with lead, down to the conical end (the business end) of the pencil. It spirals down and around the body, like the stripes on a barber's pole. I was sure it was broken, but it is such a perfect and clean job I wonder now if for some reason it is by design? The pencil is quite flexible because of it. I'll try to post pictures if that helps, but not sure if it would show. The old pens were all very well kept and boxed so I don't suspect abuse either.

Thanks,
Rick.
ps Don't have any Wahl- Eversharps but love what I've seen here, now I'm looking to expand the collection....

Would you be willing to post pics of this? I'm sure it will help everyone decide what is going on.

Thanks for the interest, I'm attaching pictures - first time so I hope they work OK. Immediatley to the right of the imprinting is a dark line running down from right to left at about a 45 degree angle and then immediately to the left of the imprinting and parallel to the first is another line, this is the break in the body. It's just so perfect it would be an amazingly clean piece of damage, but I just have no idea.

I hope the photos help.
Rick.

Click to view attachment
OK - trying again... This isn't the best picture, but the only one under 2mb. If this doesn't show up too well I'll take another.

From the picture I am guessing it is a "Bantam" model pencil. If so it is a very small pencil measuring a tad over 3 3/4 inches in length and only 5/16" in diameter with a cute little pocket clip. The pencil you show is a standard pattern (came in green and gray with red lines outlined in black scattered around the surface with no real pattern to them.) The method of construction was that these cylinder shapes were created by wrapping a strip of the plastic material around a form in a diagonal coil and then fused where each spiral wrap abuts the last "twist". Sometimes these joints develop separation between one coil winding and the next, and from the photo it appears that might be the case here. I can not fully tell if that is what your picture shows or not. When new the entire surface is smooth and while you can see where each winding joint is and how it spirals up the length of the pencil (or pen for that matter) it will not have any separation visible. There pencils came in pen and pencil sets (usually) in this pattern, so go a-hunting for that matching pen.

Some of these same patterns showed up in Oxford or Wahl Oxford pens and pencils, but their clips usually say Wahl/Oxford. If yours matches the description I am giving here it is pretty definitely a Bantam pencil...they all said "Made in USA By the Makers of Eversharp" written sideways along the length of the lower (business end) of the barrel. If that is so there is a lot of information about them when they were made, the various patterns that they were made in etc., etc.

Hope this helps. Thanks for asking.

Syd the Wahlnut

Excellent,
Thank you Syd the description you gave of the plastic material coming undone sounds like it is precisely what has happened. Mystery solved. And yes, it is a very small pencil so I'd say it is a Bantam by description. The other photos show all the detail more clearly but they wouldn't upload. The pencil came to me in a small box with an Onoto pen similar in colour but not the same. Now I have a good excuse to go a- hunting for its proper Wahl-Eversharp pen mate.
The search begins....

Regards,
Rick.