I acquired one by accident along with a mint Onoto Magna (the pencil, not the pen ... I'm looking for the pen now! ) and it won't work. I suspect that the inside of the barrel near the point is jammed solid with broken lead, but before I run a drill down it I thought I should perhaps check that there is no clutch mechanism in there? I assume there is not, as the screw mechanism would make one redundant, but better safe than sorry!

It's a neat design.

Well, I've got a barrel if you happen by a cap at all

et

Hi Methersgate,

As you surmise there is no clutch mechanism, the lead sits in a tapered gripper on the front of the propelling shaft, before you go stuffing a drill or anything else, very gently of course, down the end of the ferrule please note that the ferrule unscrews in most cases and this makes clearing any lead debris a lot easier. With the ferrule undone the guts will pull out of the back end of the pencil and then you can sort out any other troubles it may have. There is not usually a lot wrong with these things that a good clean won't sort out.

Cheers, John

Thanks. It's up and running and has wriiten a speech and completed its first FT crossword

The ferrule was unwilling to move, so I resorted to more drastic methods and an awful lot of graphite frangments fell out! Some delicate surgery was needed on the gripping mechanism, as a consequence of earlier custodians winding it out with brute force and forcing lead into a compacted mass!

Incidentally, the mechanism of the Onoto Magna pencil is rather interesting - the term "over-engineered" comes to mind..

Thanks; I'll keep that in mind!