I have a '20s-'30s style mechanical pencil, 5 1/2 inches long with chevron pattern, marked "WAHL EVERSHARP" and "STERLING PAT. MADE IN U.S.A." Despite the imprint, it shows a number of spots of brassing. Made before truth in advertising laws???

I, myself, have never seen a Wahl-Eversharp pen or pencil marked "sterling" that wasn't. Some pen and pencil parts are interchangeable and a silver filled or plated part could have been put on...especially parts like the crown. How about a photo to look at?

Syd

Thanks for your reply, Syd. Here are the pics (flatbed scans, sorry for the poor lighting, but I think they'll get the idea across):







You can see the brassing in the three grooves of the cap (this image is grayscale, also there is a large scratch on the other side exposing brass). On the barrel section (this is a color pic), notice the long brassing stripe to the side of the clip (there's a matching stripe on the other side). What do you think?

Hard to say. The twist cap metal content is not at all controlled by the designation STERLING on the pencil barrel. The twist cap could have been replaced with a non-sterling one. But for that matter I am not sure all sterling pens actually had sterling twist caps. The front section or cone of the pencil was not sterling either. The only thing in your description that should be sterling for sure is the barrel, yet as you point out it looks like there is a color variation there. Have you tried to polish that spot. sometimes things do discolor the silver that make it look like brassing.
Hope this helps
Syd

Thanks again, Syd. Yes, the tip is plated steel, most of the plating gone now. It is the only magnetic metal in the pencil (internals are plated brass). And yes, I've polished the barrel brassed areas repeatedly using Wright's silver polish, also applied Tarn-X, which would have reduced any silver sulfides. No change, and they definitely have a yellowish tinge, not apparent in the pics. The area under the clip free end is also brassed, you can see this in the photo, though it is in shadow and not well featured. So I guess my question is, did Wahl "fib" a little and mark a silver plated brass barrel pencil as "STERLING", or is this perhaps a fake manufactured by someone else?

There's no evidence that Wahl systematically mismarked their products. While one does run across sterling pencils with plated crown pieces, they are certainly replacements.

I've never seen any counterfeit Wahl-Eversharp pencils close enough to pass as the real thing, so I can only surmise that the OP's pencil was a factory accident, mismarked in error.

Thank you, David, for your info. Do you (or Syd, or anyone) think this was just an inadvertent imprint error, or perhaps might this be a prototype or pre-production run example made while getting the manufacturing bugs out before proceeding with the expensive sterling stock? I realize this may all be just supposition, guess I have some difficulty in accepting an error of this magnitude getting by in a major company having a respected reputation to maintain.

To err is human. Considering literally millions of Eversharp metal pencils were produced, it shouldn't be a huge surprise that some ended up mis-imprinted. Most likely were caught on inspection, but someone might well have helped himself to one out of the discard bin. I see no reason to look to any other explanation. If one were setting up tooling, unplated brass would be cheaper than silver-plated stock. And there'd be no reason to assemble the test components into a complete pencil.

It's easy to see how it could have happened by accident. Parts were stamped before being assembled. So a part got into the wrong bin and was stamped with the others. I have a nib in a Wahl pen that appears to have no imprint at all. Until you turn it over and see it is stamped on the underside.

I appreciate the responses. I suppose I'll have to go with the inadvertent error scenario, but while perhaps a simple error in concept, it is just the type of mistake that a company should be very careful not to make, essentially marking something as "real" which is indeed "fake", in a manner of speaking. Then again, I guess that seventy years on, the statute of limitations precludes any prosecution for fraud.