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Help Me Find My First Love-- She Started Everything


akugluk

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Back when I was in elementary school and writing utensils were scratchy, skippy, clotty, and lived in communal cups in everybody's kitchen or classroom, I bought a handful of pens and pencils at a garage sale for 50 cents of my own money. I don't remember what interested me about them, and most eventually made their way to the household receptacle. But there was one pencil. My first love. It took a while for her to capture my attention, but once she did we were inseparable. We did every assignment together. I carried her with me everywhere. She was the first pencil that was more than just a means to an end. She was an utter joy to write with, and I'm sure inspired me to do just that little bit extra on every assignment. It was a tragic day when I lost her. She fell out of my notebook while getting out of a car one day, and despite much searching once I realized it, was never to be seen again.

 

I spent years trying to replace her. Every time I went in to a stationery store I'd try out every pencil, and while a few were adequate replacements, none were ever quite the same. I've never (that I know of) seen the same pencil for sale or in use. But now there is the internet! And crowds of people who understand my quest. If anybody can point me in any helpful direction I would be very grateful. I've searched the search engines and online shops, but with my sketchy memory this has proven futile.

 

She was a smallish, shortish burgandy mechanical pencil with a metal clip and tip. I wish I remembered more about what she looked like because this might be a much easier search if I did. The rough look was similar to the Pentel p200 series. Plastic barrel, textured grip, small eraser that would have been under a cap (the cap was long gone). There were words stamped, but I don't remember whether they were on the clip or barrel or both. Unfortunately I don't remember what they were either. The biggest feature, and the one that utterly captured me was the cushioned lead. I'd never imagined such a thing and for years I thought it might have been a unique happy defect because no other pencil seemed to have it. It made for such a beautiful, smooth writing experience to have that little bit of spring. It has always seemed to me that it was a softer, more responsive spring than any of the other cushioned lead pencils I've found to date (though that might just be my nostalgia and wishful thinking). I bought her in the mid 90s.

 

Thank you all for reading this, and thank you for any leads you can offer (no pun intended...)

 

Akugluk

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I fear your quest might prove futile if you bought your pencil at the time you stated, the manufacturer may have discontinued the line and moved on, or been taken over by another company.

 

You might try your quest with eBay as a last hope!

They came as a boon, and a blessing to men,
The Pickwick, the Owl and the Waverley pen

Sincerely yours,

Pickwick

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I am afraid of that. I have the thread of hope that it may be identifiable by my scant description by people more knowledgable than myself. And if I know what it was, just maybe I can find one. Thanks for your suggestion

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You might contact someone at this page: http://www.pencilcollector.org as they may have members with broad knowledge about vintage mechanical pencils.

 

Sharon in Indiana

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self." Earnest Hemingway

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Thanks for the link Sharon! I'm definitely more familiar with pen resources than pencil ones. I'll definitely spend some time over there after work today.

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Thanks for the link Sharon! I'm definitely more familiar with pen resources than pencil ones. I'll definitely spend some time over there after work today.

Good luck! I have a friend who adores mechanical pencils; she will spend the amount of money on a good pencil that I would on yet another pen. She has a lovely Porsche one, for example. My husband also adores mechanical pencils. He's a lefty, and is not a fan of FPs.

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self." Earnest Hemingway

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The feature you are looking for is a cushioned tip. A number of companies still make pencils with cushioned points. I remember Berol making a cushioned point pencil in burgundy with a textured grip. I may be thinking of their cassette pencil like this one. That sounds closest to what you are looking for. The Skilcraft 0.5 mm (burgundy) and 0.7 mm (black) pencils most often issued to the government also have a cushioned point, but don't have the textured grip. They are available on ebay as well. Perhaps that will be enough to get you started. Good luck!

Adam

Dayton, OH

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.

-- Prov 25:2
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Update: I haven't tracked down the exact pencil, but have found a few more with cushioned lead and the right grip. There is a local junk shop that has a giant bin of pencils so yesterday I was able to dig through it and try out a whole bunch of older models.

 

Ajcoleman-- skillcraft was a good call. I found two different ones by them as well as one by faber castell that came close to my memory. The search continues, but I'm feeling optimistic that the pencil of my memory was not unique.

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My haul for the day. (lets see if I can figure out this photo uploading thing). The little pen was an unexpected find. I assumed it was a contemporary box store cheapie when i grabbed it, because there is a similar one that I've seen at I think Office Depot. Upon closer inspection the nib says W Germany, so its a little older than I thought. The band says Spirix, which the internet seems to know very little about, at least relating to pens. I'm guessing a short-lived brand, or possibly an advertising pen?

post-60437-0-32623200-1441643532.jpg

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New pen next to my Pilot Petit 1. Soo tiny. my 4-year-old nephew saw it and liked it. I asked if he wanted to try to use it (supervised! He'd never seen a fountain pen before) and he said, "after I finish building my mousetrap". I take it as credit to his attention span that after he finished building his mousetrap (a pile of cardboard around a box) he actually did come over and ask to use it. He was not inordinately impressed by the different kind of nib, but when i told him it was possible to put any color of ink in the pen, now that was exciting.

post-60437-0-21392000-1441643585.jpg

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