Totally random yet not off-topic. While jogging around Bedok Reservoir near my home, I took a break near a bunch of small shops and spotted an old timey book shop. I thought, what the heck, might as well check it out. The owner is a friendly near-retiree and after checking out the shelves full of old wooden pencils, ballpoints and stuff, he asked me what I was looking for. I told him, “Do you have any old mechanical pencils?” and he fished out a blemish free TK-matic out of a drawer!
“This one, you might like. I’m not sure if it still works.”
And he proceeded to TAKE IT APART, fiddling with the ball chuck and mumbling “wow, never seen this kind of mechanism before.”
My heart nearly stopped.
I managed to persuade him to put it back and let me figure it out on my own. But when he did, the action was fouled. The spring had somehow gotten loose. We hunted around on the floor and found it back. Heart attack averted.
He asked for $5. I paid and jogged home.