What beautiful pieces! Welcome @Kaibab!
Yesterday’s pencils are my passion. Today’s are tools from before retirement. Now they mostly collect dust.
Pentel P1035 Kerry 0.5
Staedtler 925 03
Pentel GraphGear 500 0.5
Platinum Double 3 Action with 0.5mm and red and blue ballpoints
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What pencils do you collect from the 10s, 20s, and 30s? And why only until 1935 in particular? I mainly collect pencils from the Great Depression and WWII periods, so maybe we can share some photos of our pencils.
I’d love to share. Let’s see some photos.
My collection centers around the styles of pencils known as flattops, bell tops, and crown tops. These were made roughly 1910-1935. Styles and colors changed rapidly when Sheaffer introduced it’s Balance pen and pencil in 1924. This was the first commercially successful use of plastic in writing instruments in the USA. Hence, my favorites fell out of style in the USA and were gone from the marketplace by about 1935. However, crown tops were more popular in Europe and lasted longer there. Below is a Balance fountain pen and pencil from the mid-1930s.
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Some drafting pencil legends:
My favorite of the bunch? The H-2105. This one has the labeling worn off. I really can’t fathom why PILOT didn’t etch a lead size on these. Anyway something interesting about weight:
H-2105: 25g
H-3003: 15.7g
H-2003: 16.25g
The H-2105 has more heft and I like the feel of it. But I’m surprised that the H-3003 is lighter than the H-2003. It’s a nominal difference, but still. Strange.
The Platinum is 15.25g. The Mx-1052 is 16.5g. The lightweight here is the 3-ring Uni 0.3mm, coming in at just over 10g.
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Some executives that were on my desk today:
1 & 2: PILOT Grandee [more HERE], 3: PILOT Ruano, and 4: Platinum SurePoint.
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I’m very jealous? of your platinum drafter sticker
That sticker makes the pencil that much prettier!
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Yeah, the sticker does add a nice balance to all the silver/black interplay going on.
The thing that somewhat bothers me about this pencil is the almost comical looking raised lead hardness indicator, with a huge raised lettering for the lead size, chromed not just in lettering but the rectangle window border. It screams 1970’s. 
Otherwise, I just love the grip and how it mates with the nose cone—makes me think of the Gemini space capsule. The eraser cap has a nice touch with the black “jewel” on the top.
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I love that about it!
It’s really up there in my list of favorites, it only needs a shorter tip, I’m trying my best to find a tip to exchange with it but it’s not easy
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The weight of the H-210X is a mystery to me, at first glance, the pencil looks like just any other mechanical pencil, but when you hold it, the weight toward the tip pulls you toward the paper. In my opinion, this is the pencil where you can really see the difference the center of balance makes.
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I think the PILOT S10 is one of the best value drafters out there. Especially when bought used! You can at times get them for peanuts, while having just nominal signs of use.
The only thing annoying to me is that there’s not an adhered color scheme by lead size. I’ve seen some examples in red show up as 0.5 and 0.7 mm. I’ve seen blue show up as 0.3 mm or even 0.9 mm. I don’t know why they prioritized color diversity like that. Would users really care? Or maybe some like to select their own color choices for lead size, selecting different ones according to need.
Color-wise, my favorite is yellow (amber). It has a nice appearance in bright light.
It appears that the available colors are yellow, red, blue, green, and black.
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I’ve finally gotten hold of a Kokuyo Mistral PS-100 to complete the family… Thank you for the trade, @cytherian! Hope the FR reaches you soon.
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Family photo time!
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How influential was Shaeffer back then compared to Wahl Eversharp and Parker?
You have the one Shaeffer I have wanted for years. The iridescent striped Balance. So lovely. They pop up now and then, but almost never in good condition.
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Another one. No molded anything on the body. Otherwise almost identical. Is it still a Pilot H-215? Older/newer?
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So the Uni3-1051 has 2 versions? One with silver lead indicator ring and one with matte black? I’ve only noticed it now but most of the ones I came across had silver rings.
Apparently so. @drifand posted about it, HERE
It would appear that the 0.3 mm has a black lead indicator ring, while the 0.5 mm has a silver one. Unless this is a production variation by different release dates that applies to both lead sizes.
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Sheaffer was one of the big four in the USA: Sheaffer, Parker, Wahl Eversharp, and Waterman. Each of them was at the top of the hill at different times. Sheaffer’s introduction of the lever-fill fountain pen in 1912 took the industry by storm. Many attempted to get around Sheaffer’s patent with their own versions, some successful, others not.
In addition, Sheaffer introduced the propel-repel mechanical pencil in 1918 and the propel-repel-expel mechanical pencil in 1921. Pencils from others were propel only at the time. My Balance pencil is a propel-repel-expel mechanism.
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The 2020ST Shaker HF-200S from 1982 had been my preference from the PILOT shaker line. It’s pretty quiet while also having the luxury of an all steel body. The clip has an interesting design with a wrap-around piece. I didn’t think much of the HFT-100S that replaced it (around 1988)… just from the visuals. But it’s nicely done. It’s slimmer and even a little quieter.
But for fun factor, my favorite is the HF-100S-NC (NC = “no color”, I’m guessing).
It’s well built and the exposed mechanism has a really nice effect.
What’s kind of comical is that while the H-1010 Shaker has been so mass produced and is ubiquitous, its low tier cousin the H-515 had a shorter run for some reason… and is now fetching stratospheric prices given its original cost.
Please check out @Pdunc67’s video on the Shaker:
[1] PILOT Shaker series from HF-100 to HF-200
Footnotes ↩︎
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