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Wörther’s Shorty 4

 in Mechanical pencils / Wörther  tagged lead holder / Shorty / Wörther by

If you follow my YouTube channel you might have spotted this video about Wörther’s lead holder ‘Shorty’.

I was lucky enough to get two of these over the years. One from fellow stationery blogger Scribble and one from Pen Heaven.

I think they must be the first lead holders I have added to my overview of mechanical pencils.

The plastic version is light and very affordable.

While the aluminium version is still not expensive and rather elegant.

In the video you’ll see that the origin of the Shorty is rather fascinating. 

Like fellow German company Lamy and like other companies world-wide including Hero, Wörther’s beginnings have a strong link to the Parker Pen Company. It’s a shame that Parker, like other old established companies seems to have suffered the consequences of past sub-optimal decisions and is not the strong player in this field it once was.

Have a look at the video to find out more.

 

Stationery Factlets #6: Staedtler was the first European manufacturer of mechanical pencil leads 4

 in Mechanical pencils / Staedtler / Stationery Factlets  tagged mechanical pencil / Staedtler / Stationery Factlets by

Time for another stationery factlet: Staedtler was the first European manufacturer of mechanical pencil leads.

Staedtler made lead holders and leads for the lead holders for a long time. Below is a page from their 1935 catalogue.

Staedtler Catalogue 1935

Staedtler Catalogue 1935

When thinner lead diameters were introduced Staedtler was the first European manufacturer of these thinner leads – the kind of leads I would refer to as mechanical pencil leads.

Staedtler’s catalogues from the 1960s don’t seem to show pictures of these leads, but the catalogue from 1970 does – and it shows a very familiar lead container.

Staedtler Catalogue 1970

Staedtler Catalogue 1970

Staedtler Catalogue 1970

Staedtler Catalogue 1970

The Mars lead container still has the same shape today, but the plastic is now transparent. The opening of this lead container has the perfect diameter for refilling Mars micro mechanical pencils as you can see in the old video from my 2015 neox blog post.

I would like to thank Eberhard Rüdel for his detective work regarding my mechanical lead questions.

It takes a Pencil to create a Fountain Pen

 in Parker / Pencils  tagged Parker / pencil by

It takes a pencil to create a fountain pen.

Screenshot of Parker’s website

It’s nice to know that the humble pencil always seems to find its place and that even the big boys (highly priced fountain pens) can’t be without the pencil.

(..but I don’t think this specific pencil has seen a lot of use. If you open the image link in a new tab you will see that the pencil is still factory sharpened.)

The image in this blog post has been taken from the Parker website, specifically http://www.parkerpen.com/en-GB/world-of-parker-the-art-of-pen-making. I believe that the use of the image shown in this blog post falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.