Photo of the Day: Mechanical & Clutch Pencils

This is my ever-growing collection of vintage and modern lead holders. Some are clutch-style, some are click mechanism and some are revolving release. These do not include the Lady Sheaffer matching fountain pen and pencil sets. I’ll save those for later. The ones on the left are vintage, the ones are the right are modern. Lead sizes range from 0.3mm to the giant 5mm Koh-i-noor Magic Pencil clutch but most are 0.5mm, 0.7mm, 0.9mm and 2mm lead.

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11 comments / Add your comment below

  1. I had no idea there was such diversity in “mechanical” pencils! I love the “Tiffany blue” one on the right, and the gorgeous rainbow lead in the KohINoor!

    1. Koh-i-noor actually sells a matching Magic lead holder but I decided to go more sedate with the lead holder. Yard sales, thrift stores and estate sale “lots” are great places to find mechanical pencils and lead holders. Be prepared to dig!

  2. I’m a bit of a lead holder geek myself – I’m an architect, so 2mm lead holders were the tools of the trade when I was younger (it’s all computers now), and I’ve always loved interesting and vintage tools (ask me about my electric eraser collection).

    Is your Faber 8603 painted that grey color, or is that the metal with the paint all rubbed off?

    1. It’s a very steely grey silver version. It’s labelled “USA A.W. Faber * Sure-Grip* 6803”. I found it at a yard sale with the most wicked point on it. Had to bring it home.

  3. Third from the bottom on the right. . . is that a double-ended clutch?? Graphite on one end, red on the other??! Wow!

    Tina

  4. Graphite renderings are one of my favorite things to do. As are using mechanical pencils. I’ve recently started collecting vintage mechanical pencils and LOVE them! Thanks for posting your collection!

  5. Please make another page listing all the name, brands of the mechanical pencils that you taken for this post. OMGosh, I love them

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