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Aug 25 / Leigh Reyes

Take me to your leadholders.

One day I woke up and had a Koh-i-noor leadholder family. From top to bottom: tiny Koh-i-noor 2mm for planner fiends; 3.8 mm with curvaceous clip for those who find 5, 5.5 and 5.6 mm way too much; green 5.6 mm; green 2mm with knurled grip.

wpid-P1100046-2010-08-25-11-39.jpg

The Lamy Scribble in stealth black is great for what it’s named after. 3.15 mm lead, sharpener bought separately but had to be bought because it was red.

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Usually, leadholders come with built-in sharpeners. I couldn’t resist picking these up anyway. The big one is for 5.5/5.6 mm lead; the Faber-Castell takes 2 and 3mm.

Lead pointers

The most unusual leadholder in my collection is the Cleo Skribent Der Gessner. Dave’s Mechanical Pencils blog has a comprehensive review. My version is the cheaper one, with a rustic hessian pouch instead of leather.

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Holding the lead in place is a tapered inner sleeve.

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It slides down the hollow barrel until it reaches the wide part of the sleeve. A little push and twist, and it’s secure.

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Today, history’s first modern pencil (designed by Conrad Gessner in the 16th century) seems quaint, a toy for the nostalgic. The practical-minded will certainly prefer the regular wood-encased pencil. Still, I’m happy to live in a time when pens can write upside down in space and companies recreate 16th century pencil technology. Efficiency makes life easy, but it is poor food for the spirit.

Filed under Pencils and Leadholders
  • http://davesmechanicalpencils.blogspot.com Kiwi-d

    Great to see your collection. I’ll look forward to seeing many additions to it :-)

  • http://bleistift.memm.de memm

    Is the red Lamy cube a sharpener?

  • http://leighreyes.com Leigh Reyes

    Yes, it is! :)

  • http://www.robotninjamonsters.blogspot.com/ Alberto

    Quite a collection. Looks like the picture with the Faber Castell leadholders did not upload to this post though.

  • http://leighreyes.com Leigh Reyes

    Fixed! :) Thank you. :)

  • Spoonless Eddie

    When I stumbled onto your pic of fat lead leadholders, I went on a mission. Why had I never seen these before? I worked as a draftsman for +20 years, starting in the late 60s, but I missed these. I was an art student around that time too, but I missed them there as well.

    Well, I found the handsome Woerther, and the shapely Bexley Multi-Max, but finally, I found the K&E Hardtmuth 5.6mm. It is alive and well, in multiple colors, in CZ. I found the Gioconda leads there, too, albeit in limited weights. Like some pens I’ve seen lately, they are only unavailable in the US.

    Thanks for wising me up. :-)

    FYI: http://www.ecrater.com/search.php?cid=0&keywords=5.6mm+koh+i+noor&x=0&y=0

  • Spoonless Eddie

    K&E…curses…I meant Koh-I-Noor…

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  • Jack/Youngstown

    Extraordinary! My own needs top out at the .9mm diameter in a mechanical pencil, and I was aware of leads, oh, about 2mm. Like Spoonless Eddie, I’m gobsmacked by the 3mm and 5mm diameters, despite having some tech acquaintanceship.