Older Pencils
Most of the pencils from the 1930 – 1970 era are screw mechanisms where the lead is advanced by winding part of the pencil around to advance and retract the lead. Spare leads are often stored inside the body of the pencil, but its just storage, you refill the lead through the tip or other part of the pencil.
Here are a few instructions that I know of. I think you’ll see the common themes and be able to work out how to refill most common older pencils from these examples. These are full transcriptions from manufacturers’ leaflets, and they are all screw mechanisms.
CONWAY STEWART
1940 – 1960 era instructions.
“When lead has been ejected, wind mechanism back and insert new lead through point, making sure lead is fitted into socket on end of propelling rod. Lead will then be gripped so that it will propel and repel.”
PARKER
From 1950 – 70 era leaflets.
"TO INSERT NEW LEAD: Turn cap to the right until metal piece emerges from the tip to be sure all the old lead is out. Turn cap back until its stops. Insert new lead completely into the point. Press the end of the lead gently on a hard surface to secure the lead in the pencil."
SHAEFFER
From a 1980’s leaflet. Actually it’s all diagrammatic so I have written this interpretation.
"Turn mechanism until remaining lead is expelled, and then turn mechanism back until it finally stops. Hold pencil point upwards and insert a piece of lead into tip and feed it all the way in. Turn pencil over and gently press lead down on flat surface to fully seat it home." (Note the similarity to the Parker instructions)
WAHL EVERSHARP
From an English 1930 - 40’s era leaflet for a propel only pencil, i.e. you can’t wind the lead back in. It’s a bit complicated but the diagram should help. If you’re desperate I can send you a PDF of the full instructions sheet which has more pictures, and is a bit easier to read.“Lead is exhausted when turning cap to right fails to propel more lead. Inner mechanism has been released and can be pulled straight out without unscrewing. To insert new lead push plunger all the way down, while holding mechanism upright and insert new lead in tapered end (see diagram). Slip barrel down over mechanism and turn cap to right until lead feeds out.”
YARD-O-LED
From a modern YOL booklet, but the older styles are similar. Again it’s a bit complicated but the diagram should help.
“Pull out the cap section (1) and turn in an anti-clockwise direction until the slider (2) is completely unscrewed from the barrel (3). Push the slider grip (4) along to expose the lead holder (5) and any remaining lead. To release any residual lead, hold the slider grip firmly between thumb and forefinger and push down towards the slider grip. The resulting spring action will release the lead. Unscrew the refill nut (6) and remove a spare lead from inside the barrel. Replace refill nut.Insert the new lead into the lead holder, ensuring it is pushed fully into place. (Failure to push the new lead right into the holder may cause it to move up and down when writing). Move the slider grip back along the slider towards the cap section and insert the whole slider mechanism into the barrel. Screw the cap section back over the refill nut, then turn the cap clockwise until lead appears at the tip of the pencil”
Complicated or what!
Modern Pencils
Well compared to all that, refilling most modern pencils is a breeze - pull the end off and stick some leads in. Thats it.
Or if it’s a complicated one you pull the end off, then the eraser under that, and then stick some leads in. You can usually fill the centre tube up with quite a few leads and they will automatically feed in as the old one runs out.
Unfortunately there are some modern pencils that are “disposable” and not meant to be refilled. The Papermate Advancer and the Dixon Sensematic are probably the leading non-refillable mechanical pencils; although I think the latest Sensematics are now refillable?
Then there are a few modern pencils like the Faber-Castell E-motion and the Retro 51 Tornadoes which are basically “old style” screw mechanisms and refilled like the (Parker / Shaeffer) older style pencils above. The manufacturers’ websites should have instructions, particularly the manufacturers US market website.
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60 comments:
Nice blog. I have a Faber-Castell E-Motion mechanical pencil that I love.
Chris
http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/
I bought a Rotring Tornado Sudoku edition to do (surprise) my sudoku and crossword puzzles. I ran out of lead about 2 weeks ago and have been using all manner of writing implements since. To be honest, I was too embarassed to go back to the store and tell them although I could afford a $50 pencil, I was too dumb to figure out how to reload it. Your website saved my pencil from the junk drawer. You Rock! PC in Bermuda
Thank you. I spent ages trying to refil my Parker pencil the old-fashioned way, not realising that it self-feeds. You're a life (and pencil) saver! Toby
I feel so stupid! I did not realize that modern mechanical pencils self- feed. I threw one brand away, and then bought a Papermate Technician II. I really like it and was so frustrated till I found your blog. Sure enough, when I put lead under the eraser and pumped the mechanism, voila!, the lead magically appeared! I use my pencil to enter dates in my Pocket Pal organizer. It so beats white out, erasing does.
I found your site because I was looking for instructions to refill a SenseMatic pencil. I needed the instructions because I somehow got the lead to extend out too far. The design of the sensematic prevents the led from retracting. So I pulled out the lead (quite long) and tried to refill it. Not being able to, I did a search.
I figured it out. You have to use either a long enough lead, or multiple leads that combine to be long enough. Here are the steps.
* Pull off the eraser, including the metal (just yank it off)
* Peer into the hole the eraser fit into. You should be able to make out a smaller hole about the size of the pencil lead.
* Thread the lead through that small hole until it stops. If it stops far enough in that you can't access it anymore, add another piece of lead. There should be a length of lead still sticking out the eraser end.
* Gently push a little harder, thus easing the lead out the tip.
* Restore the eraser.
On a fresh pencil, the lead is the length of the pencil, so it should last a good while.
There is a page for everything. Anyone offer help in refilling a Sanford ZeZe Penicl? I feel really stupid, but I just can't get it to work. How hard could it be? I am very comfortable with this pencil and wish to keep using it...
Thank you Dave!! Where have you been all my life. I must have thrown out almost every mechanical pencil I ever bought (and I love them) Now this esharp is torturing me - beautiful, but I think it's a disposable.
Fat secretary in Canada
Dave,
Thanks for the Parker instructions. I could not for the life of me figure out how to refill this wonderful wooden bodied mechanical pencil. The body was made for me by Marc Blanchette of Rhode Island but neither of us could figure out how to load the damned thing! Excellent site! - Reber Clark
Okay, I must be a mechanical moron. I can't for the life of me figure out how to refill my Rotring Initial mechanical pencil. The instructions that came with it mention the Initial pencil but show a Newton or 600-style pencil. The end does not come off. Anyone know how to fill these things?!? Thanks in advance!
Yea, Rotrings instructions are usless. Grab hold of the plastic body and just pull the whole upper metal body out of the plastic. That exposes the eraser, pull that off and hey-presto.
Thanks, it worked! Of couse, after so much trouble finding out how to do this, and expecting to find something great underneath, I find the eraser is completely useless. Thanks for the tip.
The new sensematic Plus is refillable. It has a little internal compartment to carry leads in. It can be your pencil for life, unlike the original sensematics.
I have a new Pierre Cardin 0.9 mm pencil (a set from Costco), and I cannot refill it. I have tried cranking the barrel fully in each direction, shoved leads into the tip, pressed the lead in gently, etc. There are leads in the chamber under the eraser, but there is a piece of plastic across the inside of the barrel, so I cannot see down inside. I wonder if it is plugged, but I have tried tapping it to loosen any debris. Any hints?
Never seen a Pierre Cardin pencil. Does the whole top half pull off and then look something like this?
http://davesmechanicalpencils.blogspot.com/2008/01/pelikan-pura-mechanical-pencil-review.html
Dave, you are terrific!
Looking for some advice from you or another reader about getting the new lead into a Wearever. The replacement leads are under the eraser, but no holes in there. By rotating the mechanism clockwise, I can push the old lead up out of the pencil tip, but not to the point where there is a metal "grasper" of any kind. Do I just need to yank the old lead out with a pair of pliers, or is there some more elegant solution?
Thanks for any help!
Anonymous - I haven't ever seen a Wearever, but have heard of them. First question - Does the lead extend and retract back into the tip by rotating the mechanism, or is it a propell out only?
Just FYI, you often don't see the lead-grabber on many of these types of mechanisms.
Yes, the lead both extends and retracts.
Thanks -
Rebecca (aka Anonymous)
Hi Rebecca - when you have fully extended the lead it doesn't normally require any particular force (i.e.pliers) to pull it out. If its a tip feed then the general instructions above should work, however it could be a body feed mechanism like the Eversharps mentioned.
First off I'd just try tip refill. Let me know......
Well, I have tried but the problem now is that I just can't get the little stub of lead out to make room for a new one. Unfortunately, didn't realize how close to the end I was and kept using the pencil so that now there are just a few mm of the old lead sticking out. So now I can't get a good grasp on it. Wondering if my pencil is just doomed...
Mournfully yours,
Rebecca
Hi Rebecca - normally the lead would just fall out or easily pull out with your fingernails so I'm starting to suspect its a mechanism feed like the Wahl Eversharp or Yard-O-Led above. This means I'm not going to be able to help you as I'm not familiar with Wearever. Maybe an eBay seller will have one at some stage...
Well, I appreciate your help and will let you know if I come up with a solution!
All the best,
Rebecca
Hello All,
I have an older Yard o lead to refill, very usful infomation.
Thanks, Rod
Hi Dave, back again.
I got a bit more aggressive with my Wearever and discovered that it is a mechanism feed. STILL can't figure out how to get the old lead out. I took some pictures of it if you'd like to see, but not sure the best way to post them for you.
Thanks!
-Rebecca
Hi Rebecca. Well glad you are making progress. Sure, send me a photo - but in low resolution so its a small file please. You can see my email address up in the blog header. I'd suggest you have a little play around with the feed with the Wahl Eversharp and Yard-O-Led instructions in mind. If you can't work it out I'll consider doing a post asking for help.
are there any mech. pencils which accept more than one size lead? and perhaps they have a grip of some sort which accommodates the different sizes?
In modern pencils not really. probably the nearest you'll get is a multi-pencil that has 2 or 3 tips with each tip taking a different lead size e.g. Pentel 357.
Hi, you mentioned that you have PDFs of some of the old instruction manuals for mechanical pencils? i'm working on a film project and i hope to have images from these old manuals but can only find highly compressed jpegs online. would you mind emailing me the pdfs? i'm interested in any brand, post war, 1950s-60s? i'm mostly interested in the illustrated diagrams. thanks! great sight. -r
Hi Rebecca - leave your email address or send me an email - my address is up in the blog header.
Dave
as to the Yard O Led refilling, let me warn newcomers that the mechanism is quite fragile, and you do NOT want to bend the lead holding part (or the barrel that you extract). You need to pull firmly but straight upwards, if that makes sense. Twist to insure the gearing is no longer engaged.
Thank you, you have saved me from the awful embarrassment of admitting out loud that i had no idea how to refill my pencil, simple when you know how and now i do, thanks again.
someone gift me an old parker pencil with screw mechanism , but i cant see what type of lead i need because is not shown , it's put "PARKER MADE IN USA STERLING SILVER" , i opened and see inside and found a small central hole a little bit closed by pressure (i guess) , and 3 similar holes around. I try to insert a 0.7mm lead but is big , and when trying insert that lead in the other extrem , its gone away , lead apears to be thin , i thinking to try with 1.0mm i dont know if that measure exists but a few clicks on internet bring me to this page and see tips for older pencils , but i dont know how to make its work properly.
Any help? Thank you :)
If its a screw mechanism you probably put the lead in through the tip, not through the top or in through the insides. See the Parker instructions above. Probably 0.9mm or 1.18mm lead size.
I have tried everything. After I put the leads in the top of the pencil and try to "pump" the lead(s) through, the lead won't come out. Some of my pencils have a metal piece near the tip that moves. After I fill the pencil from the top, the metal piece goes up into the pencil and won't stay out after I push the pencil from the top. I have tried to fill the pencil from the hole at the bottom. I can't get the lead to go up into the pencil. I've thrown out a lot of pencils. Has anyone else had these problems?
Kathy
Can you unscrew the tip and then look through it? If you can see light through it, it might be bent. If you can't see light through it, take a lead and carefully line it up and push out the old piece of lead in the tip. Then put the tip back on and try again.
I bought a set of Pierre Cardin pen from Office Depot. My husband likes the mini pen. How do we find a refill? We searched the main Office Supply Stores but nothing fits. And to make things worst, we misplaced the original refill. Any tips?
Thanks a lot.
I bought a set of Pierre Cardin pens from Office Depot. My husband likes the mini pen but we cannot find the refill. Already searched the main office supply stores. To make things worst, we misplaced the original refill. Where to find information of suppliers? Thanks.
I have a Pierre Cardin 0.9mm pencil and it does not seem to be catching the lead. I thought it may be empty, but after taking the top off and removing the eraser I was able to shake it enough for lead to come out. Any suggestions on how to get the lead through the nib?
How do you advance and retract the lead normally - push top or twist the top or screw the top around?
It is a twist top.
Have you previously loaded lead through the tip? When you say twist top, do you mean you twist it and it advances the lead a set amount and springs back, or you screw the top around and around to advance or retract the lead? If its a twist then I would imagine you don't feed lead through the tip. Are you sure the lead mechanism is empty - it might have a broken bit jamming it?
Great blog..
I freakin' love pencils!
J.
i have a 5 mechanical pencils with a button where u press it
wots it called???........
Like a couple of others above, I have a Pierre Cardin 0.9 mm pencil...I do think I have a broken bit jamming it, but can't figure out how to clear it...can it be cleared? I saw you just purchased/posted a Pierre Cardin 0.9 mm pencil last week and though my exterior looks different, it looks like it would be the same mechanics as yours. I removed 3 whole lead pieces but it's like there's a piece of led caught in the grabber, if that makes any sense. When I extend the led as far as it will go, I can see the lead, but it's a little crooked, not perfectly in the center of the tip as it should be. I can retract it, but then it gets stuck that way, too. I just started using it a few weeks ago (part of a set I've had forever but I prefer thinner lead) and I started losing little pieces of lead for no apparent reason. When I started to extend it further, and then retract it, that's when it got stuck. Can you help me?
-T
Yeah I have that same Pierre Cardin pencil, I have no idea how to reload it. Ive tried everything, i took that black plastic thing out and tried putting the lead into the little tube but it wont go in. I have found absolutely nothing online that will tell me how
I just bought on ebay a Parker Vector 3-in-1 ballpen/pencil/stylus but it didnt come with instructions for advancing the lead or inserting ballpen refills or replacing the stylus with another ballpen. Can anyone help?
-ARR
Thank you, for posting this blog. I am new to mechanical pencils and had no idea how to refill one. :)
Jeff, I'm still not sure what the little black plastic thing is in the Pierre Cardin, but I think to reload it, the leads sort of just swim around the little tube, not in it and it sort of self feeds into the little tube when there's room for it. That's where the extra leads come out of, so just drop a couple in the outer circle, if that makes sense, and see if it works. Just turn slowley - I'm not sure how/why mine jammed and still haven't been able to fix it. Dave? Help? :)
-T
Hi Pierre Cardin folk. Sorry I've been slow to reply as I've been away. having said that i can't really help. My PC is a normal tip feeder, like the Parker - Shaeffer - Conway Stewart instructions above. You can sometimes get a piece of lead stuck in the grabber section and you have to carefully pick it out with needle or knife tip, and you might have to unscrew the pencil tip section to be able to get at the grabber. Sorry I can't be more help.
Hi, I have a Pierre Cardin as well that I was having trouble reloading. After finding this site, I finally figured out it is a tip loader. When the lead is far enough to touch the back it helps to twist it slightly, and it finally grab and held. Great site, I can now use my pencil again.
My Pierre Cardin was second hand so I didn't get any instructions, but all you folk above - seemingly there were there no instructions with your pencils from new? Seems strange.
I may be just another face in the crowd here, but Dave, your a hero. I received a pen/pencil set from my grandfather, with a twist-mechanism pencil. I used it, loved it, and then the lead ran out... spent a week carrying it around trying to figure out how the refill worked, only to try a search as a last result. Ended up here, and voila! Your Parker instructions worked perfectly for it (A Papermate 0.9mm)! Thanks again!
What's the best way to refill a Waterman CF mechanical pencil? It has the screw mechanism. I found that I had to rotate the mechanism counter clockwise a few turns, push the lead in, then rotate again counter clockwise while applying pressure to the lead. It would not automatically back in--I found I had to keep applying pressure.
I'm not sure if this it the right way. When I used the pencil a few times, I'm pretty sure that the lead would back into the pencil with a counter clockwise turn--I wouldn't have to push on it. Now, it doesn't do that. I wonder if I loaded it incorrectly...
Thanks for the blog. I bought my wife a Retro 51 Tornado golf pencil and had trouble replacing the lead. The only addition to your instructions I would make is that when you drop the new lead into the barrel it's necessary to turn the screw mechanism further anti-clockwise than the initial stop point. You will feel some resistance against a spring but that is what "catches" the new lead.
Very handy, thank you! You just diagnosed a springy lead problem in my (modern) Yard-o-Led pencil. Pb + Ag = Joy!
It's certainly possible my Pierre Cardin is a tip loader (so maybe the barrel inside is just storing the extra lead, but I then have to remove a piece and load in the tip rather than it self-feeding?) I think I've only used one piece of lead and the last of it is what's caught. My tip doesn't seem to screw off, so I can't see what's going on inside. I tried using a pin through the tip but the lead doesn't budge. I think I've lost my pencil because I have no idea how to clear the jam :(
Regarding instructions, the set is several years old and if there were any, my husband has since thrown them away - he put the pen & pencil on our desk and they just sat there (unused) until recently, when I brought the pencil to work. The box is gone, so any instructions are unfortunately gone as well.
-T
Hi, I've just bought a Wahl eversharp pencil with a rollerball clip. It has a black/white marble finish. Could you tell me how it it refilled and an approximate age? This is the first old mechanical pencil that I have bought although I do like to use old fountain pens. Sooo much better and elegant to write with!!!!
I have a product called the ULTIMATE MARKING PENCIL FOR QUILTERS AND CRAFTERS. It uses .5mm
lead refills. I lost the instructions and can't understand how to refill this mechanical pencil. The end where the lead comes out keeps falling off. The back end where the eraser is located will not stay inside the barrel. There is a little spring, but the pieces do not work together at all. Can someone help with this?
Many thanks.
Without seeing the pieces, I couldn't tell you how to fix it.
Is there anything special about the pencil, or is the secret (if there is one) the leads?
Maybe you could just put the leads into a working 0.5mm pencil?
When I try to insert the lead into the tip of the pen, the lead simply falls back out. The tip will not stay on the barrel. The eraser end will not stay on the barrel. The little spring that fits inside the barrel is useless. I am wondering if this is a defective pencil because I only used it once. It ran out of lead and now lead cannot be inserted into the pencil because the tip and eraser end keep falling off.
Google brings up two different Ultimate such pencils but they both look like just normal mech pencils so if the tip and eraser end won't stay on the barrel it certainly sounds faulty. I can't imagine anything special about the pencils, it's the leads that would be special (or at least claimed to be special) so I'd say your pencil is faulty. Try for a refund or as Matthew suggests just put the leads in any ordinary mech pencil you like.
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