I recently got contacted by a reader who had purchased a mechanical pencil tie pin set at auction, and couldn't find a lead to fit it. Pentel 0.9mm is too small, and Retro 51 1.1mm (1.18mm) is too large. Supposedly it is a vintage tie pin, but he's not entirely convinced. So any ideas on a lead size and where to get some? 
Oh, I suppose I should mention it, a little milestone, sometime today my sitemeter will clock up 100,000 hits. Crazy.
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9 comments:
Rotring seem to make a 1.0 mm lead.
Yes, however I think its 0.9mm. Faber-Castell also make 1.0mm but the label reads 1.0(0.9). I haven't checked many out but I'm under the impression 0.9mm and 1.0mm are the same nominal lead size, its just some manufacturers round up and acll it 1.0, some round down calling it 0.9mm. Annoying.
Still, one possibility is that the Pentel 0.9mm is a little thinner than normal and maybe Rotring or FC is a little thicker than normal so they might fit.
Tie-pin owner - what seemed to be closer to actually fitting, the 0.9mm or the 1.1mm?
I bought a collection of draughting supplies at a yard sale once and there were a number of tubes of pencil refills in there called 'red top' by Eversharp they were about 1mm in dia (and about 2 inches long) but they were almost square in cross section. I'm not sure what size the Cross pencil refills are but they might be worth a look too. I'd be happy to measure the red tops and re-post if you think it would help. I'd even spare a tube if they would work for the tie pencil.
Quote: ...today my sitemeter will clock up 100,000 hits. Crazy.
Yeah, but 83,000 of those were me. And I only found your blog a couple weeks ago. Even crazier!
:)
Congrats on a fine blog!
David
(Edinburgh, UK)
Tim - great minds think alike. Yesterday the square lead possibility occured to me as well. I've emailed the tie-pin owner with that suggestion but no reply just yet.
Further to the above, he has also indicated that the 1.18m lead seemed much closer to the correct size than did the 0.9mm.
DJR - well thanks for giving my sitemeter good workout :-)
I'm the tie bar pencil owner. The pencil end looks fairly round and in about medium condition. I would be open to trying the square lead. Where would I get it? And yes, I'd appreciate if Tim measured the square lead. Like I said, the 1.18 I have seems closer but still too big, so maybe a 1.0 mm that's square might do it.
Thanks to all for the help.
Randy
Sandy, UT 84092
I have a few tubes of the Eversharp Red Tops, the square leads. The tube says firm, so I'm guessing they're about an H grade . I'll drop Dave an e-mail tomorrow and if you're willing he can forward me your address. I'll drop them in the mail this week.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I will leave my shipping address with Dave and he can forward it to you.
Randy
I have an old tie pin pencil, but it is far less fancy than this one.
It's a telescoping pencil, so it's quite short when closed.
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