Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The Good Old Days

These days leads come in plastic. I'm far too young to have been around then, but back in the good old days, when life was slower and simpler, before everything came in plastic, lead refills came in...well...lots of different things.

Like glass tubes with stoppers.



Conway Stewart and Eversharp glass tubes - note the square leads.
Also there were all sorts of metal and wood tubes and containers.

Various metal tubes and containers

Special leads in heavy duty metal containers
Of course the claim of extra thin would be laughed at today. More like "thick for strength".

Moving on we have a variety of wooden tubes and containers

I really like these slotted wooden type holders.


Scripto's in wooden holders


0.036" = 0.9mm = 'Extra Thin Lead'
Wooden tubes for politicians?
Of course there were also just plain old cardboard boxes

and of course cardboard tubes
Gonna get that Road Runner

15 comments:

Lee said...

This is awesome, Dave. Thanks for posting.

Please do more vintage stuff, if at all possible. I love it!

Gunther said...

Absolutely marvelous – thank you for showing these gems!

Matthias said...

They are really beautiful! I wish some manufacturers would offer retro lead containers.

Anonymous said...

Lovely stuff. Of the modern variety I love the Faber-Castell containers.

2 1/2p

Anonymous said...

Autopoint Corporation leads still come in cardboard tubes.

dowdyism said...

What a cool post Dave - love seeing all of the vintage stuff!

Maeven said...

Very nifty. I would like to see more vintage stuff too. Love your blog.

Michael J Corry said...

Trouble is I do remember buying leads for Parker No8 Rotary Pencil in glass tubes with rubber stoppers.
I always wondered why they didn't make the stopper the right size to replace the eraser.

Dwscamel said...

I really enjoyed this glimpse at the past. Just recycled a plastic lead container yesterday.

2nd_astronaut said...

nice blast from the past :-)

Kevin said...

Love the old wooden holders! The old colored leads are getting difficult to find, too. I enjoy using the color leads in the field for map making. The hard Pentel colored leads were good, even in damp conditions.

B2-kun said...

Very cool post! I did not realize the extent and variety of vintage lead tubes. Tend to pick up just the 2 mm leads variety myself thus far. Really like the wooden trays used by Staedtler for theirs back in the mid XX century.

Carmen said...

great post! loved the glass tubes!

Anonymous said...

Great post! Nice to see stuff from the less hectic past.

Germ said...

I think i have seen some of these b4. I wonder where... Nice pics and content.