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Vintage/WW2 Wooden Pencil Haul From a Local Estate Sale


rambob
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My wife and I generally attend an average of 10 estate/garage sales every week. Of course I am always looking for WW2 militaria to add to my collection, but the pickings are always slim to none. Well today that all changed, because the wooden pencil haul you see in the attached image was sitting on a table with some other office supplies at a local estate sale. Since I am always on the lookout for accessories and writing utensils for my mint map case, I zeroed in and tentatively identified some of the pencils were WW2 vintage. Particularly, the unpainted Titanic brand pencils, with the eraser and black, plastic ferrule. I wasn't sure about all of the others, but took a chance with the staggering purchase price of $10.00 US and bought the whole grouping.

 

There are three different packages of 12 unused pencils each and various pencils on the loose. All in all, I now have another six, different pencil examples to go with the existing contents of my map case. I am still looking on the web for more info on the various pencils I bought that would determine if they were WW2 era or not. One major indicator seems to be that most WW2 pencils will not have any metal used in their manufacture, especially the pencil ferrule that holds on the eraser, since most metals were considered strategic wartime materials. If anybody has any direct knowledge of the particular era of any of these pencils, I would appreciate having you post that information here to this topic.

 

Bob

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Some of those pencils may be drafting/mechanical drawing pencils. They do not have erasers because a special type of eraser is used. Somewhere in my closet I have the carrying case full of drafting equipment from my early college years. There are a number of "eraserless" pencils included.

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Siege, thanks for the insight about the "eraserless" pencils. The different styles of pencils in this grouping is truly confusing to me and any enlightenment is appreciated.

 

Bob

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One reason they may look better than today's is because they use a nice, shiney lead based paint.

 

,,,and remember how we used to chew on them? LOL OK , off point, but I also remember sniffing the handouts right off the ditto machine. We all had fun with that.

 

Steve

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Bob,

 

Here are some examples of WWII period pencils. These pencils belong to an AAF Navigator's kit, this is part of a large group in my collection that I bought from the widow of the veteran years ago so they are 100% WWII period. Included in the kit are 3 different brand boxes/packs of pencils and a few loose pencils. You will notice the Eagle Pencil Company pack, this is the same company as one of your packs held together in a cardboard sleeve. The style of the sleeve differs somewhat from yours, not sure if this is just for a different type of their pencil or if it represents pre or post war packaging. You will also notice some of the pencils have the metal ferrule, but again, these pencils could be pre or early war. The second photo shows all the brands in the kit to include the few loose pencils. Hope this helps in some way.

 

Regards,

Rob

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Rob, nice pencil grouping you have there! I am finding it very difficult to date the pencil types that I bought from looking on the web. The only pencils I actually did find that were dated to the WW2 era are the Titanic pencils with the plastic ferrules. The rest are still a mystery.

 

Bob

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Persian Gulf Command

Bob,

I know you have obtained some of the pencils for you map case from me so nice score finding those original packets. Regarding WW2 pencils the only way to determine that a pencil was produced during WW2 is the paper or plastic ferrule. This is not to exclude a metal ferrule pencils being in a WW2 set up as before 1941 the metal ferrules were used for holding the erasers. So, metal ferrule pencils can be in a WW2 set up.

As far as the color pencils the WW2 or not question is out of my knowledge set. However, for maps I believe the ones that were use needed to be indelible and color fast types. Other colored pencils would run if wet and this would be un acceptable for field use.

 

Seeing pencils such as Fixedbayonets! has provided helps to establish what was used during the war.

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Rob, on the back of the Eagle, cardboard sleeve is a C in a circle along with a 1936 date. I believe this is a copyright symbol and date for the printing on the sleeve. I am not sure when the pencils were actually made though, but odds are during the pre war or WW2 era.

 

John, as always thanks for your comments and insight into this subject.

 

Bob

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