Exploring Vintage Mechanical Pencils, Leads, and Erasers Used By My Great-Grandfather!

[@havoveegandhi3947]

Lucky you to inherit such beautiful stationery

[@TheThirdeYe1337]

Autopoint pencils had a fairly unique system, with a small propeller rod. It didn't really hold it with a clutch by pushing the lead into it like you would with other pencils like Eversharps, for example. You have to pull off the nose cone, unscrew the rod, put the lead in through the hole (not the tip), then twist the rod back in. As you twist the tip of the pencil, lead should come out. It is not intended to retract. Per Autopoint's own instructions, one needs to twist the tip backward as if you were intending to retract it, then gently push it against a hard surface to get it to go back in. Kind of convoluted, but it worked. Esterbrook pencils are very nice. I rarely see them, whereas I see the fountain pen versions quite often. I believe I only have a couple in my collection, but dozens of the fountain pens.

[@solanogolfpro6902]

Those Esterbrooks are very cool.

[@ladyjedi3D]

Always looking forward to a new vlog. What a cool collection to inherit. I told my children, when I die don’t throw my collections away please!!!!🙏 they said the rest of my stuff can go in dumpster. 😮 one son minimalist, one has more than enough. I am being cremated so don’t want them destroyed!

[@rfart419]

Those are beautiful rare vintage Mechanical Pencils.

[@craigstocker4271]

Autopoints are loaded from the back of the finger piece, NOT the front. The grip tight end keeps the lead from slipping. To retract, 'unwind' the finger piece and press the lead against a hard surface. The lead does not retract automatically. Your pencils are in fine working order.

[@twohandsandaradio]

He doesn't know what pliers are either.

[@lisam5576]

Very neat collection. I have some things of my great-grandfather's who, like you, passed away before I was born. He was an engineer and from what I've been told, he and I were a lot alike. It's nice to have a connection to him through some of his things.

[@natsunerf3956]

My grandpa passed a little while ago and I got several autopoint pencils and a few other things. Including a pentel p205. Very good stuff and they have a lot of sentimental value to me.

[@jakublulek3261]

These "electronic" leads could be some much darker, more graphite-rich leads that would make for more legible writing for early drum scanners/photostat machines. Computers were in use (at least in the US) in bigger companies in the early 1960s, so your great-grandfather's company probably had one (or access to some time-shared one). Or, and that is something based on my foggy memory, there was a type of punch tape/punch card reader that accepted cards/tapes with black dots instead of holes, I think these were used for like surveys or even school tests. And you used special pencils to fill in these surveys, so computer can read them. These "electronic" leads were probably used for that.

[@lisam5576]

It's hard to tell without seeing them close up, but the green looks like a Model J, the orange looks like an SJ, and the red looks like a "Dollar" based on the clip. The J was the standard Esterbrook model and the SJ was a more slender version. The Dollar was an earlier model. I have a red J pencil myself and really enjoy using it from time to time. There are some very devoted Estie collectors on the internet and some good resources to research the history of particular models.

[@ArthropodSpidey]

Thanks for sharing. This is a super awesome walk through history. My condolences for your recent loss.

[@dhm304100]

Esterbrook made nice fountain pens with all kinds of interchangeable nibs!!

[@nochipmunks8692]

Such a great legacy , what a beautiful collection

[@solanogolfpro6902]

I think that the Autopoint had a pin that would push the remaining lead out of the little friction cluth that would hold the lead. This little friction clutch would hold the lead so gravity would not cause the lead from falling out. Ro load you would put the lead in through the front, retract so only a bit of lead was showing and then push down on paper to set the lead into the friction clutch. That little pin would then twist out at the end to clear the lead from the clutch. I could be wrong, but you might want to look with a magnifying loupe to mke sure that is lead and not a metal pin.

[@havoveegandhi3947]

Don't use force. Open up the pen and see where is the blockage.

[@glynnhadskey4698]

I recently got an old Esterbrook and would love an update if you found out any more about these and got them all working.

[@user-gl5ld9vm7i]

Back in the day, the traditional insurance salesman used their fountain pen or pencil to show the customer in a pad of paper how they would benefit from the purchase of insurance.

[@craigmrohde9989]

Howdy...almost done watching this, about 8 minutes to go. Just a note to you, you must be more careful with these vintage pencils as one small mistake and you will cause damage, like using tweezers to "pull out what you thought was stuck lead!!! I'll seek more of your videos. Have a nice day.

[@zamSEG]

hello sir, any chances on vintage papermate pacer cassette plastic and metal on future video? i really miss my old pacer cassete and it's very hard to find in malaysia. thank you and have a great day sir.

[@greekveteran2715]

Does anybody own, the Rapid Pro 2mm lead holder? Is it the best 2mm lead holder out there? I mean, I want to upgrade. I own the TK4600, which is the best for drawing ,but sucks for writing. Would you go for the Rapid Pro 2mm, the 300, or Staedtler 780??

[@Truth72500]

Rapid pro from rotring? I like it one reason is a built in sharpener on the end with the little hole. Obliviously 600 pencil is my favorite .5 .7 and 2mm black barrel

[@greekveteran2715]

@@Truth72500 Thanks for the response, I appreciate it!

[@Truth72500]

@@greekveteran2715 No problem man have a good night