Update 4/27/12:
You can see this photo in a New Yorker article by Mary Norris about the Blackwing, though this blog isn’t cited. This picture is used for the Wikipedia article on the Blackwing, which has the text “blackwingpages” on it, but the blog name was removed and the photo darkened before the New Yorker published it. They credited Wikimedia Commons rather than this site, which is listed as the author of the photo.
I absolutely loved that widely kerned, italic “WOODCLINCHED” mark on some of them, like on the fourth one in from the left.
Say, that older one that’s second in from the right — does that have the “Woodclinched” stamp on it anywhere?
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Unfortunately, the older pencils don’t have “woodclinched” on them yet. I searched the trademark for “woodclinched” and from what I can tell it dates to 1940, 7 years after the first Blackwing (1933). Of course, that doesn’t mean that all of those first four pencils are pre-1940—I don’t know when EF first began stamping it on their pencils (though I assume it would have been not long afterward). But involvement in the Second World War was right around the corner for the United States, which impacted pencil-making as it did so many industries. Petroski has some interesting things to report about that.
So given your blog’s name, maybe you can search out the first “woodlinched” pencil? 🙂
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Good deal, Sean — thanks for the info! I’ve actually been thinking about researching the “Woodclinched” designation on some pencils. I need to get my druthers together enough to start researching.
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