Eagle Pencil Failure

 Eagle Pencil Failure.

There was once a rival pen company in the United States called Eagle Pencil Company. Yes, that’s right; a pencil manufacture was a strong rival to the likes of Esterbrook. It was a company started in the late 1800s by a Bavarian.  In 1881 his son came to the United States from Paris, France to run the company. He managed to fashion strong ties to the educational system and made practically any tool schools required from sharpeners, pencils, rulers, and even steel pens. The earliest pens I have from Eagle Pencil Company are from the beginning of 1900 (circa 1903). The quality of the pens from the earlier era are of their finest quality; almost equal to Esterbrook pens. They state that they imported their steel; which means they were getting it from England. The president of Eagle Pencil Company died in 1922 and no doubt this is when quality began to suffer. In 1936 the company clearly started drastically cutting its quality by massive amounts. There was clearly no quality control despite inserting their version of a warranty card suggesting you could return the product if you didn't like one single pen. It’s laughable that they suggested the pens were made from the finest steel. I suppose one’s definition of fine would need to be called into question!

Above is an example of which boxes to look out for. The boxes to the right were made 1903 – 1909 respectively. The ones on the left were made in 1936. Another thing that is rather hard to miss is the design on the packaging. Remember, the founder and president of the company is from Bavaria. So, apparently the company felt the Nazis were going to win the war so better prepare proper packaging. You can see that the previous packaging (on the right) is very American in contrast to the later versions (on left).  Eagle Pencil Company did keep the design during the war in the late 30s and mid 40s but they didn’t use red, black and silver as they did here in 1936. Kind of scary really; Nazi pens! O_O

Today we will use the #E370 College Pen as the example to show you the flaws. These flaws show up in all similar boxes and styles that came out in 1936. I use this pen because we have previously been discussing fine pointed elastic pens. These are the most popular and sought after pens on the market right now.

The example above shows that the quality of steel and temper are questionable. Highlighted in red you can see pink and green splotches. This represents EXTREMELY poor temper as well as the poor quality of the steel. This is why it was comical to suggest it was the finest steel. I have opened sealed boxes and found a number of the pens that have broken because they were too brittle. If the pens were properly tempered, they wouldn’t break that easily. Additionally, because of the poor temper the pens didn’t have adequate protection against oxidation/rust. As a result, I have found a high number of pens covered in rust from these boxes.

Next, I will demonstrate some of the common production flaws I have seen in their pens. Their groove stamp procedure was in need of immediate repair! In a box of 76 that this came from, 1/3 of the pens have a bent twine on the same twine.  That means the line worker didn’t give many rat's poop to the way he/she handled the pen whilst stamping the steel. The most remarkable thing though is that it STILL writes more or less as it should! The only noticeable flaw is that it scratches and catches on the paper on upswings.

This is another example of poor quality and even worse product handling. The finish on all the pens are pock marked with scratches. These marks are not due to wear and tear or age. It came from the factory in this dismal state. Although I didn’t photograph it, the temper between pens were far from consistent. Some pens where a very glossy silver and others were a very dull grey. This is a variation between normalized and 350 degree Fahrenheit heat temper. You can base the temper on how long it spends in the oven at that temperature as well. My guess is that the line workers didn’t really care to be precise.

Just to be fair, let’s take a look at the rival Esterbrook #128 Extra Fine Elastic Pen. As you can see #E370 College Pen is smaller than the 128. This would give it the advantage of better flexibility than the 128. It was designed to be closer to the original A1 Professional from Esterbrook. Sadly, the #E370 suffers from too much suck-factor to properly compete. I cannot reiterate enough that Esterbrook pens were always consistently better in quality and construction than their competitors.

In finality, when you’re searching around looking for the best quality in competitor brands, try to get a hold of the older boxes of Eagle Pencil Company.  I have found them to be of good quality equal to Esterbrook.

Happy hunting!