My Collection – Photos and Commentary

Tool Top

Kapoff, from American Pencil Co., has a bottle opener on top —

The metal piece on this Eagle pencil says “Spark-Tip” —

I once thought it was for producing sparks (but why?) or lighting matches, but I couldn’t see how it would work.  Now I think it is for testing spark plugs, although I don’t know exactly how.

My favorites of course are these Tape-Measure pencils —

The tapes go to 18 inches.

This entry was posted on March 30, 2013 by . It was filed under Morphology, Special Purpose and was tagged with .

5 responses

  1. Jüri

    Very interesting constructions, really
    🙂

    March 31, 2013 at 2:36 am

    Reply
    • fredspencils

      Wait until you see my many dual-purpose mechanical pencils

      March 31, 2013 at 8:10 am

      Reply
  2. logan

    These are very cool.
    My guess about the spark tip is that the width of the triangle cutout may represent the acceptable range for the gap between the tip of a spark plug and the…metal thingy near the tip. (not a car guy)

    April 1, 2013 at 6:59 pm

    Reply
    • fredspencils

      It may help to know that the metal from the triangular hole is still attached, and it is folded back, underneath the circular hole.

      April 1, 2013 at 10:26 pm

      Reply
  3. Larry

    My guess is that a spark plug wire could be pushed onto the metal end of the pencil and since lead is a conductor it could be held against the engine block and possibly see the spark in the little hole.

    June 27, 2018 at 8:39 am

    Reply

Leave a comment