image courtesy anonymous

(Update 2010 April:  I found the original 1939–42 German patent for the TK which corroborates the following story of this particular pencil.)

This is the one of the most mysterious pencils in the Leadholder galleries.  As far as I can tell, it is identical to the TK at the head of this page;  the mystery is the timing and circumstances by which it originated.

This was one of numerous pencils, pens, and other objects acquired directly from a member of the Faber family in Germany at the end of World War II (1945).  The man who purchased the items (a German citizen) moved to the United States sometime in 1945 and stored the items in his barn until 2002 when he sold his property and many of the things he had accumulated throughout his life. The box of Faber items was purchased at this time by the man who contacted me for an appraisal.  The story could of course be bogus, but the group of items included a number of very personal Faber objects that support the claim they were obtained from a member of the Faber family.  The personal items were purchased back from the man who contacted me by the descendants of Johann Faber.

According to Faber-Castell themselves, the “TK” pencil was introduced in 1948.  The US made 9400 Locktite was advertised as early as 1947.  During, and immediately after WWII, the German company and the US company were operating autonomously.  I believe the wooden TK pictured above is a prototype developed between 1939 and 1945, but not produced for sale until 1948.

reverse

The original patent application for the TK was submitted in 1939 and issued in 1942.  Faber-Castell puts the date of introduction of the TK in 1948.  One of the examples of the TK on this page was manufactured prior to 1948, in fact sometime before 1945.

The TK, a number of people have informed me, originates from the German words “Techniker” and “Künstler” which translate as “technician” and “artist.” Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe TK has become synonymous with drafting pencils in Germany.

Four sides of the TK 9400 packaging.

	courtesy Allan Macdonald collection

note:  This pencil is missing the original white ring at the tail end of the barrel.  See pencil below for example.  The nosepiece and pushbutton were originally nickel plated.

This seems to be the least common variant of the TK 9400.  The white lettering of the imprint is actually a separately molded plastic part around which the green body of the barrel is molded.  A patent for this technique was applied for by the A.W. Faber company in 1952 (in Germany) and so this pencil probably dates from around that time.  I suspect the process was expensive and/or had a high failure rate as there do not seem to be many examples floating around.  In fact, this is the only one I’ve ever seen.  A less ambitious use of the molded in plastic technique has been used continuously on subsequent TK 9400s for the degree indication and tail trim as can be seen below.

I’m not sure what the Faber people were thinking with this huge debossed imprint that they continued to use into the 1970s.  A more wretched hive of villainy and scum... and microorganisms feeding on dead skin and oil from your hand... you will not find, young Skywalker.

	courtesy Allan Macdonald collection

pencil and isolated pushbutton/sharpener	courtesy Allan Macdonald collection

2 mm type in 3B–9H degrees   3.15 mm type in 7B–4B degrees

The 3.15 mm versions of the TK 9400 continued to use the style of molded-in imprint for years after the 2 mm version had been updated to the style shown above.

This model supplanted the US-made Locktite 9400 when Faber-Castell of Germany bought their US namesake.  Prior to this, the German made TK 9400 was not available in the USA


Box of six TK 9400s circa 1980s.

3.15 mm example

This box contains six new TK 9400s. It is post-1992 when Faber-Castell decided to change from the green they'd been using since 1905 to a darker, trendier green.

In 1998 Faber-Castell sold a limited edition 50 year commemorative sterling silver version of the TK 9400 pencil in a fancy wooden box.  One thousand nine hundred and forty-eight were made.  They are beautiful and expensive.  They are also dramatically heavy, which makes them fun to use.  For a while.