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The 5611 was the acme of readily available drawing instruments when I first began manually scratching on paper. Very common, almost invisible because of its ubiquity. Judging by the great numbers of well worn examples floating about, It’s fair to say that this has been a favorite for generations. Innumerable variations exist. Even today, a sickly plastic stick wearing the 5611 badge is available widely. [Update 2008: No it’s not.]
The 5611 was introduced in 1956 as a “lightweight all-metal” economy lead holder. I’m perplexed by Koh-I-Noor’s marketing of this holder as an economy model in contrast to their 5616 and 5617 which were apparently the non-economy models. Their quality and construction are identical, the only difference being a lack of tacky gold plating and the slightly smaller size of the 5611 and consequently its inability to accept the thick 2.5 mm soft sketching leads.
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| ◄ | Drafting Leadholder Gallery Index |  http://leadholder.com/lh-draft-kohinoor_us-5611.html#5611-versatil-usa |
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| imprint reads: “made in U.S.A.—L. & C. Hardtmuth (Inc.)—“KOH-I-NOOR” Versatil ■ 5611” |
courtesy Allan Macdonald collection |
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lead diameter mechanism composition variations production date origin |
~2 mm pushbutton spring clutch all metal unknown circa late 1940s or early 1950s U.S.A. |
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| see also |
L. & C. Hardtmuth (Czech) Koh-I-Noor Versatil 5611 L. & C. Hardtmuth (Czech) Versatil page |
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| ◄ | Drafting Leadholder Gallery Index | http://leadholder.com/lh-draft-kohinoor_us-5611.html#5611-g3 |
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lead diameter mechanism composition variations production date origin |
~2 mm pushbutton spring clutch all metal unknown 1955 Italy |
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| see also |
US Patent 2,801,613 “Lead Gripping Means,” 1955 Fredrix Artists Materials, 1964, p 133 |
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| ◄ | Drafting Leadholder Gallery Index | http://leadholder.com/lh-draft-kohinoor_us-5611.html#5611-2b-6h |
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lead diameter mechanism composition variations production date origin |
~2 mm pushbutton spring clutch all metal pocket clip: with, without 6 pushbutton colors: black, blue, brown, green, red, silver 1956–circa 1960 Italy |
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| see also |
US Patent 2,801,613 "Lead Gripping Means," 1955 Fredrix Artists Materials, 1964, p 133 |
The examples above are early Italian made 5611s with “2B thru 6H” imprinted on the barrel.
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| ◄ | Drafting Leadholder Gallery Index | http://leadholder.com/lh-draft-kohinoor_us-5611.html#5611-5b-9h |
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lead diameter mechanism composition variations production date origin |
~2 mm pushbutton spring clutch all metal unknown, probably with and without clip and 6 pushbutton colors: black, blue, brown, green, red, silver (mid- to late-1950s) Italy |
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| special features | lead pointer in removable pushbutton | ||
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| ◄ | Drafting Leadholder Gallery Index | http://leadholder.com/lh-draft-kohinoor_us-5611.html#5611adapto |
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lead diameter mechanism composition variations production date origin |
~2 mm pushbutton spring clutch all metal with anodized pushbutton pocket clip: with, without 6 pushbutton colors: black, blue, brown, green, red, silver 1960s Italy |
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5611BK “Drafting Assortment” (half scale). see also: Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph catalog, 1980, p 31 |
Box of 24 Koh-I-Noor Adapto 5611s. courtesy Laurie Schmidtke collection |
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| ◄ | Drafting Leadholder Gallery Index | http://leadholder.com/lh-draft-kohinoor_us-5611.html#5611adaptoUSA |
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lead diameter mechanism composition variations production date origin |
~2 mm pushbutton spring clutch all metal with anodized pushbutton pocket clip: with, without 6 pushbutton colors: black, blue, brown, green, red, silver 1960s Italy |
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| ◄ | Drafting Leadholder Gallery Index | http://leadholder.com/lh-draft-kohinoor_us-5611.html#5611k |
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| reverse | courtesy Laurie Schmidtke collection |
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lead diameter mechanism composition variations production date origin |
~2 mm pushbutton spring clutch all metal with anodized pushbutton unknown 1960s Italy |
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| see also | Keuffel & Esser leadholder |
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| ◄ | Drafting Leadholder Gallery Index | http://leadholder.com/lh-draft-kohinoor_us-5611.html#5611tech-type1 |
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lead diameter mechanism composition variations production date origin |
~2 mm pushbutton spring clutch all metal with anodized pushbutton 6 pushbutton colors: black, blue, brown, green, red, silver (1970s) to 1992) Italy |
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| special features | |||
| see also |
Koh-I-Noor dealer brochure, circa 1974 Art Brown catalog, 1978, p 100 Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph catalog, 1980, p 30 Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph magazine ad, circa 1984 Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph catalog, 1985, p B-2 |
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| ◄ | Drafting Leadholder Gallery Index | http://leadholder.com/lh-draft-kohinoor_us-5611.html#5611c-tech |
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lead diameter mechanism composition variations production date origin |
~2 mm pushbutton spring clutch all metal with anodized pushbutton 6 pushbutton colors: black, blue, brown, green, red, silver (1970s) to 1992) Italy |
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| ◄ | Drafting Leadholder Gallery Index | http://leadholder.com/lh-draft-kohinoor_us-5611.html#white |
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| courtesy Laurie Schmidtke collection | |
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lead diameter mechanism composition variations production date origin |
~2 mm pushbutton spring clutch all metal with anodized pushbutton unknown, probably 6 pushbutton colors: black, blue, brown, green, red, silver somewhere between (the 1970s) and 1992 Italy |
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| special features | it’s friggin’ white! | ||
| see also | 2001 A Space Odyssey (the movie) |
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| ◄ | Drafting Leadholder Gallery Index | http://leadholder.com/lh-draft-kohinoor_us-5611.html#5611tech-type2 |
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lead diameter mechanism composition variations production date origin |
~2 mm pushbutton spring clutch all metal with plastic tipped pushbutton 6 pushbutton colors: black, blue, brown, green, red, white 1993 to 1994 Italy |
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| ◄ | Drafting Leadholder Gallery Index | http://leadholder.com/lh-draft-kohinoor_us-5611.html#5611-8side |
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 Note: The red color on this model really is slightly darker than the red used on previous 5611s.
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lead diameter mechanism composition variations production date origin |
~2 mm pushbutton spring clutch aluminum barrel and grip, nickel plated brass fittings unknown 1994 or 1995 Italy |
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| see also | Koh-I-Noor 5616 circa 1995 |
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| ◄ | Drafting Leadholder Gallery Index | http://leadholder.com/lh-draft-kohinoor_us-5611.html#5611plast |
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lead diameter mechanism composition variations production date origin |
2 mm pushbutton spring clutch plastic barrel, aluminum grip, nickel plated brass fittings 6 pushbutton colors: black, blue, brown, green, red, white 1995 to ~2000 Italy |
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| see also |
Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph poster 1 c 1995 Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph poster 2 c 1995 |
Well, that’s that. The 5611 has faded away with the absorbtion of rotring and Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph Inc. of Bloomsbury, New Jersey into the Sanford company on January 6, 1999.* It appears that Sanford was interested only in rotring and sold the rights to the Rapidograph technical pens and Koh-I-Noor products to Chartpak. Chartpak does not list any Koh-I-Noor thick lead drafting pencils on their website, but they still offer the Rapidomatic. [Update June, 2008] The Chartpak website now links to the Czech Koh-I-Noor website and has no information about the Rapidomatic mechanical pencil or Rapidograph pens.
Also worth mentioning is the apparent typo on barrel of this model. The model appears as Tecnigraph rather than Technigraph as it had been for decades. One might assume Koh-I-Noor was intentionally dropping the H to be cool, but below we see the 5611 C (with pocket clip) retains the traditional spelling.
* Thanks to Hector Feria for this information.
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| ◄ | Drafting Leadholder Gallery Index | http://leadholder.com/lh-draft-kohinoor_us-5611.html#5611c-plast |
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lead diameter mechanism composition variations production date origin |
2 mm pushbutton spring clutch plastic barrel, aluminum grip, nickel plated brass fittings 6 pushbutton colors: black, blue, brown, green, red, white 1995 to ~2000 Italy |
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| see also |
Tacro 4434 and 4435 Alvin Tech Da De-Lux |
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| original content, images, layout and design © 2001 to 2010 Dennis B. Smith | more info... | ▲ top | ||
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