Pencil Identification - help!!

[juliet]

Hi all,

First time I've ventured into this part of the forums, so please bear with me.

Today I was quite blown away when my father handed me a gold mechanical pencil. I didn't know anything about it, and I don't think dad had been aware of it since he was a child. Recently he had been helping his sister move to a retirement home and she gave it to him as she doesn't have any children of her own to give it to.

Dad says he remembers his father using this pencil for some form of bookkeeping. He was a farmer and so would have had various accounts to keep a track of. Dad seemed to think that it was quite normal at the time to use pencil rather than pen. My grandparents weren't at all wealthy, and living in rural New Zealand in the early part of the 1900s Im quite surprised to discover a gold mechanical pencil was one of their possessions.

Dad is coming up 80, and his father died when he was just 7 years old. That this pencil is tied to one of his memories of his father obviously makes this pencil irreplaceable and invaluable.

Anyway, I was hoping that someone on here might have some insight into this pencil. There is no branding or hallmark that I can find on it. There is however a small line of text that runs around the top of the pencil that says "guaranteed 14 carat rolled gold". Based on Dads age his father must have been using it up till around 1945-47.

First task after looking for help on here will be to find lead for it. With no markings Ill need to try a few different sizes I guess.

Probably like many on here I enjoy mechanical watches, and own an Explorer 214270 and Submariner 114060. I bought these two models as to me they represent two of the purest watches Rolex make. They have essentially not changed since their introduction around 1953. I bought two (over time) because I wanted to have a watch to give to each of my twin boys later on in life. Personally I would have loved to inherit a family members watch, but was happy enough starting, hopefully, a new tradition with these two watches. To now receive this pencil is indescribable, and I can't imagine the joy of being able to hand it down to one of my sons in the future.

Well that's enough of the story. Probably a long shot, but if anyone does have an idea of the background of this pencil I would love to hear it.

Cheers.