In 1958 Waterman's closed it's factory in the United States. Manufacturing and administration moved to France. One theory goes that at that time unfinished hard rubber pencils, sitting around for as long as three decades, walked out with employees of the company. Pictured here are some of those pencils. Brand markings were applied as normal, but holes were never drilled for shirt clips or ring tops. Channels were not grooved for trim rings. I call these pencils blanks. Nevertheless, they look like they would have sold if offered. Nobody did hard rubber pencils like Waterman's did hard rubber pencils. Noooobody.