Category: Acme Ruler

APSCO Giant

4/6/2023

A couple of years ago, I saw a vintage Canadian APSCO Giant pencil sharpener. Unfortunately it was way out of my price range. I've been keeping my eye out for a more affordable one since then. I've recently been sucessful in getting one at a reasonable price. It is the only vintage sharpener I have and it looks great next to my collection of ACME rulers.

The original olive green paint color is great and the logo on the transparent plastic "chip receptacle" is in relatively good shape for its age.

It is difficult to date sharpeners like this. The logo is the same as in advertisement shown here from a 1948 Dupuis Frères department store cataloge. However, this sharpener has a recantgular base instead of the octagonal base shown in the advertisement. My sharpener also has a different shaped wooden handle. The "olive" shaped handle shown in the advertisement is from a later model. I would say that this sharpener dates from the early 1940s.

Dupuis Frères - Été 1948 p49

There is some great information on the history of the Automatic Pencil Sharpener Co. at the Made in Chicago Museum website.

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Back in Time for Back to School - 1960s

1/29/2022

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My son and I are fans of the CBC television show Back in Time for Winter. The show follows a modern day family as they recreate life in Canada through several different decades (1940s to 1990s).

The show doesn't really address what school might have been like for Canadian children in these decades, so this is my attempt to fill in the gap. I did recently see that there is a BBC show Back in Time for School. I haven't watched it but there is an episode on The 1960s.

Below you can see a few supplies that Canadian kids might have taken with them as they headed to school in the 1960s.

1960s school supplies: Gage Notebook, Acme ruler, Eagle Rocket pencils and Canadiana coloring pencils.

Canadian made school supplies from the 1960s.

Campfire Note Book: This memo style notebook was produced by W.J. Gage Limited in Ontario. You can see the Gage logo in the bottom left corner of the cover. A search of the "Gage and Design" logo in the Canadian Trademarks database (Registration number TMA148615) shows that this logo was in use in Canada as early as 1965. In the 1960s, Gage operated from a 20-acre site in Scarborough, Ontario. Many students would have had "scribblers" like this or similar exercise books produced by Hilroy.
Acme 12" wooden ruler: This ruler was manufactured by the Acme Ruler and Advertising Company in Toronto, Ontario. The Acme diamond logo was first filed by the company in 1964. I recently wrote about the rulers that this company produced.
Rocket 84 HB Pencils: These pencils were manufactured by the Eagle Pencil Company of Canada in Drummondville, Quebec. Space themed school supplies were popular in the 1960s with the development of the Saturn rocket program and the race to the moon culminating in the 1969 lunar landing.
Canadiana Coloring Pencils: These coloring pencils were also produced by Eagle Pencil. The style of packaging shown above comes from the late 1960s. Many students of this era would have had either Canadiana or Venus Laurentien colored pencils in their school bags.

Dating vintage school supplies can be difficult so I can be 100% sure all of these specific items were available in the 1960s but I think I'm pretty close with this small selection of items. Do you have any memories of these or other Canadian made school supplies?

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APSCO Giant

Back in Time for Back to School - 1960s

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