Stenso’s only rival for the greater part of the company’s existence got its start in 1955 under the name “Stencil·It”. Formed by Bernie Aaronson, [a relative of the Libauers who once worked for the company] along with a financial partner (Sidney Levyne), the company was soon put out of existence by a court action brought on by Robert Libauer.

The two partners reformed the company as E·Z Letter around 1956 and Libauer [in a phone conversation to me some years ago] told me he decided to no longer fight the competition. E·Z Letter eliminated its remaining stock of “Stencil-It” product by using a hole punch to eliminate the word "It" printed on the stencil boards.

Originally, Sidney Levyne was only an investment partner, having had a successful career in advertising. To note, Levyne had designed the logo for the Cat’s Paw line of soles and heels used at most shoe repair shops.

Around 1964, Bernie Aaronson and his wife (Adele) both passed away from leukemia. Sidney Levyne purchased the remaining interest in the company from the Aaronson heirs and his son (David) came on board in 1965 to help run the company. Along with E·Z Letter, David eventually forayed into other lettering products under the banner “Quik·Stik”.

The Quik·Stik Company carried their own line of dry transfer lettering (manufactured for them by Chartpak) along with vinyl self-adhesive letters (Super Stik) and a line of movable self-adhesive cardboard letters (Quik Stik). Quik·Stik was a dismal failure due to the combination of the weight of the cardboard letters and the type of adhesive used. It was discontinued, while the Super·Stik vinyl line thrived.

Eventually David Levyne bought out his family’s interest in E-Z Letter and merged the two companies into the E·Z Letter/Quik·Stik Company. The “Super Stik” name was dropped in the 1980’s due to litigation brought on by another company claiming prior ownership of the name. All products eventually carried the E·Z Letter name. The stencil line was expanded to include Quik·Set, an interlocking paper stencil and a line of "painting" type stencils – both which could be used for repetitive stenciling (such as marking shipping boxes).

In the 1970’s, E·Z Letter was the first manufacturer of lettering guides to die cut their products out of plastic rather than stencil board, but eventually returned to the original stencil board format.

E·Z Letter evolved into E·Z Industries, which carried an expanded catalog line of lettering and sign devices, personal planners, calendars and other scheduling products. The company eventually sold its stencil line to Geotype in the 1990’s, as the sale of lettering stencils diminished. Many competing products (dry transfer lettering, self-adhesive vinyl lettering and the introduction of the personal computer) had changed the market forever.

As the outlet for his other products shrank due to the disappearance of small “mom and pop” stationers, David Levyne sold E·Z Industries and went into the printing brokerage business.

It should be noted that Stenso [during its last years as a Dennison brand] also marketed vinyl and dry transfer product.

Ironically, where Stencil-It/E·Z Letter had been created [in part] by a former employee of Stenso, Joe Kyle had left E·Z Letter to form his own [short lived] line of stencils, dry transfer and self-adhesive vinyl lettering called Presto.

Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery… and during the mid-1960’s the Duro Decal Company of Chicago, Illinois (now known as Duro Art Industries) introduced its own expanded line of stencils. For years a manufacturer of water-applied decal letters and numbers for signage [along with a line of brushes and supplies for artists), Duro had carried sets of painting stencils – letters and numbers on small, individual cards for putting identifying marks on houses, mail boxes, boats, etc.

Lettering guides Duro marketed were clones of many of Stenso’s past and then-current products. Duro also sold individual self-adhesive vinyl letters and numbers for signage purposes.

The only other remaining major player in the “lettering gude” market was Avery – soon to become the owner of the Dennison/Stenso brand – their stencil line becoming the "successor" to the market when the Stenso line was discontinued. Eventually, these stencils were also discontinued.

The lettering guide, as first introduced by the Libauers and Stenso, are no longer marketed… although stencil alphabets can be found in a variety of brands and formats to cover most signage, craft and hobby needs. Yet, it was a simple idea set forth by a young school teacher in Baltimore so long ago which gave millions of school children, small business owners, church groups and others a chance to create attractive lettering with a minimum of cost or experience.

(My thanks to David Levyne for his time and help in filling in much of the missing information.)