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Needless to say searching for "dollar" and "ink" gets me a whole heap of stuff that isn't what I'm looking for, so forgive me if I repeat a previous query. Dollar, maker of pens, and it seems, inks, in, I understand, Pakistan. I picked up one of their calligraphy 717 pens a while ago and was impressed, so wondered about their pen fuel. Seem to offer 60ml bottles of black, blue, green and red. Can anyone share experience of them? Scans, writing examples, swabs, anything at all. I am curious, and all I can find are passing references and pictures of the bottles which are slightly less than helpful! Cheers, Al

I wish I had too many dollars, but I do have too many Dollars! I'm speaking, of course, of the piston-filler and syringe-filler versions of these neat fountain pens from Pakistan. http://hisnibs.com/images/Indian/Dollar/DollarBurgundy717iCapTop.jpg I've carried these terrific, inexpensive pens for quite a few years -- and they've always been popular sellers. However, I recently took possession of a large quantity at one time -- and want to move them quickly. It benefits me, and for a limited time, it really benefits you. These models have been entry-level priced at $15.00 for the pistons and $10.00 for the syringes since...well, forever. At that price they've always been great pens to introduce someone to what a piston-filler or syringe-filler fountain pen is all about. They also make great knock-around pens. Well, for a limited time (basically, until I make a significant dent in this huge supply I've received), I'm offering them to you for $5.00 each! See the details in my newsletter here. http://hisnibs.com/images/Miscellaneous/Alignable%20award.png http://hisnibs.com/images/Miscellaneous/Teresa%20at%20pen%20show.jpg I also won a little award last week for sharing a business story. As it involved an incident at a pen show, I thought I'd share it here.

Full review here, full review + pictures at my blog. Dollar is a Pakistani brand. From offerings on eBay, it looks like the 717i is their most popular model. I bought a variety 10-pack of the demonstrator version for less than $25. The variety part refers to the colors–the section, cap jewel and piston rod can be black, blue, or maroon plastic. Aside from that and the silvertone clip and cap band, everything is clear plastic. This isn’t a very designed pen, and I like that. The blind cap is rounded. The cap is flat at the top. Every part seems to be designed to the lowest common denominator. The cap jewel has a dollar sign on it, which I find to be kind of adorable. The piston isn’t too stiff, but I wouldn’t call it smooth. I can see that there’s silicone grease in there, though. I over-loosened the piston knob on one of these once, and a tiny bit of ink got behind the piston, but no more has joined it. One cool feature of the piston is that the blind cap and the piston know aren’t one and the same–you have to remove the blind cap completely to get at the knob. That means you’re never going to accidentally unscrew the piston, and that you can leave the piston half unscrewed and reattach the blind cap if you want. I tend to unscrew the piston to force the last few drops of a fill into the feed, and this lets me do that without looking like my pen is partially disassembled. The cap posts pretty securely–if you twist it, you can sometimes unscrew the blind cap. But since that has no effect on the piston knob, again: no danger of ink spurting everywhere. Unscrewing the cap jewel allows you to remove the clip, if you want. They don’t fit together all that well–maybe the place where the construction seems cheapest. I mean, this is a cheap pen and it feels like it, but mostly it just feels manufactured to a price point, and here it feels like it’s less good than it’s supposed to be. And–well, the pen is sturdy enough for regular use, but you’ll probably want to avoid dropping it. One of mine has a cosmetic crack in the blind cap from dropping it. Things found elsewhere on the internet tell me the ink capacity is about 1.4 ml, which is plenty for me, considering that I enjoy changing inks often. I’ve also found that it’s easier to get a complete fill with this pen than other piston-fillers I have–screw in the piston once and the ink cavity fills up with just a tiny air bubble. The nib is, in my opinion, the ugliest part of the pen–the one place where simplicity comes across as lack of effort instead of elegant practicality. The shoulders are bent pretty sharply away from the top, not unlike on a LAMY Safari. The nib is marked with a dollar sign logo and “IRIDIUM POINT.” There’s no breather hole, which I suspect may be the reason tiny drops of ink can spray out when I unscrew the piston. Quality control is a bit of an issue here. I’ve tried about half the pens in my 10-pack, and some have been much smoother than others, They’ve all had a sweet spot, but on a couple it was very small. On average, though, they’re smooth, on the wet side, and on the fine side of a European medium. I know part of it is just that I continue to marvel at the price, but I like these pens so much–I keep meaning to ink up other pens and ending up refilling one of these instead. I kind of want to give one to everyone I know.

Recently bought a package of Dollar 717i's for a giveaway. 9 out of 10 were fine if a little dry writing. Number 10, however, looks like this: http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r181/jekostas/Bad%20Split_zpsco8argev.jpg Somebody was clearly not having a good day on the splitting saw.

Hello, How do I disassemble the clip of a esterbrook dollar pen? Thank you in advance.

Having acquired a small handful of Esterbrooks (4 + 3 that were given away) over the last year, most recently for sticking Osmiroid nibs in, EoC has a thought about the design decision that Esterbrook Co. took. Although this is obviously subjective, EoC opines that the earlier dollar pens are far more aesthetically pleasing than any of the later models. The dollar pen has unbroken material around the blind end of the barrel, and the clip has a certain style to it where it wraps over the end of the cap protecting it. In the transitional, the barrel stayed the same but the clip was changed and a jewel added. In the later J models both barrel end and cap end were changed to accomodate a jewel. Now, correct EoC if he is wrong (as is often the case), but does anyone else feel that calling a piece of molded (and frankly ugly) plastic a 'jewel' has got to be about as Barnum & Bailey as Montblanc and their 'precious resin'? Personally, EoC thinks that the addition of these bits of plastic that serve no real purpose actually makes the later pens look cheap and tacky. A contentious opinion? Perhaps.

The more Esterbrook pens that cross my path, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more details I start to pay attention to. Which leads me to my latest question. I received a lot of pens not too long ago - mostly black Dollar pens, or so it seemed. Armed with my trusty Esterbrook book, and looking over some of the resources, I began to question the pens. On the surface, they looked right, but as I checked the imprints, I need some clarification. I have two pens in particular that are black Dollar pen caps, on barrels with the imprint simply "Esterbrook". According to the book, these barrels are 1944-47 dates, and belong to the second transitional pens with a jeweled cap. The Dollar pens should have one of the "R Esterbrook" imprints, and would not extend into the late '40s. Am I correct in this assumption?

First Impressions (8)For a dollar forty, I wasn’t expecting much, but this pen proved to be a great value for the price. It is a true fine nib, and I have not had any problems with it thusfar. Appearance (9)The design of this pen is a gold gridded body with a black cap, black section, and a steel hooded nib. The pen feels less wide in person than it appears in the photos. Construction (8)This pen has seemingly very good build quality for a Chinese pen. It is made of metal and is a little heavy, I don’t have an exact weight but it feels like it is about the same weight as my Jinhao x450. Nib (5)The nib on this pen is a fine hooded steel nib. It has no flex, and is a little bit scratchy, but it is still usable, and I was able to make it a little bit smoother after a bit of tweaking. (Brown paper bag). Although this is not very descriptive, this nib did not seem very wet or very dry, and is in the middle. If I had to pick one side I would say that it is just a little bit wet. Filling System (4)This pen takes standard international cartridges or a converter. It ships with a screw converter. I am not sure whether it is my pen or my converter, but I can never fill the converter more than about 2/3 full, which makes it a lot less practical as it needs to be filled much more often. I will update this once I get a chance to see whether it is the pen or just the converter. Cost and Value (10)This pen is about as good of a deal as you can get, I got mine for 1.40 USD shipped from EBay. The buy it now price is around $7, but you can easily get it for cheaper in in auction with patience. Conclusion (7)All in all, this is a great pen for the price. The nib is a little scratchy, but it is not that bad. The design is excellent and the build quality is great for a pen of its price. For $1.40, it is all you could want and more. Pictures Below (Sorry for small size) http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/ODU1WDEwMDA=/z/DPwAAOSw0vBUc1DN/$_14.JPGhttp://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NzQ0WDEwMDA=/z/aEwAAOSw2XFUc1DK/$_14.JPGhttp://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTAwMFgxMDAw/z/3asAAOSwj0NUc1DT/$_14.JPGhttp://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTE3WDEwMDA=/z/xCwAAOSwAL9Uc1DQ/$_14.JPGhttp://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTAwMFgxMDAw/z/3hIAAOSwj0NUc1DW/$_14.JPG

If only it weren't so small. I love writing with this pen.