My first Estie

[Big Ern]

I got my first Estie on Saturday. She is a B-E-A-utiful double jewel j in copper, with a 9048 nib. It is awesome and tremendous fun to write with. This will be my only Esterbrook. I'll let you all know how that goes.

 

Edited because I cannot spell IN

Edited May 7, 2009 by Big Ern

[welch]

"This will be my only Esterbrook."

 

It's hard to stop at just one!

[johnboz]

I'm sad to say it, but I don't remember my first Estie. There was no "magic moment". For me, it was like getting older: it happens gradually until one day you realize you're not as young as you used to be. For me, I was in accumulation mode and ended up with quite a few Esties because they were inexpensive and easy to fix. It wasn't long before I had the beginnings of a collection.

 

As a side note, I used to print out the completed eBay auction listings after I won something. In the days before Paypal was around or common (2000 or so), it helped me to remember when I mailed a check and if I'd received an item. I'll dig through them and see if there's any interesting prices or purchases in there.

[Bo Bo Olson]

It lay in a drawer for 15 years, a plain Jane Gray, with "streaks". It lay there with seven other inherited pens.

 

Flea market time. Tasked to find their worth. Esterbrook, was a vague name in the back of my mind. I saw a beautiful snake red some where on Ebay, and wished it than the gray.

 

That Farber-Castell, turned out to be an Osmia-Farber-Castell with a Supra nib and worth money.

Every thing was fine still...then I made the great mistake of buying a bottle of Pelikan Royal Blue.

Half the pens wrote and wrote well. I found pen coms...I was lost...first a pen, then a full bottle of ink, and sneaking midnight peeks at EBay...

 

Suddenly, my Silver Cross hatched silver Parker 75 got rescued from my wife's jewelry box, where it was for the last 30 years.

I had a 8 pens, but not a collection...of mostly no name pens, but solid German piston fillers.

I had as many as I needed, but only the Esterbrook had quick changing nibs.

 

There was a cigar box with Estie parts...and some ho hum Weavers...whose nibs could be used for Esties. A small fortune later I had a "collection". I've decided to keep the Wearevers too, some are from the 30's, 40's, 50-70's. Pretty things too, aught to shine up well.

 

I must say a brilliant blue cap on a Copper barrel looks sharp. Of course you have to carry two or three normals just to show you are doing it on purpose and not because you are color blind.

 

It isn't the pen, nor even the ink. It's when you are looking for nibs at EBay Midnight and slipping into bed wondering how better paper wrote. That's when you are lost.

 

I am glad folks don't smoke any more, one should be able to find cigar cases cheap. I've got no problem with pens. I can take them or leave them.

 

After all it don't got to be Alligator.

I don't have a problem.

 

True, I didn't use to wear a sports jacket all the time; it's a cool summer you know.

 

It's not that I really got to carry many "cigar" cases with me. Just a couple, after all one never knows, what color ink or nib one needs. One has to be prepared.

It's not like I need to write anything; normally.

Oh, I've always done poetry, on the off and on, or vivid description here or there.

Ya, true, more lately, than before. But it's not a problem, let me assure you.

 

I don't have a problem. It's not like I carry cartridge pens with me

.

Edited May 11, 2009 by Bo Bo Olson

[Bo Bo Olson]

What did you say?

You have a Snake Scaled Red?

 

We take a short cut through a dark alley.

Suddenly out of the dark, a man with a gun.

 

Do you know neither of them even had so much as a Jotter on their bodies?

What sort of man did they think I was, a Schaeffer collector?

 

 

Are you sure that that d*mmed Prof Jones knows where there is a Dragon Scaled Red?

[fizzicist]

...I think what we should pin is the Standard Estie Warning...

FarmBoy:

 

Please forgive my newbie ignorance, but what is the "Standard Estie Warning"?

 

Thanks!

[wintermute]

"Hi, My name is Fred and this is my first Estie."

 

And it's a beaut (aren't they all?). Green swirl SJ, you have to look hard to see scratches, imprint's a little shallow. Section came away relatively easy, sac appears to be in excellent shape. A little gunk between nib (2668) and feed, but that's okay. It's nice to know that anything that's wrong with this thing is cheap and easy to fix. Eventhough I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, I know there will be more. It's amazing how well cheap things were made back in the day.

[ZeissIkon]

I just got my first Estie in today's mail. It's a green, I think a J (I'm still working on how to tell) with a 2556 (firm fine, general writing, says the chart), with what appears to be a mismatched cap (has the right kind of tassie, but no Esterbrook name stamped on the clip and the cap is plain black with a three-layer silver-tone ring) that none the less fits correctly (maybe from a cheaper, later Estie?). I've removed the sac fragments, verified the lever and J-bar are okay, and will be off to the repair forum shortly to verify the correct size of sac to order (if I've understood correctly how to measure, looks like an 18).

 

This'll also be my first resac, but it looks easy enough...

[OcalaFlGuy]

I just got my first Estie in today's mail. It's a green, I think a J (I'm still working on how to tell) with a 2556 (firm fine, general writing, says the chart), with what appears to be a mismatched cap (has the right kind of tassie, but no Esterbrook name stamped on the clip and the cap is plain black with a three-layer silver-tone ring) that none the less fits correctly (maybe from a cheaper, later Estie?). I've removed the sac fragments, verified the lever and J-bar are okay, and will be off to the repair forum shortly to verify the correct size of sac to order (if I've understood correctly how to measure, looks like an 18).

 

This'll also be my first resac, but it looks easy enough...

 

Assuming it's a J family, a #16 sac cut to 1 15/16".

 

Do a search on Richard Binders site for Esterbrook to ID your pen.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

Edited June 18, 2009 by OcalaFlGuy

[ZeissIkon]

I just got my first Estie in today's mail. It's a green, I think a J (I'm still working on how to tell) with a 2556 (firm fine, general writing, says the chart), with what appears to be a mismatched cap (has the right kind of tassie, but no Esterbrook name stamped on the clip and the cap is plain black with a three-layer silver-tone ring) that none the less fits correctly (maybe from a cheaper, later Estie?). I've removed the sac fragments, verified the lever and J-bar are okay, and will be off to the repair forum shortly to verify the correct size of sac to order (if I've understood correctly how to measure, looks like an 18).

 

This'll also be my first resac, but it looks easy enough...

 

Assuming it's a J family, a #18 sac cut to 1 15/16".

 

Do a search on Richard Binders site for Esterbrook to ID your pen.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

 

Well, now I'm seeing both Pen Sac Company and Wood Bin recommend a #16, and Richard Binder gives a good reason for it -- the sac shouldn't be too intimate with the barrel wall, lest it act like an eyedropper or piston filler and drip ink due to heating of the air in the sac by the hand. Yes, the #16 holds less ink, and the original might even have been a #18, but I'd rather have to fill a little more frequently than have blobs, or a cap full of ink.

Edited June 18, 2009 by ZeissIkon

[JakobS]

I thought the sac size for all J family pens has always been #16, the dollar pens and some earlier ones have #18 sacs.

Edited June 18, 2009 by JakobS

[OcalaFlGuy]

I thought the sac size for all J family pens has always been #16, the dollar pens and some earlier ones have #18 sacs.

 

Correct. As we just danced in the repair forum, the Dollar Demis take #16's like the rest of the J family and the full size

Dollars take #18's. I mistated before here and will fix it if I can (still).

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

 

[AndyH]

My first Estie came (was it only five months ago?) from Johnboz, and it was a little copper dollar pen with loose threads (easily repaired with lightweight plastic tape).

 

It had (and still has) a 1555 Gregg shorthand nib, and I was amazed to discover how smoothly it wrote and how I could set it down for long periods and resume note-taking with nary a skip. How can a folded nib be so smooth and effortless?

 

Then there was a Green J, and a silver/grey SJ, and a blue SJ. And extra nibs from Johnboz, and Luckygrandson. And a red SJ (still inked with PR Burgundy), and Bruce and his MOAPR...

 

And then there were the nibs - the "manifold" 2xxx one that writes through the triplicate forms I sometimes have to deal with, and a couple of 9xxx nibs that are as margeriney smooth as much more expensive ones.

 

So it's gotten to the point where I never, ever leave the house with at least one inked Esterbrook in my pen case or pocket. Of all the pens I've known and loved, my Esties are the ones that I simply ALWAYS have to have with me in one variant or another.

 

Classic design that looks as good 60+ years later as it did the day it left the shop.

 

Smooth and reliable nibs that say "Pshaw!" to snobbery and pretense.

 

They're the crack cocaine of pens.

 

And I don't regret my addiction one bit...

[crward4603]

im somewhat of a newbie. Im waiting for my first one its a 1950's 1550 nib, and has anyone heard of thepenmarket.com are they still around thats where i purchaced itfrom not relizing the posting of the pen was almost a year old has anyone recently purchaced from them the site is great it had a ton of vintage stuff. let me know guys

 

[PaFitch]

My first Esterbrook dates back over 40 years--the actual acquistion process is no longer remembered (did I buy it or was it a gift from my parents?). It is a black LJ, the nib was a 2xxx series, and I always inked with Sheaffer Skrip. In college I added a 2550 nib from a sidewalk sale at the local office supply store. It didn't see a lot of use after college but never was totally forgotten. I inherited my father's copper J in the 80's and in the mid 90's did my first re-sac with both pens (didn't use shellac and they worked well except for the excess ink that always got on my fingers).

 

But collecting (or accumulating--if you prefer) didn't start until December 2007. An anique/flea market dealer at my church had a box full of fountain pen stuff including 3 Esties (in sorry shape) and a few extra nibs. Then after that I discovered Ebay and FPN and now I have pens and pencils in each of the J colors (except for a copper pencil) and in the red I have all 3 J sizes and a dollar pen (someday a transitional will join).

 

Oh--they look nice in their glass top lid

[holgalee]

Just got my first Estie today, a classic black J. It's much smaller than I thought, but the nib is so smooth and the pen looks clean and lovely. Thanks to Tom Heath, who also gave me a nib chart! Just wondering, is the J the largest Estie ever to be produced?

[purerobin]

I was poking around the web for a recipe for homemade ink (for dipping and brushing), and the blogger I was reading recommended Esties as his preferred device for ink experiments (his name escapes me, but googling "how to make your own ink" will bring it up). I'd never heard of them but something clicked for me.

 

So I saw an 8-ball style deskset on eBay. When it arrived, it took me a while to figure out that the pen was for a dip-less deskset, not the lever system I was expecting. That took an hour of head-scratching to figure out. PM'd the seller, and she had in fact accidentally swapped a couple pens that looked the same to her eye. But dealing with that switcheroo got me slightly hooked on examining these pens. Then came the ordering of ink sacs and shellac. And soon my deskset was sorted and gorgeous and functioning. Oh, and it's a 9556. A touch scratchy....that's the next thing to sort out.

 

I use it every day to write an entry in my 5 year journal. It's a tiny writer, so I can squeeze in a lot of scribble.

 

Then came the discovery that Dip Nibs are Different than Fountain Pen Nibs. Luckily that lesson only cost me a fiver on eBay--totally worth it.

 

Which reminds me: if anyone wants an 048 Falcon nib for free, PM me--I've got plenty (gee, I hope I'm allowed to post that....correct me if for some reason it's verboten).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DrawingRoomGuy]

Hey all... First posting and complete newbie. I innocently wanted to refill my Pilot Varsity and looking on the net found this site... Did fill the Varsity but then thought I could find some ole pens and could refurbish them. Got these two for $20 at a lil hole in the wall antique shop. I think I'm hooked....

Dunno if I did well as I one nib's tines are slightly bent and the other looks a bit messed up, but that's another topic. Cheers all and look forward to feed the addiction.

[penburg]

These Esties were among my first vintage pens. Earlier I had a Cross FP and a Lamy Safari, and then decided to venture into vintage. I found Esterbrooks to be affordable, reliable, rugged and easy to service. Here are two J's and a transitional (blue).

 

http://www.picturebay.net/img/members/penburg/esterbrooks.jpg

[Defacto]

I'm bitten by the Esties virus as well.

After a long wait I just received my first 3 Esties yesterday.

A black dollar-pen, a (copper?) J and (grey) SJ.

 

Just inked them and I think they are awesome!

Visited mr Binder's website to order a couple of extra nibs too......

 

I'm hooked to this brand as well oh my....

 

Ah well, I'm not a smoker nor a drinker... so I have this fountainpen and ink addiction.... who cares? :roflmho:

 

Cheers.

 

Nic