What is on your bench?

[GlenV]

11 hours ago, LoveBigPensAndCannotLie said:

Very impressive, and the pen looks quite nice. I'm a sucker for mottled hard rubber pens, nothing like them.

 

I had another disastrous "restoration" today, I don't understand why I am so unlucky. I have a rainy day supply of Esterbrooks I haven't restored, figured I'd do one as a palate cleanser after the last Waterman. Nearly everything that could have gone wrong did.

 

First, the nib was one of the butterfly tipped 1xxx series ones, one of the folded over "tips" was broken off. No problem I thought, I have a spare 2550 nib. The damn thing would not unscrew. I applied heat, let it soak, nothing. Eventually broke off the feed and mangled the nib. Not too upset about that, the nib was beyond repair anyway. I knocked it out, now the problem of getting the nib "unit" out. 

 

Absolutely nothing I did would make it budge. I tried sticking spare feeds of a similar size in to grip the unit, no dice. Eventually I ended up shoving a damaged nib/feed from trash pen in to unscrew it. The threads were gummed up with something, I don't think it was normal ink. I had to soak the section in ammonia wash for three hours to get all of it out of the threads, with copious scraping with a pick.

 

The pressure bar was completely broken as well, which is a bad sign. Esterbrook Js are basically bulletproof, so if you find one with broken parts you know unholy things have been done to it. I thought no problem, I have a bunch of spare vintage j-bars from lower tier pens. Not a single one would fit. I finally shoved in one of my hated modern replacements, and I had to place a sac one size down.

 

It now "fills" with a floppy lever and holds a piddling few drops. These are supposed to be "EASY" pens to restore. I have an irrational desire to just step on this pen and end its misery. I just want one (bleep) problem free restoration, that's it. I guess my expectations are too high.

 

Edit: After googling, apparently the floppy lever is a common problem with any Esterbrook that doesn't have its original j-bar, or close enough to it because the levers on these are so short. I don't have power tools to grind down the replacement jbar to fit perfectly so I guess it will have to stay floppy.

Thanks but not really a restoration, more of a repair, but it is fun to save cool pen from the parts box.  I haven't done but a couple Esties, and those I gave away, but any pen can be a challenge. I learned to repair things in the past partly because I had broken some of them!  In my limited experience if I come to any challenge I have to set it aside and think about it for awhile to avoid breaking something, and I don't wade into anything without being sure how it went together. Youtube, Richard Binder, Grandmia pens, Phil Munson's blog all helped and here from Ron and others. 

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

The problem I'm having is, after over 3 years of doing this, the repairs are getting harder not easier. I don't know if my luck is just atrocious or I'm frustrated. I've restored so many Esterbrooks and never had this issue before. And this pen had many issues. I suspect it was inked with a permanent ink or something worse.

 

To make matters worse, I also just lost the one remaining c/f cartridge I had. The thing straight up just disappeared, I had it drying after cleaning it out (wanted to ink up an old c/f pen I restored like a year ago that I really liked) and I can't find it now. Just having a really bad week for pen stuff.

[VacNut]

Take a break from the hobby for a day? It should an enjoyable pastime.

I nearly always feel better when I look through the stored repaired pens. Sometimes it’s like Christmas morning 

[LoveBigPensAndCannotLie]

23 minutes ago, VacNut said:

Take a break from the hobby for a day? It should an enjoyable pastime.

I nearly always feel better when I look through the stored repaired pens. Sometimes it’s like Christmas morning 

 

I think maybe I am just getting disillusioned with the hobby. I spent the past few years voraciously buying pens and learning everything I could about them, I'm at the point where I can recognize most US-made pens from like the 1910's up to the 1960's/1970's (and some popular European ones like the various Pelikans), even the more obscure brands.

 

I've restored most common pens - I am kind of bored of them, and the expensive ones I'm hesitant to take a risk on. It hurts a lot less when you mess up an unrestored Esterbrook you may have gotten for $10 than a PFM that cost $150+. I want to try restoring a Sheaffer vac-fil but given my luck and level of patience, I'm not sure it's worth investing in the tools.

 

The other problem is unscrupulous or clueless sellers. I buy mostly "as-is" and it feels like gambling. I purchased this Moore Fingertip (one of my "grail" pens), albeit with no cap. The pictures were blurry but the nib looked alright. This is what I got:

 

 

The tines weren't just misaligned, they were completely crossed over sideways. I did manage to "fix" it after hours of trying to fix it, but man it was disappointing getting that in the mail.

 

 

Still not perfect, but I tested it dry on paper and it felt pretty smooth. Haven't put a sac in it since I don't have a cap for it and will probably never find one since these are uncommon.