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It Appears The Esterbrook Subforum Has A New Convert


Dj Shift

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Not too long ago i thought i'd only be buying brand new demonstrator fountain pens for the rest of my life but boy was i wrong. I somehow ended up ordering my first Esterbrook last week while surfing the fountain pen category on Ebay after thinking a silver Model J looked pretty cool, and it seemed to be ending at a lower auction price than the other Esterbrooks so i thought i would flip it for a profit, and it just arrived yesterday. The moment i filled it with some new ink and touched it down to the paper it sure was one of those "wow, this is awesome" moments. To make a long story short, I ended up buying two more yesterday and one more today.

 

I LOVE ESTERBROOKS!!!

 

You guys have a new convert.

Edited by Dj Shift
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I was a convert but I gave away a perfectly decent copper J - before I realised that I really quite liked it (no regrets, the new owner can enjoy it). I also gave away a Blue J with a 9314-M relief nib that I really enjoyed but it had an issue even after being revamped, and as I have no resources to start my own repairs... well, she had to go to someone who knows what he's doing with these things. One way trip in the end - oh the joy of living in a postal only country (as far as pens and related resources are concerned).

 

One day I may be lucky enough to get another blue one with a stubby nib. Never say never!

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Welcome to the insanity of Estieville! What are the three you just bought?

Edited by ScienceChick

Life's too short to use crappy pens.  -carlos.q

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Welcome to the insanity of Estieville! What are the three you just bought?

The one that got me addicted (the one that already got to me) was a Pearl Gray Model J with a 2556 nib.

 

The three on the way are;

 

A green (not sure which green yet) Model J with a 1555 nib

 

A green (also not sure which green) Model SJ with a 9550 nib

 

A Pearl Gray Model J with a 2668 nib

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I was a convert but I gave away a perfectly decent copper J - before I realised that I really quite liked it (no regrets, the new owner can enjoy it). I also gave away a Blue J with a 9314-M relief nib that I really enjoyed but it had an issue even after being revamped, and as I have no resources to start my own repairs... well, she had to go to someone who knows what he's doing with these things. One way trip in the end - oh the joy of living in a postal only country (as far as pens and related resources are concerned).

 

One day I may be lucky enough to get another blue one with a stubby nib. Never say never!

I'm sure you'll get another one someday. Or a bunch if you end up as addicted as i already am when you get that blue one. What country do you live in? I'm guessing an island because of the shipping issues you described?

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I'm sure I will too, I just hope it's one that I can write with for more than 5 minutes without something going wrong. I was gutted with the Blue Jay. The nib was really interesting to use, and it's probably a bit unlikely that I will see another J in a colour I like with a nib that attracts too.

 

At least I got to try one for a (very) short while.

 

Oh, and New Zealand. First world society with 3rd world shopping options. It's other attractions more or less make up for that. More or less (less at the moment).

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I'm sure I will too, I just hope it's one that I can write with for more than 5 minutes without something going wrong. I was gutted with the Blue Jay. The nib was really interesting to use, and it's probably a bit unlikely that I will see another J in a colour I like with a nib that attracts too.

 

At least I got to try one for a (very) short while.

 

Oh, and New Zealand. First world society with 3rd world shopping options. It's other attractions more or less make up for that. More or less (less at the moment).

Oh, New Zealand. From the pictures and TV shows i've seen about that country, it seems pretty awesome. The shipping would probably get annoying though. Same as how my family has always wanted to move to Hawaii but i'm always seeing on the internet that quote "shipping to continental US only". Kinda detracts from that goal knowing i'm going to be slammed on the shipping costs and even availability. The island life would be really cool though.

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Welcome to the world of Esterbrook! I salute you for having the intelligence to recognize a quality fountain pen when you wrote with it. You love them? So do I and so do millions of others world wide! If I were not so very old and had some single malt Scotch to drink, I would do the happy dance for you. As it is, know that I am doing the happy dance for you in my mind.

 

-David.

No matter how much you push the envelope, it will still be stationery. -Anon.

A backward poet writes inverse. -Anon.

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Same as how my family has always wanted to move to Hawaii but i'm always seeing on the internet that quote "shipping to continental US only". Kinda detracts from that goal knowing i'm going to be slammed on the shipping costs and even availability. The island life would be really cool though.

 

Pish.

 

My Dad was a real estate wheeler dealer. We moved 11 times before I graduated from HS so he could roll our houses upwards.

 

Beach life, living saturated in salt air, isn't all that.

 

We probably had 5 houses less than 10 miles from the beach. 1 was a 5th floor condo ON the beach in Satellite Beach, Fl, another house maybe a mile from the ocean.

 

Generally, the closer we lived To the beach, the less time I spent on the sand. I went to the condo pool all the time, actually down on the beach, not much at all.

 

My parents house now is maybe 6 miles from ocean. Their outdoor plumbing for lawn watering rusts to pieces just from the salt air.

 

I DO appreciate how being surrounded by ocean moderates the whole states weather, I just no longer Need to live right On the ocean. In Fl, homeowners insurance for any house within 10 miles of the ocean has become mindbendingly expensive.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

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I'm dreaming of a sandy Christmas, just like the ones I used to have,

Before wanting to make my wife happy softened my brain,

And we moved from Pensacola to Michigan to her home town.

 

Gah, back to Esties.

I don't know why people get all obsessed with those J series. The real beauty is in the nibs. Hunt down the stubs, italics and reliefs (obliques). Ferret out of ebay flexible nibs, always making the hunt about getting a nice one for a low price. If one comes in a pen, and the nib is among the more unusual, try to grab it at a bargain price. Don't get caught up in top dollar for resacked, etc. You can resac them easily. Remember that in the day these were generally low end pens, and they are not generally rare now except for the Reliefs (gold nibs), Visumasters, and a few others that come up uncommonly.

 

After buying a selection of the more common pens and a good sampling of the nibs I sobered up. After some fun trying out the nibs they are now dustables, but it was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot. I still know little, though, and I discovered that is perfectly fine.

"Don't hurry, don't worry. It's better to be late at the Golden Gate than to arrive in Hell on time."
--Sign in a bar and grill, Ormond Beach, Florida, 1960.

 

 

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In Fl, homeowners insurance for any house within 10 miles of the ocean has become mindbendingly expensive.

 

Makes me wonder what exactly you guys build your houses out of. My parents house is within 2 miles of the coast in the UK. On the tail end of the gulf stream too. We never had any issues with salt corrosion. Same here in New Zealand. My current home, well, I can see the ocean by looking out of the window! And there are a lot of steel roofs over here too. Don't see a lot of issues though.

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It's the destructive hurricanes that run up the cost of insurance. Maybe all the hot air from talking heads evaporates all the water and makes the air saltier.

"Don't hurry, don't worry. It's better to be late at the Golden Gate than to arrive in Hell on time."
--Sign in a bar and grill, Ormond Beach, Florida, 1960.

 

 

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It's the destructive hurricanes that run up the cost of insurance. Maybe all the hot air from talking heads evaporates all the water and makes the air saltier.

 

As I'm sure you know, you're not far off.

 

From around May until late September we usually have Massive statewide thunderstorms almost every afternoon. Not hurricanes but they cause Lots of damage none the less. Those are the direct result of being surrounded by water and heat and convection causing the thunderstorms to

form.

 

They are called Seabreeze fronts. They can be 300 miles long, one forming 20 miles inland from each West and East coasts with the line of storms colliding over the center of the state around 6-7 PM. It can make dinner in Mousetown pretty sporty.

 

Central Florida is the lightning capital of the World. (Specifically, Brevard county on the East coast.)

 

Of course, that surrounded by water part also comes with flip flops and shorts on Christmas day too.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

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When I started buying nice pens I began with roller balls. Reading Levenger's catalogue convinced me to try a fountain pen. I bought a Parker 45. Then I went to a vintage pen sale and the one that caught my eye was a red Estie J pen. The opalescent celluloid was so attractive that I didn't realize at first that this was an Esterbrook, the brand of inexpensive fountain pen that was ubiquitous in my childhood. I was the "people's pen" as the Volkswagen was the people's car. Solid, dependable, simple and yet beautiful. It had that great feature, interchangeable nibs, which meant you could alter the writing of your pen and if the nib wore out you could just buy another. I have a big collection of Parker, Sheaffers, Italian, German, Japanese pens etc. but the humble Esties probably get the most respect because they weren't the pens you wore in your shirt pocket to show off. They were the pens you actually used to work.

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Esterbrook advertising from about 1950 spoke about the "point". You, the target audience, were supposed to go to a "5&10", which was an old old old name for a store in which most tings were inexpensive...5 or 10 cents. In My neighborhood, it was "Kresge's".

 

Not a pen store.

 

At the counter, you picked out the nob that fit you. Then asked for a pen...SJ, LJ, or J, but the Esterbrook advertisements didn't talk up the pen size or the glorious colors.

 

Advice for Cryptos: find a pen you like, keep it, and buy nibs until you find "yours". There are only about 36 different type of nib! Esterbrook slogan: buy one pen and three nibs: it's like owning three different pens!

 

(Just for grins, look at the Esterbrook advertisements on US EBay. By the way, if you need an Estie repair, it will probably only be to replace the sac. There are some skilled people -- not me -- on this sub-forum.)

Edited by welch

Washington Nationals 2019: the fight for .500; "stay in the fight"; WON the fight

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At the counter, you picked out the nob that fit you.

 

From the perspective of an Englishman that has got to be one of the more amusing typos I have seen in a while! :)

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homeowners insurance for any house within 10 miles of the ocean has become mindbendingly expensive.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

You aren't kidding! We're about 2 miles from the gulf and don't even get me started on flood insurance costs!

Chris

 

Carpe Stylum!

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