Okay, I've got a set of green Esterbrooks, and thought I had three of the darker green, and one of the lighter green, but the lighter green seems _much_ lighter than samples I've seen on-line and seems noticeably darker (to match the other three I have) on the inside of the barrel (the section is slip-fitted, not glued? Shouldn't complain I guess, since it reveals an Esterbrook branded sac) and inside of the cap to match the other three. So, could it be that I have _four_ of the lighter green and none of the darker w/ one of them having faded a lot?

Would a marbled Esterbrook fade so? If so, how long would it have taken? And under what conditions would it have happened so evenly?

Failing that, which green is more common?

I'll try to upload a larger image when I get a chance. For now, it's the J, farthest to the left in my (current) avatar.

William

Esterbrook plastics seem to be one of the most stable of any pen. They really don't fade (I won't say "won't" because someone will tell me they have one that is ) and they don't warp very often. It seems Esterbrook had different rod stock in the late 40's and early 50's such that there can be found sometimes two or even three different shades for each color. Most notable are the greens as you've experienced, copper, and grey.

Which are more common? Well, I'd hesitate to say any of them are "rare" or hard to find, but it appears the darker shades are less common than the lighter ones. That's just my overall experience, your mileage may vary.

If you're finding sections that are glued in, that is not the norm. All Esterbrook J sections are friction fit.

Best-
Brian

Okay, so it's probably just a light batch of plastic....

Now the question: Do I pretend I have both shades of green, or do I try to find one which is darker still?

And on a serious note, if the section are friction fit, how much effort should it take and what does it mean when some take almost none (can be removed by hand)? I'd thought that one normally had to carefully apply heat from an alcohol lamp or heat gun?

Thanks!

William

Here's a decently high-res image (colour-corrected) --- the overly light pen is the one on the far left, the three next to it are greens which all seem of a shade, the balance are there for comparison.

Section friction fit can be a little variable. We are talking pretty small tolerances here, and wide variations in manufacturing ages from pen to pen. Most of my Esties are removeable by hand, but are firm. One or two are free enough to be easily removeable, and I might tighten these up by using a little shellac. You would then need to use heat (preferably hot air) to soften the shellac for easy removal.

I also have a few that have required some persistence as well as the heat to remove. Whether previous owners had used some unknown glue or had substituted an oversize section I can't tell, but my experience has covered a fair range of effort being required in some instances. Don't think that's unusual, nor would I worry about it particularly.

Regarding variations in the green, I also notice some - the darkest I have is a Dollar bandless transitional, the lightest a Dollar transitional that has a small smooth band without grooves in it. Most of my other greens are quite close to the lighter shade. Your dark green is as dark as any I've seen.

Nice collection Will.

Regards,

Gerry

Here are a range of greens in my collection:


These bandless dollar pens are all on the dark side IMO.


A transitional J in a medium shade


A "light" green J


A Darker Green SJ (yeah, I know, the pic is huge in comparison to the J )

Best-
Brian

Thanks Gerry! My wife will appreciate my not adding yet another green to my want list (currently I'm thinking just a red marbled SJ). Thanks for the compliment! It's been a lot of fun, and really grew the other week (5 pens and 5 new nibs, 2 in boxes).

It's kinda strange on the sections --- none I had picked up even budged until the latest batch of three, all of which do remove quite easily --- makes me wonder about the practicality of getting a set of SJ and LJ pens which can easily have the sections pulled, then instead of swapping the nib, swap nib, section and sac full of ink.

Brian, thanks for the custom photo spread!

Obviously, I'm going to have to setup up some indirect lighting from my halogen lamp on my desk in my basement den and check the photo section for some pointers.

My darkest green is in-between what I'm seeing on the monitor for the dark bandless and ``transitional J in a medium shade'', about what you show for the huge dark green SJ at the bottom.

The lightest J though is significantly lighter than your ``light'' green J though.

Thanks!

William

Esterbrook 'J' series pens can and do fade, I bought a blue example recently which had done so quite badly - but you can polish it (mostly) out.

I think that it's safe to say that the colour variation seen by William was not due to fading from sunlight though. As can be seen from Brian's photos, colour variations are normal to the line, and his examples fall within the variations I have in my own collection.

From my experience (with a fair number of Esties - over quite a few types) I'd have to agree with Brian that instances of fading are rare. Indeed, I have none myself, though I have accumulated a few severely heat damaged ones (probably from sun exposure on car dashes etc.), but even those didn't exhibit fading.

Of course I accept that the possibility exists, but I wouldn't accept that it is common.

Regards,

Gerry