I'm trolling around for my second classic/vintange FP (the first was a PFM-II given to me by my brother in law), and so I'm asking you hordes of Estie fans, what is it that makes Esterbrooks so special? And what can you recommend?

I prefer a fine, springy nib (dunno if I'd like a superflexy wet noodle), light weight, and large ink capacity. I like a fair bit of girth -- that PFM-II is pretty near to ideal, and my M250 & M400 are just a little smaller than I like at the grip section. And I'm cheap. Finish and good looks are in the back seat; size, durability, weight, price, and balance are in the front. I also would like your help in avoiding common pitfalls and problem pens.

Oh, and I'd prefer to avoid eyedroppers.

Finally, I'm not likely to use your recommendations for a while. I'm stretching the budget just to get the PFM-II restored.

IMO, they are just damn good pens. They are basic, light and have interchangable nibs. They are not expensive either.

A friend of mine 'permanantly borrowed' my favorite Esterbrook and nib combination. I had adapted a vntage flex nib to an Esterbrook 'insert' and had a real nice flex nib. He called me from the airport to tell me, "Don't look for it, it is on extended loan." He also advised I build another if I wanted one.

Ron

We love Esties because:
They are inexpensive
There are a lot of nib options
They are super sturdy
They are an easy pen upon which to learn to replace sacs
Old timers tell you "Oh, I remember when I had one just like it.
The J models have three useful sizes
They are well balanced.
Posting the cap does no damage.
Not a lightweight, not a heavyweight.
Sometimes the coloration is truly lovely
They look nice even with busted "jewels"

Estie nibs are not particularly springy, even the flex isn't all that flexy.

You can find an Estie on Ebay that "might" work for about $15.00. You can buy one from me or others who have accumulated spares for about $30 and they will be resacced, fillable, checked out, won't leak, and will write. Finer and stiffer nibs seem to be most common, broader and flexier are rarer.

$30 is a great price for a pen that is a great writer, looks good, will last a long time, and is over 50 years old. Estie J's aren't the flashiest pens, but they are some of the classiest!

Andy

It's worth noting that Levenger is selling a J model clone, their ``Truewriter'' for ~$49.95 --- while one gets a guaranty, one gives up the interchangeable nib options, the nice stylistic break the black section adds and must disassemble the pen to use either a cartridge or converter when refilling.

William

Next to my "51s" and Balances, Esties are the pens I find myself reaching for most often.

They're sturdy, reliable, inexpensive and great writers. For something that was considered a low-end pen in the 1940s and 1950s, it's surprising how many of them still work.

If you're a flexy nib fan, Esties won't do it for you. But for someone who likes firm nibs, Esties are the best bargain in vintage pens.

Adding to what the others have said, nothing new, just a different POV.

I think Esties are sort of like the VW Beetle of fountain pens. Bear with me:

- Low price means you can indulge yourself for little money (and you can collect a lot of them if you so choose)
- Great mileage (they seem to write forever)
- Easy to fix if something goes wrong
- Easy to get parts
- Easy to "customize" to your style of writing
- Colorful and every one of them is an individual
- Fun to use -- they are not stuffy status symbols
- Icons of their time
- Timeless design
- Every one of them has been used by a person who probably loved the pen as much as you will
- They are the anti-Montblanc -- no birdsplat!

Bill said:
>- Every one of them has been used by a person who probably loved the pen as much as you will

Almost every one --- the third pen from the left in my avatar came in the box on the extreme right, NOS, and is still waiting for me to find the perfect nib and ink combination.

I'd love to find a 3312 for it, and Private Reserve Copper Burst has caught my eye, though I may just use the 9312 I already have (it too was NOS) and Sheaffer King's Gold (red box/label German formula?)

William

Yup Bill - the People's Pen

Say, when didja grow the moustache and beard?

Regards,

Gerry

I agree with all that's been said about the Esties, and only have one thing to add. Since looks aren't your top priority, if you want a larger pen than that of the J series, you could get an A101 (aerometric, solid color). There's also a CA101 but Esterbrook cartridges are hard to come by and you'd have to adapt a cartridge to fit, or find an Esterbrook or Wearever cartridge. Both of these models use the same nibs as the J series & other Esterbrook pens. (There are also a number of other models out there, but I don't know how they all compare size-wise.)

Best, Ann

Hah!

Cartridges (and converters) are to be avoided even more than eyedroppers! Capillary fills also look like a really bad idea for somebody (like me) who enjoys changing ink color with every fill. I might as well nix matchstick and coin fillers while I'm at it. I'm a believer in KISS, and needing extra bits, no matter how common, doesn't appeal to me.

edit: as for flex, my M250 has a plated fine Pelikan nib, and I can see going for something with more flex than that, but less than most of my dip pens. I've used a Lamy Safari and a Waterman Phileas; how would various Estie nibs compare?

A good Estie is a joy forever.

The first vintage pen I ever bought was a copper colored transitional J with the most luscious 2668 nib I have yet found (and, believe me, I keep looking). I subsequently gave it to one of my daughters to initiate her into the mysteries of FPs when she fell in love with it. She brings it around from time to time for a filling, so I get to experience the sheer pleasure of its lovely flow now and then.

Hi Andy,

Would like to take the Estie plunge, any advice on a site or other info displaying the various kinds of models and prices? I have purchased an Estie J copper with a medium nib off Pentrace, and would be happy to purchase something nice from you if that is possible. I really like italics with pronounced line variation , also large pen if possible.

Any ideas?

Shanna tova

Daniel

http://www.esterbrook.net maintained by our own Brian Anderson is a wonderful overview.

Richard Binder has an excellent reference page on Esterbrooks as well, http://www.richardspens.com/ref_info/j_profile.htm

However, the ``J'' is AFAIK, as big as it gets for easily attainable Esterbrooks, and unfortunately, the x312 nibs seem to be as rare as hen's teeth. I lucked into getting a 9312 when Richard finally finished cataloguing his nibs, but he ran out shortly thereafter, even of the 2312.

A Pelikan M200 nib when ground to an italic will fit though, and that's the next thing I'm going to be looking into (saving up for an amber demonstrator w/ ItaliFine[TM] nib).

William

Thanks for the referrals William, good stuff

Daniel

Well, Esties look like the sort of pen John D. Rockefeller would have made if he'd made fountain pens instead of refining oil. For of his product, he said, "We must ever remember we are refining oil for the common man, and he must have it cheap and good."

I shall have to hit the library to look at pictures. There's bandwidth to share at the library, but I must draw lightly on the dialup shared three ways at home.

Esties are good pens that can be found reasonably priced. They look good also.

Well, you aren't likely to have to worry about an esterbrook eyedropper. Should you come across one, you'll have to fight me for it.

I personally don't care much for the so-called "flex" nibs. They aren't really. I even hate selling them because if I were buying something labeled as flex, I'd want flex, not what esterbrook delivers. Your mileage may vary, of course. About as good as it gets is the 9128.

Makes you wonder why a company who put everything else together so well couldn't develop a better flex nib.

Best-
Brian

It may partly have been timing. The Dollar pen didn't come out until the 30s, when the market was moving away from flex. Parker and Sheaffer were using stiff nibs in their top-line pens. Wahl/Eversharp and Waterman still had flex nibs out there but as the J developed into the 40s, the trend was toward stiffer nibs (in the US at least). Esterbrook may have looked at the trends and gambled that flex was on it's way out, and that a semi-flex would be sufficient for their "flex" market.

Another speculative question for the materials specialists - how good was stainless flex in the 1930s? (I know there were tons of flexy steel nibs in the 30s, but were they stainless?)

John

Good point, John. I guess there's also that quality control issue to think of as well. Nothing like having to deal with sprung flex nibs, or worse, negative publicity having to deal with a non-warranted pen.

Brian

Flex might be desirable tofay but was nothing specially attractive back then. It was simply one out of many options. The whole basis of the Esterbrook success in fountain pen was that they were able to provide a low cost, quality fountain pen. Technologically speaking Esterbrook capitalized on the early metallurgical experience and they provided some exceptional quality stainless. Stainless was "available" but they were able to produce high quality material without a major cost penalty.
In 1930 with the regular gold nib pens in the range of $5-$20, the Esterbrook steel nibbed pen came at $1.00 and $1.50. Their idea of providing a wide variety of nibs for a wide range of tasks at a substantially low cost (Renew points $0.25 each), gave the user significant value for the price also. Volume helped them also. Esterbrook was an immense advertsining "machine" with a extensive network of collaborating dealers many of whom were loyal for many, many years. As a result they dominated the "low-end" mass market for schools and business.

Today users appreciate the robustness of the common Esterbrooks - The J, LJ and SJ are practically indestructible. The nibs are many and inexpensive. If one does not work there are many that do The cost is relatively low. The colors are attractive As a collectable, they have a reasonable variety of models with most of the interest focused on the earlier models. The variety of nibs compensates for the relatively lower number of models compared to other companies (this is an educated guess ...). One of the most common introduction to collecting FPs to get "all" the nibs. We are talking about 60+ nibs and many more if you count the feed variations....
In general you can find most of them from $5-20 with some more uncommon ones as high as $30-50.

So there, not necessarily the avant-guard of industrial art but a solid combination of function, form, and value.

I do think I've been seduced away from Sheaffers (or at least aquired a "mistress"!). Esties are very nice to look at, and although I don't yet have new sacs installed in my two, they write very nicely just dipped in ink.

And I love the interchangeable nibs!

Ah, just what I need, another project, collecting all the colors!

Peter

I received my first Esterbrook on Thursday (thank you, randyholhut!) and the 2668 nib that it has is wonderful! Most of my pens are fine, but I don't mind this medium nib because it is so smooth and enjoyable to write with. The way I naturally hold the pen just happens to utilize the smoothest part of the nib, which is great.

I too like the variety of interchangeable nibs and have been looking into several different ones.

This pen I have has a recently new sac, but I would like to learn how to do some of the more simple fountain pen repairs, and I think putting a new sac in an Easterbrook is probably a great place to start--so if I get one that needs a new sac, I'll actually be a little excited! (This day could come soon; luckily FPN has lots of information about this and links to even more information.)


--Stephen

Edit to add a smilie, which seems appropriate!

So the Estie CA101 uses the same cartridges as old Wearevers? I have a mint 1967 Wearever school pen (with "new hooded point") still in the unopened blister pack with 12 cartridges, and another unopened blister pack of 6 cartridges. I'm sure the ink is most likely dried up, but if they infact fit the Estie cartridge fillers, I can refill one of them with a syringe. That is, if I can find a nice CA101.

Tom