Hi all!

I'm very new to the whole fountain pen fun. I'm trying to figure out if there is something wrong with my pen or if this is normal.

I have an Esterbrook LJ that used to belong to my grandfather. It is all original, including nib and sac. It has a 1550 nib on it, and it seems to write, well, EXTREMELY fine. Ignoring the sloppy handwriting, here's an example of writing with a regular ballpoint pen versus writing with the Esterbrook using Sheaffer Skrip ink:



I know that the 1550 nib was supposed to be Extra Fine for bookkeeping and such, but does this seem right? It seems like the Estie would need to lay down four lines side by side to makeup the width of the normal ballpoint, which is considered a fine point in it's own realm. It almost feels like I'm writing more with a needle than a pen. I was hoping to use this pen on a regular basis, but it doesn't seem that this would work very well for that.

I've also noticed that it seems to pick up paper fibers ever now and then while I'm writing. Perhaps it's my inexperience that is causing this rather than a bad nib or some other problem.

Comments or suggestions anyone? If there is other information that is needed, please feel free to ask.

Jeremy

It may be the nib is simply worn out --- 1xxx and 2xxx nibs don't have tipping material --- does it have a rounded nub on the underside of the nib? If not, the tip is worn. If it does, probably something is gunked up somewhere. Can you remove the nib? Have you tried soaking it?

Also, what sort of paper are you using?

You can get a replacement nib pretty easily or you could try grinding it down to an italic or stub.

William

Sounds like bad nib to me. You may also have a clogged feed. But, the scratchy and fiber pickup are not right.

Ron

Maybe the tines of the nib (the two halves on each side of the slit) are not lined up with each other. That would cause one side to dig into the paper. Or, as someone said, maybe the nib is worn out.

These nibs are easily replaceable by hand - they just unscrew.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. I think, actually the nib is fine. It turns out I was getting poor ink flow because there was still some OOOOOOOLD ink stuck in the nib somewhere. When I originally cleaned the pen last weekend, there was a lot of dried ink all over the place. This morning I ran it through my ultrasonic cleaner again for a few extra minutes with a drop or two of dish detergent, and there were a couple of hard pieces of ink that came floating out after a minute or two. After a good rinse and letting the thing sit in front of my little fan all day to make sure it was nice and dry, it works great now.

I think that the picking up of the paper fibers was my fault entirely... Because I was having trouble getting a good line, I may have been pressing a bit hard on the nib while I was trying to write. With the 1550 being such a stiff nib, any little grip it got on the paper pulled up fibers. First time of using a fountain pen and all... :doh:

So now it writes very nicely, and I barely have to even touch the paper to write. Once I get rid of my normal death grip that I typically have on writing utensils, I think this will wind up being a very good pen for me.

Jeremy