They arrived on consecutive days:

A grey J with a No. 9048 nib and
a copper one which looks exactly the same, but has "Made in England" on the barrel and a 9314B nib.

The first was from Andy's Pens and the second was an Ebay win. They are both so beautiful, but I am particularly pleased with the copper one, being made in England (are these less common or perhaps more readily found here in the U.K.?). This pen had belonged to the mother of the seller and he was particularly pleased to hear it was going to a good home.

After reading so much on here about "Esties" I had to add one (ok, two) to my alarmingly rapidly expanding collection.
Those who are familiar with the nibs will know I've got chalk and cheese here, which adds to the interest, but I would be interested to know if they might have been made at similar times. The grey one was listed as c1950.

Angela

I've been trying to find a 9048, as I've had a couple of 2048's and they're very, very toothy. In fact, I have to be careful re the paper I use as they will catch, and I have an extremely light hand.

Does the 9048, with its osmiridium tip, behave as toothy? I really love the appearance of the written work.

Thanks--

You must have a bad nib - most Esterbrook nibs I have tried are very smooth.

Ron

I have about eight Esterbrooks nibs and three were quite bad. Granted these were very fine: 1550, 2550 and my 9128 were all quite sharp - until I gave them a tiny ride on some nib film.

I recently traded a 2314-M Relief Oblique... a strange nib indeed.

My current favourites are a 2550, 2556 and 9128.

I have a 9048, not toothy at all. No significant flex at all either, but it's a nice smooth nib.

It's a little firmer than I'd expected, but I don't think I'd call it toothy.
It produces a lovely wet, fine line-----a sort of "confident" nib.

You have two interesting and (should be) good nibs. We all need to remember that these are used however, and therefore may have either been formed for a very different hand through extensive use, or damaged by the previous owner. As they are both 9xxx nibs, they are tipped and not the usual rolled steel construction used in the 1xxx / 2xxx series, so tip smoothing is both practical and possible. [The rolled steel ones can also be smoothed, but often one finds there isn't enough material left, and the points fall off - experience speaking here... <_<]

There's lots of information on smoothing in the reference material at the top of this forum, but if you're reluctant to take a shot at doing it yourself, send them my way and I'll tweak 'em up for you for the price of the postage...

Regards,


Gerry

Thank you very much for your kind and generous offer. I'm fairly happy with my new Esterbrooks at the moment, but might have a go at nib smoothing myself on "lesser" pens in my collection.

Angela

nice pens! interesting nibs to start with too...

my 9048 is a nice smooth fine-medium with enough line variation to qualify as a truly flexible nib despite its need for a fairly heavy hand to get the wide lines. I don't have a 9314 B, but I love my (slightly flexy) 9314 F and 2314 M, in fact they are the only oblique nibs I have liked so far...well I have a 2284 that is oblique as well, just doesn't advertize the fact, it's about as good as a roll tipped nib can possibly be!

I think you may be in trouble though...these pens are likely just the beginning of a full-blown Estie addiction

Yes, I think you might be right about the addiction starting! The other colours look nice, and maybe it would be ineresting to compare the different sizes of Esterbrooks-------and the nibs!!! I've never seen such a list of nibs!!!!!!

Is there an Estieholics anonymous?

no, sadly there is no Estieholics anonymous, since Esterbrooks are considered to be merely a stepping stone to more serious addictions like Parker, Omas and Montblanc...

after all, what harm is there in wanting two or three Esterbrooks? ...or four or five or, no really I don't need help, I can stop any time I want...or ten or....aaaaggh!

Ah. A gateway pen. Excellent.



Don M.

[QUOTE=dwmatteson,Nov 22 2006, 07:47 PM]

Ah. A gateway pen. Excellent.

More like a methadone pen. I started with Parker 51s.

Todd