I got in an Estie Transitional J series pen in copper today. I was surprised to find the sac in good order and working fine, and then disapointed to find that the nib was missing half of the iridum. One of the tines is completly bare. But no biggie as I knew I had a spare nib at home in a black J series with a warped barrel. Well I got home and went to swap them out only to find the transitional feed isn't a threaded unit. Would it be wrong to swap the whole section out? Will it fit? Or should I just find another nib?

No, it's threaded... You have the "thread sleeve" stick inside the section. You will need to get that out first, maybe a soak in water will loosen it enough to get it out. I have used a tap for this, but a screwdriver may work if you are carefull.

Broken nibs are best sent to pb2 here on FPN to be turned into stub nibs!

I thought they were all threaded but I got no threaded piece out with the feed. I went ahead and swaped the section out of the one with the warped barrel and resaced it. All back together and filled with some pelikan brilliant brown ink. The original section is soaking at the moment, looks as though the threaded piece is still inside the section. I'll soak it tonight and see if I can get it out tomorrow. If I can recover all the pieces I may just send if off to be stubbed. But for the moment I'm enjoying it with the replacement section and a 2556 nib.
Thanks for the help.

Cheers
NB

The section on a transitional J and a J may well be different. Most transitional Js have a larger sac nipple as compared to the regular production J section. The Js got sac supports to let Esterbrook use the same sac (#16 X 1-15/16") in the entire line. The old Dollar pens and the larger transitional Js tended to have a #18 sac a little bit longer.

But it should work fine just pop out the sac support.

Todd

After a night of soaking I was able to coax the old collar out of the section. So I guess I will put the original section back in after I use up the ink thats in it now and it will be all original again. Thanks for the help.

NB

Note there is actually a very rare friction fit re-new-point that was used for a short time. I know of two such examples (one of them mine) and both are bandless dollar pens. The collar has no threads and just slips into the section. It's obviously not the case here since you found the threads stuck inside the section (quite common), but if you ever come across a friction fit model, the section is crucial to that pen and should not be exchanged.

Best-
Brian

Granted, but that is a Dollar pen. However, I did not know they had a traditional feed and nib in some of those. It is safe to say that from what I know, all the transitionals should have a threaded renew point.

I would also swap in the original feed, it's the flat bottom feed, right?

Yep it is a flat bottom feed. I'll swap it back when I run it out of ink. Thanks for all the help and the info.

I don't think I explained it correctly. The dollar pen I mentioned did have a re-new-point, but it is not threaded, so not a traditional feed and nib. I mention this because this model comes just before the early transitionals, so conceivably, it could be possible it spilled over into J production for a short period of time (just speculation).

Best-
Brian

Well Brian, I will have to agree that could happen, and you do know far more about the Esties than I do!

So this was a slip fit renew point assy? That is just plain odd!

Yeah, slip/friction fit. Very, very odd. You wonder how it stayed in there. Then again, maybe it didn't, and that's why I've only known of two. Chances are doubtful it made it any further than the bandless series, but if I say never, someone will pull one out from underneath a bed or from the attic or something to prove me wrong.

Best-
Brian

Brian,

I may be guilty of destroying number three. Several years back I procured and "fixed" an Estie as you describe. I concluded a repair had been made before I got the pen and fixed it. The obvious question is was the nib an Esterbrook? I don't remember. But I can say I have seen Esterbrook nibs show up in pens other than Esterbrooks so I wouldn't have been surprised to see this.

The good thing this does is opens up a significant void in the collection. I'd say 2-3 sizes in the usual 6 colors makes something like 12-18 pens we can look for. This also means I again have an excuse to resume buying large lots of Esties! Wait, how many "slip-nibs" are possible.....

Todd

Oh my goodness. Don't even say such a thing. I'm so A/R about these things that I would actually try to do it. Maybe an easier thing to do would be to just find the sections, then put them in the pens of your choice. Yeah, ridiculous. You know how practically impossible this would be to determine this from an ebay listing? I can see it now, all the questions about people asking if the nib unscrews or if it just pops out. Yikes!!

Brian