My father decided that now is a good time to give me his fountain pens. He handed down a beautiful red pearl Esterbrook and three Sheaffer pens (one is marked Sheaffer's). The Esterbrook is in fine condition as far as I'm concerned. The nib (it's a 9556) unscrews easily, and the lever system is snappy and nice. I can't unscrew the section. The only real damage is a crack in the jewel on the cap. However, the piece came off so cleanly back whenever this happened that it fits perfectly back into place and looks almost seamless. I'll need a good adhesive to reset the broken piece.

I'm really excited to get this sweet baby cleaned up, fixed, and writing again. And I'm gonna do it all myself. Some restoration tips would be great. Here are some pictures.

Little epoxy shoudl work on that jewel. Beautiful pen.

The section is friction fit, and may be schellaced. A slight amount of dry heat on it should help loosen it. Richardpens.com has instructions on how to disassemble. I believe it's the article on replacing a sack. He uses an esterbrook as the sample pen.

Nice! Thanks for the information.

depending on what you mean by "the lever system is snappy" you may not need to remove the section. Can you fill the pen? Try filling it with water. Empty the pen, does the water dribble out or flow out in a stream. If it flows in a stream, you don't need to replace the sac. If you do, congratulations! You now have the perfect pen to learn sac replacement. Go here: Richard's Website - Sac replacement page

Hi Elaine,

I'm so new to this that "snappy" was all I could think of. In other words, the lever action felt perfect to me, as there was some resistance as I actuated it. It felt like it was pushing the pressure bar against something. I was not able to hear anything when I shook the pen, so my assumption is that the sac hasn't dried and crumbled. And when I let go of the lever, it snapped back nicely into position.

I have yet to try filling it with anything. I'll be sure to do so this weekend. If the sac is in good shape, then great! But I'd still like to free the section if I could.

Sounds like your sac is in good shape if you want to visually inspect it you need to remove the section. The section is a friction fit or at least it should be. You may need to work it a bit and if it is really stubborn you may need to invest in some section plyers. Richard reccomends using a rubber piece like you use to open stuck jars to try and remove the section. I have had luck in the past using a piece of an old balloon to give a better grip. You may need to rock it a little but just don't apply too much pressure as you don't want anything to crack. Like Elaine said, Richards site shows it really well.

Okay, so he hottest water I could get out of my tap was excellent for some soaking. I kept the pen in teh water up to the top of the section. I used a blue rubber jar opener disk thingy to help grip the section, and it popped right out cleanly! It turns out there is no sac inside the pen at all. I looked in the barrel with a good light, and the sac just isn't there. The remnants of a sac were stuck to the section, but warm water and my fingernail made it all look good as new.

I flushed the nib assemly with the warm water (used an ear syringe) many, many times. This sweet baby is as good as new. Now it's time to complete the rejuvination process by ordering a nice sac assortment and some sac cement. I was so inspired that I decided to put all the other pens through the motions. Woohoo!


:bunny1:

Glad to hear you're putting some life back into the pen. It's hard to tell, but it looks like your pen is a J. Is the top jewel larger than or the same size as the bottom jewel? If they are the same size, you could easily find another jewel from any LJ or SJ pen as a replacement.

In the future, you might consider using just cold water to soak. It may take longer, but will always get things apart without risk of damage. If you've got a heat gun or hair dryer those work even better, just make sure to keep that heat gun low, as we're not trying to strip paint here. I've got mine set at about 4 on a 10 scale and it works fine.

Esterbrook used hard rubber sections for quite a long time, so sometimes soaking in water will discolor them, which is why I mostly use heat to open my pens now.

Best-
Brian

Brian, I'm glad you replied. I've enjoyed browsing your Esterbrook site! I'll have to check on the jewels for size. I couldn't resist the temptation to write with this pen, so I dipped it in some Diamine Monaco Red (my first-ever bottle of FP ink) and got to business. It's a pretty darn smooth writer. There's just a slight bit of tooth, but it lays down a really nice, clean, restrained medium line. Nice pen!!!

That dark red is really a gorgeous color. I had one hear a while back and it was hard for me to sell, the color was so nice.

There tends to be some variance in the width of some of the more common point styles, x556, x668, x968. I'm mostly a M-B sort, but I have some real nice 9556 fine nibs that write just the perfect almost M width.

Enjoy!
Brian

Wow. A fountain pen passed along by your Dad? This is the most intersting part of all. Even if it doesn't work, you can always frame it. I remember my son getting my gun the day I left the police force and that was the day he joined. What a thrill.

Way to go Bernie. Really glad you made it to the FPN. With Ashish hereabouts we're now three posting

Ben, welcome to the FPN. As Bernie says, there's something really neat about having a pen with family history. I have my father's Vac, and my GGF's Eclipse. Wouldn't trade for anything...

Best regards,

Gerry

Hello, gentlemen. Yep, the Esterbrook came from my father. It needs a sac, but I dipped the pen anyway and found it's a fine writer! He also gave me a Parker "51" Vacumatic (1946, second quarter), among others. I also recently scored this sweet baby on eBay. It arrived yesterday. It needs a new sac, but it is otherwise pristine.