Esterbrook Clipboard

[dcpritch]

I was cleaning out my pole barn at our Minnesota lake cabin, in preparation for the wedding reception we are hosting in August for friends and family who can't make it out to Santa Barbara for our son's July wedding. In the process, I came across two clipboards which just about were tossed into the "dump run" pile, when I noticed the familiar "Esterbrook" lettering on the clip. I'm guessing they were left in the barn by the prior owner of the cabin, now deceased. I brought them home, dusted them off, and took pictures; clearly, they could use a little more cleaning up. They are 9-1/2" by 13" (3/16" thick); the third picture has a Rhodia A4 graph pad, so you can see the gauge the size from that

 

Has anyone seen one of these before? Esterbrook must have made millions of them, and these aren't in super shape, so I doubt they have much value; I just thought they were pretty cool, being a pen collector, with a nice assortment of my own Esties and nibs to match.

 

 

 

Edited May 24, 2011 by dcpritch

[GardenWeasel]

Nice find! Wow! Glad they were not tossed & no, I've never seen one before.

[Brian Anderson]

Esterbrook made a large number of these in different sizes and even, yes, colors. The 40 is the grand daddy of them all, but there were 30, 20, 10, etc., and some even smaller. For what it's worth, they only made the clip, the board is an add on. If I feel a little better later on I'll take some pictures of mine. I have, ummm..., waaayyy too many of them.

 

Cheers-

Brian

[dcpritch]

Esterbrook made a large number of these in different sizes and even, yes, colors ... I'll take some pictures of mine ...

 

That would be great to see different sizes and colors. I never knew these kinds of things existed; did Esterbrook make a range of office supply items? And did they make these clips all the way along, or just during a certain period?

 

And you are right about the "40" size being the grandaddy - it is really big and heavy for a clipboard. I think with a full pad of paper attached it weighs more than a laptop!

[trent]

Can you hear me hyperventilating...? Gorgeous!

[Brian Anderson]

Ok, forgive the crappy picture, but I wanted to get them all in to show the representative size.

 

http://www.esterbrook.net/collection/clips.jpg

 

from top left to right:

 

Relief Ball Bearing clip #40, #4, Relief #20, #20 with chrome bearing clip

Regular clip #40, #30, #20, #10

 

No idea what the difference int he Relief clips are other than they have the word Relief on the top.

 

Esterbrook also made a couple models of compass (a #6 and #8 size), but that is about it for general "office" supplies.

 

Cheers-

Brian

[GardenWeasel]

Hmmmm. Doubt I could find a celluloid clipboard to use with one of those clips...but I'd wager one would look nice with a colorful acrylic board! I'll be at the pen show early June...(hint hint)

[dcpritch]

So do you think I would do any damage with a super fine steel wool, working on the rust spots and tarnish, or is there a better way to spiff these up? Or would it be wiser just to leave them as-is?

 

And great collection of obscure ephemera, Brian! Thanks for the photo.

Edited May 25, 2011 by dcpritch

[dcpritch]

Looks like a handful of posts to this thread disappeared during the recent troubles. I wanted to report good results with the steel wool application on my Estie clips, as recommended by Brian - they turned out great with actually very little effort. I will post a couple of pics when I get a chance, in the next day or so.

[FarmBoy]

Looks like a handful of posts to this thread disappeared during the recent troubles. I wanted to report good results with the steel wool application on my Estie clips, as recommended by Brian - they turned out great with actually very little effort. I will post a couple of pics when I get a chance, in the next day or so.

Ah yes our lively banter did disappear.

 

We discussed the maniacal genius Esterbrook. These are not, I repeat, are not binder clips. They are chip-clips used to keep that bag of crisps crisp. Esterbrook was ahead of his time.

 

I've seen these mis-appropriated for all sorts of things from clipboard tops all the way to feather gadgets for making arrows.

 

Brian suggested cleaning them with 000 or 0000 steel wool. I was in the process of agreeing when those kilt wearers in the Lamy forum brought the site down.

 

I like the blued finish ones. Farmlittleboy (yeah he is growing up) likes taking them apart.

 

Farmboy

[dcpritch]

Well, some things take longer than others. I finally took note of the Esterbrook clips, found some 0000 steel wool, applied a little elbow grease, and whadya know, they cleaned up very nicely. Not quite as spiffy as the specimens Brian Anderson showed us, but much improved from before. Thanks for the great tip!

 

 

Oh, and if anyone knows where to find those cylindrical clips that hold the two parts together (located on the shoulders of the clip), I would appreciate a reference. The clip in back is missing one.

[pmsalty]

Years ago when I was working for United PArcel Service we had some of these clipboards and clips. That was back in the '70's and early 80's. Wish I had stocked up on them. They were better than the the later issues. Of course that was before the DIAD board (electronic clipboard) that they have used for the last 15 or so years.

PMS