How Many Esties Do You Own?

July 1, 2013

I finally broke down and bought a green dollar pen. I resacced it with a number 18 sac and put in a new J Bar. Filler lever flops. Spring metal clip is great, though. I replaced the worn out nib with a 2314-M. I must have done something wrong to have a floppy lever, though. Haven't filled it. The section comes out with some effort, so I might revisit this one later. This is probably my last Estie. I have the nibs I wanted and about three dozen pens. Got to stop, but it's like going some kind of withdrawal.

After a while every newly acquired pen becomes my favorite and the others fall into disuse for a while. It's all kind of crazy.

July 1, 2013

If it's a factory J-bar it's changing position inside the barrel once the section is back in. Maybe add a spacer ala the SJ and/or open the J part up more for more grabbing oomph. I've used snipped pieces of empty Sheaffer cartridges for J-bar spacers before.

I suspect though you're talking about an aftermarket J-bar. Those ARE prone to flop. The part that goes against the barrel resembles this. [_] (the barrel against the open part). The problem is the vertical "shoulders" are high enough to allow some lever floppage within the "U" shaped area. The Proper fix is to remove the J-bar and use a Dremel to make the shoulders go away. Grind them down to near even with the bottom horizontal part.

Another fix for someone who WILL NOT open the pen up is to use a small probe, I've used the awl of my Swiss Army knife, (a small enough Phillips head jewelers screwdriver might also work) to modify the underside of the lever itself. The underneath of the lever visible from outside of the pen is also shaped like [_]. Using the probe you can open up/spread the top of the shoulder *just a hair* (close to literally speaking) nearest to the lever slot such that the lever stays wedged into it's slot better. It only needs to be spread maybe 1/32-1/16" lengthwise of the lever, a very small area to catch in the slot better. This fixes the Symptom of, but Not the "illness" itself so though it's not the way I'd do it, it will work and it Is reversible. It may require some fiddling with reclosing up the shoulder and trying it again until you goldielocks it just wide enough to hold snuggly but not Too snuggly.

Bruce in Ocala, Fl