My First 'lot' Purchase Of Esties

[bkjones]

I have to say, this was pretty exciting.

 

What I'm really committing to actually collecting is Dollar Pens. Unfortunately, I decided to commit to that before learning how infrequently they pop up, and the more colors I get, the harder it is to find the others (and, btw, why is *red* so dang popular!?)

 

I also noticed that ebay has them way cheaper than Etsy, which is cheaper than some dedicated pen sites.

 

So, I came across a lot of 5 J pens that were being sold as-is on ebay, and the price looked pretty good to me (I'm a n00b, though): $75 for five J pens. 2 red, 2 gray, and a Copper. All J-sized. Shipping included.

 

So they show up, and I'm expecting (based on the price and description) that they'll need work, and I should note that I'm also looking to hone my nibmeister and repair/restoration skills, so I'm totally on board and excited for this. Perhaps repairing/restoring a pen would let me resell it and my addiction hobby could become at least partly self-sustaining! I'm going through them one by one, looking very closely for cracks, bite marks, bent nibs, discolored sections, bad lever mechanisms, broken jewels, bad sacs... whatever. On three of them I couldn't get the sections out easily, so I'm waiting on section pliers for that (but if you have other ideas, let me know). However, on one of the gray ones that I was pretty excited about (it has a beautiful, NOS-looking 9460, which I'd never used before), the section came out, and I found that it had a black, esterbrook-branded sac that looked like it'd just come off the line!

 

I'm giddy at this point, so I run over to the counter, fill it with Waterman's intense black (I experiment with inks, but only black ones - I own at least half a dozen different black inks - is that weird?), and it immediately writes better than any other pen I own. I look up the nib, and it appears to be sold for anywhere between $20-40 by itself! But since I have a second gray one from the lot, I'm going to keep this one for myself.

 

Of course, today the pen makes a bit of a liar out of me - after writing with it for maybe a week, all of a sudden it seems to want to gush ink, which you might be able to discern in the pic if you look at the section and closely at the nib. I wonder if this is just the experience of getting close to empty on a lever filler for the first time and this is to be expected?

 

Anyway, out of all of the 5 pens, one had a discolored section, and another had a cracked jewel. When I get section pliers I'll let you know if I get to do a sac or j-bar replacement

 

(I have no idea why attaching this pic flips the image upside down - tips welcome - it's not upside down in any other app I view it in)

brian

[Ergative]

If the nib is suddenly gushing ink, then perhaps you have a leak in the sac which prevents the exchange of ink and air from taking place in the slower, controlled manner that is necessary for effective writing. Could it be that the sac, no matter how new it looks, has failed? I'd double check that if I were you.

[gweimer1]

The rule of thumb here is to replace just about any sac you aren't certain of. In particular, those old "Esterbrook" stamped sacs may look good, but at 50+ years old, I would be suspect no matter how it looked.

 

I would expect an Esterbrook about to run dry to write sketchy and not gush.

[pen lady]

My thought as well.

[FarmBoy]

Are you using heat to remove the sections or are you making parts pens?

 

Replace the sac it has a hole in it.

[ac12]

I would CAREFULLY use heat to remove the stuck sections. Unfortunately, that is somewhat of an art, not a science. Too much heat and the barrel will melt, or catch fire.

I have broken pens by trying to remove the section without heat. IOW the section plier, aka spark plug boot plier, may not help, it will just give you more leverage to break the barrel. The broken pens are in my "AW $HIT" box.

 

On ANY pen that I don't know that the sac was replaced recently, as SOP, I replace the sac. The sac is only a $2 part. Your time to open up the pen is worth more than that.

[mmg122]

This comment is probably too late...but...I'd think twice before using the section pliers on you're Estie Pens. You vastly increase the chance that you'll break it bigtime. Good soaks and gentle heat will serve you better in the long run.

 

+1 that you should replace the sac. You have a leak.

 

BTW, Gary (gweimer1) sells replacement jewels (depending on the size you need).

 

Have fun with your Esties. They're great pens and fun (and inexpensive) to restore.

 

Mary

[bkjones]

Just a follow up on this: there's no leak. Since the nibs are replaceable, I put the nib that was on this pen onto a known-working estie I've been using for months without issue, and the same behavior ensued. Likewise, the nib from the known working pen, when put onto this gray one, worked great.

 

mmg122 - soaking the section of an estie is a great way to discolor it in my experience, because they're often made of hard rubber, and to be honest, I haven't mastered the art of discerning sections made from plastic from those that are hard rubber, so I don't soak sections. If someone knows how to tell so I don't discolor sections, please post! I've bought pens that have come this way, too, and it's super annoying.

[FarmBoy]

Just a follow up on this: there's no leak. Since the nibs are replaceable, I put the nib that was on this pen onto a known-working estie I've been using for months without issue, and the same behavior ensued. Likewise, the nib from the known working pen, when put onto this gray one, worked great.

 

mmg122 - soaking the section of an estie is a great way to discolor it in my experience, because they're often made of hard rubber, and to be honest, I haven't mastered the art of discerning sections made from plastic from those that are hard rubber, so I don't soak sections. If someone knows how to tell so I don't discolor sections, please post! I've bought pens that have come this way, too, and it's super annoying.

All J series sections should be considered to be made from hard rubber.

[Hobiwan]

mmg122 - soaking the section of an estie is a great way to discolor it in my experience, because they're often made of hard rubber, and to be honest, I haven't mastered the art of discerning sections made from plastic from those that are hard rubber, so I don't soak sections. If someone knows how to tell so I don't discolor sections, please post! I've bought pens that have come this way, too, and it's super annoying.

 

Odd ... I've soaked many an Estie section in lukewarm water to blow out ink residue, and never discolored one.

 

I believe discoloration comes from oxidation that's already in progress, like on the cap or barrel, which is exposed to sunlight, unlike the section, which is protected by the cap. Or maybe very hot water would do it, but I only use lukewarm or cold. Or maybe it's just because California water is very gentle ...

[woleizihan]

The best way I found to pull out the section is to wrap double-sided tapes and the section and use a Bounty paper towel. I this is much safer than using section pliers. I broke one section using pliers and still trying to get the part of section remained in the barrel out...........

[FarmBoy]

The best way I found to pull out the section is to wrap double-sided tapes and the section and use a Bounty paper towel. I this is much safer than using section pliers. I broke one section using pliers and still trying to get the part of section remained in the barrel out...........

Heat.

Keep a Renew Point in the section.