What Other Pens Accept Esterbrook Nib Units?

[goyo]

I'm a fan of piston- and vacuum-fill pens, but I like the Esterbrook nibs. What other brands will the Estie nib units fit into? I've heard they fit in Osmeroids, but that's the extent of my "knowledge".

[seanruss]

My 2 cents worth.

 

I believe the Osmiroid models 65 & 75 can be fitted with an Estie, as well as Venus pens. These are both older pens from the 50's like most of the Estie's we have, but not near as numerous. I have seen several on Ebay but never purchased any. I do have a Estie Dollar pen with an Osmiroid nib. It writes well but dries up quick, in my opinion.

 

Sean

[Autopoint]

What other brands will the Estie nib units fit into?

 

Esterbrook renew point nibs certainly fit some Osmiroid and some Venus pens. But those pens are (IMHO) generally of lesser quality than an Esterbrook. In my experience, better to use those nibs in an Estie FP for a change of pace, rather than the other way around.

 

In contrast, I have an uncommonly old Koh-i-Noor technical pen (from before they had colored "jewels" on the top of the cap) that accepts the smaller (think the shorter 2xxx series) Estie renew point units, and the assemblage makes a really slick piston filling KIN/Estie. The early KIN technical pens have gold filled or gold plated trim, are piston filled, and they disassemble completely for cleaning (since they were designed to be used with india type drawing inks). Another valid comparison would be that the KIN/Estie is sort of an opaque TWSBI. You can easily search for the other thread here on FPN. If necessary I can provide pictures if you PM me.

- - - Jim

[pajaro]

Estie nibs seem to be thread compatible with Pelikan M2xx/M4xx nibs. I have tried the Pelikan M2xx/M4xx nibs in Esties and the Estie nibs in the Pelikan M200 and M400 pens. This seems to work, but is a curiosity mostly. The Pel nibs protrude quite a lot in the Estie barrels, and the Estie nibs sink into the Pel barrels.

 

I have also a Koh-I-Noor probably from post-German-reunification black with tan cap jewel that has a 1551 Estie nib. I took out the white Koor-I-Noor nib cradling inner cap, and I found that the nib does not dry out without it. The nib is short and works nicely. I think the Pelikan nibs protrude too far out from the barrel to work in the Koor-I-Noor. I am sure I tried it and gave up on it.

 

I am adding that I just put a Pelikan M4xx 18K medium nib unit in an SJ, and it fits, cap closes, and it writes nicely. Even looks OK. I think playing like this is fun, but not a permanent solution to having extra parts sitting around.

Edited February 27, 2012 by pajaro

[welch]

Estie nibs seem to be thread compatible with Pelikan M2xx/M4xx nibs. I have tried the Pelikan M2xx/M4xx nibs in Esties and the Estie nibs in the Pelikan M200 and M400 pens. This seems to work, but is a curiosity mostly. The Pel nibs protrude quite a lot in the Estie barrels, and the Estie nibs sink into the Pel barrels.

 

I have also a Koh-I-Noor probably from post-German-reunification black with tan cap jewel that has a 1551 Estie nib. I took out the white Koor-I-Noor nib cradling inner cap, and I found that the nib does not dry out without it. The nib is short and works nicely. I think the Pelikan nibs protrude too far out from the barrel to work in the Koor-I-Noor. I am sure I tried it and gave up on it.

 

I am adding that I just put a Pelikan M4xx 18K medium nib unit in an SJ, and it fits, cap closes, and it writes nicely. Even looks OK. I think playing like this is fun, but not a permanent solution to having extra parts sitting around.

 

Given that there must be an end, somewhere, to all the NOS renew-points, it would be nice if we could fit a Pelikan 150 or 200 nib on an Estie.

[goyo]

I have an uncommonly old Koh-i-Noor technical pen (from before they had colored "jewels" on the top of the cap) that accepts the smaller (think the shorter 2xxx series) Estie renew point units, and the assemblage makes a really slick piston filling KIN/Estie.

 

Thanks, Jim!

 

I think I have a few old Koh-i-Noors like you describe somewhere with my art supplied. I'll hunt them up and give it a try. I think it would probably make a neat pen; I always liked the heft and feel of the KiH pens.

[goyo]

Estie nibs seem to be thread compatible with Pelikan M2xx/M4xx nibs.

 

Thanks, Pajaro!

 

I know I have a box of Pelkan parts somewhere, so I'll try that out. I like writing with my little SJ so much. I just don't like lever fillers. It would be wonderful to be able to use these great nibs in other pens.

 

On the other hand, perhaps I just need to overcome my aversion. The Estie colors are so attractive, and I have to admit that the feel is nice.

[PaFitch]

Sengbusch pens designed to use the "NIBIN" will accept renew points. Of course, these are strictly inkwell (dipless style) pens.

[goyo]

I have also a Koh-I-Noor probably from post-German-reunification black with tan cap jewel that has a 1551 Estie nib. I took out the white Koor-I-Noor nib cradling inner cap, and I found that the nib does not dry out without it.

 

I found an old Koh-i-Noor Rapidograph from the sixties or seventies -- blue cap jewel, but that just indicates the size of the original pen point -- and an Estie nib fits perfectly. The cap doesn't fit over the nib, though, and I've yet to figure out how to remove the white inner cap.

 

I've been looking at the "Koh-I-Noor Esterbrook" thread, and since this seems to be what I was looking for I'll continue my quest there. The Rapidographs have a nice feel to them and I'd get a kick out of carrying a Estie-Noor. If I can get the cap to fit, it gets my 9128!

[Autopoint]

I've been looking at the "Koh-I-Noor Esterbrook" thread, and since this seems to be what I was looking for I'll continue my quest there. The Rapidographs have a nice feel to them and I'd get a kick out of carrying a Estie-Noor. If I can get the cap to fit, it gets my 9128!

 

Please please please do any "old Koh-i-Noor Rapidograph with renew point nib" experimentation with a small JUNK Estie renew point nib (think 1xxx or 2xxx series, and only the shortest nibs of those series)! I wrote and posted a major portion of the "Koh-I-Noor Esterbrook" thread, and found that only a very small 2xxx nib would fit the early KINs (those produced before there were colored "jewels" on top of the cap to denote the poiint size). No way that a #9128 nib would fit without significant modification.

 

Briefly, the older KIN technical pens like mine do have an inner cap, and it does provide a "stop" for the section to butt against, as well as a "housing" for the nib tip. But as it came from the factory the inner cap just doesn't have sufficient length to house a long Estie nib (say 9xxx seried). If you insert a nib that's too long, and screw the cap down as it's designed, you'll very likely permanently bend/twist the tips of the nib. However, the older KIN technical pens like mine make the inner cap readily accessible, because they come apart just like a 1920's Duofold (the top part of the cap is threaded, and unscrews readily to permit cleaning, inspection, repair and/or modification of the inner cap). If you wanted to make a perfectly suitable KIN + renew point piston filling combination, you'd simply need to fabricate and install a somewhat longer inner cap. That may well be as simple as super gluing a spare Estie inner cap of proper length to the inside of the "outer" cap of an "old Koh-i-Noor Rapidograph" technical pen. But I haven't tried that yet, nor apparently has anyone else.

 

Another limitation of the KIN pen with an Estie renew point is that the Estie nib unit has to be screwed all the way into the section, to be most stable. And the KIN section is really designed to accept a nib unit that has about 6 times as many threads as the Estie unit. So, to prevent "nib wobble", it would also be desirable to fit the Estie nib unit with a cylindrical "spacer" over the unthreaded portion at the top of the renew point nib unit (the outside diameter of the spacer would need to be the same diameter as the inner diameter of the KIN section, and would only need be as long as the "gap" from the top of the renew point unit to the start of the threads on the renew point unit). It may also be desirable to add a second "spacer" to the unthreaded part of the Estie renew point nib below the renew point unit threads, to further enhance stability. In either case this might also be simple to accomplish, e.g. using a small length/piece of a rubber pen sac stretched over the top part of the renew point unit, which has been lubed with some pure silicone grease. Or by using a small piece of plastic tubing for either spacer. But again, I haven't tried that yet, nor apparently has anyone else.

 

If you decide to actually do some experimentation with what I'd term "pen smithing" (sort of like gun smithing), please do post a description of what you attempted and how it seems to work.

- - - Happy fixin', Jim

 

P.S. My older KIN which is extremely suitable for such modification is certainly available for purchase. If you're interested, just PM me.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Autopoint

[pajaro]

Estie nibs seem to be thread compatible with Pelikan M2xx/M4xx nibs.

 

Thanks, Pajaro!

 

I know I have a box of Pelkan parts somewhere, so I'll try that out. I like writing with my little SJ so much. I just don't like lever fillers. It would be wonderful to be able to use these great nibs in other pens.

 

On the other hand, perhaps I just need to overcome my aversion. The Estie colors are so attractive, and I have to admit that the feel is nice.

The J pen colors are pretty. I just get sick of the lever digging me under my fingernail. I sometimes use tweezers to work the lever.

[welch]

I tried a Pelikan 150 nib, and it almost fits. The Pelikan has a metal band just between the nib-proper and the threads. The band won't fit inside an SJ. It would probably write, but would look odd. (Of course, anyone writing with a fountain pen looks odd these days, so who cares?)

[Biber]

I tried a Pelikan 150 nib, and it almost fits. The Pelikan has a metal band just between the nib-proper and the threads. The band won't fit inside an SJ. It would probably write, but would look odd. (Of course, anyone writing with a fountain pen looks odd these days, so who cares?)

 

A while back I tried the swapping thing with an Esty nib and a M150 nib, largely because I absolutely hate the pelikan nib (smooth, wet, and round, I might as well write with a ballpoint! - prefer xf/xxf with a bit of character and don't mind a bit of feedback). As I remember the 150 nib fit fine in the Esty though stuck out a bit, but I really couldn't get the Esty nib into the Pelikan section without seriously abrading the interior of the section. As I had a spare Esty 9556 nib that I didn't mind experimenting with I took it apart and tried a bit of surgery. As the problem is that the Esty nib has the threads higher up on the nib than the Pelikan, I removed the sleeve that held the nib and feed together, cut about half of it off and put the sleave on backwards - thus putting the threads lower on the nib unit. The diameter of the Esty feed was also a bit wide to fit in the Pelikan section without forcing, so I pared it down a bit. That did the trick for the most part but the nib itself protruded past the theads and bound up in the Pelikan section and I didn't want to force it too much. The thusly modified Esty nib fit into the M150 well enough to use, but proved to be far too wet for my tastes (maybe because the more of the feed channel was exposed to the ink? The end result: 1 ruined Esty nib unit and a Pelikan M150 that I still don't use because I hate the nib. THough not all is lost. I have since experimented with using the shortened, threaded Esty sleeve with a Pilot 78G nib and feed, but I didn't care for the wobble that ended up I the nib unit.

 

I think if I'm every going to get a usable nib in that Pelikan I'll need to cannibalize and make a franken-nib unit out of a Pelikan nib unit to begin with. Or I could cut to the chase and get a custom grind.

[fpman]

Another pen that at least some models of will fit Esterbrook nibs (and vice versa) are Tuckersharpe (pictures in this post Tuckersharpe). Estie nibs are superior to Tuckersharpe ones, but the interesting thing about the later is the breather tube.

[Zinonas]

I recently purchased an old platignum pen that has engraved on its barrel: Gold Tone Quick Change. It had a screw type nib that I couldn't repair no matter how hard I tried. I tried screwing an esterbrook nib unit (a 9668). It fits and writes well! It doesn't screw perfectly, but it doesn't leak, as far as I can tell. The cap closes a little tight though. I may try replacing it with a shorter nib, and add just a little silicone grease on the nib unit threads, just to be on the safe side. Can anyone advise me about which medium and fine esterbrook nib units are relatively short?