I've had the same Esterbrook pen since 1980 that I bought in Valley Junction (Des Moines, Ia) because all the cool kids at school had fountain pens and I didn't. I didn't have any money, so I bought it at an "Antique" shop, which was more like a junk-crap shop for 15 cents. I've had it ever since...
The video was a great help; we were asked by a client to get her Dad's pen working again, as it had not been used for years. We don't normally fix fountain pens, but her story behind the pen meant we had to try it, so thank you for sharing this information. Richard of Irish Pens.
Thank you so much for posting the video. I followed you instructions and managed to buy the parts and repair my old Esterbrook J pen. Mine is a red colored. It's writing perfectly.
I see them in antique stores pretty often, usually no more than 20 or 30 bucks. The sac and shellac are relatively inexpensive. So it's definitely accessible! Thanks for watching!
The double jewel J series started production in 1948. Based on the lever, it's from 1948-52. I'm kind of obsessed with the old Esterbrook pens. 😁 My first Esterbrook was a grey double jewel J, with the 2668 firm medium that seems to have been their default one for a lot of them. (Was even used by Presidents signing bills and such, through the Lyndon Johnson administration.) Another clue that this is an earlier production one is the patterning. From the "Dollar" A,B and H through the early double jewel J series, it's streaky and rippled with great chatoyance. This is definitely one of those beauties. Almost indestructible and very easy to restore, as you showed. The original sac can be still usable for a lot of them. Kind of ruins the claim that latex sacs only last about a decade or so. I have a hard rubber A with a still usable sac still imprinted with "Esterbrook." And the replacement sacs are still made on the original White Rubber Company machinery, to the same standard, with the same latex recipe, so I'd expect that one to work for a very long time.😉 Nice work!
@legendsofhollywu6517 Soak it. Nib down, no deeper than the section. Probably "glued in" with dried ink. Don't go deeper, or you can rust some of the internal parts, like the J bar. You might have one that still works. A number of the Esterbrook pens have functional sacs even as old as the 1930s. If not, it's super easy to get working. Section is pressure fitted (don't remove it without the nib unit. They will break. ) sac is a number 16 standard and easy to install. There are plenty of helpful videos on this. Try the lever. Doesn't want to move, or you hear crunching, like breaking plastic, you need a new sac. Moves super easy, it's already shattered and mostly gone. You feel rubber band type resistance, it's probably still good.
I own an olive green J with a 9460 medium nib. It writes very well and is one of my favorite fountain pens. The Esterbrook rates just below my 1945 Parker 51 Vacumatic in smoothness.
Question: If you want the nib and lever lined up, wouldn't you install the nib before putting the sac and section back into the pen? I know you can twist the section to line it up, but doing so risks twisting the sac. Nice pen, by the way. Identical to one of my Esterbrook J's. (my second is the "copper" color) Mine has a 6461 Rigid Extra fine nib installed. I have a couple other nibs, but this and the 9556 in the copper pen are my favorites ... so far ... Perhaps "someday" I will find a 9000 or war time 8000 fine/medium or extra fine/fine flex nib for one or both. I forget the exact nib numbers. What inks do you use in your J's?
That's a good point about lining up the nib and the lever. I wasn't thinking about that at the time, but it's an important issue. I'm mainly a Diamine and Private Reserve guy. Mainly Diamine Presidential Blue in this J. What inks do you like?
@@neoflexycurrentOriginally, a lot of vintage pens, the nib was lined up with the imprint, meaning that the lever generally faced down when used. Just how they did things. 😁 Inks? Really, most should be fine, except for Iroshizoku, which is alkaline which reportedly degrades the sacs. With proper maintenance, I've even used shimmer ink from Diamine and Colorverse, and regularly use even vintage iron gall ink (was a common type for the time this was made, and it's still around after 70+ years.) So, enjoy most inks!😁 (Vintage "with Solv-X" Parker Quink works great for keeping them clean. That was made from around the 1940s, with even colors not black or blue still looking good, through at least the 1960s. Vintage inks are generally still good, even those that are almost 100 years old. Not as many exciting colors as today, but still safe to use, and works with a lot of different types of paper (not just "fountain pen friendly.") Really, with Sheaffer, Waterman and Parker Quink of today, they're still pretty much the same formula, with the exception of the "RC-35" Sheaffer's Skrip had, that fluoresces under black light so you can recover the writing even if the dye was washed away, and the phenol that most used for a fungicide. Government got it banned in ink, but it's still in Chloraseptic. Go figure. Phenol is the smell you might associate with vintage inks, and was a great fungicide, why so many still are good to use.
the nib is not glued to the feed. the nib and feed are joined together by what is known as a "collar". This collar is what contains the units threading to thread inside of a section. This is still a pretty common theme for ipg/schmidt style modern nibs. If for some reason you really wanted to, like maybe you had a fancier 9048 nib with a bad collar, you can indeed use a knock out block and actually pop the feed and nib right out of the collar and find a gree 9000 series collar to go with it. to the best of my knowledge neither the feed nor the nib are glued into this collar and it is friction fitted with slight heat if necessary so for the typical pen user, the nib and feed are for the most part married for life as you can not separate them safely without specific tools, even though they aren't glued
@@dasmartretard Thanks for the info. Quick question though, I have this pen and it writes well on the downstroke but usually barely writes at all on the upstroke. Any idea what would cause that?
Great vid. I'm thinking about buying one of these. Are they good pens? How do they write? Is 30 dollars a good price for one of these? Thanks in advance!
I hope you picked one up. I think $30 is reasonable especially if it's in good shape. Sorry for taking so long to reply to your comment. Just now seeing it! Let me know if you got one.
Talk is too low hard to hear didn’t find out where you got the blatter/sac that holds the resovour of ink could you move the microphone closer to your mouth please ,I like the idea of powder did you use cornstarch or talc ?
I've had the same Esterbrook pen since 1980 that I bought in Valley Junction (Des Moines, Ia) because all the cool kids at school had fountain pens and I didn't. I didn't have any money, so I bought it at an "Antique" shop, which was more like a junk-crap shop for 15 cents. I've had it ever since...
The video was a great help; we were asked by a client to get her Dad's pen working again, as it had not been used for years. We don't normally fix fountain pens, but her story behind the pen meant we had to try it, so thank you for sharing this information. Richard of Irish Pens.
So glad to be of assistance!
Thank you so much for posting the video. I followed you instructions and managed to buy the parts and repair my old Esterbrook J pen. Mine is a red colored. It's writing perfectly.
Really glad to hear that!
Great video, relaxing to watch and listen! Thank you, sir!
@@johnsherman1296 thank you for enjoying!
Nice pen! I have a couple, sometimes the original sacs are still good. I have a couple that need work, so nice to see this.
Beautiful pen! How much does one of these usually run?
I see them in antique stores pretty often, usually no more than 20 or 30 bucks. The sac and shellac are relatively inexpensive. So it's definitely accessible! Thanks for watching!
@@neoflexycurrent how would you replace the jewels? My cap jewel is chipped
The double jewel J series started production in 1948. Based on the lever, it's from 1948-52. I'm kind of obsessed with the old Esterbrook pens. 😁
My first Esterbrook was a grey double jewel J, with the 2668 firm medium that seems to have been their default one for a lot of them. (Was even used by Presidents signing bills and such, through the Lyndon Johnson administration.)
Another clue that this is an earlier production one is the patterning. From the "Dollar" A,B and H through the early double jewel J series, it's streaky and rippled with great chatoyance. This is definitely one of those beauties. Almost indestructible and very easy to restore, as you showed.
The original sac can be still usable for a lot of them. Kind of ruins the claim that latex sacs only last about a decade or so. I have a hard rubber A with a still usable sac still imprinted with "Esterbrook." And the replacement sacs are still made on the original White Rubber Company machinery, to the same standard, with the same latex recipe, so I'd expect that one to work for a very long time.😉
Nice work!
I just bought the exact same pen yesterday at an antique shop. Same model same lever. I can't get the nib off to check the sack.
@legendsofhollywu6517 Soak it. Nib down, no deeper than the section. Probably "glued in" with dried ink.
Don't go deeper, or you can rust some of the internal parts, like the J bar.
You might have one that still works. A number of the Esterbrook pens have functional sacs even as old as the 1930s. If not, it's super easy to get working. Section is pressure fitted (don't remove it without the nib unit. They will break. ) sac is a number 16 standard and easy to install. There are plenty of helpful videos on this.
Try the lever. Doesn't want to move, or you hear crunching, like breaking plastic, you need a new sac. Moves super easy, it's already shattered and mostly gone. You feel rubber band type resistance, it's probably still good.
I own an olive green J with a 9460 medium nib.
It writes very well and is one of my favorite fountain pens.
The Esterbrook rates just below my 1945 Parker 51 Vacumatic in smoothness.
Help! The metal v style spring dropped out. Is it just held in by sac? I assume the spring protects sac from lever so it goes on lever side of barrel
Question:
If you want the nib and lever lined up, wouldn't you install the nib before putting the sac and section back into the pen?
I know you can twist the section to line it up, but doing so risks twisting the sac.
Nice pen, by the way. Identical to one of my Esterbrook J's. (my second is the "copper" color)
Mine has a 6461 Rigid Extra fine nib installed. I have a couple other nibs, but this and the 9556 in the copper pen are my favorites ... so far ... Perhaps "someday" I will find a 9000 or war time 8000 fine/medium or extra fine/fine flex nib for one or both. I forget the exact nib numbers.
What inks do you use in your J's?
That's a good point about lining up the nib and the lever. I wasn't thinking about that at the time, but it's an important issue. I'm mainly a Diamine and Private Reserve guy. Mainly Diamine Presidential Blue in this J. What inks do you like?
@@neoflexycurrentOriginally, a lot of vintage pens, the nib was lined up with the imprint, meaning that the lever generally faced down when used. Just how they did things. 😁
Inks? Really, most should be fine, except for Iroshizoku, which is alkaline which reportedly degrades the sacs. With proper maintenance, I've even used shimmer ink from Diamine and Colorverse, and regularly use even vintage iron gall ink (was a common type for the time this was made, and it's still around after 70+ years.) So, enjoy most inks!😁 (Vintage "with Solv-X" Parker Quink works great for keeping them clean. That was made from around the 1940s, with even colors not black or blue still looking good, through at least the 1960s. Vintage inks are generally still good, even those that are almost 100 years old. Not as many exciting colors as today, but still safe to use, and works with a lot of different types of paper (not just "fountain pen friendly.") Really, with Sheaffer, Waterman and Parker Quink of today, they're still pretty much the same formula, with the exception of the "RC-35" Sheaffer's Skrip had, that fluoresces under black light so you can recover the writing even if the dye was washed away, and the phenol that most used for a fungicide. Government got it banned in ink, but it's still in Chloraseptic. Go figure. Phenol is the smell you might associate with vintage inks, and was a great fungicide, why so many still are good to use.
Is the nib permanently glued to the feed?
The nib is not glued, you can switch those out very easily.
The nib screws in, and is not glued.
@@katyu16 actually they are glued to the feed which screws in, and come as a unit.
the nib is not glued to the feed. the nib and feed are joined together by what is known as a "collar". This collar is what contains the units threading to thread inside of a section. This is still a pretty common theme for ipg/schmidt style modern nibs. If for some reason you really wanted to, like maybe you had a fancier 9048 nib with a bad collar, you can indeed use a knock out block and actually pop the feed and nib right out of the collar and find a gree 9000 series collar to go with it.
to the best of my knowledge neither the feed nor the nib are glued into this collar and it is friction fitted with slight heat if necessary
so for the typical pen user, the nib and feed are for the most part married for life as you can not separate them safely without specific tools, even though they aren't glued
@@dasmartretard Thanks for the info. Quick question though, I have this pen and it writes well on the downstroke but usually barely writes at all on the upstroke. Any idea what would cause that?
What size sac did you use for this? Thanks.
Great vid. I'm thinking about buying one of these. Are they good pens? How do they write? Is 30 dollars a good price for one of these? Thanks in advance!
I hope you picked one up. I think $30 is reasonable especially if it's in good shape. Sorry for taking so long to reply to your comment. Just now seeing it! Let me know if you got one.
Bought the exact same pen at an antique shop yesterday. Cant get the nib off. 😅
Talk is too low hard to hear didn’t find out where you got the blatter/sac that holds the resovour of ink could you move the microphone closer to your mouth please ,I like the idea of powder did you use cornstarch or talc ?
Turn the volume up on your device?
Do you have link for sack? Anderson ?
👌👌😍🍃
I think I have that pen.
I have one winging it’s way over from the USA having paid extortionate shipping fee! 👎🥸