Esterbrook 9128 Nib Comparison

Since I've been writing with/about Esterbrooks lately, I was pleased to see this review on Inkophile:

If you are not familiar with Esterbrook fountain pens, check out

• Vintage Pens
• Richards Pens
• Esterbrook.net
• Esterbrook.com

Bottom line is Esterbrook fountain pens were made during the middle years of the 20th century and have held up very well. They come in a variety of colors, several sizes, and have easily swapped nibs. Since the nibs unscrew, Esties are extremely easy to clean even though they are lever-fillers. Pop out the nib and rinse. It’s as simple as that.

Here is what I discovered this week when I finally got my hands on another Estie and just happened to set up two 9128 flexible extra-fine nibs at the same time. . .

Go to Inkophile to read the whole review and see writing samples.

Red Esterbrook - J Series

My curiosity about whether Steve Leveen may have used the Esterbrook J Series as his model for the Levenger True Writers, led me to purchase this red Esterbrook J with a 2668 nib. Placing the Esterbrook J next to a True Writer demonstrates how similar they are in appearance - especially, the silver bands, clip and end caps. They both have a screw out nib so that you can easily change nib sizes. The True Writer is larger and offers cartridge or converter fill. The Esterbrook is lever-bladder fill.

This model of the J series, with "Esterbrook" imprinted on the clip and the black end caps were produced in great numbers during the 1950s.

The ink sac on this one had deteriorated to fragments. So, this was my first pen restoration. The pen had to be taken apart, cleaned and a new sac installed. It reminded me of building models when I was a kid - restoring this pen was a joy. If you haven't attempted it yet, it is not as intimidating as it sounds. Between the instructions on Richard Bender's site and the availibility of parts from Pendemonium, it is really quite simple. This pen is currently filled with "Rattler Red" from Noodlers - to match the color of the pen - and writes extremely will for a steel nib. The 2668 nib is very firm and provides some feed back but not too much if you keep a light hand. The 2668 produces a medium-fine line and never fails to provide ink.

True Writer Inspiration

This is a photo of an Esterbrook Fountain Pen for sale on eBay. I have seen pictures of Esterbrooks before but not from this angle. It looks surprisingly like my obsidian black True Writer.

Since Levenger is new to producing/distributing fountain pens, I have often wondered what pen inspired the design of the True Writer. I can't imagine a closer match than this.

Update: A friend of mine recently answered this question for me. From a link on Levenger's pen page, there is a history of the development of the True Writer and they were inspired by the Esterbrook. By the way, there is a lot of good general information about pens there - recommended reading.

Sheaffer Feather Touch

For our anniversary my wife gave me a Shaeffer Feather Touch fountain pen, which is about 70 years old. Even so, it is in extremely good shape and obviously was not used much in all of that time. The color is a striated tiger-eye. It is shorter and thicker than my Shaeffer Lifetime, which is grey striated. The bladder and lever work like new - or as I imagine it new - since I am 20 years younger than the pen. Ink flow is as sensitive and easy as these Shaeffers are renowned for. However, I think the tines are slightly mis-aligned because it is just a bit scratchy. It is such a fine pen and came at a very reasonable price that it will be well worth sending it in for a nib alignment.

Sheaffer Balance Fountain Pen Writes Very Well

The Sheaffer Balance that I won on Ebay came in last week, and it is a beauty! I filled it with Noodler's Marine Green ink - although I don't know how. What I mean is, I don't know how the filling system works. The end unscrews and a long plunger pulls out and when you push it back in there is a funny popping sound and there's ink in the pen. I read some history on Sheaffer who was quite the inventor and revolutionized the pen industry at the turn of the century - he invented the lever and bladder system for fountain pens, so that people would no longer have to fill them with eye-droppers. He also guaranteed the nibs for life, which you can see if you zoom in on the nib (with lingering green ink) pictured here. I think this pen dates back to the mid 1930s but I am not sure. This pen with a 14ct gold (extra?) fine point nib, is the smoothest and easiest writing pen I have ever used. It is a much smaller than what I expected, which is ironic because I returned a Levenger Decathlon because it felt too light weight and I wanted a a larger heavier pen. Well, not everything that is "vintage" is larger and heavier. The Sheaffer Balance is narrow and light weight but at least it is long enough at 5.5". The long and short of it is that you simply do not care because it writes so well.

It probably appears as though I have nothing to write about but pens. Actually, I hope to have time in the near future to post some photos of my grandfather's and dad's old handtools, but I have to pull them out of storage before I can do that. One of the benefits of fountain pens is not only their unique beauty and utility; they take up very little space!

Vintage Sheaffer Balance Fountain Pen

Reading other blogs, such as Brassing Adds Character has opened up a new aspect of fountain pen collecting for me recently that I had not anticipated. Every time in the past, that I have looked at old fountain pens in glass display cases at second hand stores, I have been disappointed by what I saw. They are always a sorry piece of tattered junk. So, I was much intrigued when I read Rroossinck's review of the "vintage Sheaffer Balance" in his "Best of Class under $80" post.

I followed his links to vintage pen dealers and discovered to my disappointment that they were out of my price range. Next, I reluctantly followed his advice to check Ebay. I say "reluctantly" because I have never much cared for Ebay. I fear I may now be hooked. I lost the bidding for my first choice (the pen above on the green felt) because the automated snipe tool failed to work. I was watching the bidding online seeing no one outbid what I knew was my maximum bid when suddenly the bid closed and someone else won the bid with an offer slightly below my maximum bid. Oh, the agony of defeat! The sniping software service was itself sniped by constipated internet activity and could not submit my bid. So, as a wiser bidder, (Thank you to Jacqui for teaching me the ways of Ebay) I went to my second choice pen and followed the bidding without the use of the snipe tool. The result being that I won the bid on the vintage Sheaffer Senior Balance 14ct gold nib pen pictured next. The picture is not as clear as the first one above but the description indicated the pen was hardly used. We'll know for sure when it arrives in the mail and I will report on whether or not it was a good buy after all.