Mar242009
Vintage Esterbrook – A Non-Repair
Filed under Stationery by Kim at 10:24 pm on Mar 24 2009
I was all ready to replace the sac and do some other repairs on this Estie J-Series my dad found while at the AAA Antique mall while he was visiting. Sadly – or really happily – I don’t have to get it in writing condition, because it already is in terrific condition!
OK, so the feed is missing two tines. And the clip is bent. And the jewel is broken. These are mostly cosmetic. The lever and J-bar are not rusted, and I gently heated up the barrel and section to separate them to see if I had a genuine vintage sac inside and – lo! It appears that someone already replaced the sac.
I guess I don’t get to be the valiant pen hero I had hoped. Or learn how to replace a sac just yet.
So, Dad, what color ink do you prefer? I’ll send you a bottle with the pen, which, by the way, would have worked just fine if you took it home and fired it up without my non-help!
I don’t know if this is necessarily the launching of a new pen repair hobby, since there’s a lot to repairing pens, and I have a long list of hobbies queued up for my nonexistent spare time. But I couldn’t pass up the pen for the price, even with the flaws.
(This post brought to you by the fact that I have clearly been studying pens more than Chemistry, and by way of proving that it doesn’t take long to learn all the pen lingo you need to know. And by my ridiculous self-manicure you see there. And by Exaclair & J. Herbin Orange Indien, which is the orange you see in some of the photos – I’ll be posting more extensively about that when I have a little time!)
1 TAOon 25 Mar 2009 at 8:02 am
Whether it needed a new sac or not you’ve taken a big step! Sometimes you need to take something apart, even if it doesn’t need it, to see what’s up inside.
Fiddling with pens is fun and almost always safe (um, don’t ask about the celluloid barrel flambé I had last week.) Keep buying the old junkers and tearing them apart and soon you’ll know a good deal about pen repair and have a pile of parts that will make you wonder where to put all that crap. It’s how everyone starts out. Thanks for the post, it reminds me of that first pen I broke….er…..repaired.
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Kim Reply:
March 25th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Yup… I can just see myself now, at the rummage sale, paying someone thirty bucks for a box of old pens that haven’t seen the light of day in years.
I am sorry about your flambe! I hope no one was hurt.
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TAO Reply:
March 25th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Only my pride was hurt. It was a flesh wound since I don’t have much pride.
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