Green Esterbrook J with 1555 Gregg Nib

This one is a good example of why I've enjoyed restoring Esterbrooks.

The Pen and Its History

The Esterbrook J was one of the company's most successful fountain pens and is probably the model most people picture when they think of a vintage Esterbrook. The familiar double-jewel version of the J appeared after World War II, beginning around 1948, and was offered in several marbled colors including this green.

This is the full-size J model. Esterbrook also produced the slimmer LJ and shorter SJ, but they shared the same basic design: a simple lever-filling system and Esterbrook's interchangeable Renew-Point nib units.

That nib system is a big part of what made these pens so practical. Rather than being permanently committed to one nib, an owner could unscrew the entire nib unit and replace it with another designed for a different type of writing.

This pen came to me with a 1555 GREGG nib. The 1555 is a firm fine steel nib that was specifically intended for GREGG shorthand. Shorthand required quick writing with frequent changes in direction, so a relatively fine, firm point made sense for the job.

It's a small detail, but I like that the nib gives some indication of how a pen like this may originally have been used. Esterbrooks weren't really luxury objects. They were working pens, and the huge variety of nibs Esterbrook offered reflected that.

The Restoration

Mechanically, this was a fairly straightforward Esterbrook restoration.

I disassembled the pen and thoroughly cleaned the cap, barrel, section, feed, and nib. The filling system was serviced and the exterior was carefully polished to bring back the depth of the green marbled plastic.

The material responded particularly well to polishing. The green has a lot of movement under the light that isn't immediately obvious until the old surface haze and years of handling are cleaned away.

The trim also cleaned up nicely. The Esterbrook-marked clip, cap band, and lever all remain presentable without needing aggressive refinishing.

Once everything was back together, I tested the lever-filling system with ink and put the 1555 nib through a writing test. It produces the firm, relatively fine line you'd expect from a nib originally intended for shorthand. The writing sample photographed with the pen came directly from this pen after the restoration was completed.

There wasn't one dramatic repair that defined this restoration. It was mostly a matter of taking a solid old pen, cleaning and servicing everything properly, and revealing how much life was still left in it.

For a pen that was built as an everyday working tool more than seventy years ago, that's pretty satisfying.