Monthly Archives: March 2014

Esterbrook Nibs: It’s Time for a Change

The Esterbrook pen company made myriad nib sizes and styles to customize each of the pens they made to the needs of their users. Best of all, they did it with an easy twist out nib assembly anybody could manipulate.

The Esterbrook pen company made myriad nib sizes and styles to customize each of the pens they made to the needs of their users. Best of all, they did it with an easy twist out nib assembly anybody could manipulate.

Although every fountain pen manufacturer for the past 100 years has made specialized nibs for almost every occasion, only Esterbrook and Pelikan have made it easy to exchange nibs on one pen you already love.

Both companies have made simple complete nib unit assemblies that are easily screwed into and out of the section (grip) of every one of their fountain pens. Esterbrook was the most famous for doing this in the United States from the 1940s into the 1960s. Their line up of nibs included dozens of different sizes and strengths for different jobs.

Whether you wanted to switch from a fine point to a stub for caligraphy or you stabbed your nib into the desk top out of anger or frustration, all you had to do was unscrew the old nib and replace it with a new one.

Each Esterbrook nib had a model number that indicated what type of nib it was. A 1550 was an extra fine “Durachrome” (aka thin steel) nib intended for bookkeeping. A 9314F was a “Master Durachrome” (aka a much thicker smoother writing steel) nib that wrote a fine stub line for a fancy writing effect or caligraphy.

The 9000 series of Master Durachrome nibs was the very best Esterbrook had to offer, and now we offer nearly 100 replacement nibs spanning 7 different models on our Inkwells & Blotters pages. We only show 1 of each of the 7 different models, but you can order several of each.

These 9000 series nibs are getting increasingly rare. Once we run out, we don’t know how soon we will be able to find more.

Tip O’ the Hat to Stephen Colbert

Normally, we don’t highlight famous people using disposable pens, but Stephen Colbert earns our special recognition for his use of a gel click pen by Pilot.

Why? Because he just proved himself to be the world’s greatest pen salesman!

“Wait, Nathaniel,” you say. “Greatest satirist we can buy, but greatest pen salesman? How do you figure?”

On Thursday March 13th’s show, he announced that the Pilot pen company has bought back from him their click pen he used on the show for a stunning $5,000!

I have sold thousands of pens in the past decade. A few even broke the $5,000 threshold, but not one was a disposable pen sold back to its original company for $5k! Heck, I don’t even carry Pilot click pens. Maybe I should start!

Around here, we think that has got to be a record and worthy of the title for world’s greatest pen salesman.

Sure, it might have helped that he donated the money to the nonprofit Yellow Ribbon Foundation, which helps America’s military veterans, but the sale still counts in our books. Perhaps even more so for helping the vets.

For all of that Stephen Colbert, we give you our tip o’ the hat.