Extra Fine, Extra Elastic, and Extra Confusing!

Extra Fine, Extra Elastic, and Extra Confusing!

You have to hand it to Esterbrook and their non-stop ingenuity in the pen market. During the 1940s Esterbrook seemed to enjoy shifting around and changing the names of their pens, most likely for marketing purposes. However, it is one thing to change the name of an existing pen rather than to make another pen with a new number and trying to pass it off as new. Sadly, Esterbrook did this quite a lot, but not so much as it did to the pen we will be discussing; Penman favorite, the #128 Extra Fine Elastic Pen. 

Richard Esterbrook the 3^rd (senior), the president and founder of the Esterbrook Pen Manufacturing Company, loved the #128 pen even above the beloved and popular 048 Falcon Pen (the practical mascot of the company). Esterbrook was educated in business and he ran a stationers shop in England for many years before he relocated to the US to help his son with his pen making business. That meant that Esterbrook was trained in Spencerian and ornamental script.  This is likely why he adored the #128, because it was his “Spencerian #1.” The original release of this pen echoes many of the features of the famous Spencerian #1. It has a heavy grind along the top of the pen point, which hugs the curves of the side cuts, for maximum flexibility. It also stops just short of the point, ensuring that the point remains durable and sharp.

Pictured above is a series of #128 pens starting from 1885 (top) and ending in a 1946 version (bottom).  As you can see, the pen started out slightly smaller.  The size of the pen is important for good flexibility. Also, the gravity well was smaller on the older pen. This is actually very common amongst ALL pens made before 1900. I am guessing it had to do with changes in the inks made during those time periods. One thing is certain, Esterbrook was reasonably consistent with the manufacture of this pen over the course of 62 years. Really the most obvious changes are the reduction in the grind which transitions to the groove stamp. This particular transformation is industry wide and very common. You can also see that less care was taken when making the side cuts. I suspect this is because the industry went from using hand-press machines to automation to do these processes.

Here is a closer look at the oldest and newest version of the pen.  This gives a bit more stark perspective of the slight changes over time. Even though the pen itself did not change over time, unfortunately the 128 was cloned into other pens.  Wait, what!?!

Yes! Pictured above, you can see four of the variations of the #128 that Esterbook cloned into other numbers. How can I be so sure?  Well, look for yourself.  The design is identical, right down to shape, size, point and even the side cuts. In my up-coming book about Esterbrook and their dip pens, I will go deeper into the discussion of my deductions and of why they chose to make all these different pens. However, what you can take away from this blog is that there are more options available for people looking for a box of 128s that are essentially the same pen, from the same company. Some are more abundant and available than others. Like this for example:

The Radio Pen #956 is obviously a silver nickel coated #128. The Radio Pen series is an upgraded version of their standard steel pens with their specially formulated, Radio Pen coating. This coating meant more protection against wear & tear and oxidation. The Esterbrook Company boasted that these pens would last twice as long as a normal steel pen. So why isn’t it a top seller? My theory is that people are too caught up in the propaganda of familiar and famous names and numbers set forth by established calligraphers and artists. Other than its appearance, how do we know that the #956 is the #128 disguised? As previously mentioned, I will discuss this further in my book.  Sorry, it’s not so much that I want to withhold information as it is that there is a massive amount of information that requires an understanding of other criteria that must be discussed first. That's why I have to write a book about it. ;)

So have a care the next time you decide to pass on a box of pens where you don’t recognize the name or the designated number, you might just be passing up its clone.

Happy hunting!