Esterbrook Ends Traditional Steel Dip-Pen Production

In 1952, we ended production of the traditional steel dip pens on which the Esterbrook business had been built. Historical research by The Esterbrook Project dates the end of steel-pen manufacturing to that year, closing a continuous production history that had begun at Camden in 1861. ©The Esterbrook Project The change reflected a writing-instrument market that had evolved considerably since Richard Esterbrook established the company. Fountain pens had steadily displaced conventional dip pens for much everyday writing, and Esterbrook had developed a substantial fountain-pen business of its own. By the early 1950s, models from the J family and the company's interchangeable Renew-Point system formed an important part of the product range. Esterbrook Ending traditional dip-nib production did not mean that Esterbrook stopped making steel writing points altogether. The company continued producing interchangeable nib units for its fountain pens and offered Dip-Less desk-pen systems, which used reservoir-style points designed to hold more ink between dips. The 1952 change specifically concerned the traditional steel dip-pen line that had defined the company's earliest decades.