Desk Pens and Dip-less Pens - same nib units?

[fncll]

Do Esterbrook desk pens with feeds (which might just mean the Dip-less models?) use the same nib units as Esterbrook pens?

[Jon Szanto]

Mostly, yes. There is one model of desk pen, and I don't know if it was linked to one particular desk set, that differs from this.

I have a double-well Dip-Less set that is the same as the 407. It came very complete, and the two pens that came with it did *not* have a threaded 'section', but instead had a different nib: the 5556. These nibs had no threads, just smooth sides to the collar, and simply pushed into place in the end of the pen/holder.

All of the other desk pens, either Dip-Less or those with sacs, have been threaded. Miy experience is not vast and wide, but I believe this is pretty much the case.

[fncll]

Serendipitously, I just came into possession of a cache of 5453 dip-less nibs that sound exactly like the exceptions you noted: they have a kind of tab that makes them unfit for a standard dip pen and clearly not part of a screw-in unit. My guess based on the number and not finding any info about the nibs is they were originally meant for a 453 Desk Set of the uncommon variety. Do the pen/holder that you have for yours have a feed it slips onto or is it like a traditional dip pen?

[Brian Anderson]

The only pen that will not take the standard esterbrook renew-point is the very, very early dip-less pens which are rarely found. These were designed to have the two piece nib/feed. Esterbrook dip-less pens marked "Universal" can take either the threaded renew-point or the two piece unit.

5453 is not a number I am familiar with in relation to a dip-less pen, so it may be a standard dip pen nib meant for a holder with no feed. There was no 453 desk set, that's for sure.