Any Parker 51 owners?

[PaulMB]

Now you have made me feel an irrational need for a Sonnet.

 

[John Phillips]

I have owned several Parker 51 Aerometrics from UK and USA, of up to 1960s vintage. IMHO the 51 is a really great very practical design but for several not great reasons I have none of them now. My favourite was in teal with a gold plated cap and a non-standard oblique nib. They really were made for daily use and I did so.

FYI my daily pen is now a Lamy 2000 fine nib. It is hooded like the Parker 51 for practicality, very robust and reasonably inexpensive so I can use it freely without worry of losing or damaging it.

Does anyone have experience of Parker Penman ink? Penman Sapphire, long unavailable, is a true deep sapphire colour without any tone other than blue in the ink. It is my favourite for colour but it is not my favourite for being a "difficult" ink in so many pens because it dries so quickly. I do still have an unopened bottle and a part-used one. My daily ink now is Aurora Blue which has a slight violet tinge but is a great, trouble-free, "wet" ink.

 

[madmike]

I have one somewhere, along with a few other fountain pens. I use them all the time. Also have the Mont Blanc Meisterstuck and a Shaeffer legacy which is the modern version of the PFM. Plus parker 25, 35 and a 50. Plus a Cross something or other. The thing is they are small and easily hidden, erm put in a cupboard somewhere !

 

[gez]

I'm almost 100% sure I have had a Parker fountain pen at some point (after all who else makes them? - affordable ones anyway), as I've had two fountain pens in my life. I have no idea what model it may have been though. I never got on with them as pens though, so they were never anything more than a novelty to me. Bic's were well and truly ubiquitous by the time I had to start using an ink pen over pencil.

 

[-alan-]

FYI my daily pen is now a Lamy 2000 fine nib. It is hooded like the Parker 51 for practicality, very robust and reasonably inexpensive so I can use it freely without worry of losing or damaging it.

I hadn't heard the term 'hooded nib' before, but it's actually one of the things I really don't like in a fountain pen. Always looks to me as akin to a retractable biro with the refill partially slipped back into the barrel

I've been a Shaeffer man since school - one of these (with a proper fully naked nib) :

Must confess, I could definitely warm to the Sonnets though. Some rather nice ones of those around I see:

 

[martin clark]

I still have my Schaeffer like that, from school - loved it.

I am going to have dig out the two or three pens I have, and have a play once again. I know, 30yrs of sketching, drawing & annotating such in tiny 'cursive-block-caps' (!), in tiny drawing-pen styles - will have entirely -eliminated my ability to use any of them...

 

[-alan-]

I had an earlier Snorkel fill Shaeffer in black that I found in the house and took to school as a kid. Lost it one day, and the following week noticed the music teacher using an identical one. Could have been innocent enough, but I still have my suspicions nearly 50 years later

 

[Ian Hughes]

I have two Aerometric 51’s. One I bought used and had serviced about 20 years ago, and the other was my late father’s. I had that one serviced and re-nibbed to suit my writing. Parker 51’s are brilliant in my opinion. They are not outrageously expensive, and if used sensibly, will just keep on going. Steer away from the heavily saturated inks and flush the old ink out occasionally.

I have been unlucky with Sheaffers. I have had five in the course of my life, and they all have leaked - probably just bad luck, but enough to sway me away from the brand.

 

[martin dawson]

I have a Parker 61 given to me by my Dad whilst still at school. I’ve recently passed it on to my grandson, I had it converted by Parker years ago, the filling of the ink was getting saturated it had like a fibre in the body to suck up the ink. Eventually once I had the pen converted to the conventional system much better. Although must say a beautiful writer.

Regards,

Martin

 

[matt j]

Never got on with fountain pens, being a lefty means anything you write is usually a blue/black smear across the page and your hand!

 

[gintonic]

left handed Mont Blanc fountain pen user here. Have a small collection of fountain pens. Don't use them very often - mainly stick to my Staedtler clutch pencil.

 

[PaulMB]

It all lends itself beautifully to the obsessive personality. For 30 years I got along fine with one fountain pen (while obsessing on a variety of other things) then discovered the Parker 51. I now have six and can't decide which one I prefer, or, indeed, if I don't prefer my old pen. So far I think I prefer the "M" nib to the "F" nib. But since they were pretty much made by hand, there are fat F-nibs that are very close to a thin M-nib, so no clear choice. And they are not marked "F" or "M." Then there is the question of ink flow........

 

[gintonic]

i do have a Parker somewhere - from my Dad but it isnt in my pen case

20240501_115139 by uh_simon, on Flickr

top to bottom - Mont Blanc fountain pen (this is the one i used most and the rubberised finish has not worn well), matching Mont Blanc roller ball. A lovely Faber Castell fountain pen. The black on was a cheapo Jinhao (Chinese) fountain pen that is surprisingly good to write with. And a Cross fountain pen.

I do have others elswhere