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This is an eyedropper filled Penman(USA) brand fountain pen that I was able to clean up and get working. The nib says "spenco" 14k. By just pulling the nib and feed off, I was able to flush out the barrel and put in fresh ink. I cleaned up the nib and feed and put them back on. The black plastic portion that is hidden in the barrel is the reservoir. I did not touch that. From older posts I remember if you mess with it you can crack the barrel. $6 eBay auction. I'm assuming through research this was manufactured in the 1940's. http://www.richardspens.com/index_m.html?page=ref/glossary/P.htm

Hello, F.P.N. people from away down south in Dixie. I go by "The Leverist," I tinker with antique anything until it works, and I'm a random person on the internet. That's all you really need to know about that, so let's get down to the important business and talk pens. Okay, so I did the Sumgai thing and ended up with a pile of wrecked pens. One Parker 21 was the only one still workable, and it was cracked. Model cement to the rescue! It's fine now. Others were a mostly third-tier accumulation of pens that survived the Great Depression, and look like they rode in the glovebox of a Model T out to the land of opportunity. Here's the body count: 1. Fifth Avenue, built by Safford Pen Co. Red celluloid marbled. Condition: Poor--mangled brass nib, broken J-bar, obligatory ossified sac, and no cap. Has a red Waltham's cap with bent clip. 1. Wearever, Model "Deluxe 100," double jewel, brown striped celluloid. Condition: Very Shiny, but the nib tipping crumbled away when I touched it. "Special Alloy," indeed. Clip not quite right, lever very corroded, J-bar ok. 1. Champion. Model unknown. A very YELLOW pen colored like a Duofold, but shaped like a blend of old Sheaffer Balance and new Nemosine Singularity. Condition: Really good! Well, except for the sac. Everything else is just the way I never find them! 1. Sheaffer Balance Jr. Vac fill, flat ball clip, black with pearlescent flecks. Original Junior nib. Condition: I would tell you, if I could get the vacuum rod to move more than half an inch. Other than that, it's scuffed up but will polish nicely. Section is stuck on pretty good (regular non-triumph nib.) 4: Epenco's . Eagle Iridium Tipped nibs, GP steel. One burgundy, one navy, two really cool striped blue ones with a thunder-and-lightning pattern, like Noodler's acrylics but old-school. Condition: Every single one had a good sac (considering) but the J bars were neatly broken. 3. "Penman" pens. Look almost exactly like Nemosine Singularity pens. One black, missing cap band. Two grey flake celluloid, one in much nicer shape than the other, but I can't bring myself to part out the really grungy one. Curvex nibs, 14k Gold Plate. And--broken J-bar on one gray one. The other hasn't deigned to come apart yet. So There You Have It! I don't know what to do with the nib on the Wearever--not fond of Fleabay, but if I have to then I will. It doesn't have to be original Wearever, it just has to write. Fifth Avenue is cool but really battered. The Epencos are neat, the Penman pens are nice shapes, the Champion is really well preserved, and the Sheaffer is a seized-up but beautiful pen. The Parker? It's cool--testament to the most practical designs in history, if not the prettiest. I have already resacced another lever pen of mine (Gold Flex!) but these are pretty messy. Mostly I need nib ideas for that poor old Deluxe 100. Then, on to discussion of caps and clips, and freeing up the Sheaffer--which I think might be a 1935 model. I will trade a 1950ish Sheaffer Tuckaway Vac parts pen, with a beautiful pencil matching it, if someone can come up with either some parts or another project lever pen. The Tucky just needs the barrel bored and tapped and a new nib unit. A recognized pen mechanic quoted me $85 but I didn't have the money then. Anyhow, thanks for watching, and stay dipped. The Leverist (Who should have probably posted pictures.)

While I was working on some comparisons of PPS to some of the modern inks I have, I decided to work up a review. The short answer is PPS was a great ink with excellent handling characteristics. Perhaps the color was not so popular back in the day, but today there are many inks with saturated color. And this "middle blue" that ever so slightly leans green seems a very unusual color for modern inks which in my mind seem to lean red to blue-violet, or heavily towards green. For those that might not have heard of PPS, it's been long discontinued, with prices now heading towards the stratosphere. I received this PPS sample from a generous FPN member. I don't know how much evaporation occurred with this bottle, but it's my understanding that perhaps not so much. Maybe someone can verify that. I didn't do anything to dilute the ink. It handled excellently. Again, thanks for the chance to sample this bit of vintage ink history! The papers are MvL=Mohawk via Linen, HIJ=Hammermill 28 lb Inkjet, TR=Tomoe River. Sorry, forgot to reduce the size of the image. In the droplets of ink on a wet paper towel, the ink is mostly a single dye that leans very slightly to green. Very much a near perfect middle blue. There is a little bit of red dye which probably accounts for the red sheen seen on papers like Tomoe River. But probably as expected for the era, not very water resistant.

Hello, As per request of some fellow members, I decided to give away a bottle of Parker Penman Sapphire in form of 2-3 ml sample vials, the problem is that sending to so many people is not possible for me, so contacted amberleadavis and she very kindly accepted to help with the postage, so I will send the bottle to her and she will work on the sample vials and posting them. Details: - 15 people will be selected, Anyone interested please leave a comment and we will pick the 15 people at our discretion. - This PIF is for people who have not used PPS before. - Preferences will be given to those people who have done one review. - Expect to pay about $2 in postage for CONUS. We will pay for the ink, the vials and the envelopes. - Your commitment would be to write a letter using PPS and post it in the Great PPS CRV: Join the fun - be part of the largest BLUE ink comparison. Your inky-put is appreciated. Best regards.

Hello, Sometimes back, a fellow FPNer asked me if I will fill any of my expensive pens with PPS because of all the reports he had read about clogging problems and may be damage that PPS could cause, my answer was that for me it's worth. Wanted to know what you all think about it. Best regards.

Hello, Does anyone recall the price of a bottle of Parker Penman when it was in production (before it got discontinued)? Best regards.

I recently picked up a few bottles of Parker Penman ink for what seemed like a bargain price compared to some I'd seen. The deal also included four vintage Pelikan bottles (the ones with the Mont Blanc style tip-fill well), which made it extra sweet. I tried each to see what all the fuss was about and it came down to just loving the Sapphire and Emerald. The Ruby was an odd browinsh color with a lot of sediment, possibly suffering from too much age. The Ebony and Mocha were OK, but not interesting enough and are currently for sale on flea bay Australia if anyone's interested. Wary of their reputation for clogging pens and not willing to risk any of my good ones, I inked up a couple of Chinese pens as testers for the the two I liked. They Sapphire rapidly became my favorite blue, and I tend to favor blues. I'm not much of a green user, but the Emerald is a really beautiful one in my book. My mind immediately turned to finding substitutes, both to conserve what I had and to replace them in the long run. According to what I read online, Diamine Majestic Blue was a good option for the Sapphire, so I bought a bottle. Attached is a side by side comparison, and it's not a bad match. The biggest difference is that the Diamine had a significant degree of red sheen not seen in the Penman. Otherwise the color, saturation and shading seems close. Both samples are with the same pen/nib - A Jinhao X-450 with a broad German Knox nib. The first line with the Diamine was just after I'd id inked the pen, so the ink load is higher than it would otherwise be, but it does show up the red sheen. The sheen is not as evident is subsequent lines. Paper is Rhodia 80gsm. I've attached images, which I home you find useful. My apologies for the chicken scratchings which pass as my handwriting. Mario

http://kepfeltoltes.hu/140807/P1200906_1_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg http://kepfeltoltes.hu/140807/P1200929_1_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg Parker Penman Emerald vs Graf von Faber-Castell Moss Green I was planning to do this comparison for a while (about 8 months). Why did it take this long? Good question....and it doesn't even matter I think. Here it is http://kepfeltoltes.hu/140807/IMG_001_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg On the scans you can spot the difference somewhat easily, but to the naked eye they are very similar. The Emerald is a more vivid green, and the Moss Green is just a bit more "mossy" I'd say. Haha Both of them shade nicely and behave great, no problems at all. http://kepfeltoltes.hu/140807/IMG_01_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg I love the Maruman paper, because its very smooth, but it bleeds pretty easily with a wetter nib. http://kepfeltoltes.hu/140807/IMG_1_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg A little bling and a little moss (and some bleed-through, but as I said earlier its just the paper) http://kepfeltoltes.hu/140807/IMG_002_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg This is on some thinner notebook paper. http://kepfeltoltes.hu/140807/IMG_003_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg A bit of Clairefontaine. They both can have a nice pinkish/purplish sheen! Penman Emerald http://kepfeltoltes.hu/140807/P1170414_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg GvFC Moss Green http://kepfeltoltes.hu/140102/P1170560_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg Some extreme moss sheen remained from an ink drop. http://kepfeltoltes.hu/140416/P1180500_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg Moss Green on top, Emerald on the bottom. http://kepfeltoltes.hu/140807/IMG_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg And a little surprising result (at least for me) from the Moss Green (on the left): http://kepfeltoltes.hu/140807/IMG_0007_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg The is a whole lotta blue in the GvFC. The Emerald also showed a little blue what can be seen on the previous scan. I hope you found this interesting

Enjoy: http://i42.tinypic.com/imjdj9.jpg http://i40.tinypic.com/30sy4gi.jpg