Parker 45 Made In England

[Brian K]

I had lunch with my father and stepmother today and they gave me a pen she had come cross while working in an estate sale. Turns out it's a Parker 45 that was made in England. It came in a rather undistinguished box with a generic Parker pen leaflet. It was purchased at Boots, The Chemist, branch No. 86, 11, 12 & 13 Cornhill, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk on October 1, 1979. I believe it is what is referred to as a Flighter - brushed stainless steel with chrome trim and a gold nib (I didn't disassemble the nib assembly but the metal is yellow) marked F. In the pictures I have seen of this model it usually has a black plastic end on the barrel but this pen has a chrome end to match the clip and tassie. Two converters were with it - one that's metal with a matte finish that only has an opening where you depress the sac for filling and the other, also metal, that is shiny and has a cage like arrangement around the sac, one of the arms of which you press to compress the sac (this is the one that was installed in the pen). The model number is not marked on the pen. The front of the barrel is marked "Parker" near where it meets the section and on the back it is marked "Made in England" under the Parker arrow piercing an oval logo. I love the way the cap closes, but it will take a bit of getting used to. It doesn't click or anything...it just stops and it's secure.

 

I don't think it was ever used much. It's in great condition. It wasn't flushed after its last use and I couldn't even flush it at first. I soaked it in distilled water for a couple hours and it gave off a lot of what looked like the remnants of black ink. I think it must have been stored nib down for awhile while it dried up because the only sign of ink in the converter was where it joined to the nipple in the section. After the first soak I still couldn't unscrew the nib assembly so I soaked it for awhile longer. I finally was able to separate the nib from the section and I soaked it in a water/ammonia solution for awhile. After some more flushing the water ran completely clear and I let it dry. It's nice to have a pen that can be disassembled so completely it can dry very quickly.

 

I've filled it with BSB and it writes beautifully. Nice gift - and it isn't even Christmas or my birthday!

 

If anyone knows anything more about this pen - especially since everything else I've seen about them had to do with U.S. made pens - I'd appreciate learning about it. Also, does anybody know if it's still possible to find different nibs for this pen. A stub would be very nice

 

Thanks,

 

Brian

[OcalaFlGuy]

I have a couple P-45 Arrows that are UK made.

 

On the nib, just have one ground for it. Most NOS nibs left are steel and not italic.

Sounds crazy but if you get a decent deal on a 45 you can still have a gold nibbed pen with a nib ground to your spec for less than $50.

 

Bruce in Ocala, FL

[Mike 59]

It is a good pen, it looks more expensive than it is, and it easily dismantles for cleaning, writes well, a good design.

You should be able to find the actual year of manufacture off of the cap on the other side to the arrow. It will be a code that you can look up. (Mine is IIIE for example)

There is good information at; www.parkerpens.net

Edited January 12, 2012 by Mike 59

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Congratulations on your 45!

 

For new old stock nibs, try here (no affiliation):

http://stores.ebay.ca/PEN-SELLER-FROM-FRANCE/PK-45-NIBS-/_i.html?_fsub=324877010&_sid=38158830&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

 

No Stubs, but the NOS nibs have a rather large 'ball' of tipping material, so could well be ground to a stub. (Stubs ground from an M nib are quite nice for routine use.)

 

Bye,

S1

[Brian K]

Thanks for the replies, folks. I don't know if I'll be in a position to have a nibmeister grind a stub for me, but I will have to keep that in mind.

 

There are no date marks on my pen. This is not surprising as it was purchased new in 1979 (I know nothing of the original owner) and I have read that there were no date codes added at that time.

 

I am finding that the BSB in this pen writes very wet and feathers on papers that it never has before. The other pens I have it in are a Preppy with a medium point and one with the rollerball tip installed - never had a feathering problem with either of them. If anything they write a tad dry with this ink. The only other inks I have right now are PR Tanzanite (with a little Purple Mojo added) and Noodler's KTC. The Tanzanite seems to have a reputation as a very wet ink but the KTC has seemed a bit dryer than the BSB in my experience and I'm thinking of trying it in this pen. Has anyone else noticed this pen as a particularly wet writer? Any suggestions for a good ink for the 45? As it is the fine nib seems to write more like a medium and that's OK, but I'd like to minimize the chance of feathering if I could - and I'm not a big fan of black ink so X-Feather would be a last resort for me.

 

Thanks,

 

Brian

[Florida Blue]

I think you are right calling it a flighter but I think they also called the 45s that came with a metal converter "Convertibles."

If the nib is original it is only gold plated. Parker stopped putting 14kt gold nibs into the 45 in the early 1960s.

 

I'm sure many of the English members are more familiar with Boots than I am but it is a chain of "high street" drug stores that's still around today similar to a CVS or Walgreens would be in the US.

When I went to college in England I used to buy soap, toothpaste and other necessities there.

Edited January 12, 2012 by Florida Blue

[mikkolopez]

here's mine also UK made

http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/ss273/mikkolopez/My%20Pens/Parker4501.jpg

[Bo Bo Olson]

I got very, very lucky at a German indoor antique market. At the door was some sort of Parker I didn't know what. Not being into US pens much.

It was a Parker Junior Duofold, with a real nice nib....semi-flex to 'flexi' or in between.

I found that out later, with a thumb nail test, I knew it was a real good nib and suspected semi-flex. A real surprise to me, In I'm Parker limited, a 36 Canadian factory BB stub nail on a '38-40 Vac, a '50's P-51, a silver P-75 and a steel Flighter.

That Duofold that I hoped to buy later wet my appetite for that Parker 45...it too did not have a nail....I thought a real good regular flex or even springy...it is a bit more, and somewhat wet writing.

Which is good, there is certain inks that need a wet writer like DA Moss Green.

Both had squeeze fillers.

 

I'd not get your pen altered to write drier like all your other pens...why have all the nibs the same?

 

There are certain inks that do better in wet nibs.

 

I only have two wet nibs, a Geha 790 semi-flex KM, and this springy to semi-flex P-45 M.

Some folks say English nibs write wider than US nibs....could it be the English nibs are a tad more flexible than the US nibs so are a bit wetter due to being springy or semi-flex? That would make them write wetter, there for wider.

 

In that I had no real interest in the Parker 45...with box, with papers for the P-45, P-65 and P-75 in German. I can't tell if the nib is gold, gold plated or gold colored only. I don't want to bust the pen taking it apart. It don't matter, the nib is very good.

 

I sort of bought it in it w3as cheap enough, had a better writing nib than expected. (I was in a buying frenzy...I bought five pens from him, four the second time around.)

I am of course blind...and it wasn't until I got home I found out the cap was gold filled.

 

So I now have a collection of Parker pens.

Two of them with superb nibs with some flex.

 

 

I did have to take both old vintage nibs to the brown paper bag, to get get rid of the micro-corrosion of sitting in drawers for generations.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Went to edit and erased the whole post. Whoops...didn't either. :embarrassed_smile:

Edited January 15, 2012 by Bo Bo Olson

[brownargus]

I have a couple of 45s - one in maroon with a medium nib. and one in stainless with a black section and tip to the barrel and with a fine nib which I bought as a Flighter. Both nibs appear to be gold (plated?) and are very good, smooth writers. The section of the Flighter is no longer smooth having ripples in it, which I assume is the plastic contracting, but it hasn't affected the ink flow at all..

[rahulg]

This is the first "serious" pen that I obsessed over through my first year with fountain pens, and unfailingly manages to sneak into my daily rotation. Congratulations on your acquisition. The flighter 45 never fails, is understated, and practically indestructible. One of the last well-designed, practical pens from the house of Parker before they moved on to the Vectors and the Urbans. While this is just my opinion, save for the Frontier and possibly the IM, the rest of the new Parker crop are plain dashed ugly.

 

The 45 is the last in a long line of classics, and I do hope you enjoy using your pen for many years.

 

Regards,

Rahul

[Mike 59]

I look along the rows of unsold pink Urbans, and £30 chrome 'luxury' Jotters in my main stationers in central UK, and think, "no...no...not that one either, nor that...nor that..." It's a strange situation, hope it changes with the next range that comes out. ( And I'm a long time Parker fan, I get no fun from this.)

[subbes]

I just received a British '45 flighter in a package of "misc pens that probably belonged to your grandfather." Came with the guarantee paperwork, and was bought in October of 1979 April 1972 from a stationer's store. Gold (or gold-plated) M nib, similarly no date code.

 

I've never looked at the '45 before now because the semi-hooded nib doesn't appeal to me, but taking this apart revealed it's a nice piece of workmanship. I can respect it intellectually, if not aesthetically.

 

(Based on the date and place of purchase it was probably my dad's.)

Edited January 26, 2012 by subbes

[Brian K]

The more I use this pen the more I like it. It may have been designed as a durable work horse but it writes beautifully. My Parker 75, my 149 (once it's resealed!) and this pen will make a great trio.

 

I don't know if having this pen fall on me out of the sky like this qualifies me as a Sumgai, but I sure feel like one!

[knitknitfrog]

I think you are right calling it a flighter but I think they also called the 45s that came with a metal converter "Convertibles."

If the nib is original it is only gold plated. Parker stopped putting 14kt gold nibs into the 45 in the early 1960s.

 

I bought a new gt flighter 45 in the 1980's in new Zealand. English made with a 14kt nib, a few years later I ordered a 14kt med italic for it, pretty much a cursive italic as not crisp enough to be a true italic. Maybe English p45's still came with gold nibs long after us ones didn't?

last year I bought it a nos ef nib,

[rhosygell]

English 45's by and large could still be purchased with 14k nibs pretty much all through the model's life. Slip the hood backwards up the feed and the marking will be revealed. The 14k will be stamped on the portion trapped under the hood.

[Florida Blue]

Maybe English p45's still came with gold nibs long after us ones didn't?

 

I suppose so because the vast majority of US-made P45s have steel nibs (either bare or gold plated). The US-made Parkers stopped having gold nibs around the mid-1960s.

[Brian K]

English 45's by and large could still be purchased with 14k nibs pretty much all through the model's life. Slip the hood backwards up the feed and the marking will be revealed. The 14k will be stamped on the portion trapped under the hood.

 

I have been using Noodler's Kung Te-cheng in this pen and after having filled it two or three times it seemed prudent to flush and soak the pen. This time, when I performed this operation I disassembled the nib assembly entirely and the nib is indeed marked 14kt. I had suspected this was the case because the nib is fairly soft and responsive - almost flexible, in fact. US made 45s were using plated steel nibs by the time this pen was made (BTW, I made a mistake in the dating of this pen, I'm sure. The date was written as 10/1/1979 and being a Yank I took this to mean October 1, 1979. It occurred to me recently that in British nomenclature that would have meant 10 January 1979), which would likely have been sometime in 1978.

 

While this was not entirely surprising given the way the nib performed it was a nice little discovery!

 

Brian

Edited January 30, 2012 by Brian K