You've Got Your First Found In The Wild Parker 51 In Your Hand, Now What?

[Dip n Scratch]

I just inked it for the first time with Nick Stewart 'Randle' Blue/Black.

I can see why people love these things so much.

Is it a general thing that the UK Parkers have broader nibs? Mine is US made and it seems like a fine.

I think it was made around 1950.

I have had to tape over the hole some idiot bored into the cap.

Why'd anyone do that? Your guess is as good as mine.

Edited August 30, 2018 by Dip n Scratch

[inkstainedruth]

That hole *might* have been put there in case some kid swallows the cap (that way there's a bit of an air hole so that they can still breathe; at least that's the explanation I've seen for air holes in caps in the past). Of course the better answer would have been "Don't keep your pen someplace where a little kid can get to it TO swallow the cap...."

As for the UK pens having broader nibs, I've heard that. Personally, I'm data points of 1 and -1.... My Navy Gray Aero has a OM or OB nib; but the black 51 Vac has, according to my inventory notes, a medium nib -- as does the US-made Plum Demi Aero and possibly also the US-made Midnight Blue Aero (I'm still waffling over whether the Midnight Blue has an M or an F/M nib).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Dip n Scratch]

They didn't drill pen caps against that eventuality in those days. Look again at the image in post #218. Do you really think that hack-job is an 'official' Parker addition given the way the drill has obviously skidded over the curved surface of the cap. The problem is that the caps are worth money too. Around fifty percent of the sum I paid for the whole pen.

I used a tiny square of white electrical tap & marked it with what it's inked with.

[Dip n Scratch]

As the pen has settled down it seems to be on the broad side of medium.

Is that usual for a Parker 51?

The pen has not been dismantled at all, so I couldn't tell you what nib is in there.

[cellopen]

Thank you Bruce for your invaluable advice.

After many attempts to win one on the Bay, (I am a cheap, cheap man) I finally received my first 51! I followed the OP exactly, and I now have a fabulous new toy in full working order.

It is a burgundy pen with a rolled gold cap; much like HRH uses! I believe it is from the same vintage too, one of the earlier (Mark I?) Aerometrics (US made though) with a fine nib. The cap is missing its jewel, but I will remedy that soon. It behaves impeccably with its first fill of Diamine Leap of Faith (dark purple-blue-black a Phidon exclusive).

This may not be my last 51... Perhaps a stub version is in my future.

Regards,

Mark

[inkstainedruth]

Thank you Bruce for your invaluable advice.

After many attempts to win one on the Bay, (I am a cheap, cheap man) I finally received my first 51! I followed the OP exactly, and I now have a fabulous new toy in full working order.

It is a burgundy pen with a rolled gold cap; much like HRH uses! I believe it is from the same vintage too, one of the earlier (Mark I?) Aerometrics (US made though) with a fine nib. The cap is missing its jewel, but I will remedy that soon. It behaves impeccably with its first fill of Diamine Leap of Faith (dark purple-blue-black a Phidon exclusive).

This may not be my last 51... Perhaps a stub version is in my future.

Regards,

Mark

 

Congratulations! 51s are GREAT! I'm a complete sucker for them.

Being new, you may not know the rules around here, though: pix or it didn't happen! (although I'm not sure how many posts you have to have under your belt before you can start posting them).

The ink sounds very interesting too -- I just looked it up and boy does it look nice! And no, the odds are good that it will NOT be your last 51, although stubs are way harder to find -- I only have one English-made OB (all the rest are fines, extra fines, or a couple of mediums).

Welcome to FPN by the way -- you have certainly started with a bang, haven't you?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[cellopen]

 

OK! Here is my new friend.

Thanks for the kind words Ruth. I have lurked about here for years and fed my addiction with the information generously provided by the community. I will be posting more now I think. It is rather lovely to share these things with others who get it.

Best,

Mark

[djmaher]

Well, believe it or not, I have TWO 51s coming my way. Long story. Don't hate on me too much! A relative, who knows zip about fountain pens, though of me when she said she found them at an estate sale. I can't even remember talking to her about my addiction, but, there you have it.

 

Thoughts of looking a gift horse, or some such thing, may apply here.....

 

Anyway, they both appear mostly clean on the outside. One of them is a Demi, I think, with a original hoop fill (the sac appears kinda yellowed). The second is a 51 Vac, with a blue diamond clip. I won't know exactly what I have till I get them in my hands.

 

Now what do I do??!!?? LOL. I'm in no super hurry to write with them. Frankly, I want to completely disassemble them, have a good look, and thoroughly, gently clean them. I don't have an ultrasonic cleaner, but, I do have alot of time on my hands. A little patience, too....

 

My inclination would be to soak them in water 1st, and see what I have. Then have at them with a bit of pen cleaning solution, and see what colors come out, if any. I'm hardly an expert, but, I've disassembled a couple of 51s before, with success, so that part doesn't scare me too much. I might want to replace some sacs, but, we will see.

 

Any advice, including recommendations as to good places to obtain replacement parts, would be welcome. I have a Aero 51 with a leaky sac I need to replace anyway. If I'm doing a complete disassemble, I'm somewhat inclined to replace the parts that usually deteriorate with age and use.. BTW, any good recommendations for shellac?

 

Again, advice is more than welcome, for anyone who wants to go on a journey with me.

[Dolganoff]

I have one P51 in rather bad shape.

The nib is WORN OUT under a weird angle, and the section has shrunk after what I speculate was an attempt at over enthusiastic heat disassembly). Also has strange heavy smell, like camphor. Is this how india ink smells - I have no experience with it?

 

Still writes and doesn't look clogged!

I'll probably create a separate thread for this project.

[pennylink]

I have my eye on a made in the UK P51 Aerometric MKIII with a medium nib. Since I can't try it in person, is medium what I should expect from a "normal" Western medium, or do they run on the broad side? How fine is their Fine?

Edited November 20, 2018 by pennylink

[pajaro]

I have had a few Parker 51 mark III pens. All were dry writers and had poor ink flow, even a broad nib one. That one was a UK pen. I don't know whether they all needed nib adjustment or tuning, probably yes, but the earlier models are much better with ink flow. My opinion and experience.

[smammaler]

Thank you for the thorough explanation, it is much appreciated.

[readytotalk]

At different times I bought three 51`s in the NOS condition and they all wrote beautifully.

Most impressed by the pen with pen with B nib, it`s buttery smooth.

Having read the manual, I realized that it seems the 51`s have great possibilities for tuning and adjusting.

[Paul-in-SF]

I need help. I have one P51 aero that I acquired recently. It writes very dry and is not pleasant to use.

Thanks to the various instructions in this thread, I have opened the hood, disassembled the nib, feed and tube from the collector (I was not able to remove the ink sac protector for love or money, but I doubt if my issue stems from anything in there), cleaned everything as well as I could, and put it back together. It still has the same issue as it had when I first tried it, writing very dry.

Specifics: it will continue to write as long as I am holding it at the right angle, it doesn't skip much but it can have dry starts. I'd say the problem is just that there is not enough ink getting through.

The nib (says "made in England") looks OK but not ideal. Under magnification the tines appear to be aligned, but one is a bit longer than the other, and when viewed from the short side, you can see the inside of the tipping material on the longer tine sticking out a bit (again, under magnification).

The feed looks fine to my untrained eye. There is a small hole in the top at the rear, possibly connecting with the hole for the tube at the back end. There is a very fine slit along the top, from near that hole to near the nib end.

The tube is black and appears intact and undamaged under magnification. I can blow through it and feel the air on the other end.

One advice much earlier in the thread was that a clogged collector is likely to blame for this sort of thing. My collector is clear (not crystal, but you can see through it) and shows no signs that I can see of any clogging under magnification. I have soaked it in warm water (no ammonia or flushing solution so far). The restorer from whom I bought it says it was carefully and completely restored both internally and externally.

Other behavior: I noticed that with everything assembled but with the hood off, what I would call a normal amount of ink comes out, maybe twice what comes out with the hood on (of course it doesn't write well, the tines seem to vibrate as if there is not enough support for them, and the nib is very scratchy without the hood). It is almost as if the hood, when screwed on fully, is squeezing down on some choke point so that less ink comes out. Under magnification, the nib by itself shows the two tines with an even space between them; installed and with the hood on, I can't see any space at all between the tines.

I believe I am installing the nib and feed correctly, they align with the collector and the hood, they are pushed in as far as they will comfortably go, and the amount of nib and feed showing when the hood is on appears correct to my untrained eye. The o-ring is there, so I presume the hood is screwing down to the correct position, but I wonder if the o-ring is likely to be worn and therefore thinner? I could order and try a new o-ring, but that does seem a bit of grasping at straws. According to my calipers, it is about 1mm thick now.

I have had the pen apart and back together three times, fussed with and tried various things, and there seems to be no improvement in the ink flow. It's nice to have a hobby such as disassembling and re-assembling the same pen over and over, but I'd rather have a pen that writes. If I can't fix this I'll have to put it away as a bad job. Currently the pen is apart again, ready to try something else. I'm a rank beginner at all this, so I may have overlooked something obvious. Any suggestions gratefully received.

[pajaro]

I need help. I have one P51 aero that I acquired recently. It writes very dry and is not pleasant to use.

 

Thanks to the various instructions in this thread, I have opened the hood, disassembled the nib, feed and tube from the collector (I was not able to remove the ink sac protector for love or money, but I doubt if my issue stems from anything in there), cleaned everything as well as I could, and put it back together. It still has the same issue as it had when I first tried it, writing very dry.

 

Specifics: it will continue to write as long as I am holding it at the right angle, it doesn't skip much but it can have dry starts. I'd say the problem is just that there is not enough ink getting through.

 

The nib (says "made in England") looks OK but not ideal. Under magnification the tines appear to be aligned, but one is a bit longer than the other, and when viewed from the short side, you can see the inside of the tipping material on the longer tine sticking out a bit (again, under magnification).

 

The feed looks fine to my untrained eye. There is a small hole in the top at the rear, possibly connecting with the hole for the tube at the back end. There is a very fine slit along the top, from near that hole to near the nib end.

 

The tube is black and appears intact and undamaged under magnification. I can blow through it and feel the air on the other end.

 

One advice much earlier in the thread was that a clogged collector is likely to blame for this sort of thing. My collector is clear (not crystal, but you can see through it) and shows no signs that I can see of any clogging under magnification. I have soaked it in warm water (no ammonia or flushing solution so far). The restorer from whom I bought it says it was carefully and completely restored both internally and externally.

 

Other behavior: I noticed that with everything assembled but with the hood off, what I would call a normal amount of ink comes out, maybe twice what comes out with the hood on (of course it doesn't write well, the tines seem to vibrate as if there is not enough support for them, and the nib is very scratchy without the hood). It is almost as if the hood, when screwed on fully, is squeezing down on some choke point so that less ink comes out. Under magnification, the nib by itself shows the two tines with an even space between them; installed and with the hood on, I can't see any space at all between the tines.

 

I believe I am installing the nib and feed correctly, they align with the collector and the hood, they are pushed in as far as they will comfortably go, and the amount of nib and feed showing when the hood is on appears correct to my untrained eye. The o-ring is there, so I presume the hood is screwing down to the correct position, but I wonder if the o-ring is likely to be worn and therefore thinner? I could order and try a new o-ring, but that does seem a bit of grasping at straws. According to my calipers, it is about 1mm thick now.

 

I have had the pen apart and back together three times, fussed with and tried various things, and there seems to be no improvement in the ink flow. It's nice to have a hobby such as disassembling and re-assembling the same pen over and over, but I'd rather have a pen that writes. If I can't fix this I'll have to put it away as a bad job. Currently the pen is apart again, ready to try something else. I'm a rank beginner at all this, so I may have overlooked something obvious. Any suggestions gratefully received.

If the tines are slightly different in length, that suggests the possibility that you have a pen with an oblique nib, which ought to be of greater value than a run of the mill 51 nib.

 

The tightness of the hood might affect ink flow, or so I have read--how tightly the hood presses on the top of the nib, and how tightly the hood is screwed down.

 

I had one 51 where the nib was loose on the feed, and was hard to get lined up with the hood. Flow seemed thin. I tightened the nib up by pressing it's slit parts together to make it a bit tighter around the feed. It kept its alignment and flow improved adequately.

Edited May 14, 2019 by pajaro

[Paul-in-SF]

If the tines are slightly different in length, that suggests the possibility that you have a pen with an oblique nib, which ought to be of greater value than a run of the mill 51 nib.

 

The tightness of the hood might affect ink flow, or so I have read--how tightly the hood presses on the top of the nib, and how tightly the hood is screwed down.

 

I had one 51 where the nib was loose on the feed, and was hard to get lined up with the hood. Flow seemed thin. I tightened the nib up by pressing it's slit parts together to make it a bit tighter around the feed. It kept its alignment and flow improved adequately.

It doesn't look like an oblique nib to me, the grind is not slanted, the nibs are just not the same length, with a small step between them. Unfortunately, I don't have a camera capable of showing what I'm talking about.

 

If the tightness of the hood can affect ink flow, and if mine is too tight, I wonder it would be practical to add another o-ring so that it doesn't screw down so tight? One of the o-rings would show but I don't mind that.

[pajaro]

It doesn't look like an oblique nib to me, the grind is not slanted, the nibs are just not the same length, with a small step between them. Unfortunately, I don't have a camera capable of showing what I'm talking about.

 

If the tightness of the hood can affect ink flow, and if mine is too tight, I wonder it would be practical to add another o-ring so that it doesn't screw down so tight? One of the o-rings would show but I don't mind that.

 

I think that, on the question of whether or not the hood is causing a restriction in the ink flow, you should ask for specific help in the Parker Forum generally, outside of this thread. If you don't get a resolution there, a nibmeister familiar with the 51 might be your best choice. Possibly The Write Pen or Indypendance or Main Street Pens. I think all of these are familiar with 51 issues.

[Paul-in-SF]

OK, thanks, I will do that.

[Tonhao5]

I just reinstalled a new diaphragm for my Parker 51 Vacumatic, initially had some dry writing issues (51 seems to be very particular about hood and nib fit) but now it writes well.

 

My nib is unmarked and fairly stiff - are Parker 51 nibs usually hard as a nail?

[inkstainedruth]

Yes, in my experience the nibs are nails -- no flex to them at all. All of mine are very smooth writers, though, except for the Forest Green Aerometric, which has an EF nib (that one is a little scratchy to write with). But I can't complain too much that pen because I only paid two bucks for it at an estate sale last fall. At some point I will have someone take a look at it to see if it needs some nib work, but there's no hurry because I have lots of other pens.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth