Parker 51 Photo Thread

[donnweinberg]

Thanks for your openness to the inclusion of customized 51s.  I do have at least one Bexley — a yellow aerometric with a broad-stub nib.  I have a bunch of Kullock-made 51s.

[jchch1950]

On 12/12/2024 at 7:03 AM, donnweinberg said:

Are photos of Kullock-made Parker 51s fair game in this thread?  I’ve got plenty of the Parker-made 51s, but almost as many customized 51s.

Please do. hey will be eye candy and learning material.

[Beechwood]

All 51 pics including the specials will be very welcome.

 

Even though I am  someone who has been to all if the UK Pen Shows the special editions of the 51 are still rare to me, for example I have only seen one Brad Torelli 51 and the quality was astonishingly good.

 

I would love to see more.

[Sheptonian]

[donnweinberg]

Just for fun, here are photo-manipulated colors of the contemporary Parker 51 redo.  These are colors I’d like to see in the new 51s, but ones we’ll probably never see in them.  I’ll follow-up in due course with real, customized 51s that I have:

 

GOLDENROD YELLOW (like the Parker 45 “Happy Color”):

 

 

LIGHT GREEN:

 

 

MEDIUM GREEN:

 

 

ORANGE:

 

 

PERIWINKLE (like the Sheaffer Snorkel version):

 

 

PURPLE:

 

Again, these are photo-manipulated, just to show some possibilities, and to whet the appetite for the real, customized colors.  I hope you enjoy the above photos for what they are and are not.  🤓

[donnweinberg]

Here are two photos of a customized 51 Aerometric that I purchased a few years ago at the BWI Pen Show (near the Baltimore-Washington Int’l Airport).  When I purchased it, I thought its color was Yellowstone Mustard. Later on, when I obtained two authentic 51 YM Vacs, I could see that the customized pen featured a darker version of the YM color, but identical to the color rendered in various photos of the authentic YM that I’d seen around; lighting makes a huge difference, of course.  At home, I took these two photos of the customized version situated between two authentic versions.  I also include here a photo of the uncapped customized pen.

 

 

 

 

 

[donnweinberg]

I’ve been working on using Ariel Kullock parts (blind caps, barrels, and hoods) with Parker internals to assemble working Parker 51 Vacs.  Here are my recent completed projects:

 

ORANGE PARKER 51 VACUMATIC  (U.K. B Nib; like U.S. BB)

 

 

  

 

 

 

BEIGE (LIGHT COCOA) PARKER 51 VACUMATIC (F/M Nib)

 

 

    

 

BLACK PARKER 51 VACUMATIC (U.K. B Nib; like U.S. BB Nib)

 

 

 

 

When I mention “Parker parts,” I include replica filler units (onto which one places a folded diaphragm) that one can purchase in the after-markets from various pen parts vendors.  I have  cleaned pellets out of the authentic fillers and then reused the fillers.  I also have used the new, replica fillers.  

 

I’m having fun with these projects.

 

 

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

2 hours ago, donnweinberg said:

I’ve been working on using Ariel Kullock parts (blind caps, barrels, and hoods) with Parker internals to assemble working Parker 51 Vacs.  Here are my recent completed projects:

 

ORANGE PARKER 51 VACUMATIC  (U.K. B Nib; like U.S. BB)

 

 

 

 

 

BEIGE (LIGHT COCOA) PARKER 51 VACUMATIC (F/M Nib)

 

 

    

 

BLACK PARKER 51 VACUMATIC (U.K. B Nib; like U.S. BB Nib)

 

 

 

 

When I mention “Parker parts,” I include replica filler units (onto which one places a folded diaphragm) that one can purchase in the after-markets from various pen parts vendors.  I have  cleaned pellets out of the authentic fillers and then reused the fillers.  I also have used the new, replica fillers.  

 

I’m having fun with these projects.

 

 

Really like these two. Especially the cocoa one. 

[Beechwood]

The good thing about the 51 is that most of them are not sufficiently precious that you cannot make modifications, for example I have seen a broken clip replaced by a gold clip from a UK Parker 17, it looks just fine with the standard cap and is reversible if desired.

 

 

[Estycollector]

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

Not sure if i posted these here before or not…

 

[inkstainedruth]

Is it just my imagination, or do the "new" 51s have blind caps on them?  Because it sure looks like that in those images....   And if so (since presumably they're c/c pens) WHY?  Because I really can't imagine Parker bringing back vac filler pens....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

Just now, inkstainedruth said:

Is it just my imagination, or do the "new" 51s have blind caps on them?  Because it sure looks like that in those images....   And if so (since presumably they're c/c pens) WHY?  Because I really can't imagine Parker bringing back vac filler pens....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

if you mean my pics, that was MY attempt at what marketing for the 1947 (and ONLY 1947) Demi Vacumatics COULD have looked like... 

I like classic advertising, and especially the mid century Parker and sheaffer stuff 

[donnweinberg]

17 hours ago, IThinkIHaveAProblem said:

if you mean my pics, that was MY attempt at what marketing for the 1947 (and ONLY 1947) Demi Vacumatics COULD have looked like... 

 

So you created this “ad” from pen images you had?  Wonderful!!!  😄  I’d love to see more of your “could have been” ideas.  I have imagined how a Parker 51 ad would look like with Kullock colored-versions.

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

2 hours ago, donnweinberg said:

 

So you created this “ad” from pen images you had?  Wonderful!!!  😄  I’d love to see more of your “could have been” ideas.  I have imagined how a Parker 51 ad would look like with Kullock colored-versions.

Actually, they’re my pens that i photographed and then created the “ad”.  Yes

 

 a lot of the stuff i fooled around with was recreating old ads rather than reimagining. I also “repaired “ a lot of old ads be redoing a great portion of them (mostly the text blocks) from scratch and only keeping/fixing the original images. 

[donnweinberg]

26 minutes ago, IThinkIHaveAProblem said:

Actually, they’re my pens that i photographed and then created the “ad”.  Yes

 

 a lot of the stuff i fooled around with was recreating old ads rather than reimagining. I also “repaired “ a lot of old ads be redoing a great portion of them (mostly the text blocks) from scratch and only keeping/fixing the original images. 

 

They are great, and I’d love to see more of your work.

[donnweinberg]

I just assembled another Parker 51 “FrankenPen” from Ariel Kullock and Parker parts.  This one uses a Kullock-created 51 Vac Demi in a pearlized Dark Green color, which is mated to a Kullock light-green hood, and an unfinished dark-grey jeweled blind cap.  I’ll show this below.

 

First, using other Kullock barrel parts, here is a visual comparison of the standard and demi 51 Vac barrels:

 

 

Here are photos of the pen I assembled:

 

 

    

 

Here is a photo of this Demi next to the Orange 51 Vac I showed above:

 

 

Had I had a blind cap of a compatible color to the pearlized green or to the light-green hood, I would have used it, but I didn’t have that.  You might be able to notice that the barrel bottom has a slight larger circumference than that of the blind cap’s connecting portion.  But the blind cap fit well otherwise.

 

I filled the pen with Kobe # 35 - Mt. Sura, Leaf Green ink.  The pen filled easily and wrote nicely with the 14k medium nib that I installed over a feed without a middle channel on top.  I used that feed, as it easily accommodated a particular, shorter breather tube that I already had in stock.  I try to use a feed with a channel when I can, though.

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

 

not ads. Just some photos 

 

re the kullock stuff: neat. Personally I prefer demonstrator or understated colours in my pens. Kullock stuff does do a good job of serving people who like brighter stuff

 

someday I want a jeweled blind cap for a my dove grey, cedar blue and (especially) cordovan Vacumatic “51”s… (I have a black one from ‘46 it’s beautiful)

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

 

 

an example of my advertising repairs

[donnweinberg]

2 hours ago, IThinkIHaveAProblem said:

someday I want a jeweled blind cap for a my dove grey, cedar blue and (especially) cordovan Vacumatic “51”s… (I have a black one from ‘46 it’s beautiful)

 

The only authentic 51 Vac pen color that I don’t have in a double-jewel version is the Dove Grey.  I haven’t seen a double-jewel Dove Grey in the wild, although I’ve seen photos of it.  

 

Good work on the advertising repair of the ad that originally had been split between two magazine pages.  What program/app do you use to do all that?