Parker 51 Popularity

[pajaro]

OK, here's one reason why the "51" is such a good pen. Last week, I found a blue vacumatic "51" underneath a pile of papers. It's been at least 6 months since I had laid eyes on it. I tried to write with it and it worked just fine from the first stroke. The pen was made in 1946, which is pushing 3/4 of a century ago. This is the second time for me that a "51" that has been neglected for a long time was still was ready to go. I don't know of any other pen that performs so willingly. No showy nib, but it just works.

 

There is that. The 51 nib looks more modern than all the old fashioned open nibs. The pens restart easily after lying idle for unknown lengths of time.

[cabbie]

I sold fountain pens for several years and handled and wrote with most of the modern brands. One day an older woman came in with her recently deceased husband's pen and wanted to know if we could get it writing again. It was a Parker 51 vacumatic with a broken sac.

 

I was intrigued by the pen and a fellow salesman had a similar 51 vacumatic that he sold to me. After handling and writing with so many pens, the 51 became my favorite. Like Hanamizu, I had a similar experience with mine-I misplaced it for several months, but when I uncapped it, it began writing immediately.

 

P.S. Mine is a cedar blue which I believe is the color of the one above.

[Offret]

P51s are - simply put - the fountain pen par excellence. IMO, nothing before or after can match them in every area of fountain pen design. Moreover, I cannot stand the grotesque and vulgar looking 'luxury' pens that sell for hundreds and even thousands of dollars, and in fact write worse (and are less reliable) than a P51. The P51 is honest, classic, reliable, understated, sleek and attractive--a writer's pen. My daily writer is a P51 and I prefer the hood nib as it doesn't call attention to itself like an open nib design. I'm not a collector, but a user. My entire 'collection' consists of two P51s, and one Pelikan 400 (sits in the drawer). I also love the size of the P51. I honestly wouldn't change a thing about it's design or aesthetics. You can buy a pristine P51 for $175 today. That is roughly the same they sold for in the 1950s factoring in inflation, and yet they are superior to anything else IMO. Mine are medium nibs, and I only use Diamine Registrar's Ink (iron gall), which writes drier than most water based inks. Together they put down the perfect line. I've been there done that with the Lamy 2000, various Pelikans, MB, Etc., but I ended up selling them all because at the end of the day I am not a collector, and the FP that - to me - was the perfect blend of form and function was the P51. It's like the Mauser 98 (for those who know firearms) of the pen world--the design was never superseded.

Edited December 3, 2017 by Offret

[mitto]

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