What Parkers Have Joined Your Collection Lately?

[TheRedBeard]

On 10/25/2021 at 5:30 AM, VacNut said:

Great set of Vacumatic Imperial arrived. Beautiful clarity and imprints. Very light use. 
 

 

 

Imprints are very sharp

 

The nib was bent, so I had it re-tipped with a snub.

The Owner may have stored the pen after the nib was bent.

 

 

Nice set indeed  

[TheRedBeard]

On 10/25/2021 at 4:38 PM, PAKMAN said:

On it's way to me a new Flighter to add to my collection.. Parker 65

 

       

Nice pen. While I am not a big fan of P65s, I have got P65 Flighter on my wish list, too  

[VacNut]

3 hours ago, bunnspecial said:

There's some spirited "debate" as I understand it about the difference between the "Slender Maxima" and the "Long Major".

 

AFAIK, the two pens are the same length, but the "Slender Maxima" will have both a Maxima cap band and a Maxima nib.

 

Yours looks to have a Jeweler's Band, which is wider than either a Maxima or Major cap band.

 

That leaves the nib. To my eye, your nib is set way out, which makes it look large, but I count 8 feathers on the arrow. A Maxima nib will typically be 10.

 

So, I THINK that would make yours a Jeweler's Band Long Major, but then I'm also just at the beginning stages of learning about these so take that for what it's worth.

 

I really did dig into this, though, since I have a pen that I thought was a slender Maxima. It's golden pearl, like yours, double jewel, a blue diamond clip, and a plastic filler(don't know if that's original or not...need to get it back out and look at the date codes). It was one of my first Vacs, after a Golden Pearl Major/Junior pair, and I knew it was longer than either of those. Mine, however, has the Major type nib and also a Major cap band, so it seems indeed to be a long major.

I have discovered that the number of barbs is not a 100% delineator of a Maxima Nib. They may have 10 (which is likely a perfectly suitable replacement duofold nib), 9, or 8 barbs. They may also have uneven number of barbs one other side - as the dye/mold/imprint was rather imperfect. It is the size that is of importance. 

Besides the controversy surrounding the Slender Max, the term “Long Major” is also fraught with differing opinions. 
I personally am not bothered by the precise definition of either term. They are both great pens.

 

I hear a definitive article on Vacumatic models are in the works.....

[TheRedBeard]

And now my first P61 Mk I as well as my first US-made 61... Rage Red with Rainbow cap. 

Interestingly, the pen was not clogged too much and flushed quite easily... Let's see how it performs after first filling... 

 

 

[bunnspecial]

54 minutes ago, VacNut said:

I have discovered that the number of barbs is not a 100% delineator of a Maxima Nib. They may have 10 (which is likely a perfectly suitable replacement duofold nib), 9, or 8 barbs. They may also have uneven number of barbs one other side - as the dye/mold/imprint was rather imperfect. It is the size that is of importance. 

Besides the controversy surrounding the Slender Max, the term “Long Major” is also fraught with differing opinions. 
I personally am not bothered by the precise definition of either term. They are both great pens.

 

I hear a definitive article on Vacumatic models are in the works.....

 

Thanks, and yes I agree that they are great pens whatever you want to call them.

 

The standard Major is a bit too short for me to use comfortably without posting. The longer pen of the same diameter(Slender Max/Long Major/whatever else you want to call it) is a very comfortable size for me, although I do find the girth of the Oversize/Maxima more to my liking. Actually that too deserves a qualifier, as I find I need to post my Oversize Vacs since the top jewel will stab me in the web of my finger/thumb otherwise, while even a double jewel Maxima is just enough longer for me to use it unposted, and the single jewel one I have is probably the most comfortable of my Vacs...

[Carguy]

14 minutes ago, TheRedBeard said:

And now my first P61 Mk I as well as my first US-made 61... Rage Red with Rainbow cap. 

Interestingly, the pen was not clogged too much and flushed quite easily... Let's see how it performs after first filling... 

 

 

I have 2 of these, with a third on the way. Could be pure luck, but the one I have inked is a fantastic wetwriter!

[TheRedBeard]

10 minutes ago, Carguy said:

I have 2 of these, with a third on the way. Could be pure luck, but the one I have inked is a fantastic wetwriter!

Will test mine soon and see... 

[Hbanger]

On 10/24/2021 at 9:30 PM, VacNut said:

Great set of Vacumatic Imperial arrived. Beautiful clarity and imprints. Very light use. 
 

 

 

Imprints are very sharp

 

The nib was bent, so I had it re-tipped with a snub.

The Owner may have stored the pen after the nib was bent.

 

 

Now that is a really beautiful pen / pencil set!

[inkstainedruth]

I only have one Vac with a Striped Jewel, an Emerald Green Pearl.  I had planned to get an Emerald sooner, but got smitten with a Green Shadow Wave at a pen show several years ago.  

Fortunately for me, I DON'T play the "Pokemon" game with Vacs.  So I pretty much have all the colors I want at this point (and two different sizes and models of the Azure Blue Pearl, including a Speedline filler in that color).  Because, otherwise, like VacNut said -- it really is a slippery slope.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Hbanger]

26 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

Fortunately for me, I DON'T play the "Pokemon" game with Vacs.

I’m trying not to do that, but I’m still trying to figure out what direction my collection is going. I defiantly am not going to go after each color for each year but I would like one of each color in a major and debutante plus a few wild hairs

[bunnspecial]

52 minutes ago, Hbanger said:

I’m trying not to do that, but I’m still trying to figure out what direction my collection is going. I defiantly am not going to go after each color for each year but I would like one of each color in a major and debutante plus a few wild hairs

 

At least you're going the sensible route and sticking to Majors

 

(At least as I understand it, though, if you want Burgundy in a Major/speedline or plastic filler you're going to pay through the nose. The standard size 3 band lockdown Burgundy is already expensive enough).

 

I've become smitten with the Oversize and Senior Maxima. Now I have one of each in black, plus an OS in Silver Pearl and a Maxima in Golden Pearl. Even an otherwise ordinary OS in Burgundy or one of the rarer color/patterns is a $$$ pen.

[inkstainedruth]

I'm lucky in that those models (Oversize & Senior Maxima) tend to be a little big for my hand.  Of course for the longest time I was going "Nope nope nope" on Vacs in general because I didn't like the Art Deco styling.  Until someone in my local pen club showed up one time with an Azure Blue Maxima and it was ALL OVER.....   So my first one was an Azure Blue Sub-Debutante, found at my first pen show.  For the longest time I didn't realize that Azure Blue wasn't ONLY in the 3rd Generation models with the plastic plungers.  When I discovered that they ALSO could be found in the 2nd Gen Speedline fillers, it was, "WAAAAANT!  Must HAAAAAAVE!!!"  Lucky for my budget that they didn't come in Lockdown (1st Gen) models.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[VacNut]

1 hour ago, inkstainedruth said:

I'm lucky in that those models (Oversize & Senior Maxima) tend to be a little big for my hand.  Of course for the longest time I was going "Nope nope nope" on Vacs in general because I didn't like the Art Deco styling.  Until someone in my local pen club showed up one time with an Azure Blue Maxima and it was ALL OVER.....   So my first one was an Azure Blue Sub-Debutante, found at my first pen show.  For the longest time I didn't realize that Azure Blue wasn't ONLY in the 3rd Generation models with the plastic plungers.  When I discovered that they ALSO could be found in the 2nd Gen Speedline fillers, it was, "WAAAAANT!  Must HAAAAAAVE!!!"  Lucky for my budget that they didn't come in Lockdown (1st Gen) models.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

There are also great smaller Vacs.

 

 

[Hbanger]

3 hours ago, VacNut said:

There are also great smaller Vacs.

 

 

3 hours ago, VacNut said:

There are also great smaller Vacs.

 

 

Those are some very pretty pens, I like that size, I have a few, a burgundy marble a solid black a black reticulate (the black desk pen) and a regular black. I would like to add a shadow wave and a slender with a striped section, maybe I can keep it under control, these are by far my favorite pens
 

 

[TheRedBeard]

On 10/30/2021 at 6:17 PM, Carguy said:

I have 2 of these, with a third on the way. Could be pure luck, but the one I have inked is a fantastic wetwriter!

Well... I have tested that Rage Red and it happened op be a nice wet writer with a perfect ink flow for a vintage capillary pen...

However, the nib happened to be quite scratchy... After careful examination with 10x loupe I found tines slightly misaligned and the nib side-bent a bit - it seems the pen suffered from drop or accidental kick to the nib.  Shame... 

[TheRedBeard]

My new addition: another capillary P61 Insignia (USA). When I received it i could not believe in my luck: it was sold as a vintage used but happened to be uninked   

So, in spite of all those crazy taxes/duties, etc I will keep buying from the US sellers anyway   

 

[Carguy]

28 minutes ago, TheRedBeard said:

My new addition: another capillary P61 Insignia (USA). When I received it i could not believe in my luck: it was sold as a vintage used but happened to be uninked   

So, in spite of all those crazy taxes/duties, etc I will keep buying from the US sellers anyway   

 

That’s a beauty….congrats!

[TheRedBeard]

20 minutes ago, Carguy said:

That’s a beauty….congrats!

Thank you, Mike  

[bunnspecial]

It's always a treat to get a box in the mail from Ron.

 

These aren't all exactly new to me. The 51 was bought from him and I've written with it a decent bit, but sent it back with some others to adjust the flow a bit more to my liking.

 

The Duofold(vacumatic) and Maxima I've had a couple of months but were enough of a mess repair wise that I hadn't used them other than just a very basic test. Ron did his usual magic on them.

 

The Burgundy I've not had super long, but he did a great job of just general clean up on it.

 

Finally, the silver was a result of me having a nib that needed a home. Ron fitted the nib to an "inventory" pen.

 

I haven't inked any of these yet, but I have no doubt they'll be perfect.

 

 

Nib on the Silver Major

 

[inkstainedruth]

Wow!  The nib on that Silver Pearl Major looks pretty sweet.  Nothing that exotic on any of my Vacs....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth