What Parkers Have Joined Your Collection Lately?

[mfitts]

I got my first three-ish parkers in one fell swoop over the last couple months. My friend was cleaning out her late grandparents place and came across the lot, which was passed to me as the designated Fountain Pen Friend. 

 

All in all, I got twin aeromatic 51s in a desk set, a grey 61, and a very old vacuumatic 51 with the blue diamond. I've absolutely fallen in love with how they write, and the 61 is my main daily pen now. 

 

Further dating the 51 vac revealed it was manufactured Q2 1947 at the alternate 'T' location. 

 

The date on the vacuumatic manufacture actually lines up with when my friend's grandfather, an immigrant, graduated from American law school and began practicing. It's a cool pen on its own, and a real family history/heirloom piece for her. I was honored to identify and clean it, but have placed it in a pen box and returned it to my friend. 

[Carguy]

Nice haul and very nice gesture on the Vac. I have 2 capillary 61’s inked all the time.

[Checklist]

8 hours ago, mfitts said:

I've absolutely fallen in love with how they write, and the 61 is my main daily pen now.

Welcome to the club.  I always look forward to my 61 coming back up in the rotation.

[Carguy]

I finally managed to snag an orange 45 at a price I found acceptable. I bought it knowing full well it had been used and needed some cleaning. Upon receiving and cleaning, I discovered a hairline, seemingly stable crack in the barrel…..

 

Two questions, the first I probably know the answer to. Any sources for replacement orange barrels? (I’d be highly surprised)

 

Any ideas on how, or IF I should try to stabile this one? Would a coating of micro gloss do any good or harm?

 

All opinions welcomed!

[camoandconcrete]

Did pretty well today in a local antique store. Picked up a mint, unused Vac Shadow-wave in Sun Ray, plus a 51 and a 21 that were sold as a set. And an old catalog page. Got them all for the price of a Vac Major.

 

[inkstainedruth]

Wow! Nice score!  I always think that the Shadow Waves are prettier than the Pearls (well, except maybe for the Azure Blue Pearl -- that's the only color I have two of).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[FarmBoy]

1 hour ago, inkstainedruth said:

Wow! Nice score!  I always think that the Shadow Waves are prettier than the Pearls (well, except maybe for the Azure Blue Pearl -- that's the only color I have two of).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Two blue Shadow Waves?!?

[Hbanger]

This was an unexpected surprise, in the group pic I knew it was a vac but the listing didn’t mention Parker, I now own what I am pretty sure is a maxima, it’s 135mm long and 14mm wide it also has a 10 feather nib I can’t see the date on the nib, the barrel has a date code of a sideways 46. It’s not perfect it is missing the tassie ring the imprint is kinda worn but no big scratches and the nib is good. The only thing that would have made it better for me is if it would have been golden pearl instead of silver pearl. It came with a sheaffer 2 waterman’s 4 esties and some wearevers, 17 total pens.

[inkstainedruth]

On 1/8/2022 at 9:14 PM, FarmBoy said:

Two blue Shadow Waves?!?

Oh, I wish!

No, it's two Azure Blue Pearls -- the first one is a 3rd generation Sub-Debutante, and the other is a 2nd Generation (Speedline filler) which I I THINK is a Slender.  For the longest time I thought that color was only in the 3rd gen pens -- but when I found out that Parker also made Speedlines in that color?  Well, I just HAD to have one! 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[JonSzanto]

6 hours ago, Hbanger said:

This was an unexpected surprise, in the group pic I knew it was a vac but the listing didn’t mention Parker, I now own what I am pretty sure is a maxima...

 

Your pen is a 1st generation Vac, with (I believe) a lock-down filler, the triple narrow band and section from the same material as the body. The Maxima, bot Senior and Slender, didn't come into the lineup until a couple years later with the Speedline filler. Likely an Oversize.

[Hbanger]

51 minutes ago, JonSzanto said:

 

Your pen is a 1st generation Vac, with (I believe) a lock-down filler, the triple narrow band and section from the same material as the body. The Maxima, bot Senior and Slender, didn't come into the lineup until a couple years later with the Speedline filler. Likely an Oversize.

Thank you, I confuse my self easily on vacs because I can never keep them (the different model names for basically the same pen or pen size) straight in my thoughts, the army dropped me on my head 39 times so I become disorientated occasionally! 

[Paul-in-SF]

8 hours ago, Hbanger said:

the army dropped me on my head 39 times

 

Hence your user name?

[bunnspecial]

11 hours ago, Hbanger said:

Thank you, I confuse my self easily on vacs because I can never keep them (the different model names for basically the same pen or pen size) straight in my thoughts, the army dropped me on my head 39 times so I become disorientated occasionally! 

 

For general reference and I'm sure the Vac nuts can tear me apart especially for the exceptions to this:

 

Oversize generally is a 3 band cap with a plain arrow clip. It should have a lockdown filler under a short blind cap, and the filler external threads are unique(larger than what's used on every other Vac).

 

Senior Maxima has a wide art deco style Maxima cap band(which is wider than a Major cap band although generally the same style). Both of my Maximas have split arrow blue diamond clips, although I'm not sure if that's 100%(and just packed my book up a little while ago in preparation for an office rearrangement). Mine also have speedline-style fillers that unscrew with the same sized wrench as all other vacs(although I think the filler is unique to the Maxima). The blindcap is consequently longer to support this style filler.

 

[VacNut]

That looks like a Silver OS with an older striped section. The nib looks like a duofold nib replacement, but is perfectly  acceptable. Is it missing the tassies on the end cap?

[VacNut]

Just now, VacNut said:

That looks like a Silver OS with an older striped section. The nib looks like a duofold nib replacement, but is perfectly  acceptable. Is it missing the tassies on the end cap?

Congrats. It should clean up nicely. 

[Hbanger]

On 1/8/2022 at 1:10 PM, camoandconcrete said:

Did pretty well today in a local antique store. Picked up a mint, unused Vac Shadow-wave in Sun Ray, plus a 51 and a 21 that were sold as a set. And an old catalog page. Got them all for the price of a Vac Major.

 

What a great find, the shadow wave set sure is pretty!

[VacNut]

22 hours ago, VacNut said:

That looks like a Silver OS with an older striped section. The nib looks like a duofold nib replacement, but is perfectly  acceptable. Is it missing the tassies on the end cap?

A correction on my part. The Silver Striped Section is original to the pen, and not necessarily indicative of earlier OS pens.

Is the nib two-tone?

[Hbanger]

2 hours ago, VacNut said:

A correction on my part. The Silver Striped Section is original to the pen, and not necessarily indicative of earlier OS pens.

Is the nib two-tone?

No it is just a plain gold it has 10 feathers and I can only see the parker part of the marking and not the date code.

[VacNut]

10 hours ago, Hbanger said:

No it is just a plain gold it has 10 feathers and I can only see the parker part of the marking and not the date code.

Suitable nib, but likely had a two-tone nib when it was new. You may want to hunt down a silver tassie to complete the pen

[camoandconcrete]

On 1/12/2022 at 4:29 AM, Hbanger said:

What a great find, the shadow wave set sure is pretty!

Thank you! It's definitely my best find in the wild yet.