Parker Fronsignia !!!

[subbu68]

No one may have seen this pen or heard about it 😉

 

After joining FPN in 2014 and with pen fever running high, main pastime became to search for more pens to add to my little collection and this simple, yet gorgeous (for me) pen struck me. 

 

A 90's Parker Insignia from a seller based in Spain. Without much thinking contacted him and ascertained it was good. He confirmed it is a NOS and paid 50 Euros for it.  Got it shipped along with some other pens (Waterman Hemisphere, Sheaffer No Nonsense). Was super excited to get it in hand. A beauty to look at - dark green and gold combo. Made in the USA. Full metal pen. Has some weight to hold on. Felt balanced in hand. Had to borrow the converter from another Parker though. 

 

Inked and lo... did not write at all. Cleaned up the feed (struggled a few days to find out how to remove it though it was a simple screw on feed). Adjusted the nib a bit. It wrote a few lines and then stopped. The nib felt like a tin sheet to handle. Did not understand what was happening.  I was quite upset about it and left the pen in the storage box. 

 

Now forward to 2023, with renewed vigour started cleaning up my pens one by one and this one's turn came. Inspected the pen again and Aha!!!

 

See the nib . Nothing amiss. 

 

 

And now...

 

A gorge between the nib and the feed. Whatever I did after a few lines the nib was getting back "to it's normal self". For sometime I fixed a Chinese nib #5 and it worked.

 

Not satisfied - there is no "Parker" on the nib.  Some years back had bought a Frontier (in India), got the nib out of it (it's converter went to this Insignia, feed to an ebonite) and used to bring back to life a Sonnet that my daughter inherited from her grandpa (nib was broken as if a judge broke it after signing a death sentence 😬)

 

 August 2023, got a section sold as spare for Parker Frontier with a gold plated nib from India ($10) and replaced the original feed and nib of Insignia from this Frontier section.   There is Parker Fronsignia. Now it has a Parker nib with the logo and name on it. 

 

Inked it with Parker Blue and now it writes like a charm. No smoothening needed. Ink flow is very good. No skips. Just writes. 

 

And the beauty goes into rotation from next week. 

 

Thanks for reading my rant. 

[mitto]

Good that you brought your pen back to life. Congrats. 

[Mark from Yorkshire]

Congratulations on the repair and part’s replacement 

[jchch1950]

It is important to find  nibs and other parts to repair pens. Many companies do not sell spare parts so to find the pieces that you need you have to find them second hand or if possible that someone redo the part. I am thinking about new pens no old collectables.

[thx1138]

Sonnet nibs (stainless) are the same as the Insignia nibs.  If you really like your insignia put an 18k sonnet nib in it. The section is the same dimension as the sonnet section as well, sonnet just has the metal trim ring at the end though.

[subbu68]

19 minutes ago, thx1138 said:

Sonnet nibs (stainless) are the same as the Insignia nibs.  If you really like your insignia put an 18k sonnet nib in it. The section is the same dimension as the sonnet section as well, sonnet just has the metal trim ring at the end though.

I had checked Sonnet 18k nibs...nearly 140 Euros to get it to Abu Dhabi!!!

 

Sonnet Steel GT - 100 Euros

 

Insignia cost me only 50 Euros.

[thx1138]

5 hours ago, subbu68 said:

I had checked Sonnet 18k nibs...nearly 140 Euros to get it to Abu Dhabi!!!

 

Sonnet Steel GT - 100 Euros

 

Insignia cost me only 50 Euros.

 

The gold nib prices have risen sharply recently.

I tend to buy genuine sonnets from a well known auction site, often just for the nib.

Occasionally genuine sonnet nib units come up on the same auction site, shipping can however be as much or more than the nib.