Moonman B25, Parker 25 Homage

[Dan Carmell]

The B25 flew into my mailbox today and I inked it immediately. I had a few Parker 25 fountain pens come through my hands years ago and while I recognized that it was a reliable workhorse, I was a fan of Parker’s earlier pens and so I looked down on this pen—it didn’t even have a true arrow clip! My other grudge against the original 25 was the section, a slippery and cheap-ish plastic, I thought. I had a Medium and then a Fine and neither suited, so ambivalent about the pen, I let it go when I sold off most of my modest Parker Flighter collection. 
 

So of course I was curious about the B25, and here it is. Posted—and this pen is built to post—the pen is 142mm (131mm capped).

[I’ve deleted a chunk of text here that gave incorrect sizes for the Parker 25, suggesting the B25 is smaller. It is not, and as Jorge points out in a comment below, they are not only the same size, but parts are interchangeable. My apologies for misleading you!]
 

Comparative specs aside, I like this pen. At just over 5 inches, it’s not a big pen but nice in hand. I do not post most pens, but some want to be posted and this is one. The nib, Fine being the only option currently, was glassy smooth and I don’t experience that often. Luck of the draw, perhaps, but it puts out a clean line that on Rhodia paper is on the narrow side of a Western Fine, about right for me. The clip deserves special mention because it bends in such a way that suggests it’s very springy and robust. The bright plastic accents and section are an improvement on the original colors and the section isn’t slick at all. 
 

The B25’s price is already down to $7-9 USD and at that price it’s a great knock-around pen, I think. It comes with a piston filler and uses the 3.4mm converts. 
 

The pen in the last two photos is the Pilot TOW, a Flighter fountain pen that was popular when I first got into fountain pens. The other popular EDC back then was the Platinum Workhorse. The original Parker 25 fits in that EDC or ‘workhorse’ category and the B25 may come close to that, although with plastic threads on the section, it’s not a pen I’d put in my pants’ pocket (TBH, I don’t put pens in my pants’ pockets but many do.)

Edited Saturday at 08:50 PM by Dan Carmell
Corrected error in pen description

[jchch1950]

Moonman B25 is another temptation in the pen field. Your comments encouraged the search, Thanks.

[Jorge]

9 hours ago, Dan Carmell said:

So of course I was curious about the B25, and here it is. The first thing I noticed was that it was lighter than my memory of the P-25, not that’s reliable after so many years. But it must be lighter, because it’s 5mm shorter than the original and likely proportionally slimmer as well. 
 

Posted—and this pen is built to post—the pen is 142mm (131mm capped), which is the same as the P-25 posted. That suggests most of those missing 5mm came from the narrow end, I assume. 

I am sorry, Dan, but I am afraid your memory is betraying you a bit. 🙂

 

I have just received my B25 and, as seen in the attached pictures, the P-25 and the B25 are practically identical. Both measure 130mm capped/120mm uncapped, have same girth (10,7mm diameter in the upper/cap zone) and weight (without converter) 16,46g the P-25 and 16,16 the B25.

 

Also caps, sections and barrels are interchangeable.

 

That said, I agree with all your other comments. It writes nicely with its F nib  (all of my P-25s have Ms) and is an excellent value for the money.

[bsenn]

I may have to sneak an orange one into the box, because I don't know that I'll ever pick up an orange P25.

[Dan Carmell]

6 hours ago, bsenn said:

I may have to sneak an orange one into the box, because I don't know that I'll ever pick up an orange P25.

Exactly!

[Dan Carmell]

9 hours ago, Jorge said:

I am sorry, Dan, but I am afraid your memory is betraying you a bit. 🙂

 

I have just received my B25 and, as seen in the attached pictures, the P-25 and the B25 are practically identical. Both measure 130mm capped/120mm uncapped, have same girth (10,7mm diameter in the upper/cap zone) and weight (without converter) 16,46g the P-25 and 16,16 the B25.

 

Also caps, sections and barrels are interchangeable.

 

That said, I agree with all your other comments. It writes nicely with its F nib  (all of my P-25s have Ms) and is an excellent value for the money.

Jorge, that’s very interesting! Not having a P-25 on hand, I checked around for its size and found one account that had history that matched account I knew, and gave the capped length at 137mm, so I took that as gospel, unfortunately. I appreciate the correction—I’ll correct that part.

 

So it’s so close the parts are interchangeable, that’s amazing. I had one P-25 in Fine but it wasn’t fine enough. I never found an EF, Mediums appear to outnumber the other sizes. 

[jchch1950]

Are the internal parts of the Parker 25 and the Moonman B25 interchangeable? If yes they can be a source of spare parts of the original Parker. I have one 25 that never wrote properly, maybe a new nib can correct the problem.

[Jorge]

2 hours ago, jchch1950 said:

Are the internal parts of the Parker 25 and the Moonman B25 interchangeable? If yes they can be a source of spare parts of the original Parker. I have one 25 that never wrote properly, maybe a new nib can correct the problem.

I am sorry not to be able to answer your question as I have not explored the internals of the section (nib-feeder).

While with the P-25 it is fairly easy to just pull the nib-feeder out, I have tried the same with the B25 to no avail. The nib-feeder seem to be either glued or firmly stuck (they do not seem to rotate) and I do not dare to break anything by applying excessive force. 

Maybe it is just my unit and somebody else can progress further than me.

[Dan Carmell]

During the current sale, I found the B25 at $4.17 ea, so I bought a few more. I couldn’t help thinking about how the red/blue/black could work together as a color coded pen set, with the color very plain on cap top and clip/barrel lip, so I bought those three.

[jchch1950]

Jorge: thanks for your answer. If the sections of the original Parker 25 and the B25 can be interchanged that will solve the problem with my pen or maybe the B25 will be a good substitute for the original 25.