Parker Duofold Centennial

[djahughes]

Thanks Richard.

 

I was looking at a pinstripe Duofold on eBay but decided to stick with the Visconti.

 

I actually picked up a new Van Gogh last night from Selfridges. I went for the medium nib this time because as good as the Visconti fine nib is I just cannot get used to a fine nib.

 

Interestingly the new Visconti exhibits the same behaviour that I am returningthe old one for - that is unless teh whole nib and even some of the section is submeged in ink I can suck air in as well as ink. I thought this was afault but now would seem to be a trait.

 

Not had this with any other pen that I have noticed. With that long nib I fear I may be wasting a lot of ink. This may of course explain the funky shapr of the Visconti ink bottles...

[southpaw]

. . . a top of the range pen, and as such deserves to be treated with respect, i.e. NO posting!

Gotta disagree with you on this one. Posting or not posting is a matter of preference and not something that we as FP users should be dogmatic about, IMHO.

 

. . . . and yes, I post every pen I have.

[TheNobleSavage]

Quite simply, the Duofold Centennial is not meant to be posted!  If you want to post, get the International version - or a Sonnet.  The Centennial is a top of the range pen, and as such deserves to be treated with respect, i.e. NO posting! 

That statement is true ONLY IF the pen is a Maki-e or Urushi. If you respect the pen, you do not trash it by throwing it in the trunk of your car unprotected or by not throwing it in the fast lane of a highway!!! Pens are TOOLS and they are supposed to be used!!! Yes pens can be art too but they serve as a tool of communication.

 

A classic sports car can be an expensive investment but you wash and wax it and you also drive it. If it was a convertable, am I not allowed to take the top off?? Would you call it disrespecting the car??

 

Same goes for pens!!! It is all personal preference when it comes to posting the cap. Why is the Centennial not meant to be posted? I didnt see anything in the owners manual that said posting the cap on the pen is detrimental to the pens health? Why is it acceptable that the International can be posted and the Centennial cannot? What happens if the persons hands are very large and the pen feels more comfortable posted, is that disrespecting? Absolutely NOT!! I can see that your are pen purist and you believe in pen edicate, nothing wrong with that. If you have pens that you do not fill and keep in a display, thats your own business but if we want to post the caps on our pens, then that our business. I am 100% positive that everyone here treats thier pens with a great deal of respect and posting the cap on the pen has nothing to do with lack of respect!!! At least the pen is being used for its intended purpose, to be functional writing instrument!!

 

TNS

[Roger]

You guys are tough!

 

Though Mark said it in a rather definite way, I have to beleve that he's quite aware that folk will choose to post or not to post based on their perceived needs and desires. Mark merely set the bar for posting at a level that works for him in his zeal to protect the top of the line offering. Do you also choose not to post other pens, Mark, that represent the top of their lineup?

 

Heck, I don't post at all! The exception being if the instrument is so short that it wouldn't reach the web of my hand between thumb and forefinger. And, I've not yet held a pen that short. My not posting is simply habit; no thought is given to preserving the barrel of the pen. I just muscle the pen around the paper, throwing all balance considerations to the wind! My wife always has said that I have a large amount of clod and klutz in my makeup.

[RichardS]

Interestingly the new Visconti exhibits the same behaviour that I am returningthe old one for - that is unless teh whole nib and even some of the section is submeged in ink I can suck air in as well as ink. I thought this was afault but now would seem to be a trait.

Sorry to hear about your Van Gogh tribulations; meant to answer your last email, but life intervened.

 

I think it's quite usual (tho' admittedly pretty messy) to immerse the whole nib into the ink. As a result, it's common to get some of the section dunked as well. I think there's something about this on either the Binder or Conner site.

 

I've found it's the only way on a number of pens to solve the frothy-nothingness-in-the-barrel/converter problem, so now do it on all my pens as a matter of course. I think this is why some users get so irritable about metal trim on the section, though I haven't as yet had any problems with corrosion.

 

Just keep that man-sized Kleenex handy ...

[Titivillus]

I took the opportunity and good fortune of buying this pen off of the Pentrace Green Board from our very own Tytyvyllus (Kurt H.) Knowing that there was no box or papers (I really do not care unless the pen is brand spanking new) this pen was one hell of a steal along with being the cheapest Centennial I have ever seen before. Shipping was super fast and I believe it was a week or so before Hurricane Katrina. The pen arrived in flawless condition and I was really itching to fill her up

Glad to hear that the pen's a great writer.

 

An Aurora Talentum in black/ gold is what took it's place in my collection.

 

 

Kurt H

[TheNobleSavage]

How do you like the Aurora Talentum ? I was looking at them but the Optima is more appealing but it seems rather short!!

 

TNS

[davyr]

excellent review and a true classic pen tns. i wonder how long have they been making the centennial size? is it a modern size only?

[randyholhut]

I recently picked up a black Centennial with a medium nib off the Green Board.

 

It's a dangerous pen to buy. Once you use it, you feel sated, like you never want to buy another pen again.

 

It truly is a big, beautiful brute of a pen. The nib is buttery smooth. And when you put it in your shirt pocket, you know you've got a PEN in there.

 

I agree that the pen has enough of the classic styling of the original Duofold without being a slavish replica. I think its the best looking Parker in production. But be careful. If too many people on this board buy it, nobody will be looking at other pens and everything will grind to a halt.

 

And yes, I post my caps too. If don't, I'll lose them.

[Roger]

How do you like the Aurora Talentum ?  I was looking at them but the Optima is more appealing but it seems rather short!!

Short, Savage, only until you post it to write! Then it's plenty long enough for anyone. But, as I said, I don't post and I'm happy with the Optima unposted.

 

Every accumulation should have an Optima.

 

 

 

Edit: punctuation

Edited November 17, 2005 by Roger

[Stylo]

Every accumulation should have an Optima.

I agree But I have already bought three pens this year, so maybe next year.

[antoniosz]

Nice review (as always). I like my modern Duofolds but the writing performance is not tops. Anyway, they are beautiful. By the way did you see this on PT?

This is a photo posted by Bill R. (stylophiles.com). He makes every pen look beautiful but this one even more)

 

http://www.stylophilesonline.com/images/check1.jpg

[Titivillus]

How do you like the Aurora Talentum ? I was looking at them but the Optima is more appealing but it seems rather short!!

 

TNS

The nib is amazing and the pen itself is slightly heavier than the centennial but of a high quality for fit and finish.

 

 

A very enjoyable writing experience.

 

Kurt H

[marklavar]

Having a Centennial Mosaic I've got to agree with everything in the review. The thing that disappointed me was the convertor, for the price of the pen I really expected something better.  Actually, was meaning to post about the convertor, when I sent the pen to Parker for a nib exchange they sent it back with a convertor which is a different size to the one it came with, slightly narrower and longer.

You might have got the wrong converter to start with. Actually, Parker converters are very good and have decent capacity - better than Waterman, Cross etc.

I have a superb Waterman Edson with a ridicuolously small converter!

Edited November 17, 2005 by marklavar

[marklavar]

Quite simply, the Duofold Centennial is not meant to be posted!  If you want to post, get the International version - or a Sonnet.  The Centennial is a top of the range pen, and as such deserves to be treated with respect, i.e. NO posting! 

That statement is true ONLY IF the pen is a Maki-e or Urushi. If you respect the pen, you do not trash it by throwing it in the trunk of your car unprotected or by not throwing it in the fast lane of a highway!!! Pens are TOOLS and they are supposed to be used!!! Yes pens can be art too but they serve as a tool of communication.

 

A classic sports car can be an expensive investment but you wash and wax it and you also drive it. If it was a convertable, am I not allowed to take the top off?? Would you call it disrespecting the car??

 

Same goes for pens!!! It is all personal preference when it comes to posting the cap. Why is the Centennial not meant to be posted? I didnt see anything in the owners manual that said posting the cap on the pen is detrimental to the pens health? Why is it acceptable that the International can be posted and the Centennial cannot? What happens if the persons hands are very large and the pen feels more comfortable posted, is that disrespecting? Absolutely NOT!! I can see that your are pen purist and you believe in pen edicate, nothing wrong with that. If you have pens that you do not fill and keep in a display, thats your own business but if we want to post the caps on our pens, then that our business. I am 100% positive that everyone here treats thier pens with a great deal of respect and posting the cap on the pen has nothing to do with lack of respect!!! At least the pen is being used for its intended purpose, to be functional writing instrument!!

 

TNS

I see your point - so let's agree to disagree!

 

It certainly is a matter of personal taste. Personally, I never post fountain pens - no reason other than I don't feel comfortable doing it. However I do post ballpoints, felt tips and rollers. I just find it 'disrespectful' to post expensive pens the instrument; I know this sounds weird, but that's how I feel. If I spend over $200 on a pen I feel I need to be careful how I handle it - it's as simple as that.

[rogerb]

If they are well-designed, posting pen tops should not be detrimental, IMO....although I know lots are eventually marked by so doing.

 

I have just bought a black International, from a fellow FPNer, so have read this thread with interest, as there is no full review of the smaller pen, as far as I can see.

 

I hope to remedy that in due course

 

[i used to own a red Duofold, and a Junior Duofold(in the 60s), but they both stopped working and Parker in UK said they hadn't got the parts to fix 'em...so they just got binned

If only I'd known about FPN...I'm sure there are folks out there who could've saved them.]

[georges zaslavsky]

I have a 2002 green marbled Duofold Centennial which was offered for m for my 24 th and I wrote with it almost 2 years. I then stopped to use it when I bought my 1926 Big Red which has a far better nib and better filling system.

[skybird]

I have to admit to being hooked on the new Duo and this is a phase of my collection to augment the English Duos and the eyedroppers.

This to me is the ultimate one that is not a prototype.

There were 100 made and 83 released by Parker last year. This is #49.

My next will be a Rockwell i think.

[gagbel]

Dear The Noble Savage

 

I recently bought Duofold Centennial Black which looks slightly different to yours in the nib design.

I liked the smooth pleasurable writing of the nib which is M size.

What I noticed is that immediately after refilling, the inkflow is very generous and pleasure of writing is amazing.

But after 20 minutes of writing, the inkflow becomes a bit stingy. If I twist the plunger in the converter to compensate the probable vacuum effect or if I give the pen a rest in horizontal position, the inkflow again becomes generous again.

 

I have noticed this phenomenon with my parker frontier too which has a cartridge. In this case, I detach the cartridge to get rid of vacuum and attach it again.

I thought its normal for a fountain pen but its annoying to be doing this every 20 minutes.

 

Please help. I am no pen expert. I am an ordinary doctor. Please advise with few simple steps.

Regards

Gagan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>Parker Duofold Centennial</span>

 

 

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>First Impressions</span>

 

I have a nice collection of Vintage Parker pens and a few vintage and older Parker Duofold pens. My Parker Duofold Senior (flat top) in Jade Green is the first REAL CLASSIC Duofold that I have owned and this was a pen that I was really longing for. Since I had it for almost a full year, I have been very happy with it especially knowing and wondering how many owners hands this pen has been through. I have been eyeing the modern Duofold pens and especially the larger Duofold Centennial. This pen really appealed to me because I do like pens with more heft to them and this pen seems to of have it.

 

I never seen the Centennial in person but I have seen it on the net for quite sometime now. The major drawback was the price of this pen!! The Duofold International was more in my budget but it is much smaller than I would like so I opted out of the pen. Most of you know that I normally do not buy a lot of brand new pens. I usually like buying used pens off of Zoss and Pentrace Green Board and occasionally from E-Bay. Even used, the Centennial goes for around and over $200.00

 

I took the opportunity and good fortune of buying this pen off of the Pentrace Green Board from our very own Tytyvyllus (Kurt H.) Knowing that there was no box or papers (I really do not care unless the pen is brand spanking new) this pen was one hell of a steal along with being the cheapest Centennial I have ever seen before. Shipping was super fast and I believe it was a week or so before Hurricane Katrina. The pen arrived in flawless condition and I was really itching to fill her up

 

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a71/TheNobleSavage/Parker%20Duofold%20Centennial/DSCF2407.jpg

 

 

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Appearance/ Finish</span> <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>4.5 out of 5</span>

 

The Parker Duofold Centennial is in a modern black color with gold trim. The cap and barrel looks like it is made out of a high quality resin that seems to shine like the sun. No buffing is needed on this pen, that’s for sure. The cap has a gold arrow clip, 2 gold cap bands. On the cap tassie there is what looks like a coin made out of brass with the words “Duofold” in the older 1920’s style on a scroll. This gives it the marriage between the old vintage Duofold and the Modern ones.

 

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a71/TheNobleSavage/Parker%20Duofold%20Centennial/DSCF2477.jpg

 

The cap tends to slightly taper upwards from the clip band to the tassie. So this does not look like your classic Duofold flat top. This pen is aerodynamic looking with a nice modern flair to it. The section separates from the barrel by unscrewing with metal on non-metal threads. The section is about 50% plastic and 50% brass and seems extremely solid. Looking at the pen, towards the rear right below the faux blind cap, there is one thin gold band and the end of the faux blind cap is flat.

 

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a71/TheNobleSavage/Parker%20Duofold%20Centennial/DSCF2408.jpg

 

 

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Design/Size/Weight</span> <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>4.5 out of 5</span>

 

I sort of jumped the gun and already gave you the details on the designs so I will go right to the size and weight. This pen is roughly under 5 ½ inches closed and about 6 ¾ in length with the cap posted. This is a pretty good sized pen with a comfortable heft to it. This pen weighs more than I thought it would and looks are deceiving when it comes to this pen. I believe the brass section provides a good amount of the weight of this pen.

If you find this pen to be too big for you, you can always opt for the International Duofold. The International barrel and cap is 1/8 smaller in diameter and the nib is also 1/8 smaller and also a bit cheaper too!!

 

As for the balance, with or without the cap, the pen feels nice and cozy with no obstruction that I can report. Due to my grip, the barrel threads do not interfere because I really choke up on the pen when I write. This is a nice comfortable pen with the weight in the right spot, at least for me that it!!!

 

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a71/TheNobleSavage/Parker%20Duofold%20Centennial/DSCF2415.jpg

 

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Nib Design and Performance</span> <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>4 out of 5</span>

 

The nib design I believe is the most recent for the Duofold series to include the slightly smaller International and the big brother, the Centennial. The nib is made out of an 18KT gold nib that is two tone in color. There is the traditional arrow on the nib and also the words “Duofold” in the classic text on the scroll, kind of like the cap tassie. The nib looks very classy and has a bit of vintage feel to it. Under the arrow fletching is the trademark works “PARKER’ and under that is the usual data “18k 750” This is a really nice looking nib and I have to say that I was quite impressed.

 

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a71/TheNobleSavage/Parker%20Duofold%20Centennial/DSCF2411a.jpg

 

Ok, let’s see how the nib and pen performed. I did buy this pen with a fine nib and I normally buy pens in the Medium and Broad widths. So this might take a tad bit of getting used to. This nib seems very stiff with little to no spring to it. I found that the nib is a tad bit scratchy for my tastes and the ink flow was extremely stingy but there was ZERO skipping. This pen was on the light to medium end of a Fine nib. So to remedy the situation, I made a few small modifications of this nib. I increase the ink flow and slightly opened the tines because they were pinched very tightly. So I was able to floss inside the tines using a Mylar 1.5 micron smoothing disc and then finishing it off with the .1 micron disc to polish the insides the tipping material. After about 30 minutes of work, this pen wrote on the light to medium side of a medium nib. The ink flow was extremely generous without being too much or too little. This nib is now perfect for my writing style and uses. Even though this is still a stiff nib IMHO smoothing the nib out and increasing the flow of in really made a big difference. This pen went from a good writing pen to a fantastic writing instrument.

 

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a71/TheNobleSavage/Parker%20Duofold%20Centennial/DSCF2411.jpg

 

 

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>The Filling System</span> <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>4 out of 5</span>

 

Wow, when will they listen to the consumer and construct more integrated filling systems? Oh well, you guessed it, Cartridge/Converter filling system. Parker pens (modern) use a propriety cartridge and converter. Both the cartridge and converter seats firmly with the brass section around it. No real issues with the actual filling process, everything went as expected.

 

 

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Cost</span> <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'> 5 out of 5</span>

 

Besides performance, this is the next important thing I look for in a fountain pen. Since I did buy this pen used, the price of around $150.00 is a pretty darn good deal and I have yet seen one this sweet since I bought the pen. Now retail, this pen goes for around $288.00 brand new from Swisher pens. IMHO I think that is too steep of a price for this pen. If you want this pen then I would suggest to wait for a used on to go for sale on the Green Board, Ebay or whatever. I will rate this pen as if it was new which would be 3 out of 5 on the Savage scale. As for what I paid for, I give this one all fives (5) Great deal and worth the duckets!!

 

<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>Conclusion</span>

 

I have to admit that this pen is a pleasure to use and the balance and weight is very good. Parker paid attention to detail when it came to the nib and the cap tassie. The weight and material the pen is made out of, it really conforms to the hand. As I said earlier, this is the marriage of the old vintage with the contemporary modern. Should you buy it? That is up to you!! I happen to like it but I will not give it a “must buy” rating but I will give it high enough marks. So you should at least look into it.

 

[breaker]

nice review