Parker 180-review

[Amberjack]

Very interesting. Had never heard of this pen, despite being a Parker fan.

 

Thanks!

[kimmo]

Great review! The pen has very interesting design! Never seen one before.

[HBlaine]

These are great little pens. Got my first one from Nathan Tardiff waaaaaaay back in the day . It's a "malachite" or striped green lacquer model, which had seen some rough use prior to my getting it. Had to resecure the inner cap on it, and took me forever to find one of the thin squeeze converters to fit it.

 

These pens have a totally undeserved reputation as finicky writers. Mine has the XF/M nib setup, and writes very well. I've since picked up several of them, including a fancier gold-plated model. But I always seem to have my little green 180 with me, stuck somewhere in my work case.

[Butrflis]

Love Love Love this pen! I have the Jasper one. Just picked one up for way below retail and I cannot get enough of it. I have even put down my new pens...I journal nearly every day. Plus I keep a patient care/prayer log every day I work in the emergency room. Both of these "journals" help me keep focused. I cannot quite using the last few vintage pens i bought. I got this one and 3 Watermans. I LOVE them all. However, this pen is the one I keep picking up. Normally for those journals i use two different pens and rotate my use...I have been stuck on 3 of the pens (the parker and 2 of the Watermans) for about 2 weeks now with the majority of my writing being with the Parker. I am going to have a hell of a time figuring out the days later on in life when i go back through all of this /grin.

 

As a side note I have not been able to use the yellow/brown?/orange waterman yet as it did not come with a cartridge or filling mech. Any Ideas on what would work with it?

 

Kat

Edited September 9, 2017 by Butrflis

[alexwi]

Hi,

My first fountain pen was a 180 I got from my dad around 1985 or 86 and I loved the thing. It is (I still have it) a flighter with a B/F tip, and being my only pen back then, I used it for about 3 years, until I decided that I wanted something with an extra-fine tip and got me a Lamy Safari, but it didn't write as dark as the Parker.

To the 180's credit, I once dropped that my dad's on a concrete floor and the nib got bent into an L-shape. When I picked it up I was horrified, and figuring that I had nothing to loose, I just bent it back to its straight position and never had a problem with it.

Having purchased other pens through the years, and not being terribly keen on broad nibs, I didn't go back to that one. In the 90's I bought a Classic (the 180's son), but the ink flow was less than impressive (I like my blacks to be like death), so I didn't get much use out of that one either.

Then, last year, as I bought a couple of 75's, the 180 came to mind, I started looking around, and BAM, I got hooked on the 180's again and ended up snatching up a few of them (my next post will probably begin with "Hi, I am Alex and I have a problem).

From top to bottom, on the image:

1. Classic - USA.
2. Ecorce or Tree Bark - France.
3. Imperial - USA.
4. Green Lacquer - France.
5. Flighter - USA.
6. Torsade (If I could just get it in Silver!!!!) - France.
7. Black Lacquer (duh!) - France.

I included the Classic because it's not only part of the family, but because its parts and the 180's are compatible (you can swap the section and nib between the two).

Number 6's nib is beat up and I was unable to remove it from the section to give it a good cleaning (even after soaking in water for a few hours). It's now drying, waiting to be used. The cap also had a problem with posting (it wouldn't "click" in place, like 180's are supposed to), so I took apart the cap, and made a notch on the inner cap with a screw-driver (using something else as a makeshift mallet) and it posts nicely now.

The 180's (as I infer from ebay listings) were made in the US, UK, and France. Even though some of mine were made in France, I suspect that all my nibs are US made, as only one has a marking, and it's from the US, while the rest have nothing beyond the type (i.e. F, X/M, F/B).

The nibs on the 180's, as I can tell now that I own a few, are definitely not dry and dispense ink very well on most papers. On very crappy copy paper you'll get feathering. On the flip-side, I use regular, composition notebooks as journals and I don't get feathering, bleed-through, or slow-drying (i.e. I can close the notebook as soon as I'm done writing, and the ink won't get to the opposite page). I'm currently using Aurora Black ink. They're also very consistent in performance.

Have fun...

alex

Edited May 17, 2018 by alexwi