Parker 51 Fountain Pen - Page 3

I use this... it's actually purple. In fact a waitress at a restaurant that I frequent always refers to me as the "purple ink guy."

Since when was purple ink not purple?

Since it was a "very nice blue." Stay with me here, Captain.

Congratulations on your aquisition of your Parker 51, it looks to be in great shape. As the proud owner of 16 Parker 51s from early 1940s Vacumatic fillers to Mark III aerometrics, I found Diamine ink to be a really good option. I use their Imperial Blue, Sapphire Blue and Blue Black. I am also partial to Noodlers Midnight Blue for a blue black ink. Enjoy it in good health. Cheers Bill

As someone who also has a double-digit Parker 51 collection, and has used them as daily drivers for more than 25 years, I caution you about Noodlers. There's a passionate debate/dispute about the ink in collector circles. No one disagrees that the colors and the permanence of the bullet-proof inks are superb, but many users are concerned about Noodler's clogging the feeds of their pens and necessitating expensive repairs. The 51 has superb flow because it had a revolutionary (at the time) hooded feed that had very fine fins that held much more ink and regulated it better. These feeds are tough to access and to clean--and probably more sensitive to clogging. I have had many vintage Parkers that wrote badly because of clogged feeds. In fact, when I read posts from first time Parker 51 buyers complaining bitterly that the pen is not worth the hype b/c it doesn't write well--I generally assume they got one that wasn't properly maintained and has a clogged feed. Although there are many passionate defenders of Noodler's inks and some repair people have backed away from openly criticizing the ink, I personally have had pens clogged by their ink. I would recommend Waterman, Diamine, Parker Quink (particularly if you can find vintage bottles with Solv-X) and Herbin for your P51. Here's a link to what clogged feeds can look like. Imagine this under your hood--all the soaking in the world is not going to get your pen writing again: http://www.nibs.com/PenMaintenance.htm. Here's a link which has images of the exposed 51 feed--note that this one is slightly clogged as well: http://www.rickconner.net/penoply/park.04.html BTW, congratulations on your 51. It is one of the greatest if not the greatest fountain pen ever made and there was a waiting list for it at $12.50 (about $150 today) in 1941.

anyone have any idea what kind of fp the "jew hunter" uses in the opening scene of "Inglorious Basterds"?

Somehow don't think Montblanc will be issuing the Col. Landa of the SS commemorative pen in their famous Nazi's series!

The pen is a button filler, so it is not a Pelikan (though the bottle has the typical Pelikan shape). But there was no big white star on the top so it does not appear to be a Montblanc. It could have been a Soennecken, Goldfink or any of a dozen small German pen manufacturers but it was probably whatever the propmaster brought and Tarentino liked.

Love to but I have not got around to document the collection yet, it's on my to do list.

As for Noodlers ink, I have yet to have problems with the ink, I have even Baystate Blue in a beater midnight blue 51 aerometric and it writes really really nice. I would recommend however flush often regardless what brand of ink you use. I am no fan of modern Quink, it's the Coors Lite of Fountain Pen inks. Again Diamine is great and if are from Europe or travelling there sometime in the future, track down some De Atramentis ink.

Cheers

Bill

Nice snag. I dig on the 51s, especially since they can be grabbed on the super cheap (sub-$100 for a vintage FP in worker order is generally a great deal).

What people have been saying about Noodlers is still true. However, a lot of the issues with Noodlers can be easily fixed and the extra effort is entirely worth it. It shades beautifully, comes in a ridiculous number of colors, and is incredibly cheap ($6 for 3.5oz, which is a ton of ink). I also like it because it flushes incredibly easily, so changing ink colors is a piece of cake, allowing changing from black or brown to lighter colors.

Waterman, Montblanc, and J. Herbin are also great inks. I use Waterman black for my daily use pen (singing things, writing on unknown paper, etc), since I have yet to have issues with it on any paper. Noodlers is my personal use/fun inks, since it requires known paper (with minimal feathering and bleeding) to work best.

I use and like Pelikan's blue-black. I used to use Private Reserve blue-black but I stopped after I had trouble with one of my pens.

Sorry to revive an old thread but does anyone know where I can pick up a good Parker 51? I need to gift it.