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mdesimone
March 2nd, 2013, 10:34 AM
Hello,

Just curious what you all have to say regarding the Parker 5th. It combines fountain pen with ball point. I haven't made up my mind on this. The pictures I have seen doesn't even look like a ball point. Almost looks like a felt-tipped pen with a feed mechanism.

fountainpenkid
March 2nd, 2013, 03:46 PM
It is a sort of felt tip pen, but even smoother, and more fountain pen like. As others said, it sickens me to see a black dot sticking out of the tines...
The refills are expensive, and the pen itself it quite pricey as well, so I really don't see the point. A little less hassle than a fountain pen, but it is a compromise. A well engineered fountain pen is the best thing for writing unless you are going to space or something!

snedwos
March 2nd, 2013, 03:50 PM
The Parker 5th is one of the most evil creations ever. If it was any company than Parker making it, I would struggle to forgive it. As it is, the Vacumatic built up a lot of karma points for Parker back in the 30s.

Bogon07
March 2nd, 2013, 04:59 PM
I recall Brad & Myke on the PenAdddict Podcast talking about these and Brad advised Myke to just get the refill to try out rather than the whole pen due to the cost.
It is hard to imagine the Parker felt tip being much better than any of the good felt tip pens anyway so you would be paying an awful lot for a Parker barrel.

mdesimone
March 3rd, 2013, 02:55 PM
OK - I'll stay away. The felt-tip just bothers me.

And speaking of Parker Vacumatic, I just sent two to Pentiques.com for refurbishing. I can't wait to use them!

snedwos
March 4th, 2013, 03:15 AM
More than a felt tip it's fibre tip. It's reasonably nice to write with, but it does wear down quite quickly, I believe, becoming much broader. I still need to use a steeper writing angle to use it properly.

Scrawler
March 4th, 2013, 12:37 PM
I had one of these when they first came out and wrote a fairly extensive review of it. I hate to throw away the writing tip when I refill a pen. The tip wears quickly and so refilling the tube is not much of an option. The ink dries very quickly making them OK for lefties. The refill are very expensive and do not last very long. They are for people who perceive a cachet in using a fountain pen, and want to be perceived by others as "classy", but who do not have the confidence to get a real fountain pen. They are too heavy for long term writing, but are very smooth and serve well for people whose only use for a pen is for signing.