Parker Parkette - did I break my beautiful new pen?

[NumberSix]

Just received this gorgeous red Parkette. When I went to load some Quink Blue Black, I think I may have been aggressive with the lever. It’s now a little bit floppy and will fall forward when gravity allows (as seen in photo).

Writes great and seems to have taken a good fill. So is this something I should just live with? Or is it busted? :(

https://t47.pixhost.to/thumbs/409/172195925_e976f354-c891-4fc4-ba8d-6c2a87603f6c.jpg (https://pixhost.to/show/409/172195925_e976f354-c891-4fc4-ba8d-6c2a87603f6c.jpg)

[Sailor Kenshin]

Based on my VERY limited experience, the J-bar probably popped loose. You may be able to wiggle it back, but I was told not to be too aggressive lever-wise.

I hope you can get it working again.

[NumberSix]

Well, that's what I thought. I emailed Danny Fudge to see what he thought, as I might have another pen to send him soon for work anyway. His prices are good enough that it'd be worth it for an 80 yr old pen to just have everything serviced and make certain it has a new sac.

[proteus]

What a nice pen, great colours.

Some observations.

Your inner bar has lost some of its tension ( spring ) against the filler sac

Your pen will only fill about 60 – 70 %

The only way to correct it is to fit another one.

[NumberSix]

What a nice pen, great colours.

Thanks! This pic doesn't do the color a bit of justice. It's really a mix of dark red and a light red that leans almost pink in the right light. It's possibly the prettiest pen I have ever owned. (I had an Edison Pearlette at one point with a gold/yellow similar pattern that was also beautiful, but I prefer this color mix.)



Your inner bar has lost some of its tension ( spring ) against the filler sac

Your pen will only fill about 60 – 70 %

The only way to correct it is to fit another one.

Thanks for the observations. I feel a little better now about whether I should rush out and get it fixed. It's a fine nib and won't blow through ink too quickly I suspect.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Oh, and that IS really pretty!

[penwash]

Well, that's what I thought. I emailed Danny Fudge to see what he thought, as I might have another pen to send him soon for work anyway. His prices are good enough that it'd be worth it for an 80 yr old pen to just have everything serviced and make certain it has a new sac.

If you bought a vintage lever filler without the seller *assuring* you that the ink sac is new, you may want to replace it anyway.

And Danny would be a good restorer to send it to.

In my restorations, I extremely dislike floppy lever fillers, even if they work.

[NumberSix]

In my restorations, I extremely dislike floppy lever fillers, even if they work.

It's amazing how such a little thing makes a difference, isn't it? The lever rattles when picking up the pen or capping/uncapping.

[pajaro]

Beautiful pen. I would send it to Danny Fudge to be looked at. He is really good. That pen deserves to be at its best so it will please you. I love that pattern.

[NumberSix]

Beautiful pen. I would send it to Danny Fudge to be looked at. He is really good. That pen deserves to be at its best so it will please you. I love that pattern.


I have already corresponded with him today about it, and he confirms everything y'all have been saying.

I'll be sending it to him next week along with a dirt cheap Wearever I've got coming from eBay. Thanks to the lessons I am learning today, I won't even try to ink that Wearever! (Not that I expected it to work anyway when I clicked Buy It Now.) He already has a Vacumatic of mine right now.

[Seattleite]

Sounds like a J-bar issue. Sometimes they corrode and either lose temper (collapse), or break, such that the expanding sac is the only thing putting compression on the lever to keep it closed. A third possibility is that some left-behind debris became wedged between the bar and the barrel wall, or that a replaced J-bar was poorly fitted. Both of theses scenarios can result in a pen which will function, but not keep the lever taught. Pretty likely, if the pen has just been worked on. Learning how to diagnose can be the difference between shaking out some crap and using you pen or, spending a bunch of money for someone else to do it.

BTW, if the bar is not springing back far enough to hold the lever in place, it is also not allowing the sac to expand fully, thus limiting ink capacity.

With Parkettes, good color, trim, and nib are hard to find in one pen. So many of these are beat up. Yours looks like a good candidate for a once-over, especially if you like the way it writes.

Bob

[NumberSix]

Checking in.

I finally sent the pen out for repair and got it back a few weeks ago. Tonight I inked it up with Perle Noire - it's a very Fine nib, so I wanted a more flowy ink.

It's writing great. The lever is still a little wiggly, but nothing like it was before. And when pulling the lever to fill, it's obvious it's nice and solid now.

I am pleased. :cool:

[Jon Szanto]

I can't quite tell from your photo, is the pen similar to this one?

57931

[NumberSix]

Close. The color is the same, despite my poor lighting. (I think this pink/red with black tips is a standard color, based on https://parkerpens.net/parco.html#parkette).

Mine has rounded ends and a different clip than yours. It's about 4 3/4" capped.

The nearest match I can find on the parkerpens site is the 1938 Junior, but the clip is different. None of the clips/caps matches mine exactly on that site. Maybe in the last 80 years, the clip was switched out at some point.



https://t49.pixhost.to/thumbs/24/178657784_4vuflhr.jpg (https://pixhost.to/show/24/178657784_4vuflhr.jpg) https://t49.pixhost.to/thumbs/24/178657785_bvbvrzh.jpg (https://pixhost.to/show/24/178657785_bvbvrzh.jpg)

[eachan]

There are various ways of ensuring that a lever doesn't flop around loosely. The Parkette depends entirely on a well-sprung j-bar. Lever fillers weren't Parker's strong point.

[RobJohnson]

There are various ways of ensuring that a lever doesn't flop around loosely. The Parkette depends entirely on a well-sprung j-bar. Lever fillers weren't Parker's strong point.

There was a question at the London Pen Club christmas quiz a couple of years ago, what was the last lever filled Parker?

I haven't thought about it but perhaps the next question could be what was the first lever filled Parker pen branded as a Parker.

[eachan]

Not well up on my US Parkers these days. Were they one and the same?

[RobJohnson]

Not well up on my US Parkers these days. Were they one and the same?

Nor am I, so you could be right, I cannot even remember if the lever filled pen that I was thinking of had Parker on the clip, (I passed on the club quiz question too).

Someone will know

eta, I am not sure that Parker pens Penography will help you too much.

[eachan]

The thrift-time Parkers get confusing. There are some variations that Penography doesn't have. All great pens in glorious patterns.

[Biber]

THIS is why lever fillers scare me. I have more than a handful of them and I simply don't use them because they are so easy to spring. It might be a different story if I had the means and inclination to work on them myself, but I don't. The only ones iI do use are my Esties, which I usually pull the nib and fill with a pipette. But more often they're sidelined.

[Jon Szanto]

THIS is why lever fillers scare me. I have more than a handful of them and I simply don't use them because they are so easy to spring. It might be a different story if I had the means and inclination to work on them myself, but I don't. The only ones iI do use are my Esties, which I usually pull the nib and fill with a pipette. But more often they're sidelined.

That is an irrational fear of lever fillers, when properly restored, will operate as well and reliably as any other pen. At least a third of the pens I keep inked and in use are levers or button fillers.

Pulling nibs to fill a pen? No, just no.

I urge you to reconsider your thinking.

[Biber]

THIS is why lever fillers scare me. I have more than a handful of them and I simply don't use them because they are so easy to spring. It might be a different story if I had the means and inclination to work on them myself, but I don't. The only ones iI do use are my Esties, which I usually pull the nib and fill with a pipette. But more often they're sidelined.

That is an irrational fear as lever fillers, when properly restored, will operate as well and reliably as any other pen. At least a third of the pens I keep inked and in use are levers or button fillers.

Pulling nibs to fill a pen? No, just no.

I urge you to reconsider your thinking.

I agree on all accounts. Though I also don't trust them to clean effectively. Not such a big deal I suppose. Like many I tend to keep my pens relatively monochromatic.

Only on those with threaded nib units like Esties.

Meh, not likely. I have my German piston fillers and CC pens to keep me happy for the most part. Though if I really really want to use one of my vintage lever fillers I do, just very carefully.

[Jon Szanto]

Though I also don't trust them to clean effectively.

Oh, yes, complete agreement! I do pick inks with more care for those pens and stick to one ink in a leverfiller, as they are a PITA to flush thoroughly. In their era, there was a more limited palette of ink colors and people tended to not swap around. I do similar with piston pens, though I will swap occasionally. C/C pens are perfect for robust flushing and swapping


Only on those with threaded nib units like Esties.

Ok, I took "pull the nib" literally. While I wouldn't choose to fill pens by unscrewing the nibs, that isn't a harmful procedure (with care).

I guess I have enough really great pens, wonderful writers, that come from the lever area that I don't consider it an issue. A classic YMMV moment, and as long as you have pens you enjoy, you don't have to go the lever route. My main reason for replying was to counter the concept that they were fragile or prone to problems.

[eachan]

Usually the slack lever is easily repaired. One of the exceptions is pens with swing pressure bars, like vintage Watermans and Conway Stewarts. CS used a flange lever for a time, where the recess into which the lever fitted was small and a little pressure was required to press it home. That held it there. If that locking part becomes worn it takes a little creativity on the part of the restorer to keep the lever in place. Many pens have j-bars and the spring action holds the lever where it should be. The pressure bar might need replaced from time to time - every half-century or so.

Lever and button fillers are hard to flush. There's no escaping that failing. I have a 1930s Duofold on my desk at the moment. I thought I had flushed it thoroughly of the blue ink that was in it last and I filled it with Diamine Oxblood. Now I'm writing with a browny/purply ink. It's ok but it wasn't what I had intended!

@Biber: Lever fillers really aren't easy to spring. It's OK to use your pen as it was intended. If lever fillers were so fragile they wouldn't have been the most successful filling system for the forty classic years of fountain pen dominance.

ETA to restore some semblance of logic to my rambling.

[welch]

THIS is why lever fillers scare me. I have more than a handful of them and I simply don't use them because they are so easy to spring. It might be a different story if I had the means and inclination to work on them myself, but I don't. The only ones iI do use are my Esties, which I usually pull the nib and fill with a pipette. But more often they're sidelined.

Don't worry. I started working on lever fillers when I got my first unrestored Estie almost 15 years ago. The started buying Eversharp Skylines and Symphonies, resacking those that needed it. (Note, the Skylines were about $25 back then, unrestored). Usually, it is easy to re-sac a lever filler, usually the easiest repair. Most levers are OK...oh, and I went on a Third-Tier binge, back when they were easy to find and cheap in large bunches. The only fluky things: one had a kind of plastic that stretched and bent when I applied a little heat. Plastic was a new thing, I guess, in 1947. Another had some kind of ink window that shattered when I tries to wiggle&twist off the grp and nib.

Lever-work is a different matter. A top-level repair person (Ron Z?) described replacing an Esterbrook lever as like doing brain surgery on yourself by going in through your ear. Those I would leave to someone like Danny Fudge or the Hamiltons or other skilled people.

[Seattleite]

There are various ways of ensuring that a lever doesn't flop around loosely. The Parkette depends entirely on a well-sprung j-bar. Lever fillers weren't Parker's strong point.

There was a question at the London Pen Club christmas quiz a couple of years ago, what was the last lever filled Parker?

I haven't thought about it but perhaps the next question could be what was the first lever filled Parker pen branded as a Parker.

If you want to split hairs, I don't think that there ever was a lever filled Parker. Parkette was a sub-brand. Marketing stuff, or perhaps family dynamics, where the Parkette can be elevated by the quality standing of its parentage with the hope that their sloppy behavior won't embarrass them. Parkette, Writefine and Duotone are all 1930s Parker-made pen lines. Parker also made a Fifth Avenue, and some Good Service lever fillers for specific retailers. The last lever is probably the metal capped and hooded nib Parkette of the early 1950s.

Bob

[RobJohnson]

There are various ways of ensuring that a lever doesn't flop around loosely. The Parkette depends entirely on a well-sprung j-bar. Lever fillers weren't Parker's strong point.

There was a question at the London Pen Club christmas quiz a couple of years ago, what was the last lever filled Parker?

I haven't thought about it but perhaps the next question could be what was the first lever filled Parker pen branded as a Parker.



If you want to split hairs, I don't think that there ever was a lever filled Parker. Parkette was a sub-brand. Marketing stuff, or perhaps family dynamics, where the Parkette can be elevated by the quality standing of its parentage with the hope that their sloppy behavior won't embarrass them. Parkette, Writefine and Duotone are all 1930s Parker-made pen lines. Parker also made a Fifth Avenue, and some Good Service lever fillers for specific retailers. The last lever is probably the metal capped and hooded nib Parkette of the early 1950s.

Bob

Thanks Bob, the question was really on Parker branded lever filled pens, I thought that 51-52 Parkette was branded Parker on the clip in the style of the striped Duofolds of the 1940s, but I was wrong. I cannot think of any Parker branded lever filled pens.

I therefore agree your point, no lever filled Parkers and marked as such but a number of filled pens made by Parker or their subsidiaries.

[NumberSix]

Personally, I think I am over lever fillers. I wish I had come to that realization before I ordered a couple of more Esties a few weeks ago (someday, the USPS might even deliver them to me). Of course, once I open the box and see that gorgeous copper color, I will probably be back under lever fillers. I am nothing if not fickle.

This Parkette has continued to be trouble. Even after repair, the lever continued to be lightly floppy. And the other day, it opened 180 degrees, even though I was being super-careful. The whole thing feels rickety, and the nib is too fine for my daily use anyway.

I may need to just sell it off as a "needs work" pen. . .

Any of y'all want it?

[Ron Z]

I wouldn't abandon lever fillers because of issues with this pen. The filling method was about the most common of all. In some ways the other systems were developed as ways to get around the patents of other manufacturers. Without the lever you wouldn't have the Wahl Eversharp rosewood pens, the Patrician, the Sheaffer Oversize Balance, the Wahl Equipose, Waterman #5 or #7 pens, Esterbrooks, and a host of other very nice, well made pens. Lever fillers are about the easiest pens to restore, even when you run into problems.

Most of the time the problem is either a pressure bar not placed right, or bent in the right place to insure that the lever lays flat at the top end, or the lever is bent because it was pulled too hard against a petrified sac. The result being that it doesn't reach down far enough into the barrel for the pressure bar (J bar) to push it up and hold it in place. Maybe the repair guy didn't know how to fix that, or was afraid to...

[NumberSix]

I wouldn't abandon lever fillers because of issues with this pen. The filling method was about the most common of all. In some ways the other systems were developed as ways to get around the patents of other manufacturers. Without the lever you wouldn't have the Wahl Eversharp rosewood pens, the Patrician, the Sheaffer Oversize Balance, the Wahl Equipose, Waterman #5 or #7 pens, Esterbrooks, and a host of other very nice, well made pens. Lever fillers are about the easiest pens to restore, even when you run into problems.

Most of the time the problem is either a pressure bar not placed right, or bent in the right place to insure that the lever lays flat at the top end, or the lever is bent because it was pulled too hard against a petrified sac. The result being that it doesn't reach down far enough into the barrel for the pressure bar (J bar) to push it up and hold it in place. Maybe the repair guy didn't know how to fix that, or was afraid to...

Fair enough, and I appreciate the sensible response to my emotional one. Hehe