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Uncle Bud
February 1st, 2014, 04:17 PM
Just seen a few listings for Parker 100 pens on that auction site. I've read about them on parkerpens.net. They seem to be bigger fatter 51's. Is that true, would like to hear from owners, what are they like, any good? Cheers

gwgtaylor
February 1st, 2014, 04:52 PM
I have two 100s and I love them. Beautiful pens. Heavy too--lacquered brass. I prefer cartridge converter pens and think the 100s have a much better build quality and prefer them to my 51s

gwgtaylor
February 1st, 2014, 04:56 PM
9494

Uncle Bud
February 1st, 2014, 05:13 PM
Shapewise, are they a bigger, heavier, fatter 51, coz that's what they look like. Might be an alternative to the 51, for those that dislike the 51 maintenance.

Mags
February 2nd, 2014, 05:07 AM
Those would be nice with a Minushkin nib of say 1.2 mm to 1.4 mm in a round or stub nib. Well nicer in the sense of the exponential effect of awesome multiplied by awesome would make it awesome to the power of two.

welch
March 5th, 2014, 11:39 AM
I used a Parker 100 as my desk-pen...the pen I kept at work and used part-time every day. It had a medium nib with a large sweet-spot. I thought it was a bit ugly -- the proportions aren't quite right -- but it wrote beautifully. That's past-tense because it fell nib-down onto a concrete floor. (Greg M. looked at it, and returned it, saying, "Hopeless".)

entropydave
March 15th, 2014, 11:50 AM
Hi

I've got one and I have mixed feelings about it.

There is much to like about it. The feel is nice. The finish is cool and the color contrasts nice. It feels good in the hand, if a bit heavy for long writing. There is something pleasing about how the cap snaps on.

After I had the nib made a bit more stubbish by John Sorowka, the feel of the nib is very good with a juicy flow.

That was the good. First, I had problems with it for several years. I found it very difficult to clean and quite temperamental with some inks (e.g. Private Reserve). I would never now use it with a pigment ink. While I was having these problems I found it to be a hard starter. Parker's service on it was useless and they now seem not to have any parts. While aspects of the build are nice, such as the cap and the lacquer finish, there are other parts that just feel not good enough. For example, the "rim" at the nib end just does not look like it fits well. There are gaps that are displeasing. Since it is basically a jumped-up Parker 45 it feels a bit pricey and it has none of the disassembly possibilities of the Parker 45, 51 or 61.

I've had it 10 years and my considered view is that I am glad to have it. I ink it up and I enjoy writing with it. But I treat delicately and always clean it thoroughly between cartridges.

It was c. $200 when I bought I think. Knowing what I know now, I would not pay that for one. Maybe half of that.

David.

welch
March 19th, 2014, 09:31 AM
I liked my P100 until I crunched the nib. Never had problems with PR ink or clogging. I tend to write with Diamine Sapphire and Private Reserve Lake Placid Blue. Flushing? Not bad, although I don;t expect a complete flush.

Yes, it's heavy, which is why I used my P100 as my alternate work pen. Something about shifting from a P51 (my every day pen) to the heavier P100 for a few hours.

Would I pay $200? If they were available, I'd pay $200 rather than whatever Parker charges for their Premier. I dislike the metal grip. Too slippery.

If I could change something small...if I had been manager of Parker Fine Writing Division of Sanford office products etc: I'd have made each pen a single color. All white, rather than "honey-white". All silver. Maybe all blue, about the same shade as "cedar blue". A dark green like the aerometric "forest green". And, of course, a small number of "plum" pens...

Maybe fashion / style in 2002 said, "switch colors around". I know the Sheaffer Intrigue was done about the same time in weird color patterns.

Maybe a style / design expert could explain?

penstaking
July 9th, 2014, 04:55 PM
Sorry for extending this thread by a quarter year, but I couldn't help but reply with a few pix of my own (beloved) 100, now 14 years old, with brief writing sample inked with Parker Black. Writes first time every time. For me the weight is perfect, the heft balanced (it does not post the cap as you can see from the photos -- the lacquer on the barrel is a bit scarred from past attempts, I don't post now at all--) but otherwise one of Parker's better writing instruments -- for my taste actually, the last. The attached sample gives my opinion more clearly.