Ink Flow Characteristic of 51 (Special) 14k Fine?

[conib]

I have a 51 Special in teal blue that was my husband's (he doesn't use fountain pens anymore and so he gave it to me). It has a fine 14k nib. I cleaned it -- an overnight soaking of the nib and lower section in a shot glass with water and then many flushes to remove the dried Waterman brown ink. By the time the flush ran clear I became hesitant to fill it and try it out because of the trouble I had cleaning it (I kept thinking that "Now that it's clean I should just sell it"). But of course I couldn't bring myself to sell it untried, and finally enough time has passed that the cleaning experience has faded a bit and I'm ready to fill it and try it out.

So ... I'm hoping I might pick everyone's brain and experience about something (and obviously there's some residual hesitation here): Are there any inks (and/or types of ink -- e.g. wet or dry or middle-of-the-road) you'd recommend and/or think I should steer clear of in my 51 Special? How does its flow compare to other fountain pens? -- e.g. can you tell me about where it falls in the spectrum between a Pelikan M200 (my wettest "common" pen) and the Pilot Prera/Plumix/Metropolitan/78G type (my driest "common" pens)?

Thanks in advance for any info/insights.

-- Constance

[Ernst Bitterman]

I've found that a 51/Special/Super 21 that's doing its job is a couple of ticks on the wet side of medium; my Metropolitan is about the same as most of my 51s. They will take just about any ink you might have on hand and deal with it with a fair degree of grace.

That being said, and this isn't 51-specific, but I've found Diamine Prussian Blue to be a devil of a dry ink, with several pens rejecting it entirely. I'd also steer away from anything of high saturation, because it will add and order of magnitude to the trouble of cleaning.

[ac12]

I think they were supposed to be a little dry, so that the ink would dry faster.
However, I have run into DRY and WET 51s. So you really do not know YOUR pen until you ink it up and try it.
Having said that, there are WET inks (Waterman) and DRY inks (Pelikan). You can use these inks to fine tune the pen.
Example1 - I had a 51 with Waterman ink that was almost dripping ink onto the paper, a switch to Cross/Pelikan ink stopped that drip.
Example2 - I had a 51 with Cross/Pelikan ink that did not want to write (hard start, skips, etc), a switch to Waterman ink and now the ink flows just fine.

Old dry ink is a real PiA to clean out. Because you first have to dissolve the dry ink before it can be washed out, and that can take a LONG time. I spend 3 weeks soak cleaning a 51 that I got from eBay. If you think brown is bad, wait till you get an old pen with dried red ink...yuk. Something about red ink makes it harder to clean.

I would start with Waterman ink, then evaluate how the ink flows from the pen, then make your next decision.

[LagNut]

I continue to learn here. Pelikan dry(I'm assuming not Edelstein?) and Waterman wet. I used to start with waterman blue and now I start with blue Quink. Both of these are inks that if I have problems with, I adjust the nib. If they skip with either of these, I floss the nib with a .001 or .002 brass shim. If it's overly wet, I bring the tines together by crossing them over each other then bringing them back to the same plane(needs a loupe, IMO). Also harder to do on a 51, it would have to be excessively wet for me to go there.
Good luck

Mike

[conib]

I would start with Waterman ink, then evaluate how the ink flows from the pen, then make your next decision.

I've just done exactly that, using Waterman Mysterious Blue. Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. :)

It writes beautifully, very very smooth. It puts down a line that's actually quite a bit finer than my Pelikan M200 "F" filled with 4001 Turquoise. In fact, it's very close to the line of my Prera "F" filled with iroshizuku yama-guri. Is that typical of a 14K 51 Special "F" nib?

-- Constance

[conib]

Waterman inks may very well be wet generally speaking but Waterman Mysterious Blue is unusable in my Prera -- which of course demonstrates just how dry a Prera really is.

It's good to know that the Pelikan inks are even drier -- I was about to fill a Prera "CM" with 4001 Turquoise. I guess I'll put that off a while longer.;)

-- Constance

[Craig Ruhl]

Several years ago, when I was buying and selling a lot of pens (and cleaning....) I started using Waterman's Florida Blue as my go to and test ink. It seems to be wet enough to flow through dry nibs without flooding. The Parker 51s that I have owned with fine nibs tended to write dry with that ink, including Specials. The ink flow can be adjusted by a person with that knowledge and ability. There are also many articles on the subject available on the fountain pen sites. I also now use Montblanc Black ink for much the same reasons.

The issue for many pens that we come upon through gift, yard sale, thrift shop or even on-line sale is that the pen was left unused for a period of time with ink still in the pen, feed and section areas. Cleaning this residue is tedious and troublesome for most of us, but must be done to enable the pen to write correctly again. I think this is the number one cause of insufficient ink flow. The Parker 51 is no exception and great care must be taken to clean all of the pen parts and not just a few quick fills and flushes with tap water. Once clean, I try not to leave a pen unused for very long to prevent clogging. I rinse them out between ink fills and completely clean them prior to storing them. This leads me to having only a few pens inked and in rotation at a time.

So, I would recommend cleaning the pen very, very well and then see if the flow improves. Others, I am sure, can help with suggestions for ink choices that might help.

Best wishes and happy writing with your "new" 51 Special!

[conib]

Okay then -- now I guess I really should admit that after a few days of seeing still more reddish-brown water flushing out of this pen I broke down and did 2 or maybe 3 rounds of filling the pen with Rapido-eze and letting it sit for a couple of hours and then flushing with lukewarm water. The flush actually did run clear, finally. (I know that not everyone thinks that Rapido-eze is kosher but, well, it works for me.)

(And I do think it would be best to take the thing apart and really clean it out but I don't see myself doing that anytime soon -- although someday it might happen, who knows).

Anyway, the flow seems fine -- not even a hint of hard starts or skips, the line width is constant and the nib just glides on my OfficeMax laser jet 24lb. (I just filled an 8.5x11 page with 36 lines of nattering on about boring topics, to test. (I will refrain from posting a scan, no worries.)

Physically the nib tip is tiny, much smaller than my M200 "F" and maybe a hair's breadth wider than the Prera's "F". And as the stroke width of this pen is maybe a hair's breadth wider than the Prera's "F", I'd say that all the parameters seem to line up okay.*

So far, so good.

-- Constance

*(Depending on the hair of course. Mine are quite fine.)

[Craig Ruhl]

Congratulations Constance! Now enjoy writing with your really great pen. I love the "51."

Craig

[ac12]

The old US Parker F is narrower than the F nibs out of Europe today.
My old US Parker F nib is similar to a Lamy XF nib.
Most of my old Parker's have F nibs, I think I only ran into one M nib.

The 51s are NOT meant to be taken apart by the user. IMHO, taking the hood off is best left to a pro, because of the need to use just the right amount of heat to soften the sealant without melting the pen.

[welch]

I don't know whether a P51 (regular or special) in 1953 was meant to run wet or dry or in-between. After sixty years, it doesn't matter how wet the pen was originally.

I soak a "new" (to me) P51...although I often get impatient and don't soak very long. (Once soaked a capillary P61 for three weeks before it ran clear). A flush with 1:10 ammonia: water should do well enough. Also consider a bottle of Richard Binder (and Jim Baer?)'s DR JB's pen flush. Most of Dr JB is ammonia:water, but they've added some ingredients to improve flow. (Don't forget to flush a few times afterward with water).

Then you'll be good to go. (I'm too lazy to clean whole-hog).

One trick I've been using: go to Ebay and get a bottle of old Quink with SolvX in whatever base color you like. I like old Quink Royal Blue and Blue-black. Then add your preferred current-day saturated ink about 50:50.

My favorite ink -- this week -- is 50% Quink Royal Blue in the vintage Art Deco bottle plus 50% Private Reserve DC SuperShow Blue.

Second favorite is old Solvx blue-black 50:50 with Noodler's Manhattan Blue. I find un-diluted Manhattan Blue a bit too thick and dark, but it mixes nicely with Quink and with classic Sheaffer blue-black (the old "topwell" bottle with the blue and yellow label). Skrip blue-black was my college ink, after using Skrip Washable Black from 7th grade until I graduated high school. The tried a bit of blue...Sheaffer, of course.

SolvX "cleans your pen as you write", so that's good.

Also: ink with Solvx smells like real ink. That's my quirk...or old association. Also a handy way to use up the Noodler's bottles, which tip easily. (I know...I've done it, and it was not fun explaining how the wood floor got to look like Ottoman Azure. Of course, could have been worse if I'd been using one of the inks that bonds to paper and wood!)

[pajaro]

I bought a 51 new and have been using it for 44 years. Mainly I use Sheaffer blue black, and it works best with Sheaffers. I didn't like the flow with Waterman (too wet), Diamine (too wet) or Pelikan (didn't show up well). Montblanc works OK and Noodler's Saguaro, Nightshade and midnight were OK.

[Runnin_Ute]

this is a thread from FPN about cleaning 51's.
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/223983-youve-got-your-first-found-in-the-wild-parker-51-in-your-hand-now-what/