Lockdown ramblings

Hello,everyone.
When I was a child (7 or 8 years old) I learned to use a pen to write. We used dip pens and not a week passed by wihout an inkwell being upended from our tiny desks and contents liberally splattered over floors,desks and,of course,each other.
When I moved on to the next school at 11 years old,we had to use fountain pens.
From my sketchy memory,in order of expense and desirability (is desirability always linked to higher prices?) it ran:
Platignum (not,definitely not Platinum)
Osmiroid
Parker.
I always fancied Osmiroid but could only afford Platignum.
Few of my schoolmates had Parker pens but the few who did were considered well off and well equipped with their chosen pen.
It has struck me during lockdown,with more time on my hands after work, that I have never really bought and used a Parker for everyday use: I have a small vintage Duofold that I bought on a whim and never used,so far as I can remember and that's too small for me to use, I guess.
Lockdown "blues" give that thought a ratchet turn: why not buy a modern Parker and what about a modern Duofold?
So now I trawl the Net checking out Centennial vs International.
Big Red vs Black.
Fine vs medium.
This really is an addiction,isn't it?
On a side note, I suspect the only pen shop within travel distance for me will maybe not reopen as lockdown eases.
What's the state of play where you are in relation to B&M shops maybe staying closed?
Take care everyone and goodnight.

Deb has a nice Parker offering, https://www.goodwriterssales.com/pen...pf263jhufk1i61

For everyday use, my go to Parkers are the 51 and 45. I'd use an old Duofold as well if I could find one with an F or XF nib.

- I started kindergarten in 1953. We had brand new desks with inset plastic jars for ink, although we were allowed nothing more dangerous than crayons. The jars must have been for "stick pens", for plastic-handled steel nibbed dip pens.

- We used pencils from 1st grade through 3rd, at first practicing printing and then, in 3rd grade, trying to form "cursive" that looked like the loong green placard above the back board, one that had white cursive upper-case and lower-case letters. The sample letters looked a lot like those in the Palmer Method textbooks, called something like "Writing for Business".

- In 4th grade it became serious. We were told to write in ink, and most or all of us used the Sheaffer School Pen. It was a clear plastic cartridge filler. Someone has posted a helpful -- no, wonderful -- investigation of the "start writing" packages that Sheaffer gave to schools in hopes that they would build a next generation of devoted Sheaffer users. That would be about 1957 - 1958 school year. My handwriting was terrible, and I thought the pen was scratchy. Must have been a fine nib.

- A couple years later and my parents gave me a Parker 45, medium nib. Ah, what a wonderful pen. It was Parker's entry-level pen, replacing the Parker Super 21. The 45 was Parker's first cartridge/converter pen, and such a success that Parker made them from 1960 until about 2008. I always used Sheaffer Skrip ink, bought from the school supplies section of our local drug store, which, in Washington, DC, was much more than a pharmacy. Our Peoples Drugstore sold paperback books, including Signet classics, magazines, Coca Cola, TV tubes (yes, this was all before transistors), and had a lunch counter.

- Like azkid, I use a Parker 51 nearly all the time, and I have a couple of Parker 45's. One of them is a replica of my pen from 1960, blue, lustroloy cap with gold clip, gold medium nib. The other is an accidental purchase, made late one night when I started bidding, at $5, on a green P-45. Woke up to discover that I had won -- nobody else had bid. I fitted it with a spare Parker converter, and bingo. The Parker 51, however, is the greatest pen ever made, I think. They last forever.

I started kindergarten in 1975 so all we got were giant pencils until about 3rd or 4th grade when we got skinnier pencils. My cursive handwriting was crap the whole way through until recently when I've worked to try to make it more legible and consistent.

Nobody let us near pens at all in elementary. I think at some point we had papers written in pen, maybe by Jr. High, definitely by high school. And of course they were sucky ballpoint pens.

Anyway. For an entry level pen I think the 45 is fantastic. Actually it's great period. I try not to rave about it much lest prices go up. But I personally consider it the pinnacle of fountain pen development. I just wished there were as many 45 nib units out there as there are for Esterbrooks. :(

I have four. Black with gold filled cap, black with alloy cap and silver trim, a teal body with silver cap and gold trim, and a red with plastic red cap and silver trim.

I bought a small number of Parker 45 14ct medium nibs on ebay quite some time ago now and every once in a while if a random Parker 45 crops up with a stub or an oblique nib I buy it, transfer the nib to one of my regular 45's or 45 Coronets, then I clean up the 45 I just bought, replace the nib with a M and resell it.

It's been a while since I did this but yesterday I bought a red all plastic one with chrome trim that has an oblique nib.

In fact Parker 45's with plastic caps don't have the same internal cap clutch as the ones that are fitted inside steel caps, so those with plastic caps don't get distorted, wavy sections. :)

What a great idea, Chrissy. I don't seem to see oblique/stub 45 nibs very much. My Custom had a bold nib which was novel for me. The rest are F or XF. I didn't realize the clutches were distorting the sections. Interesting.

The 45 is such a clever yet simple design, if I was starting again on a limited budget I think I could do worse than try and collect one of each 45.

I have never had a Parker 51 so with my renewed interest in restoring vintage pens have a sorry looking blue diamond on the way.
HOWEVER the only pen I dreaded was a Parker 51. Excuse my ramblings.
My very first job was as a junior in a Chartered Accountants office in 1959. I’m old. This was back in the day when wearing a hat was mandatory and juniors rode in second class carriages while seniors were allowed first class. Chartered Accountants were very proper back in the day.
For those clients whose books we kept we had to write up the journals and ledgers with fountain pens. Biros not allowed.
At the end of each financial year we would write up the trial balance , profit and loss statement and balance sheet ,hand them to a typist who would type them up and give them back to us where we juniors were required to underline sub totals ,totals and headers with red ink using a dip pen in a special red colour. one line for subtotals and two for totals. They were then given to the senior partner and god help you if there was a smudge or a line too long , short or uneven.
Our Senior Partner Mr. X was meticulous in every way . Very dapper dresser . Apparently he was a famous yachtsman and Olympian.
As the most junior ,me , with a car licence I was required to stand at the front of the office each morning and at exactly 8:50 he would drive up in his shiny black Mercedes 190 hop out and I was to drive the car to the carpark three blocks away. A sackable offence was to slam the car door .
He would watch as you ‘clicked’ it closed .
SO the dreaded Parker 51.
Mr X ‘s handwriting was tiny tiny tiny ,actually only his secretary could decipher every word he wrote. As a result his pen ,a Parker 51 , had a super super fine nib. If ever it missed a beat he would call in his Secretary and have her take the pen to Parker for correcting.
This was about once every two weeks. If his Secretary was busy it was my job to go in to be told what was the problem,
Scratchy, lack of flow ,uneven flow etc.,and take it to Parker explain the problem wait for it to be fixed , take it back where he would try it out. 99% he was happy but on that 1% he would interrogate me .eg “did you explain exactly the problem”
Frankly I used to shake in my boots every tine and came to hate that bloody pen. Driving his car was stressful but enjoyable.
On reflection I reckon only the Parker 51and Parker people would satisfy him.
So bring on the blue diamond so I can enjoy what was so special to Mr. X

I enjoyed reading that story. Thank you. :)

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Originally Posted by Chrissy

I enjoyed reading that story. Thank you. :)

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I’m pleased you enjoyed it. As years went by I appreciated what he passed onto us juniors. The other senior partner was a giant of a man who was whisper quiet ,never raised his voice and always wanted to help. (Sugar and Salt). During the war he was a Spotter
in the Pacific. Submarine would drop him off on an island with a radio and for the duration he was by himself radioing Japanese movements back and staying hidden. Ptsd probably.

I also used a dip pen and school, today I have a nice collection of vintage pens, but for daily use, it´s one of my P51´s.

Are we doing Parker-related ramblings? I was writing with a P45 this morning and it got me to thinking. . .

After I got into this pen thing, my first Parker and first vintage pen was a 1960s P45 Flighter. It had a medium gold nib and wrote like a dream. Eventually I collected 7 or 8 other 45s in various nib sizes, both steel and gold. None of them wrote as well as my first one, though. Eventually, I gave my flighter to my brother as a college graduation present. And then I realized that I didn't love any of my other 45s, much as I liked them, and over time I sold them off. I figured I was over the P45, having moved on to the 51/21/41 family for my Parker collecting.

But the other day, I saw a navy blue 45 with a medium steel nib for a good price on r/pen_swap, and I started feeling a little nostalgic. So I bought it and ordered it a shiny new twist converter. (I love those Parker twist converters)

It arrived yesterday. Since it's a non-sac, I figured it was a good time to finally try out that 20ml bottle of Sailor Shikiori (blue) that I bought awhile back but have been too nervous to put into my vintage pens.

And it was like I never left. This nib writes such a lovely line - albeit with a bit of a sweet spot - and the pen while posted is such a perfect weight in the hand. It's nice to be reminded why I fell in love with Parker pens in the first place. (several of my previous P45 mediums had written more like double broad - ugh) I think this nib would be wonderful with something like Kaweco Midnight Blue or Waterman Mysterious Blue.


PS - the Shikiori ink is a very pretty vibrant blue that seems suitable for daily use and behaves well on several different papers. Bonus!

I might have to give the Parker 45s I have another try.