Why I like Parker

[welch]

In "the old days", it looked to me (from my child's view) that there were Parker families and Sheaffer families, just as there were Ford families and Chrysler families and GM families. We were a Parker family. Dad said that my mother had saved and saved during WW2, and finally given him a Parker Vacumatic when he was sent to the Pacific. "I wrote a lot of letters with that pen". He bought one of the first Parker T-Ball Jotter ballpoints -- he was a lefty who had been forced to write right-handed in the twenties and thirties.

When I was in 7th grade, my parents gave me a Parker 45, and I used it for years. The P-45 is a brilliant pen.

These days, pen fanciers often sneer at Parker, claiming that Parker no longer innovates pen designs. It is dull. It sticks with cartridge / converter pens.

I think Parker is still the best pen company, even though it now belongs to Newell Rubbermaid and it operates from France, having closed down Arrow Park in Wisconsin and its UK design center and factory.

Why? Parker still offers fountain pens at all three price price points.

While nearly all other pen companies have followed MontBlanc into the luxury market, Parker still offers entry level pens, just like the old Challenger and Parkette, the P-21 and Super 21, or the P-45, or the recent Parker Frontier. Parker still offers a middle-tier pen, like the Sonnet and the New 51, and a high-end "gift pen" like the P-51, then the P-61 and 75, and now the modern Duofold.

Lamy seems the only other "old fashioned" pen company.

[Motomachi10]

There were many fans of the different brands. I agree with you that Parker still is an important name with a wide line of writing instruments, The Vector XL is a good addition to their offer and the Duofold line has some nice patterns and writes very well. Sometimes pen enthusiasts will like to see new and special pens, but the companies have to make a profit to survive and the competition now is big if you compare it with 25 years ago. The pens from China and India are today good alternatives to traditional names as the many new small companies all around the world.

[Chuck Naill]

Don’t forget Esterbrook.

[Doctox]

I thought the family divide was Volvo vs Saab.

[FredRydr]

Six Saabs and three Volvos here. No internal conflict.

[Dougc]

I had 2 Saabs, 0 Volvos.

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[Doctox]

And what did Øve have to say about that?