Sheaffer - why so popular and what's your favourite?

[guyy]

That's a little unfair. After all, Parker developed the 61 in this period. It's a flawed pen, but it's a creative solution to the problem of how to fill a fountain pen.

Ok, tell me more - i know nothing about the Parker 61.

The 61 looks like a slightly skinny double jewel 51 on the outside: same hooded nib, same metal cap, with the added benefit of the arrow on the hood which signals where the nib is.

Inside it's pretty different, with the capillary filler. The capillary filler is basically a sheet of perforated plastic rolled into a cylinder. To fill the 61 though unscrew the barrel as you do with an aerometric 51, then place the back end of the filler into an ink bottle. The pen will soak up the ink through capillary action. Other than the barrel, there are no moving parts. It's therefore much simpler than the Snorkel. Cleaning is fairly easy : run water through the pen. I use an ear syringe. As c/c pens caught on, Parker came out with a c/c version of the 61.

The downfall of the 61 is the crappy plastic, which is prone to shrinking and cracking. Otherwise, it's a nice pen.