Originally Posted by
Chuck Naill
Originally Posted by
Chrissy
I'm with Jon on this. I have no Parker 51 pens and I'm happy with that.
Having read your experiences with many pens and blog, why no interest in the 51? I am beginning to question my interest as well. The Wing Sung 601 is a well made and good writing pen, but the hooded nib can slow down making quick notes.
I think the hooded nib on the Parker 51 was intended to make it easier to start, and, therefore, better for making quick notes.
I have about two dozen P-51s, and at any time I'll have a half-dozen inked and ready. As with others, the 51 is my pen-of-choice. Usually have one in my shirt pocket and one or two in my knapsack "just in case". The 51 just writes and writes. The hooded style was shocking in 1941, and, at least among fountain pens, as style seems to have shifted back toward decoration, maybe it still shocks?
As best I remember, (probably from the Shepherd's P-51 book) the hood was designed to contain a wrap-around ready-ink buffer, for a goal that the nib would lay down ink as soon as it touched paper. Sheaffer seems to have countered by wrapping their Triumph nib around the feed. Both eliminated the need to shake a pen or juggling the lever to get ink started...starting a pen must have been one of the stock Hollywood jokes: the fussy guy in the suit blurps ink in his eye and on his white shirt.
That is, the hood was not just advanced -- streamlined -- style, but it covered a technological advance.
Anyway, the Chinese look-alike hooded pens are nothing like a Parker 51.
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