Month: October 2023

My Parker 61 Flighter fountain pen: a cautionary tale.

~ rupertarzeian ~ 17 Comments

In my post of 21 September 2023, I wrote about my eBay purchase of a Parker 61 Flighter and my initial tinkering as I got to know its anatomy. I had been pleased to discover that the connector was not glued into the section, as I could remove it and the feed, ink collector and nib for cleaning and maintenance.

Parker 61 Flighter.

There was a downside to this. Not having the connector glued meant that when trying to remove the barrel, the connector unscrewed itself from the section (shell) instead. The section threads were looser than the barrel threads. Also, applying silicone grease to the section threads might have made things worse. I was wary of over-tightening the shell in case it should crack.

I had filled the pen and enjoyed writing with it. But I then discovered that, on tightening the barrel, it did not stop tightly at the end of the threads, but kept going round and round. I wondered whether the fine plastic threads were stripped.

I thought perhaps the problem was not damaged threads, but that (what I presumed to be) a threaded, plastic collar inside the steel barrel, was loose and turning freely inside the barrel. This lead me to decide that the solution would be to apply a little Loctite superglue, to the rim of the plastic collar, in the hope that the glue would seep behind it.

The connector screws into the shell and can then connect it to the barrel.

This operation (even if it had been the right one) did not go particularly well. I applied too much glue and got some on the threads too. But I left the glue to harden for several hours.

Returning to see the results, I tried re-attaching the barrel. This time, the threads were much stiffer and needed a lot of effort, as well as care to avoid the barrel going on cross-threaded. I tried removing some of the build up of hardened glue with a small blade, without much success. Also, once sure that it was not cross-threaded, I worked the barrel back and forth quickly, many times, trying to loosen up the threads.

Having the barrel threads so tight and difficult, meant that whenever removing the barrel, the connector would instead unscrew from the shell. This is no good. The pen was all but unusable. I contemplated buying a replacement brushed steel barrel.

But then, whilst wrestling with the barrel threads again, I made a surprise discovery. The barrel threads were not a plastic collar at all, but were part of a black plastic barrel liner, which went the length of the barrel. I only learned of this, because it came out.

Showing barrel liner, barrel and securing screw.

The barrel liner should be secured in the barrel by a metal screw, which forms the barrel finial. It has a decorative, conical top but no groove for a screw driver, which makes it very difficult to tighten. Also, from the look of the barrel liner, it appeared to have been glued in the past, as there were residues of hardened glue on the outside.

With the barrel liner out, it was easier for me to work on removing my glue. Scraping with a blade and working the threads back and forth, did not seem to help.

I looked up online, how to remove Loctite glue. The answers depended on the surface. For plastics, there was a suggestion, as a gentle approach, that you apply skin moisturiser to soften the glue first. Alternatively, white vinegar might work. Failing this, there was a suggestion to try pure Acetone.

I tried the moisturiser trick but do not think it helped much if at all. I did not have any vinegar to try, let alone Acetone.

At our local pharmacy, I casually enquired whether they had any nail varnish remover. Whilst the lady located some, I explained that I did not want it for removing nail varnish, but hoped that it might contain Acetone, to remove some glue!

To my surprise, the lady said that she could instead sell me some pure Acetone. I had no idea that this could be bought over the counter. A small, 50ml bottle was just £1.20.

Preparing to remove glue, using Acetone solvent.

I was a bit frightened of the Acetone as the bottle label was peppered with warnings. I had read that with plastics, you should try it on a small unobtrusive area first, but skipped that. I dipped a cotton-bud into some Acetone and applied it to patches of my hardened glue at the threads. Rather alarmingly, the cotton-bud came away quite black. I feared that it had dissolved the plastic, completely removing the threads in the process.

Fortunately, this was not the case. I washed the barrel liner thoroughly in soapy water and tried the threads again. Better! They were getting looser. I then smothered the threads in moisturiser, to soften the glue, and left it for 24 hours, before having another couple of attempts with the Acetone.

After this, although glue residue was still evident, I felt that the threads were probably as loose as I could get them without overdoing it.

Re-assembling the pen, I did not use silicone grease in the shell this time. The barrel threads were now looser. Unfortunately however, the barrel liner could still rotate inside the barrel.

This has been a learning curve for me, making mistakes along the way, whilst learning about the penatomy of the Parker 61 Flighter. I have not given up yet. I have just ordered a small bottle of shellac to apply a little to fix the connector into the shell, plus a little to the outside of the barrel liner, to secure this into the steel barrel. If this succeeds, I will be able to use and enjoy this lovely pen with more confidence.

Update: 23 October 2023.

Sorry for this cliff-hanger ending. But since writing this post, I had another idea to stop the barrel liner from rotating by wedging a slip of paper between it and the barrel. I cut a piece of paper and wrapped it around the back end of the barrel liner before re-inserting it and doing up the screw/finial. This worked! I also screwed the connector into the shell a little more tightly than before. Now, I can unscrew the barrel without the connector coming out instead. Also, when putting the barrel back on, it stops at the end of the threads, in the normal way. To celebrate, I have inked the pen with Montblanc William Shakespeare Velvet Red!

The London Autumn Pen Show, 2023: my haul.

~ rupertarzeian ~ 7 Comments

Here in London, our autumn Pen Show has just taken place on Sunday 8 October, at the Novotel, Hammersmith.

I had been eagerly looking forward to this event as always. The last two shows had set me on a path of seeking out vintage Parker fountain pens. I had bought several more on eBay, in the arid months between shows. I did not have much specifically in mind to look for this time, other than to find a cap jewel for my Parker 51, which I had bought on eBay without one.

The show was well attended. There were more vendor tables than in March although the venue provided ample space without feeling crowded. I cannot list everyone but for many great photos and videos from the day, head over to John Foye on Instagram, @stjohnspens.

Claire and Derek sporting pink hair at Stonecott Fine Writing.

It was wonderful to see and chat to numerous friends from the pen community throughout the day. My fellow blogger Gary dapprman had his own table, aiming to release some pens from his collection back into the wild. It was good to see Jon of pensharing recruiting plenty of new members for his unique service for the community. I enjoyed chatting to many vendors, including John Hall, John Foye and Kirit Dal, and the lady from Pen Friends whose name I did not catch.

Kirit Dal’s Aurora table is always enticing.

My first purchase of the day was at Mark Catley’s Vintage Fountain Pens table, where I found the cap jewel that I wanted. My Parker 51 is now complete.

For vintage Parkers, there were hundreds for sale in the room. At Graham Jasper’s Pen Estates tables, I handled a wonderful, mint condition Parker 51 in a sumptuous Forest Green, but this was one that got away.

I was keen to take a look at some Parker 61 pens, particularly an early model with the ingenious capillary filling system, which I wrote about in my recent post. After looking at a few tables, I found a tray of Parker 61s, and unlike on eBay, had the luxury of inspecting them and dip-testing them in Quink blue black. I decided on a gorgeous classic, black model with a rolled gold cap and deliciously smooth nib.

My newest, but oldest Parker 61.
The Teflon-coated, capillary filler, or “cell.”

I caught up with my friend So-Jin, who mentioned that I had been rather negative about sheening and glitter inks in my blog post, on the 21 Pen Questions that did the rounds a few months ago. Having written that such inks were not my thing, it was strange that within minutes after our conversation, I found myself at Stonecott Fine Writing Supplies’ table, drawn to a very glittery Benu Euphoria Bourbon in gold and brown with tantalising patches of crimson. As I turned the pen in my hands, I envisaged filling this pen with Diamine’s Caramel Sparkle, available at the same table. I chatted with @claire.scribbleswithpens who was assisting Derek for a while. I did not purchase the pen immediately, but the temptation proved too much for me and I returned to buy it, along with a bottle of Caramel Sparkle soon after. Benu are based in Yerevan, Armenia, from whence my distant ancestors came.

Benu Euphoria Bourbon.

My final pen purchase of the day, was a Jinhao 82 in a pretty pastel jade green. I already have one in Caribbean Sea Blue with a fine nib and am very impressed with it. This pale green version has a medium nib and makes a great, inexpensive, EDC pocket pen.

Jinhao 82 in a particularly lovely, Jade green.

Finally, having largely resisted the many notebooks available, I weakened at the sight of an Endless Recorder A5 journal with Tomoe River at Louise’s table. Newer versions now come with Regalia paper. TR paper may sadly become extinct.

Endless Recorder, A5 journal.

Back home I felt that I had, broadly speaking, heeded my wife’s instructions not to go mad and not to stay too long. I enjoyed inking the Benu (which deserves its own post later) and the Jinhao 82, which I paired with Pelikan Edelstein Olivine. The new cap jewel and brass bush, found their place in the Parker 51.

But the biggest thrill of all was the Parker 61. The seller had removed her sticker from around the pocket clip and I had not noticed until later in natural daylight, that my pen was an edition called the Parker 61 Heirloom, featuring a rainbow pattern in two tone rolled gold on the cap. Given that my pen was made in England, I believe this pattern dates it between 1964 and 1967, from what I read on parkerpens.net. My pen remembers The Beatles.

The rainbow cap of the Parker 61 Heirloom.
Markings on the cap and barrel.

I rinsed the nib and polished the gold cap. Without attempting any cleaning of the capillary filler, I thought I would first try to fill it and see if it worked. I decanted a little Waterman Serenity Blue into the plastic ink receptacle in a TWSBI ink well. I then placed the capillary filler in the ink, and took a photo of the ink level at the start of filling and another one about three minutes later. The ink level had gone down significantly. I found this enormously exciting.

Preparing to try out the capillary filler for the first time!
Physics in action.

However, the pen did not write initially. I gave it a few gentle shakes downwards, but this did not appear to have much effect. Fearing that there may be a blockage from decades-old dried ink in the feed, I dipped the pen and began to write with the ink that the nib had retained. Once again, I revelled in its smoothness, but with a worry that this might last for only a paragraph before the nib ran dry.

But to my growing relief and exhilaration, the pen continued to write for a full page, then a second, a third and fourth page of my A5 Stalogy notebook, by which time I was certain that the ink I was seeing on the page was ink that the capillary filler had drawn up.

The nib writes a smooth medium-broad.

I am hugely pleased with the Parker 61 Heirloom and everything about it. It looks and feels great and writes like a dream. The filling system is unique. It was heralded as “the pen that fills itself” and, as I read, took 12 years to develop! Also, as a party trick, this pen can write upside down, on a wall or ceiling, because the flow of ink to the nib is a product of capillary action and not gravity. And the price of all this enjoyment? A modest £45.00. I recommend anyone who might be hesitating, to take a look at vintage Parkers.

My haul.