I had an interesting email question from someone today
What year was the last Parker 51 made...
I seem to remember reading that it was before 1947 and that no DJs were produced in the last year of 51 Vac production (1948)....
Does anyone else have a more definate date of the last year the DJ was offered for sale.

As you say, the received wisdom is that it was '47 but then what parts were about and as Parker moved into the Aero production, did they have a Close Out Sale?

I doubt that we will ever get a definitive answer to this one, as it is just something lost in the mists of time. It is a bit like the "51" Vac question I have tried to answer, they were made in Newhaven for a short while, before they went into full bore Aero production. Again rather than being made they were assembled from mainly US parts I believe, but they may have made the nibs and the caps locally. That was sort of '47/'48 ish, but did they ever make a UK DJ "51" and if so I WANT ONE.

Jim

One thing I learned at the Philly Show (from Richard Binder, so to me it is gospel) is that DJs were hand turned to match the body and blind cap.
I had a dj blind cap in my parts (no idea where it came from) and tried it on every 51 vac I had and none of them were a perfect fit... in fact some of them were way off in diameter. I even tried it on my personal DJ and the diameters were not even close.
I mentioned this to Richard at Philly and he told me that each DJ was custom turned to match the body and blind cap.
Basically to me that means that the argument of using "left over" parts to create DJs after 1947?? is in question...
Hopefully, Richard will chime in here and give us a real education.

Anyone know what the Shepherd book says about it?

John

Absolutely nothing.... I looked all over the book this morning before posting this

geez, you parker guys should be happy with even a ballpark date when they stopped doing something. Check out a smaller name manufacturer, and you're lucky if you can figure out when the company even started making pens, let alone stopped.

A funny side note, is that the 1948 Parker parts book listed parts for streamlined duofolds, seems most everything was still available in quantity, with exception of red permanite parts. I think it said something like out of stock for almost all of the red caps and barrels, but it did seem to imply that all the rest of the colors were available, especially mandarin, lapis... weird....

I have a cedar blue Parker 51 with a 1948 date stamp.

Edit: Need to read more carefully -- mine isn't a DJ. Sorry.

1948 is the latest date code you will find on double-jewel 51s. And they are out there: they came with the later simple arrow clips without the Blue Diamond, and they are disproportionately found in colors such as Buckskin Tan and Nassau.

To the extent that Vac-filling 51s were given their final finish after assembly, and therefore after the blind cap was in place, they did have their barrel-blind cap joints "hand finished". But this would apply equally to single-jewel and double-jewel pens.

Note that many Vac-filling 51s subsequently had their joints turned down after sac replacement, altering their original factory profile. And also note that a good modern repairman will avoid doing this; one can always fit the blind cap back to the barrel if one takes enough time.