Bought a NOS Parker 45 Flighter GT with 14K nib today. Pen did not write when filled.

Pen was clean when flushed with water prior to filling. So took the nib assembly apart and found that the Slit on the nib does not extend all the way upto the breather hole. Is this normal for the gold 45 nibs? I have steel 45 nibs where the slit does go upto the breather hole. All help appreciated.

Regards,
Hari

Hi Hari,
That is not normal, I have just checked several 14ct nibs that are sat in the spares box and they are all, as one would expect them to be, slit all the way to the breather hole.

Cheers, John

Thanks for confirming that John.

In the meanwhile, I took the nib assy apart again. Noticed that the nib holder's threaded-end had been tampered. i.e. a notch/cutout was crudely made from which a thin plastic burr was hampering air flow-I think (factory fix?).

I had some spare nib holders and feeds. Fitted them and voila` the pen worked with good wet flow. I am going to use it extensively tomorrow to see if it holds.

What is the best method to extend the slit upto the hole? It is about 2mm short of it.

The pen is Made in USA with date code NI. It had the large dia type squeeze converter(Buck-Rogers type), the sac cracked after a few fills. Why did parker revert to rubber sacs in their converters even after using the excellent pli-glass sacs found in the much older aero "51"'s?

Regards,
Hari

Hi Hari,
If the nib works I wouldn't worry too much about extending the slit all the way to the breather, you would need a micro saw/diamond metal slitter to do it with any hope of doing it properly although I expect that you might find a jeweller in Mumbai who might be able to do it for a few rupees.
The cut out in the back of the nib holder certainly doesn't sound like a factory fix, rather a case of the previous owner finding a problem and trying to sort it out.

The reason for Parker changing back to rubber sacs from the pliglass used in the 51 is most likely to have been cost, by the way it is a bit of a pain but the converter can be resacced if you think it worthwhile.

Cheers, John

Hi John,
If it continues to work, I shall not fix it I thought the cutout was a factory fix cause the pen was very clean when I bought it. NOS, un-inked I thought. The shop had three 45 flighter GTs in silmilar condition. It looked as if the pens had been stored a long time. I selected the smoothest one but did not ink it in the shop. One of the 45s there had an slightly undersized 18K nib X grade made in france, was v scratchy!

Thanks for all the inputs.

Regards,
Hari