I have owned this little Parker Duofold Junior for over ten years. I never saw a crack on it, but today I noticed the crack (see photo). I never use the pen, it just sits in the cabinet.

Is it possible that the crack just happened sitting in the drawer over time?
Or perhaps I just missed it????

Hi Paul,

That crack looks like a stress crack, HR is prone to cracking as it has very little 'give' in it, it is brittle and becomes more brittle with age. Huge variations in temperature and/or humidity, exposure to UV from sunlight, the presence of various chemicals, all can contribute to the tendency for HR to crack.

Differential shrinkage between the BHR of the end cap and the RHR of the pen could have added to the stress load on the edge of the cap, an area already weakened by having the threads for the blind cap cut into it, a scratch or a tiny chip in the cap edge could act as a focus for the stress and a crack would occur starting from such a weak point. I suppose that it could happen in the cabinet if the conditions are right.

Cracks in the position of this one occur in all sorts of pens that use washer type caps with inserted blind caps/finials, not just those made in HR. It is the same sort of thing that can cause cracks in cap lips where there is a crud build up inside the cap or shrinkage and when screwed on just a little too far well there is the crack next time you look.

This is just my opinion and as always I may be well off the mark and look forward to hearing from the materials experts of which I know we have one and think we have two or three others as members.

Cheers, John