On one of my recent 61 acquisitions, there is a tiny piece of the Teflon which has flaked off the filler. Is there something like an adhesive I can dab or 'paint' over it to protect from further peeling? (ironically adhesive, since nothing is supposed to stick to teflon).

What would you guys do?

Teflon???? Are you sure??

well, no, actually.. I read somewhere that it was a Teflon coating, but in actuality, I don't know for sure what the composition of the non stick surface on the capillary filler is. I could burn one and see if the birds in the area drop dead. :-)

Some plastics seem to exhibit a peculiar effect in which the outermost surface of the plastic peels away. The appearance reminds one of skin peeling after a moderate sunburn. It has been my experience that this has little effect on function, happily. Let me state the obvious, pics would be helpful.

It is teflon and i'm just trying to find out if anything can be done.
Of course it doesn't affect the operation of the pen.You just have to wipe the ink off.
If I find anything i'll let you know.

Can't find anything.
I do know you can buy teflon spray.
Mountain bikers use it to help shed muck.
You would have to gently remove any bits that stuck up so as not to catch them.
I don't know how long the spray would last or if it would get into your
ink bottle and therefore inside your pen.
You'd have to ask one of the bikers on here about suitability.

Thanks guys,
Yeah, the pen functions absolutely fine. This is more for personal aesthetic reasons. It is such a small imperfection that if I can stop it at this point, sealing the edges of the little spot, I won't get the runaway peeling effect.

I'll check into the Teflon spray and see how it does.

Parker did, in fact, coat the outside of the ink feed with a grey-black Teflon for its 61 series pens. They put a very thin layer of this substance over a stainless steel tube. The purpose of this coating was nothing more than to promote the rapid shedding of ink as one took the ink feed tube out of a bottle of ink after filling the pen. The ink actually rolled off of the tube as one pulled it out of the ink well. It was so clean that even wiping it with a tissue didn't put much ink on the tissue.

The problem with the Teflon coating was that it was too thin and people were so intrigued by this (then) new substance that they ran their fingernails and pen knife edges against it, causing the Teflon to flake off. Fast forward to 45- 50 years and we still find Parker 61 fountain pens with good coatings of Teflon on the ink tube. However, there are a good many of them out there on which the Teflon has begun to or has been flaking off for quite some time.

The question is, "Does this effect the filling of the pen or the pen's ability to hold ink?" and the answer is a resounding "No." It is more of a cosmetic problem than anything else. And it is only a cosmetic problem for the person filling the pen with ink because no one else sees the ink tube.

The next questions that pops up is, "Should I remove all of the Teflon from the ink tube?" I've done that. I can tell you that one cannot remove all of the Teflon. It actually looks better to just let it be then to mess with it. But of course, that, too, is a personal choice.

Should one consider spraying a Teflon coating onto the ink tube? My thoughts would be that the Teflon spray would get into the ink well, contaminating the ink. It would then transverse into the special wicking material inside the ink tube of the Parker 61, as well as it would contaminate any other fountain pen one might use with that ink. It doesn't sound like the best thing to consider to me.

Enjoy your Parker 61 as it is. They are wonderful pens. Just keep up with the maintenance of it and you'll have a great pen for another 30 years.

Peace,

Phroneo

I don't know of anything to replace it with -- teflon coatings are a pain to repair as they are often polymerized in place, I think.

The coating on the 61 will peel without ever being touched, I think. I got a mostly mint, never filled 61 off eBay that had taken a nose-dive onto the floor from a great height (broken tip on the section and bent sideways nib) that has the Teflon peeling, so it's not use, it's failure of the coating itself along with lack of adhesion to the filler. Teflon coatings were pretty new in 1956, after all, I'm not surprised they fail. I remember "non-stick" pots and pans flaking Teflon in the 60s and 70s, too.

Peter

I've never heard of DIY Teflon coatings, but if there's a little clearance between the filler and the inside of the barrel, possibly you could push on a length of thin-wall Teflon tubing, like the kind used to insulate wiring in electronics.

-- Brian

Inkquest,

There is nothing you can do to prevent the teflon flaking off once it's started. Parker used Teflon while it was still a very new material and not a lot was known about how to attach it. As a result their process was flawed by the lack of knowledge.
It is possible to re-coat it with modern practices after removing the casing from the pen and finding a teflon coating company that will do a single item job. This coating would be very much more durable (think of current non-stick pots & pans).
To the best of my knowledge it's not a job to do at home.

Personally, I think that it'd be cheaper to buy another pen. And cheaper still to live with it!

Regards

Richard.