I have what appears to be a Parker 51. I LOVE that pen! It wrote so smooth. *sigh* A few minutes ago someone who is not me dropped the pen. Now I can feel that the tip is rough feeling to my finger & it writes real scratchy. Also, the ink isn't flowing through it right. I can't see anything wrong with the pen, but my eyes aren't the best. I have NO experience with pen repairs. Should I send it out for repairs? I live in Ohio. I would like to know where to send it for repairs, unless there is something simple I can try at home first. Thanks, in advance, for any advice you can give me.

Look at the nib with a magnifying glass -- (in my case I'd need BOTH reading glasses and my magnifying glass.) If the tines have been bumped out of line with each other you might be able to gently push them back with your thumbnail.

Sorry to hear about the 51! It should be OK if you do not see any apparent problems.
Try looking at the nib and hood tip through a 10x loupe, or any magnifying glass you have.
Hopefully, there is nothing obvious. Make sure the nib has not been pushed in, either!
You can always have the nib smoothed by one of the nibmeisters here if the nib still feels rough!

I used a loupe and I can see that one tine appears to be the tiniest bit "shorter" that the other. Iwill try to see if I can "pull" the tine out a bit...

edit to add: One tine is a tiny bit more forward that the other. So what tricks can I try to line them up?
Thanks
Polly

Yup. Been there, done that several times. I usually wait years with them just sitting around unused until I finally break down and send them in for tine adjustment/alignment.

When you say pulling the tine it would be more like gently pushing since the two tines are halves of one nib.

I can see that one tine is more forward than the other, not shorter, like I originally thought.

When I was 12, I came across an old 51 desk model in much the same state... actually, it was probably a 51 Special, which makes this cautionary less directly applicable. I gripped the lesser tine, pulled firmly, and... discovered there was now only one tine left in the pen.

The point is not "DON'T!" but rather "Go gently." If a gentle manipulation won't cure it, anything more calls for a look under the hood, and that's getting into the realm of the professional pen-fixer. Search this forum for suggestions about how to get in there yourself, certainly, but be prepared to send it away.

Yes, go gently by all means.

One thing about advising without having the pen is that one has to interpret your words, which in themselves are an interpretation of what you see. We then read those words, and try to imagine a picture of the nib to guess at how you should proceed... You see the problem...

Pictures are a great help.

Since the pen was dropped, is it possible the tipping material was knocked off one tine? If the tipping material was small initially (some 51's seem to have really small iridium tips) it might not be immediately obvious it's missing to the naked eye. Should show up under magnification, but you might have missed it...

Sorry, that's the most obvious guess I have at the moment...

Regards,

Gerry

Getting under the hood isn't such a big deal. In fact, i'd say the hood should come off first. Gentle manipulation is easier when the nib is off the pen. You see, i've also broken off some iridium on a 51 while trying to repair a nib. My fingers slipped while trying to apply pressure to one side of the nib. Had i had more nib to grip on, i'd probably still be using that nib today.

I think this depends a great deal on the individual pen. I've a couple of Specials that look of 1970s make that the hoods just spun right off, but I've got a 1951 non-Special that after an hour in 135-140 degree water never let go, and another Special from the '60s which VERY RELUCTANTLY let its hood go after the same length of bath. Of course, it wasn't a full hour, because every ten minutes or so I'd haul them out in turn with an increasingly cranky "Are you loose YET?" The straight 51 I suspect of being generally abused, and the hood may well be in place with residual india ink, but the other one was a pretty substantial struggle for someone who knows, more or less, what they're doing (but is a little short of claiming 'professional' status).

Thanks to everyone who responded. I *think* I fixed it by gently pushing on one tine to line up with the other tine. It seemed to write smooth again after I messed with it. (Ihaven't written more than a few scribbles with it, though.) It appears that the tip is intact as well. Again, thanks to all.
Polly