I recently got a Parker 51 Special that has, I think, a medium nib. It's just a little too thick of a line for me.
Before I change the nib, I was wondering if anyone has first hand knowledge of an ink that is drier than Noodler's Swishmix Eternal Nile Ebony?
I would be much happier to buy a bottle of ink as opposed to possibly wrecking my pen!

Parker Quink Black is relatively dry, especially compared to the Private Reserve inks. You could also look at Sheaffer Skrip black.
However, not having any of the Noodler's ink you refer to, I can't say how these inks are compared to that one.

If you can find some, you might try Parker Penman Ebony, but you would need to remember to flush your pen out every couple of weeks.

If you're looking for non-black inks, that's a whole nuther story, but again, you could start with Parker Quink Permanent Blue. Just make sure you are using acid-free paper, as all the Parker coloured inks seem to fade, some more than others, on acidic/sulphite papers. However, the Permanent Blue seems to be the best of the lot in this regard.

The Sheaffer Skrip Blue is also a good ink that is not too wet.

That will work out fine as a start as I just found a brand new bottle of Quink Permanent Black that I've had tucked away from my drawing days for over fifteen years unopened. In an attempt to obtain a couple of Skrip bottles to put ink in so I could use the ink wells in the bottle, I got ink. One Washable Black and one Washable Blue. I was just going to dump it down the sink and use the bottles. But, I took a good look at them and the ink seems to still be fine i.e... no sediment, smells fine...so, now, I can't bring myself to do it. So, I'll try them. Of course, now I'll need to find a bottle for my Noodler's.

Just about anything. According to a friend who's used them, the Swishmix inks are incredibly wet; she referred to them as "over-surfacanted". I'd stay away from Waterman and PR Tanzanite (and a few other PRs known for being wet, which I can't think of), but just about any other ink should meet your criteria.

I agree with Jinnayah. The Swishmix and Swisher-store-brand inks are for good paper only (Swisher has a good list of recommended, inexpensive paper).

Pelikan inks (of which the black and the blue also sold under the A T Cross label) are a bit drier than some others.

Iron gall inks (the bottled blue-blacks from Montblanc and Lamy, the Salix [blue-black] and Scabiosa [eggplant-black] from Rohrer & Klingner, and Registrar's Ink [blue-black] from Diamine) are much drier-writing inks. Just follow the precautions for using iron gall ink.

I could have written this. I have the same qualm.
I've found that older solv-x inks seem to write drier.
Right now I'm writing Mont Blanc blue in the "51" with pleasant enough results.

Also, I've found that flushing the pen thoroughly and *letting it dry completely* overnight or longer makes a big difference in the way this and a couple of other Parkers work. Any water at all remaining in the system seems to make the ink flow and feather. Using this method took a Parker "21" Mark II medium point from a lovely show piece to a daily writer with solv-x blue-black.

Please post your results.

Same with my P51.

When I got it from eBay, I filled it with my regular "safety ink" Waterman Florida Blue (easiest ink to wash out of a shirt, hence: safety ink ;-), and it wrote a nice bold line. Next I tried PR Tanzanite (my regular ink for blue-ish business writing), and it turned my P51 into a fire hose ! After a flush, dry and a refill with WM FB, things seem to be back to normal, although it remains a rather wet writer (but what a beautiful one...)

I 'll try to pick up a bottle of Quink Permanent Black and / or Blue on my way home from work tomorrow, just out of curiosity.

Greetings

Miguel

I get very good results in my fine nib "51" Vacuumatic with Noodlers Tahitian Pearl.

Andy