Well I thought I'd try my hand at this review business.

Introduction
I bought this Parker 45 with very little information about it off of e-bay from seller briarblues for $18.45. This seller is fantastic by the way. I won the pen on Monday night and had it Thursday night of that same week. He provided the information that it was indeed a fine point and that it had a working converter. Beyond that, nothing more.

I received the pen in a genuine Parker box which appeared to be the original box. Inside the box were the pen, which looked like New Old Stock to me. It was evident it had been filled at least once, but there were no scratches on the pen, it was basically new. There were 5 Parker cartridges in the box with it, 2 black Quink cartridges, and 3 blue Quink cartridges.

Based on the look of this pen and Richard Binder's very helpful reference pages, I was able to make out that this pen is a Parker 45 Arrow, aka 45 CT. This pen dates from around 1964 and I was impressed that this pen was as in good of condition that it is.

Design/Fit/Finish - 4.8/5
The pen has a deep navy blue color with shiny silver furniture. The open end of the cap has "Parker" and "Made in England" on it. There is a minor defect in the plastic where the open end of the cap's silver lining meets the plastic. This is not immediately noticeable and is not a distraction. This imperfection, which looks factory-based, is what deducts the 0.2 points.

Nib & Writing - 4.8/5
This pen has the typical "buttery" smooth feel of Parker nibs. It is a dream to write with and I've been using it for about a week as my everyday writer on a Black'n'Red notebook. The nib never skips, always starts, even when uncapped for 15 minutes. It has a wide sweet spot, so writing isn't hard to get going but at times it seems that the nib is inconsistent in its line width at certain angles. Maybe it is my inexperience, but I have noticed it every once in a while. This is the reason for the 0.2 deduction as its not a real issue.

Filling System - 5/5
The Parker 45 has an aerometric converter as well as capability to take cartridges. The converter is simple to use, same as any Parker 51 aerometric-like pen and holds a good amount of ink. I have yet to use the cartridges but I don't anticipate problems with it.

Final Thoughts
This pen is a great workhorse. I'm a college student with a slim budget and getting this pen for 18.45 was a steal considering how well it writes. I love that I can move between classes and not worry about having to work on the pen to get it going when I get into a class. If I found another one of these for this price, I'd certainly buy it if I had extra money for it.

Pictures
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Cheers,

-Zac

Congratulations on buying a fine writer and a downright good pen!

I have a Parker 45 Demonstrator with a medium nib which was a lot more expensive than yours. Even so, I consider the 45 one of the best writers I've ever used and it's one I am sure you will cherish for a long time. It won't fail and it is very user friendly. Did I mention the pen is a very smooth writer.

Great job in purchasing the pen! What a buy!

Cheers,

John (Shamouti)

Thanks! I almost bought another mint first release 45 for 20 dollars but held off because I've already spent around 100 dollars on pens, ink, paper, etc. and I'm a poor college student lol.

-Zac

Hey,

Purchasing anything this nice for school is far more stylish than those gel pens you see everywhere. It will help you with your confidence in handwriting too.

Cheers,

John (Shamouti)

What a nice looking pen!. Love the writing sample. One can't go wrong with Parkers made at that period. Nice catch!.

i'm dying to get one of those 45s with a plastic cap and CT.

i've been scouring eBay to get one at an affordable price.

*very jealous*

Haha. It would seem they are a bit hard to come by. Mine was by sheer luck. I was quite drawn to the Navy with silver trim and decided I had to have it .

Thought it may be blasphemy to say it, I quite like Parker 45's better than the Parker 51's I've encountered. I'm not sure I'd pay the premium to own a Parker 51 that I see them sell for... Don't shoot me!

-Zac

Considering I take an obnoxious amount of notes in classes, I was dying after my first year having to use ballpoints. Discovering my mother's old fountain pen was a Godsend and after I decided I liked it so much, the collection is growing now .

Lets see, I'm up to...
1) Wing Sung - Parker-51 copy
2) Parker 45 CT
3) Hero 329
4) Sheaffer Triumph (being repaired)
5) Sheaffer Targa
6) Sheaffer Statesman Touchdown

A fair haul if you ask me . I used to hate writing, would always type things out and that leads to no good because the computer is far too distracting for me. Now that I can write for hours without really worrying about my hand hurting, I kind of ignore my computer .

-Zac

I just scored a black one

it's on its way from Scotland. Yay!

Congrats and enjoy .

-Zac

Hey,

One of the great things about Parker 45 pens is the interchangeable nib. Just like modern Parker Sonnets and Pelikan pens which you have to pay a premium for, the 45 is a workhorse. They are easy to maintain and very easy to clean.

If you happen to find a good 45 out in the rough, sometimes you can score a big gain after some serious TLC.

Here's an example. There's an antique store near my house that happened to have one red 45 for display along with an old round buttoned Parker Jotter. Both were in the same box. Although the box was the wrong type for these pens I asked the owner how much he wanted for the set.

"Eight bucks."

See? Now that's a bargain!

If you purchase a Parker 45 fountain pen, you'll find years of pleasure in owning one. Parts available for the 45 are easy to find if you are restoring one and so are the nibs, if you know where to look.

They are cartridge/converter pens, so all modern Parker converters and cartridges will work with them. Nibs can easily be unscrewed to be cleaned and the small hood can be removed to clean the nib and underneath the feed.

Unlike it's cousin 51 which can be quite expensive, the 45 is probably one of the best sleeper vintage pens out there in the market today and can command good blue collar prices.

Hope that helps a bit.

Shamouti

I bought one on Ebay last evening for £4.99. That was the starting price and I was the only bidder. I will probably transfer the unusual 'Y' nib from the flighter I bought last week. There's just something about that blue 45 that I really like.....