Well, make sure you don't use it in anything except a Parker 51. It says so, you know...

I know...I put it in one of my Sheaffer's and the pen almost exploded. I don't think it could handle the potency of the "51" ink.

Absolutely not. A large part of the reason for the discontinuance of Superchrome was that Parker got tired of replacing corroded-through sterling silver breather tubes under warranty in Aero-metric "51"s. (The silver was finally replaced by plastic in the early 1960s).

Superchrome has a pH of about 12 -- highly alkaline. It's quite corrosive enough to eat any steel nib or any cellulose-based resin (celluloid, cellulose acetate, Omas Vegetal Resin). It will corrode plated metal parts of all descriptions. It is nasty, nasty stuff and should never go into a pen you care about.


Nope. The "51" pen was designed to make the sale of "51" ink possible. "51" ink was even more corrosive than Superchrome (hence the acrylic pen body), and it dried so fast that Parker had to invent the collector/hooded nib to keep it from drying out in an open-nib pen while the pen was in use. It wasn't at all kind to the Vacumatic diaphragm in the "51", but the public had made its demand for drying speed known. Parker discontinued "51" ink and switched to Superchrome in 1948. Quink, of course, was the Energizer Bunny that kept going all through Parker's era of evil inks and still keeps going.

Great bottles, I love the 50s design.

You're not considering actually using that ink are you?