A while ago, (see here) I came into posession of my mother's old school pen, a 61 flighter, which had been horrible mangled; my search for a good new hood wasn't going well, especially when I realised the collector was also crazed from the warp.

I had just about given up when Andy Hayes (see here)offered me a hood-feed-collector-nib unit which he apparently had going spare. Well, I'm totally endebted to him, as it turned out to be a relief nib when it arrived! It's great fun, and wonderful to use. Thanks again, Andy!

Now, the horribly distorted nib went into my spare parts drawer, and I thought of it yesterday when I was wishing I had a nicer nib for the very special thing which is my 1949 Parker 51 Flighter. The nib was a fairly boring fine, with some scratchiness and skipping.

Richard (richardandtracy) mentioned once that it's possible to convert a 61 nib to fit a 51 feed/collector - and I did just that! I filed off the locator tab on the top, and used needle pliers to reshape the wings to fit the 51 feed. I had a hell of a job straightening it (in every plane).

So, now I have a special 61 nib in a lovely 51, and a very cool relief nib in a special 61.



The 61 nib/51 flighter is a flexible medium (see photo)
The relief on the 61 makes it a cross between medium/broad.



PS: And here's one of my dog, too:

Very nice. One day. I'm going to get a 51 Flighter.

Excellent!

Oh that's grand. It looks really nice & to have a special nib in it too...
One very lucky Vermiculus, I say.

I didn't re-shape the tags on my P61 nib because I was concerned that it would open up the nib slit, unfortunately removing them meant it's impossible to put the nib back in a P61. On the other hand, the nib is identical to a P51 nib and there is no risk of unwanted interference with the hood.

However, well done & enjoy it.

Regards

Richard.

By the nib slit, do you meen the channel down the tines to the iridium?

If so, mine was so mangled anyway I had to reform it so there was a slit there anyway, so doing the fins meant it was no problem (in fact, it opened up the underside for better control). We're talking stepped-on flat here. It was the worst I've seen, and I haven't been able to get the final wave out unfortunately.

very nice!

I have a nice 51 flighter set (FP, MP and LLP) and i totally love it. In my opinion it is the best variation of the 51 ever

Nikolaos

Ooh, photos please!

I think the double-jewel 51s are pretty elegant, and a double jewel green vac would be lovely to have, though I don't imagine I'll ever find one. I like the long clip on my flighter a lot more than the normal short clip, too.

I did mean the channel to the iridium.

Stepped-on flat.! Oh my! I don't think I would have been brave enough tp try it with that level of distortion. However, I suppose you had nothing to loose from anything going wrong...

Regards

Richard.

oh you dirty dog! I was going to take the nib from my 61 and put it in my 51 Flighter, but I found the 61 to be a delightful pen, so I didn't want to upset it.

One question, my 61 nib looks like it has the potential to be flexible. It seems like the nib might be hitting the top of the hood, thus limiting the amount of flex it can attain. Did you find that in your 61 and if so, does it still seem to occur in the 51?

Thanks for sharing this with us.

John

Hi John,

I didn't have any idea what sort of nib it was when I started, as it was so mangled, so inside the 61 I hadno clues. However, inside my 51 I set it deliberately long and a little below the hood to give it room to flex. So, you're probably right about yours!

When I had the nib out, I dip teseted it in a dip-pen; If it wasn't for the hood on the 51, it'd be a wet noodle flex. The flexed line shown above derives frim about 1/8" of the tip. It's not enough for good caligraphy, but is good for elegant or interesting handwriting.

Thanks!

that's a good idea, setting it forward a bit in the 51. I have a feeling my 61 nib would be similar to yours, a wet noodle if given the freedom. The nib was made in the England, and I've heard a lot about how fantastic they are. I can confirm that

I see what you mean about the writing sample, I have to agree with you, I don't think I would want my 51 Flighter to have "flowerey" writing, but enough to make it expressive is nice. I have other pens for italic writing, 51 Flighters should say "hey, I can't go ballroom dancing this weekend, I have to get that bigger engine in my F-22 Raptor...