Parker 51 - Starting Restoration

[antiquedigger]

Nice job so far!! Looking great!

Thank you, T1Love. It is getting there.

[OcalaFlGuy]

Bruce, the cap was just tarnished. I spent the night bringing back the gleam to the cap and the barrel.

 

My Bad, the reflection area looked like Brassing to me. Carry on!

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[pajaro]

Very nice restoration. I like your work on the cap.

 

A few years ago I bought a similar pen, black with gold filled cap, 8 with one dot. I was born in September, 1948, so I considered it my birthday pen. It was working and still works, but the cap has dings. I did have to buy an NOS fine nib to replace the nib someone stubbed by cutting off the tipping. I put an Ariel Kullock Kama Sutra cap on it. I am waiting for the diaphragm to fail, and I have a new brass filler with diaphragm ready to install.

 

That's a great restoration you did on this pen. You got a pen with great material to work on. That was a great deal.

[jdllizard]

It's looking great so far! I'm shocked at how much the cap cleaned up.

 

And I agree with Flounder, you shouldn't need any shellac to replace a Vac diaphragm. If you do, you are probably doing it wrong and making a whole lot more work for the next generation that decides they want to rebuild old fountain pens.

[Flounder]

Forgot to say OP - I really like your avatar!

[antiquedigger]

Very nice restoration. I like your work on the cap.

 

A few years ago I bought a similar pen, black with gold filled cap, 8 with one dot. I was born in September, 1948, so I considered it my birthday pen. It was working and still works, but the cap has dings. I did have to buy an NOS fine nib to replace the nib someone stubbed by cutting off the tipping. I put an Ariel Kullock Kama Sutra cap on it. I am waiting for the diaphragm to fail, and I have a new brass filler with diaphragm ready to install.

 

That's a great restoration you did on this pen. You got a pen with great material to work on. That was a great deal.

 

THANKS, PAJARO.

[antiquedigger]

It's looking great so far! I'm shocked at how much the cap cleaned up.

 

And I agree with Flounder, you shouldn't need any shellac to replace a Vac diaphragm. If you do, you are probably doing it wrong and making a whole lot more work for the next generation that decides they want to rebuild old fountain pens.

I understand about not using shellac now on the sac - thanks to Flounder and you, I appreciate the insight.

[antiquedigger]

Forgot to say OP - I really like your avatar!

Thanks, Flounder. My paying job is actually web developer - have a little bit of graphic design background in my too. I am looking to rebuild my antiquedigger.com website and turn it into an ecommerce site for the pens and other antique / collectibles.

[antiquedigger]

Thank you all for the insights and help.

 

I finished up restoration on the pen and got it writing without any issue.

 

When tested, the NIB seems to write fine - there is no skipping.

 

I very happy with the results of my first pen restoration.

 

Here is the after.

 

 

Here is the before.

 

[redbike]

Looks very nice. How many hours did you put into it? Thanks.

[antiquedigger]

Looks very nice. How many hours did you put into it? Thanks.

 

Redbike, from start to finish, I took about 5 hours. But, I had to look up a few things and make I was not making mistakes. If i did this all the time, i know i could cut this time in half.

[Flounder]

I hope I brush up as well when I hit 67!

[Mulrich]

 

Redbike, from start to finish, I took about 5 hours. But, I had to look up a few things and make I was not making mistakes. If i did this all the time, i know i could cut this time in half.

Do you mind sharing any sites you found particularly helpful? I recently bought a couple 51s and I'm debating if I want to do similar restoring.

[antiquedigger]

Do you mind sharing any sites you found particularly helpful? I recently bought a couple 51s and I'm debating if I want to do similar restoring.

 

Mulrich,

The two major links that I used are the following:

 

From my experience, this is something you can do, but you need the right tools. Do not force anything. The videos really helped.

 

All the best,

Greg

[Venemo]

Could you give us more info about how you polished the pen? You did a wonderful job with it!

[antiquedigger]

Could you give us more info about how you polished the pen? You did a wonderful job with it!

Hi, Venemo.

With the cap, I used Simichrome until the no more black was on the cotton swabs and cotton balls that I used.

 

On the body, I used the micro mesh sheets starting with 3200 grit and working my way up to 12,000 grit. After I micromesh, I went over the pen body with light scratch remover cream and simichrome paste (which might be overkill) and finished it off with renaissance wax to polish it up.