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Parker 61- How Often Do I Need To Write With It?


TimCasey13

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Howdy FPN! I hope everyone's having a good day, recovering from Christmas. :lticaptd:

I have a new (to me) Parker 61 in black with a gold-filled cap coming my way for a late Christmas present to myself; and I was wondering how often is "often enough" to use it and keep the ink from drying up. So P61 users, please chime in, does it need to be used every day? Is not using it over a weekend enough time to dry one up?

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You might be able to go a week between uses, or at least several days.

But this depends on several variables.

- One variable is the ink. Some inks dry up faster than others. And some inks dry faster in some pens than other pens. I have one pen that would dry up in a day with one ink but go several days between uses with another ink. I would stick to inks which are NOT heavily saturated; Parker, Sheaffer, Waterman.

- Another is how you store the pen. My desk pens have never dried out on me. But my desk pens are stored nib DOWN, in a desk pen base. This is the opposite of my clip pens, which are stored nib up, in a pen cup. And the pens in my pen cup do dry out if not used for a length of time. Storing flat level, like in a desk drawer would probably be similar to storing nib down.

- Ambient humidity will also affect drying of the pen. Lower humidity would dry out the pen faster.

Edited by ac12

San Francisco Pen Show - August 28-30, 2020 - Redwood City, California

www.SFPenShow.com

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I presume you mean a capillary fill P61. The c/c version is not a problem.

 

If your ink is highly saturated and the local humidity is low (20% ish), probably daily. If the ink is low saturation, with high local humidity, say weekly. Using diluted Pelikan Turquoise in the UK I always felt every third day was the longest I could leave it (based on initial writing colour when I re-used it). Hope that helps a bit.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

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My 61s are kept horizontally on my desk. They're the pens I use to take a short note while working on the computer. Depending on the weather, they may dry up even after one night. A quick dip of the nib in water rectifies the problem immediately but what you shouldn't forget is refilling the ink roughly once a week by dipping the capillary filler in ink for a few seconds. I do this every time I fill other pens with the same inks.

Edited by alexander_k
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Thanks for all the quick responses everyone!

I presume you mean a capillary fill P61. The c/c version is not a problem.

Ah, I thought I'd put that in my first post... I guess that's what I get for posting late at night! It is indeed a capillary filler, and most of the teflon is still intact.

*snip*
- One variable is the ink. Some inks dry up faster than others. And some inks dry faster in some pens than other pens. I have one pen that would dry up in a day with one ink but go several days between uses with another ink. I would stick to inks which are NOT heavily saturated; Parker, Sheaffer, Waterman.
- Ambient humidity will also affect drying of the pen. Lower humidity would dry out the pen faster.

I was planning on using vintage quink with solv-x. I guess I'll have to do some experimentation to find the perfect ink! The humidity where I live tends to stay fairly high even in the winter, so that shouldn't be much of a problem.

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I have a couple of the capillary filler 61s. The one that's in current rotation has been running Herbin Eclat de Saphir for probably a couple of months, being refilled sporadically. At the moment, though, the ink is diluted as I wanted a change up. I've been using it every few days to a week, with little problem. It ran out of ink this morning, but I figure if I flush it with more distilled water (just enough to get it running again) I can get some more use out of it. When I first got the pen, I ran it with whatever ink (some unknown blue-black) was in it, flushing it like that, for about 4 months -- until it got to the point that it was diluted beyond legibility, and that wasn't as a daily writer. Leaving it for a few days between uses, depending on the ink, *should* be okay.

In its current usage, I was refilling it when it stopped writing, not necessarily weekly. Ditto for the other one, which got flushed a couple of weeks ago (I had been running De Atramentis Apple Blossom in that pen, but decided that a pale springlike pink didn't really suit the season :rolleyes:). Not sure what I'll put in it next (or in the black one once the run of EdS is done.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Thanks for all the help everyone! I knew capillary 61s had a reputation for drying out if unused but now I know it'll be fine over a weekend since I'll be using it (a whole lot) in school.

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The quick (and not very helpful) answer is "It depends." I have a few capillary 61s and I find that for all f their faults, they are now my favorite pens. I read somewhere that 61s aren't happy if they aren't your daily pen. That said, I have a wonderful stub that gets used every week or ten days and writes first time every time. I have a rage red fine/medium that always needs encouragement to start, even after just a few minutes. I suspect that the finer the nib, the more likely the pen dries out. FWIW I am using Waterman's ink and Parker Quink in my pens.

 

I'd just try a safe ink that you like the color of (changing colors is a bit of a pain and see how you 61 behaves. HTH.

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The quick (and not very helpful) answer is "It depends." I have a few capillary 61s and I find that for all f their faults, they are now my favorite pens. I read somewhere that 61s aren't happy if they aren't your daily pen. That said, I have a wonderful stub that gets used every week or ten days and writes first time every time. I have a rage red fine/medium that always needs encouragement to start, even after just a few minutes. I suspect that the finer the nib, the more likely the pen dries out. FWIW I am using Waterman's ink and Parker Quink in my pens.

I'd just try a safe ink that you like the color of (changing colors is a bit of a pain and see how you 61 behaves. HTH.

I have observed the same. The finer the nib the more drying out problems. I too have a stub nibbed 61 but it is an English C/C pen. And I have kind of fallen in love with this 61 of mine.

Khan M. Ilyas

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Thanks for all the help everyone! I knew capillary 61s had a reputation for drying out if unused but now I know it'll be fine over a weekend since I'll be using it (a whole lot) in school.

 

 

I'm going to get on my soap box here.

 

I would NOT carry an expensive or special pen to school. In my experience, school (and work) are high risk environments for; damage, loss and theft. A pen is very easily stolen, because it is so small, it will easily disappear into a pocket. Then you have the JERKS who just want to cause trouble and like to damage/break other peoples stuff.

 

I would use a somewhat inexpensive but good writing pen. And I would carry TWO of them, a primary and a backup. I carried two Parker 45s through college.

The backup would be used when the primary pen ran out of ink or stopped writing (for whatever reason).

 

If you use the 61 in a school environment, I would refill the pen daily, to reduce the chance that the pen will run dry on you. I don't know about you, but I wrote a LOT in college.

Edited by ac12

San Francisco Pen Show - August 28-30, 2020 - Redwood City, California

www.SFPenShow.com

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If you use the pen most days it should be alright. It does make a difference which nib is in the pen. Medium and broader stay moist longer in my experience. The 61 I have now is medium, and it goes a few days before drying up. A fine or finer nib I would just jot a few squiggles with daily to check.

"Don't hurry, don't worry. It's better to be late at the Golden Gate than to arrive in Hell on time."
--Sign in a bar and grill, Ormond Beach, Florida, 1960.

 

 

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I'm going to get on my soap box here.

I would NOT carry an expensive or special pen to school. In my experience, school (and work) are high risk environments for; damage, loss and theft. A pen is very easily stolen, because it is so small, it will easily disappear into a pocket. Then you have the JERKS who just want to cause trouble and like to damage/break other peoples stuff.

I would use a somewhat inexpensive but good writing pen. And I would carry TWO of them, a primary and a backup. I carried two Parker 45s through college.

The backup would be used when the primary pen ran out of ink or stopped writing (for whatever reason).

If you use the 61 in a school environment, I would refill the pen daily, to reduce the chance that the pen will run dry on you. I don't know about you, but I wrote a LOT in college.

The P61 (c/c) was my school pen. Never really realised how good it was until it wore out (after 25 years) and tried Vectors & Rialto's.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

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...

I would use a somewhat inexpensive but good writing pen. And I would carry TWO of them, a primary and a backup. I carried two Parker 45s through college.

The backup would be used when the primary pen ran out of ink or stopped writing (for whatever reason).

 

If you use the 61 in a school environment, I would refill the pen daily, to reduce the chance that the pen will run dry on you. I don't know about you, but I wrote a LOT in college.

I usually keep my fountain pens in the pocket of my shirt, which helps keep them from "walking off" but I'll keep your advice in mind. I've been using my father's Parker 45 which he was given new for his graduation gift. Parker sure made wonderful writing pens back in the day, even the cheap 45.

I refill my 45 a couple of times a week but I've got a clear piston converter in it so it's easier to see when I need to refill it. Do 61s hold a lot of ink? I also have a P51 and it seems to go on forever... I guess that has something to do with the collector getting filled up with ink along with the aerometric sac.

 

The quick (and not very helpful) answer is "It depends." I have a few capillary 61s and I find that for all of their faults, they are now my favorite pens. I read somewhere that 61s aren't happy if they aren't your daily pen. That said, I have a wonderful stub that gets used every week or ten days and writes first time every time. I have a rage red fine/medium that always needs encouragement to start, even after just a few minutes. I suspect that the finer the nib, the more likely the pen dries out. FWIW I am using Waterman's ink and Parker Quink in my pens.

 

I'd just try a safe ink that you like the color of (changing colors is a bit of a pain and see how you 61 behaves. HTH.

The nib looks to be between a M and B. I'll have to take out my broad P45 to compare it with. Is Omas considered to be a fairly safe ink? I've been looking at it and the blue looks like the ideal shade and it's even cheaper than the Aurora I've been using.

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I use my fountain pen every day. If I am not going to use if for more than two days, it gets cleaned and put away. The Parker 61 can be finicky. Be nice to yours.

Auf freiem Grund mit freiem Volke stehn.
Zum Augenblicke dürft ich sagen:
Verweile doch, du bist so schön !

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The capillary version holds a fair amount of ink. More than a Parker cartridge, but less than a P51 Aero.

 

Nib size, if you think it's between an M and a B, check if it's English made. The UK M's are wider than the US versions.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

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I've lost a couple of pens in a school environment, but they were swiped from my desk (I was a teacher). Never had a problem with a pen I carried in my pocket. Biggest problem was when colleagues asked to borrow it and then looked blankly at it trying to figure out how it worked. After a while they stopped asking, but I was always afraid they'd bear down on it to make it write like a ball point. If you do let someone use it to jot a note, keep the cap in your hand—that way they won't walk off with it.

 

Keeping it full of ink is a good idea, but if you do run low, just put the filler in some water and you'll likely be writing for a while longer.

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I presume you mean a capillary fill P61. The c/c version is not a problem.

Sorry Richard, but my 61 with converter has always been a dry writer and has always tended to dry out overnight when using what are recommended as good flowing inks. It is most frustrating as it is very nice pen to use otherwise.

Favourite pens in my collection (in alpha order): Caran d'Ache Ecridor Chevron F and Leman Black/Silver F; Parker 51 Aerometric M and F; Parker 61 Insignia M, Parker Duofold Senior F; Platinum #3776 Century M; Sailor 1911 Black/Gold 21 Kt M; Sheaffer Crest Palladium M/F; Sheaffer Prelude Silver/Palladium Snakeskin Pattern F; Waterman Carene Deluxe Silver F

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Sorry Richard, but my 61 with converter has always been a dry writer and has always tended to dry out overnight when using what are recommended as good flowing inks. It is most frustrating as it is very nice pen to use otherwise.

 

 

Luck (or bad luck) of the draw.

I've had some 51s that were DRY, and one that was so WET (with a DRY ink) that I had to pull the nib and adjust it to slow down the ink flow.

San Francisco Pen Show - August 28-30, 2020 - Redwood City, California

www.SFPenShow.com

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I have one that I write with once/year to do Christmas cards and I don't empty it in between and it's fine. The most I need to do is put a drop of water on the nib.

Edited by FLZapped
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Unless it is currently in rotation, my NOS Parker 61(capillary fill) is used about once a month. I have yet have it dry up. I use black Parker Quink in it.

 

 

Mike

Edited by PenjaminFranklin
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