Parker 51 Questions...

[sirgilbert357]

So I'm interested in getting a Parker 51. I've been researching the different models and I think I want a MK I, or basically the first gen Aerometric. I want the Lucite body and the "less likely to turn to goo" filler nipple mainly. Anyway, I didn't do ALL the research I should have because I got ahead of myself and bid on a 51 Special. I didn't realize it was a Special at first...and I also didn't realize they don't have a gold nib and bring lower prices in general...so the bid I put in would have been a solid price for a good looking regular MK I 51, but its a little in the uncomfortable zone for a 51 Special in my opinion (looking at past completed auctions and I could probably get a Special cheaper).

 

Anyway, I doubt very seriously I'll get outbid, so I guess I'll end up owning it. I guess my questions are: does the 51 Special have the Lucite body I want? And does it have the aerometric breather tube? Also, does the hood screw on, or is it shellacked in place? Just curious about the internals and how they may differ from the 51 I thought I was getting.

 

Thanks for any help you guys can offer. If for some reason I don't win the auction, I will be looking at just coughing up the cash to get a fully restored MK I with a stainless steel breather tube already installed. I might wait until the Dallas Pen Show, but I'd rather have one sooner, lol.

[pajaro]

Maybe you should wait for the Dallas pen show. There you can buy from someone who knows the pens and their exact condition. Especially because you want one restored. This coming from someone who has never been to a pen show. I have had enough trouble resisting ebay. The first 51 I bought was new, but that was in 1970. Perhaps you will find a deal on an NOS pen. Frankly, every aerometric 51 I have found on ebay and else where has worked perfectly. Unless I started to mess with it. Sometimes chaos happened then.

[sirgilbert357]

Maybe you should wait for the Dallas pen show. There you can buy from someone who knows the pens and their exact condition. Especially because you want one restored. This coming from someone who has never been to a pen show. I have had enough trouble resisting ebay. The first 51 I bought was new, but that was in 1970. Perhaps you will find a deal on an NOS pen. Frankly, every aerometric 51 I have found on ebay and else where has worked perfectly. Unless I started to mess with it. Sometimes chaos happened then.

 

 

Good advice pajaro. My only real concern with buying from the pen show is that I might end up paying more. If I end up waiting and then everything is 150 and up for a restored 51, well....I could have bought a really nice one on eBay ages ago for THAT price, you know?? I'd feel like a chump for waiting so long to get a good one and then seeing prices like that...

[FarmBoy]

Many an Octanium nib will be a better writer than a gold one.

 

Both have the same tipping anyway.

 

I've yet to see anyone that could get better than guessing 51 nib material when not allowed to look.

Edited May 12, 2017 by FarmBoy

[makas]

Hello

 

I would go to a Dallas pen club meeting if I were you. If you don't find what you want at the meeting someone at the meeting can help you find what you want. You will find some very good people in the club and more info then you need to know.

 

Good luck

 

Mark

[inkstainedruth]

I believe that the difference between 51 Specials and the regular 51 is in the fill system (which is a hoop filler system like on the student grade 21s) and the nib material, but that they're made of Lucite like the regular 51s.

My best recommendation is to look for a user grade Aerometric. Although my first attempt was also a 51 Special and it's not a bad writer.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[pajaro]

 

 

Good advice pajaro. My only real concern with buying from the pen show is that I might end up paying more. If I end up waiting and then everything is 150 and up for a restored 51, well....I could have bought a really nice one on eBay ages ago for THAT price, you know?? I'd feel like a chump for waiting so long to get a good one and then seeing prices like that...

 

I agree. If I were starting out without a 51 now, and wanted one, I wouldn't pay such prices. Since I don't go to shows, I don't know how much the prices run.

 

The 51 Specials are a great pen, and starting in with one if you get a low price has the advantage of helping you learn about the pen feels without some big bucks price for a restored pen.

 

I would think twice about insisting on a restored pen. That is the Cadillac solution. The pens I have bought here and there with date codes from 1948 to the 1950s all still work perfectly.

[sirgilbert357]

 

I agree. If I were starting out without a 51 now, and wanted one, I wouldn't pay such prices. Since I don't go to shows, I don't know how much the prices run.

 

The 51 Specials are a great pen, and starting in with one if you get a low price has the advantage of helping you learn about the pen feels without some big bucks price for a restored pen.

 

I would think twice about insisting on a restored pen. That is the Cadillac solution. The pens I have bought here and there with date codes from 1948 to the 1950s all still work perfectly.

Well the only reason I'd want a restored pen is to be sure the breather tube isn't corroded. But I've read somewhere (can't recall where now) that the 51 Special is just a plain old squeeze filler and doesn't have the breather tube, etc. So I guess it may not matter if that's the case.

 

Does anyone know if the hood screws into place on the 51 Special? And does it have a breather tube?

[dadbar]

I have an aerometric with gold nib and a special with octanium and hoop filler.

 

The special writes a little better. The two pen barrels look like the same material; just the colors are different.

 

If you find a special you like, go for it.

[Sasha Royale]

Though quantities are limited and not to be renewed, check MyFavoritePen.com .

[pajaro]

I just looked at a 51 Special. The hood screws on like any 51 of its era. I removed the hoop filler and felt the sac, and there is a breather tube in there. It looks like the differences are in the filler sac surround, full or hoop, nib, cap and jewel.

[sirgilbert357]

I just looked at a 51 Special. The hood screws on like any 51 of its era. I removed the hoop filler and felt the sac, and there is a breather tube in there. It looks like the differences are in the filler sac surround, full or hoop, nib, cap and jewel.

 

 

Thanks pajaro, I appreciate you doing that. Does your 51 Special also have a hole drilled in the end of the barrel like the normal 51's then?

[sirgilbert357]

Though quantities are limited and not to be renewed, check MyFavoritePen.com .

 

Thank you for telling me about this site. I will consider ordering one from him if for some reason I escape winning this dreaded eBay auction, lol. I won't know till tomorrow...

The selection of Vacumatics is pretty nice too...

[sirgilbert357]

I have an aerometric with gold nib and a special with octanium and hoop filler.

 

The special writes a little better. The two pen barrels look like the same material; just the colors are different.

 

If you find a special you like, go for it.

 

Good, so it would seem they are both Lucite then. Thanks for the firsthand comparison.

[mitto]

The breather tube on the Special is a bit shorter and doesn't have the breather hole. As to the nib material, jewel color and type of cap, I have a few of the later production Specials that have gold nibs, normal grey jewels (not black) and frosted lustraloy caps. On one of these I did put the normal MK-1 aero type sacguard and a breather tube with the breather hole and it has now no more any signs to tell it was a Special.

[Jerome Tarshis]

There is not really much difference between what are sold as Specials and what are sold as regular 51s. The sac guard is different. Check that off. (Oh, yes, I like the Demi, and in the Demi the sac guard was the same as that of the Special after the first year.)

 

Granted, the breather tube of the Special is shorter, but it is made of plastic and it will not corrode the way the silver breather tubes did. Most of the nibs will be Octanium, but some will be gold and, nib replacement being what it was, there are regular 51s with the fully-shrouded sac that now have Octanium nibs.

 

The collector of the Special is smaller. I've never noticed any difference in writing quality because of that. The ink capacity of the Special will be somewhat smaller, but that seems unimportant in everyday life. The breather tube of the Special doesn't have the much-bragged-about little hole, whose effectiveness may not be perfect, and in any event the shorter breather tube doesn't dip into the ink when the nib is up, so there needn't be leakage in flight.

 

About half my 51s are Specials. In use they are the same pens as my regular Aero 51s. What seems to be at issue here, if I read Sir Gilbert correctly, is price. That I leave for him to work out. Brooding about various price contingencies helps pass the time.

[Lam1]

To the OP. As many have stated, the differences between the special and the regular are minimal, the most important being the nib (octanium or gold). The sac protector on the special is the hoop one, but that makes absolutely no difference (at least not for me) and presumably you could change that down the road if you really like the closed protector.

 

 

Frankly, every aerometric 51 I have found on ebay and else where has worked perfectly. Unless I started to mess with it.

 

That is exactly the opposite of my experience. In the last two weeks I received about 5 of those (plus several vacs... I know, I need to stop looking into eBay). Before that I had a few others and, except for one demi, none wrote well from the start. Some were misaligned and the ones that were aligned wrote way too dry for my liking - maybe a bit of it has to do with writing preferences and if one likes dry writing pens the odds improve. But in general it has been my experience that these pens have to go through a good ultrasonic cleaning to get a decent ink flow (and maybe some nib tweaking). The one pen that I bought restored wrote perfectly.

[pajaro]

Thanks pajaro, I appreciate you doing that. Does your 51 Special also have a hole drilled in the end of the barrel like the normal 51's then?

Yes, it has a hole in the end of the barrel.

[pajaro]

To the OP. As many have stated, the differences between the special and the regular are minimal, the most important being the nib (octanium or gold). The sac protector on the special is the hoop one, but that makes absolutely no difference (at least not for me) and presumably you could change that down the road if you really like the closed protector.

 

 

 

 

That is exactly the opposite of my experience. In the last two weeks I received about 5 of those (plus several vacs... I know, I need to stop looking into eBay). Before that I had a few others and, except for one demi, none wrote well from the start. Some were misaligned and the ones that were aligned wrote way too dry for my liking - maybe a bit of it has to do with writing preferences and if one likes dry writing pens the odds improve. But in general it has been my experience that these pens have to go through a good ultrasonic cleaning to get a decent ink flow (and maybe some nib tweaking). The one pen that I bought restored wrote perfectly.

I find your experience astoundingly horrifying. I, however, stand by what I wrote. I tested them with water, and I filled them with ink and they wrote. Your experience is about ten years after mine, because I haven't bought many 51s in the last several years. Many more tyro nincompoops have had the opportunity to buy and ruin those pens in the intervening years. The 51s I bought have worked.

 

The first 51 I bought new in 1970 has worked perfectly since purchase, in spite of the use of laundry white and black inks in my years in the USAF, permanent inks and other stuff, all well flushed out. These pens can stand a lot of hard use.

 

Frankly, I find it hard to credit crummy 51 stories. They are possible, but don't jive with my experience. I have gotten a couple of 51s with no tipping on the gold nibs, which were stubby as if the tipping were cut off. Replaced them and moved on.

Edited May 12, 2017 by pajaro

[FarmBoy]

The Syndicate notes that all 51s are special...