What Makes The Im Premium, Well, "premium"?

[SoulSamurai]

I recently purchased a Parker IM Premium in Dark Violet as a birthday gift for my mother. I though the colour and pattern were quite nice, and you can actually get Parker ink cartridges locally if she decided to go that route (I did of course pick up a converter and some scented violet ink to go with the pen).

 

I just got the pen, and it has the smoothest nib I've experienced yet, so that's good. Also, the nib is very short but the section is long with a mild step, so I don't have to worry too much about it not suiting her grip (personally I have slightly large hands and yet my Nemosine Singularity is uncomfortable to me because I want to hold the pen closer to the tip than the grip will allow, so I'm wary of #6 nibs or larger). I've currently got it sitting nib-up to see if it suffers from drying problems, but I don't expect a problem there - while I have a number of pens that completely dry up over a day or two, none of my Parkers have this problem.

 

While I'm very happy with the pen so far, I've actually just noticed that there's a "regular" Parker IM that is significantly cheaper than the Premium model. So my question is, is there a difference between the regular and the premium other than than the finish?

 

EDIT: Also, why does the forum refuse to let me write "IM" in the thread title, forcing it to camel-case "Im"?

Edited November 22, 2017 by SoulSamurai

[hh1990]

I believe other than the finish, everything else is the same.

[Runnin_Ute]

As far as I know, just a way to get a few more of your hard earned dollars. Finishes and colors not available in the regular line. With the 45 it was more for the Flighter and others like the Insignia, Coronet etc.

[mitto]

The Premium comes with beautiful finishes. I wish they upgraded the nib on the premium.

 

Not a fan of modern Parkers, though.

[SoulSamurai]

I see. While I feel a smidgen less happy about how much I paid for the Premium now, I'm so impressed with the pen's nib that I do find myself tempted to pick up a non-Premium model for myself if it's likely to have the same nib...

[mitto]

The newer version of the IM came with a bigger nib (other than the one that also came with the Vector and Urban). But I don't know if they also brought out that newer version with the bigger nib in the Premium finish.

 

What kind of nib do you have on your IM?

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

As to your EDIT:

 

To display Im [or Usa or Uk] or any other acronym as intended, inserting a Unicode zero width space (U+200B) between AllCap chars does the trick.

Xref : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-width_space

 

I must say that using obscure acronyms in a Topic Title might cause confusion. I prefer to spell-out in full, then use acronyms in the Topic text, though no doubt we read 'Twsbi' as 'TWSBI' with full understanding the underlying significance of the acronym:

TWSBI's name stands for the phrase "Hall of Three Cultures" or "San Wen Tong" in Chinese. The character "Wen" translates into language and culture. The phrase "San Wen Tong" also brings to mind the Hall of the Three Rare Treasures created by Emperor Qianlong as a memorial to three great masterpieces of Chinese calligraphy. The initials of the phrase "San Wen Tong" was reversed and thus turned into "TWS". The last letters "Bi" was added with its literal meaning of "writing instruments". Thus combining the two segments, creating TWSBI."

 

 

Bye,

Sandy1 aka S1

Edited November 23, 2017 by Sandy1

[peterg]

Compare the price of a Conway Stewart 286 in black 'cracked ice', about £130, and a 286 in black, about £30. Otherwise they are identical. That's your premium!

[SoulSamurai]

The newer version of the IM came with a bigger nib (other than the one that also came with the Vector and Urban). But I don't know if they also brought out that newer version with the bigger nib in the Premium finish.

 

What kind of nib do you have on your IM?

 

I don't really know how to answer that question; the best I can say it that it's a short nib (shorter than a standard #5 anyway), but in more of a "traditional" nib shape than the one on my Parker Vector. I'm guessing from the small size that it is in fact the older one that you mentioned. Which is not only fine with me, it's preferred: like I said, this way the pen is even more flexible when it comes to grip height.

 

Hi,

 

As to your EDIT:

 

To display Im [or Usa or Uk] or any other acronym as intended, inserting a Unicode zero width space (U+200B) between AllCap chars does the trick.

Xref : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-width_space

 

I must say that using obscure acronyms in a Topic Title might cause confusion. I prefer to spell-out in full, then use acronyms in the Topic text, though no doubt we read 'Twsbi' as 'TWSBI' with full understanding the underlying significance of the acronym:

TWSBI's name stands for the phrase "Hall of Three Cultures" or "San Wen Tong" in Chinese. The character "Wen" translates into language and culture. The phrase "San Wen Tong" also brings to mind the Hall of the Three Rare Treasures created by Emperor Qianlong as a memorial to three great masterpieces of Chinese calligraphy. The initials of the phrase "San Wen Tong" was reversed and thus turned into "TWS". The last letters "Bi" was added with its literal meaning of "writing instruments". Thus combining the two segments, creating TWSBI."

 

 

Bye,

Sandy1 aka S1

I don't actually know what the IM stands for to be honest. I don't know that it's fair to call the acronym "obscure" when the pen seems to be commonly listed under that exact name. Having said that, the last bit on my original post was only semi-serious; it's just that I hate "auto-correct" style automated systems with the passion of a thousand burning suns as they all seem to be convinced that I'm an idiot and they know what I want to write better than I do. I KNOW WHAT I WANT TO WRITE YOU STUPID PIECES OF CODE! STOP TREATING ME LIKE AN IDIOT AND JUST GET OUT OF MY WAY!

 

Ah-hem. I'm sorry that you had to see that. I'm a software developer myself, so I feel comfortable in wishing great misfortune upon anyone who writes an interface that's so convinced that I don't know what I'm doing that it won't let me actually do something obvious and straightforwards that I do want to do. For example, write IM. It's fine if software makes helpful suggestions, but it should never try to override me.

 

Do you want Skynet? Because that is how you get Skynet.

[senzen]

A decent nib makes a big difference, but fountain pen prices vary wildly for the same models, a Sailor Professional Gear goes from "ouch, but ok" in black to "hell no" in Sky (clear blue). In your case it's a "premium" because they called it a premium, probably denotes old style marketing-speak disconnected from reality, like calling something "deluxe": consumers have long moved on.

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Software development is ongoing, somewhat organic if you will. Yet I reckon basic functionalities should be achieved from the get-go. (At the shop s/w starts at v 0.01.)

 

It seems to me that the FPN platform is doing its job, and that if a few rogue members, such as myself, can find a work-around to its foibles, those should be shared.

 

Now if only I could find s/w to deal with my daft sense of punctuation...

 

Bye,

S1

[SoulSamurai]

Well, looks like I spoke too soon. After one week nib-up the pen was COMPLETELY dry; even the ink in the converter had dried up (worth mentioning that it was maybe 15-20% full, but still). I am very disappointed in this; I have $3 Platinum Preppies (as well as a number of cheap Parkers, Pelikans, Sheaffers, Rotrings, etc) that perform FAR better on this front. I am currently trying to "air-proof" the cap, in the desperate hope that it will make a difference.

[bbs]

Thank you for your update. I had been considering getting the Emerald Pearl as a daily carry round, but think I'll give it a miss now.

[mitto]

A few months ago, I found out that a local stationery store was selling UK made NOS boxed Parker Frontier flighters (both CT and GT) for around $13-$15 and I bought four of them. I inked one nearly a month ago and then forgot about it. It wrote the moment I touched the nib of the pen onto the paper yesterday. No ink drying up and/or skipping issues whatsoever were found. This is the difference between the UK, US or France made pre-2000 Parkers and the current blingy Shanghai Parkers. I have two IMs that were gifted to me but have never used them. And have no intension to use them in future either.

 

PS.

The same store is now selling Pilot Metropoliton/MR for $10.

[SoulSamurai]

I guess sometimes they really don't make them like they used to (at least when "they" refers to Parker anyway). I flushed and dried the section, put a few drops of acrylic varnish in the cap, filled the pen properly, and now it's sitting nib-up again. In a week I'll give it another try; if it doesn't work then, well, I've currently got my eye on either a NOS Sheaffer 440 or a Platinum 3776, both in dark red.