Are Nibs Interchangeable?

January 17, 2019

I have a Parker 61, 51 and a 45, all with fine nibs. Am I able to replace them with medium or flexible nibs?

January 17, 2019

I have bought replacement nibs for my Parker 45 at http://www.fivestarpens.com and they sell them for the 61 and 51 as well, but I don't think you're going to get anything flexible.

January 17, 2019

There are rare P-51's with Medium or Broad nibs....read about them.

It's nib I believe will only fit it and it is complicated taking the pen apart.

Don't know much at all about it, but guess buying another P-51 in a wider width will be easier than finding a loose nib.

AH HA....it's good someone came on that knows what he's talking about. ""at http://www.fivestarpens.com and they sell them for the 61 and 51""

Sure there are wider in the P-45 also.................the English made ones will be regular flex, rather than the nail I'd expect from Stateside Parkers.The P-45 is a jewel to take apart. Mine is an M. The nibs should be easy to find, in the pen takes apart easy....and could have been saved if the pen was ruined by someone or couldn't be saved after being found in the wild.

Swan made a large range of nib flexes, so I have the English P-45 in regular flex (expect a nail for Stateside made...don't know about Canadian), a Parker Jr. Duofold in semi-flex. Have an Australian Sheaffer in maxi-semi-flex....made to match the Swan nib range. I expect Commonwealth Parkers to have more flex than Stateside, but semi-flex from a Jr. Duofold....is miles away from a superflex pen.

I prefer the term superflex....that way there is no confusion with regular flex, semi-flex....or maxi-semi-flex. Those last three spread their tines 3X max. Superflex spreads it's tines 4 X, mostly 5&6 X...and a 7X tine spread is very rare....outside the sprung nibs being sprung on Ebay or Youtube.

The only think I know about the 61 is the inlaid nib can be screwed up for good, real easy and it's hard to get them clean of old dried ink to refill them. So I stayed away from that.

No, to Flexible nibs, in Parker didn't make nibs with some to much flex from at least the middle '30's; a nail nib company after that mostly. The mid-late '60's P-75 is a semi-nail.

Edited January 17, 2019 by Bo Bo Olson

January 17, 2019

Look for a Wahl Eversharp from the '30's for a superflex pen....they are semi-flex in the '40's....a bit later they went broke and Parker bought them up to use just the once good name on a pen too cheap to be a Parker.

Waterman pens with superflex nibs can be rather expensive.

There are ground and slit cheap to expensive 'modern' nibs....some are 'said' to be superflex.......lots say not more than semi-flex.

As far as I know there are no real un-modified real nib looking superflex pens......well the Ahab and Konrad need to be modified with half moon grinds to be a fun nib..........unmodified they are too hard....for fun. Superflex has to do with ease of tine bend besides just tine spread.

Suggest dip pens for superflex..................

A Wet Noodle has lots of flex.....I have dip pen nibs that make a Wet Noodle look uncooked.

And you are not out a fortune....a pen holder, a couple nibs....many like the Zebra G for beginners and a bottle or two of dip pen ink....which does better being thicker than fountain pen ink.

January 17, 2019

Note that nib swapping will be a lot easier on the 45 than the 51 and 61.

Unlike the 45, on the 51 and 61, the hood is held down with a sealant material (most modern pen mechanics use shellac; Parker technicians back in the day used an unspecified thread sealant, the composition of which was never openly disclosed, but which some FPNers here have surmised to be rosin thread sealant). The 51 and 61 are really not meant to be casually disassembled by the end user (for nib swapping or otherwise). Sure, lots of people try it, but without the proper tools - and more importantly, significant experience in pen restoration - the level of risk involved is on another level altogether compared to the simple task of unscrewing a P45 nib unit. This is especially true of the P61 - the plastic of the 61 is significantly more fragile than the 51, and can crack or distort real easy, sometimes even if you are doing everything right.

Therefore, if you would like to try a wider range of more interesting nibs, starting with the P45 is your best option - and there are quite a lot of different P45 nibs. The rarer kinds (oblique broad stubs and italics, for instance...) may cost you a pretty penny, but you can use any P45 nib in any P45, so a lot of fun can be had that way.

Additionally, even the same P45 nib from different Parker factories can have different characters. For example - as Bo Bo Olson has already noted above, the UK-made 14k nibs are often quite a bit softer than the US ones. I find the UK nibs to also have somewhat more rounded tipping than the US ones; combined with the softness it makes for a really comfy writing experience. I have heard that some Argentine P45 nibs are even softer, but I cannot confirm that since I am still hunting for one myself!

And a note of caution - none of these nibs are flex nibs. If you get a nice soft English P45 nib and try to really flex it out, you will end up with... a sprung English P45 nib. They aren't meant for line variation through flex, they are just nice and cushy, super comfortable to write with.

January 18, 2019

Real great advice....so nice to read something from someone who really knows what he's talking about.

Often I know, if I can put both hands on an elbow, I either had an industrial accident, or it's not an elbow. Hummm.

There is a great pen repair book, the best, by Jim Marshal & Lawrence Oldfield..................whee what tools one needs.

Just buy a P-51 in the nib width you want........and check if the British P-51 is a nail or regular flex over in the Parker sub-section. Just because my Jr. Doufold is semi-flex don't mean the P-51 is regular flex, much less semi-flex. I doubt the latter....In I'm sure over the last decade had someone said his English P-51 was semi-flex....I'd certainly would have looked for one. (Of course since they divided the Com out in brands, I've seldom been to Parker...so I could have missed it.)

I was surprised my British P-45 was regular flex.

Nothing is impossible.........I had thought some day to get one of the rare '50's semi-flex Snorkels, and I ran into an Australian made one .... factory BB Stub in maxi-semi-flex. Had expected to chase the super deluxe President, Ambassador or Saratoga to get a semi-flex Snorkel.........but am quite happy with the simple one I lucked into.

Regular flex used to be common, except for US Parker. It was regular issue....the reason it is called regular flex................it appears to be now rare***.............and or those that have old vintage pens that are so, don't know it.

***I don't know Japanese pens, but suspect the Japanese 'soft' nibs are regular flex. Pelikan 200 is a regular flex nibbed pen. Nice comfortable springy ride.

Edited January 18, 2019 by Bo Bo Olson

January 18, 2019

Once again you all are awesome. Being a new FP addict, I am learning everything firsthand! I had no idea about nibs at all.

I would be satisfied with a medium nib but perhaps I need to start looking for a 51 WITH a medium nib. If I locate a medium nib for a 61, I would definitely send it out to someone who knows what they’re doing, to replace it, lol.

As for the 45, I’m excited that it’s easier to replace them. The 45 is actually my first and favorite to write with.

Again, thanks for the education!

January 18, 2019

P51 with medium nib is rather uncommon and desired by many, and therefore it will cost you. Not extravagant amounts, but be prepared to pay a premium for one, relative to a plain jane 51 with a fine nib. Also P51s with medium nibs seem to have been more common across the pond.

A hunting tip for rare P45 nibs - it can occasionally be worth buying a junk or broken P45, if you happen to see that it has a rare nib in good condition that has not been bent or damaged in any way. Sometimes sellers of vintage knickknacks who aren't pen enthusiasts put up such broken pens for sale on the cheap, not realizing the true value remaining in the nib.

You can do this with any other pen type that has easily swappable nib units. Esterbrooks are another fine example.

(Here the reader should imagine a sudden upsurge of ominous background music, as I belatedly realize I have trained a new market competitor! )

January 18, 2019

Is that White Shark music.....?

We all started out ignorant....some vastly..................Back in the Day....or in the Stone Age, we knew nothing about cleaning pens...........Clean a Pen??????

After a number of years you were supposed to throw it into the back of the drawer and by a new one.

Of course we didn't change inks much....or the boys didn't.

Gee...what wonderful girly inks I use...........out side of pink.

I lived in the Golden Age of Pens....and could only afford school pens....it took me over 50 years to get the Adult pens I'd promised my self....the P-51 and Snorkel......I did get the P-75 so was a One Pen man for going on 40 years.

........I lived in the Golden Age of Paper......and didn't know it.

When I first came here I must have copied 4 megs of info....would help to go back and re-read it.

At first one can learn 10 or more things a day, a 100 new things a week. After a few years that is down to once a day in pens.....but there is papers................don't go to the ink section....don't.

If you do read ink reviews by our Ink Guru, Sandy1 . You won't believe it is the same ink, after she has put it down in four widths...normal pens on 4 better papers....if you read a number of her reviews, she has changed some of her papers....but that is 7 great papers.........been telling my self for years....to get them.....so do so...... Don't use me as an example. Get a list of ten good to better papers to get....and get them. I do have 25-30 papers....and am so 'noobie'.

Go to Richard Binder's site......it is the bible of fountain pens; nibs, filling systems, good advice on inks and so many pretty pictures of vintage pens.

January 18, 2019

If you can't find a medium/broad nib for the 51, email Greg Minuskin. he can retip a 51 nib to be anything you want. medium, broad, oblique, stub, italic. It won't be super cheap (usually about $150 for the full service) but his work is exceptional

45 nibs are surprisingly common in steel and gold. They won't be flexible.

http://www.fivestarpens.com/parker-45-nibs.html

25 bucks for a 14k medium.

Edited January 18, 2019 by Honeybadgers

January 19, 2019

(Here the reader should imagine a sudden upsurge of ominous background music, as I belatedly realize I have trained a new market competitor! )

Lolol KL! You always give me a chuckle! To be honest, I don’t know that I will get THAT deep into this whole business. Famous last words, huh? I think there is a specific gene that one possesses that gives one the talent (and patience) to find that diamond in the rough. My husband is one that can find the absolute best and most valuable of whatever item or collectible he is searching for—it’s uncanny. I DO NOT possess that gene. Just yesterday my husband and I went to a warehouse that sells merchandise from shipping containers to pick up something he bought on eBay and I looked around to see if they had any FPS. My first foray into “thrifting” for pens. I saw a Tupperware container with a bunch of pens in various states of dismantle and all I got was a panic attack because I couldn’t tell what was what.

So, I think you are safe. I just don’t have the patience!

January 19, 2019

@Bo Bo Olson,

Thank you for the insight my friend! Since your earlier post, I have been searching for Wahl Eversharps and the gold ones are sooooo pretty and the flexible nibs write sooooo cool! I think you might have propelled me into another direction, in addition to my Parkermania...

I cant wait to find THE ONE and write with it. Except Im finding that I have the good pen, I have the good paper and I cant think of a darn thing to write. Does anyone else have this problem?

Edited January 19, 2019 by Dodgerchick

January 19, 2019

I cant wait to find THE ONE and write with it. Except Im finding that I have the good pen, I have the good paper and I cant think of a darn thing to write. Does anyone else have this problem?

I suggest you give Morning Pages a try. Notebook of your choice, I use second tier, and scribble away without thinking about it too much, for three pages every morning. Not to be referred to again and not for others. There's no right way to do it, and no one's watching.

Once the notebook is full - off to recycling it goes.

Search the term and have a go.

Edited January 19, 2019 by Karmachanic