Parker Vp Ink Flow Problems

[TimeoDanaos]

Hi all, I just got a lot of two P61's, a Vacumatic, and the one that made me buy the lot: a VP. 61's are fine, the Vac has some serious nib trouble. But that's for another post entirely.

 

I think the VP is close to the ideal pen. It's not bad looking (I belong to a minority that cannot stand to look at a P51), it's full size, the nib can be adjusted, and if the filler isn't broken, the filling mechanism is an amazing invention. I like the 75 for the adjustable nib, but the gripping section is slightly too small for my hands. The VP is spot on sizewise.

 

So on to the problem: my 75's, 61's and other Parkers have good flow. This VP doesn't. I filled it with MB royal blue, and it only lays down a pale blue line, almost like the FPN banner, where I would have expected a rich blue layer of ink catching the sunlight in its not-yet dried tracks - I love wet pens... I have flushed the pen repeatedly with clean water and filled it as if it were a normal converter, so the feed should be well primed. There is one thing that appears to be wrong with the nib assembly: I cannot remove the feed, but the nib sits rather loose on it. It's not falling off, but it's quite easy to pull off. The pen came with a spare nib assembly where the nib is also loose. I don't know how, why, or if that might cause the weak ink flow, but it's the only obvious thing I can point to.

 

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[parkergeo]

I have relatively few VP's compared to some other Parker models, but I do know that none of the nibs can "easily" be pulled off the feed. The VP nib assembly is very similar to the P75, and the nib should have its side tabs firmly tucked into the mating slots in the feed (which then shouldn't allow forward progress). The parts of the assembly really were never meant to be routinely separated, and if an unskilled person tries they can end up altering the nib curvature so that it neither locks properly nor forms a proper ink pathway from filler to point.

 

Trying an ink that flows well in vintage Parker pens such as Waterman's Serenity Blue would be an option, but you may have a mechanical issue that cleaning or ink substitution won't be able to fix.

[TimeoDanaos]

Thank you for your answer parkergeo.

 

Unfortunately it's very disturbing news: it means that someone has violently dismantled the nib assemblies in the past, because the nibs really do come off very easily (but for once I'm not the guilty one!)

 

I guess I'll have to take a closer look and see if it might be possible to reattach the nibs properly to the feed. Otherwise I will need to find a new nib assembly and someone who can exchange the old for the spare.