Are Parker Fps No Longer The Best?

[Mangrove Jack]

I have been a Parker fan all my life. I got my first Parker fountain pen when I was 12 years old, a Parker 45, which still works. I will be 57 this year.

 

However, all my Parkers are vintage and are fantastic writers - 45's, 51's, 61's, 75's. IMHO second to none. Over the recent years too I have been picking up Parkers, but all vintage models because I have not had good experiences with the newer models.

 

You can't go wrong if you buy the vintage Parkers, and there are so many different colors, finishes, textures, materials, etc. in each of the vintage models that you can have an absolute ball buying and using these wonderful pens.

[tim77]

I got my first Parker fountain pen when I was 12 years old, a Parker 45, which still works. I will be 57 this year.

So your (Parker) 45 is 45 (years old)?

 

This was a really good value pen. Simple, elegant, reliable, and comfortable. I used and wore-out several during my school days, just from unscrewing the barrel to change the cartridge. Apart from that they never ever skipped a beat.

 

I wish Parker would bring back the 45. There's nothing I can think of that's really comparable to it on the market today. The Waterman Expert is close, but less elegant and the normal price is quite a lot higher.

[A Smug Dill]

My impression was that Parker make some of the best FPs.

When did Parker do so, and by "some of the best", are you talking about in the top 10%? Top 20%? 50%?

 

I personally have no interest whatsoever in vintage fountain pens — and, luckily for me and everyone else, I'm not spending money buying them and then throwing them out when I find they don't perform as well as modern pens by my criteria — but I have not 'met' a single Parker fountain pen manufactured after 1990 that I thought was a good pen, including not-exactly-cheap Parker Sonnet cascade gold pens with gold nibs that just did not compare favourably in any way with steel-nibbed Waterman (before I knew better and heard about brands not stocked in the major local department stores) and Rotring fountain pens (back when Rotring was still producing those). I therefore cannot see any reason to recommend Parker as a brand for others who are getting (back) into fountain pens to even consider, unless they already have a dozen or more pens and just wanted an extra data point for comparison.

 

But, now I sense that people think Japanese and European brands are the best.

I always thought of Parker as an European brand on the basis that my Sonnet pens were made in France, actually.

 

Now, if someone can recommend a high-end Parker fountain pen that would compete with similarly priced Platinum, Pilot, Aurora and Pelikan pens — all of which I picked because they manufacture their nibs in-house — in terms of effectiveness is preventing ink from drying out when capped, writing precisely and crisply with an EF nib (which Pelikan isn't even good at), having premium finishes on the pen bodies, etc. I'd be happy to reconsider my opinion of that brand.

 

Modern traditional North American brands like Parker/Waterman, and Cross don't get the recognition they deserve at this forum. They still make great writing pens.

I thought my late 1990s Cross Townsend titanium herringbone sucked, too. Dunno about Waterman these days, but I used to like them and most of my early collection were Waterman Expert fountain pens.

 

People at this forum are drawn to the niche and European and Japanese brands for the cachet associated with all things more foreign, exotic, and niche.

No, but "traditional" or "American" has no currency competing in today's reinvigorated fountain pen hobbyist market in my view. Either of those things are not necessarily negative, but they just need to prove themselves all over again compared against their Japanese, German, Italian or even Chinese contemporaries.

[Mangrove Jack]

So your (Parker) 45 is 45 (years old)?

 

This was a really good value pen. Simple, elegant, reliable, and comfortable. I used and wore-out several during my school days, just from unscrewing the barrel to change the cartridge. Apart from that they never ever skipped a beat.

 

I wish Parker would bring back the 45. There's nothing I can think of that's really comparable to it on the market today. The Waterman Expert is close, but less elegant and the normal price is quite a lot higher.

Ha ha. Tim, never thought of that. Yes, my 45 is 45.

I agree completely about the Parker 45's. They were made in many different colors and materials that one could never grow tired of acquiring them. I have over the years picked up many - Coronets, Classics, Flighters, Insignias, Harlequins, etc.

[ajcoleman]

It is true that perhaps Parker is not the world leader they were in yesteryear when the 51 and 45 were both revolutionary and popular pens. But my Sonnet with a 18k nib from John Montishaw (nibs.com) is hands down my favorite writer and boasts the best nib I own. I have not had any drying out problems at all. The new Jotter fountain pen I bought a month ago writes wonderfully, looks sharp, and feels substantially more solid than previous Jotter fountain pens. I would put it up against a Safari or Pilot metro any day. Am I just lucky or as Parker turned a corner? It is only two pens, but they are both great pens for the money, at two very different price points.

[max dog]

Now, if someone can recommend a high-end Parker fountain pen that would compete with similarly priced Platinum, Pilot, Aurora and Pelikan pens — all of which I picked because they manufacture their nibs in-house — in terms of effectiveness is preventing ink from drying out when capped, writing precisely and crisply with an EF nib (which Pelikan isn't even good at), having premium finishes on the pen bodies, etc. I'd be happy to reconsider my opinion of that brand.

 

 

I thought my late 1990s Cross Townsend titanium herringbone sucked, too. Dunno about Waterman these days, but I used to like them and most of my early collection were Waterman Expert fountain pens.

 

 

No, but "traditional" or "American" has no currency competing in today's reinvigorated fountain pen hobbyist market in my view. Either of those things are not necessarily negative, but they just need to prove themselves all over again compared against their Japanese, German, Italian or even Chinese contemporaries.

I rest my case about this forum.

 

And I reiterate:

Modern traditional North American brands like Parker/Waterman, and Cross don't get the recognition they deserve at this forum. They still make great writing pens. People at this forum are drawn to the niche and European and Japanese brands for the cachet associated with all things more foreign, exotic, and niche.

 

My Cross Townsends and Sheaffer Legacy Heritage can hold it's own in terms of writing performance and quality build against anything from the land of the rising sun or Europe or anywhere else. If flex is important, even Noodlers can flex their nibs. That is not exceptional fountain pen talent.

Edited August 25, 2019 by max dog

[praxim]

I rest my case about this forum.

 

Modern traditional North American brands like Parker/Waterman, and Cross don't get the recognition they deserve at this forum. They still make great writing pens. People at this forum are drawn to the niche and European and Japanese brands for the cachet associated with all things more foreign, exotic, and niche.

 

I too might think certain pens "deserve" more attention (or less) than they generally receive. That does not make the implicit voting entailed in forum trends wrong.

 

Regarding "People are drawn to the niche ... for the cachet associated with all things ... niche", isn't that a little tautologous? For many on this forum those foreign [exotic] places are where they live, so perhaps less foreign [exotic] to them. If Parker is defined as traditional North American, foreign to "foreigners", yet lacks cachet then "niche" and "foreign" may not be the great attractors in modern pen choices.

[max dog]

 

I too might think certain pens "deserve" more attention (or less) than they generally receive. That does not make the implicit voting entailed in forum trends wrong.

 

Regarding "People are drawn to the niche ... for the cachet associated with all things ... niche", isn't that a little tautologous? For many on this forum those foreign [exotic] places are where they live, so perhaps less foreign [exotic] to them. If Parker is defined as traditional North American, foreign to "foreigners", yet lacks cachet then "niche" and "foreign" may not be the great attractors in modern pen choices.

Point taken Praxim Exotic and foreign is relative to a point of view. The point I tried to make is that the traditional brands of yesteryear are still very relevant.

[Honeybadgers]

I rest my case about this forum.

 

And I reiterate:

Modern traditional North American brands like Parker/Waterman, and Cross don't get the recognition they deserve at this forum. They still make great writing pens. People at this forum are drawn to the niche and European and Japanese brands for the cachet associated with all things more foreign, exotic, and niche.

 

My Cross Townsends and Sheaffer Legacy Heritage can hold it's own in terms of writing performance and quality build against anything from the land of the rising sun or Europe or anywhere else. If flex is important, even Noodlers can flex their nibs. That is not exceptional fountain pen talent.

 

I don't think that people on this forum aren't the ones not buying parker and such. We don't buy them all that much because the models are already well established and don't regularly mix things up with new models and finishes that keep discussion going. The matte gold grip, black lacquer 18k sonnet is just as good as it has been for like thirty years. It doesn't really warrant constant discussion. Japanese and european makers keep things spicy among the collectors by routinely releasing special editions. If parker started throwing out special edition inks and unique finishes on the sonnet and sold them for reasonable prices, we'd be talking about them a lot more. Marketing is the biggest failing of the big western brands.

 

The other thing they could do is revamp their lower cost line. Most people who start out with a cross or parker or sheaffer just get some extremely inconsistently made piece of junk for $25-40 at some office supply store, have a bad experience because it dries out or skips or hard starts, and have a sour taste on the brand. So a big change in their line towards something of higher quality, in particular with finer nib options than the mediums that don't write well on the cheap paper everyone starts out with, offering a proper EF, F, M, B, and stub option with high nib QC like japanese brands and good inner caps in the $20-40 price range, would go a LONG way in helping. A lot of people love lamy because of the safari, pilot because of the metro/prera, platinum because of the preppy, pelikan because the pelikano, and TWSBI because of the eco. Get 'em young or cheap, and build that brand loyalty.

 

That said, I only really didn't look at cross or modern parker/waterman/sheaffer until recently because they just didn't seem to offer great value for money. But when I finally found a parker sonnet 18k for under $100 and bought my first cross townsend, I was convertered. I'd put my peerless london against a MB 149 any day of the week, even though it's not a piston filler.

Edited August 26, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[inkstainedruth]

When I first got into using fountain pens, I had a couple of Parker Reflexes -- inexpensive cartridge pens. They wrote okay for a cheap pen, but the rubberized grip disintegrated on the pens after a while. I then upgraded to a Vector since I still had spare cartridges. It's now got a big crack in the barrel, at the threading but I used that pen daily for several years and it's still a sentimental favorite (in fact, leaving the pen and journal at my brother-in-law's for a month by accident, eventually led me to here when I tried to find a replacement until I got the pen back). From there, I "upgraded" to an Urban. Which was pretty much garbage (good thing I had signed up for the extended warranty, because I needed it). Modern Parkers are just meh (at best) -- remember, the company is now owned by Newell-Rubbermaid (who's main business is making plastic storage tubs -- nuff said... ).

You can't pay me to use a modern Parker, other than a Vector -- I'm a sucker for them. Vintage Parkers, OTOH? Let's just say I have more Parkers than of any other brand -- vintage OR modern, and other than the Vectors they're pretty much all from the 1960s or before. And I'd say roughly a quarter of the current collection are Parkers: (roughly 10 51s, plus a 51 Special, a 21, and a 4; about as many Vacs, in various colors and sizes; four 61s; three Laidtone Duofolds; a couple of earlier pens -- Challengers and Parkettes, and a few random other pens. And the Sonnet from Hell....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bo Bo Olson]

my older 75 bought used is a joy, but still a tiny pen."""""""""

 

Actually the P-75 is a standard sized pen.....not tiny at all unless you started with the modern large and oversized pens. Of course if you refuse to post pens designed to be posted all of them will be too tiny, be they standard or medium large.

My standard sized P-75 ciselé, is light for silver and one of my best balanced ….posted pens.

 

My top three balanced pens, back when that mattered more than now....were all different.

My MB 234 1/2 Deluxe has a slightly wider girth, and is back weighted because of the brass guts. It is a standard sized pen....like an Esterbrook DJ.

 

My Geha 725 is a thin medium long pen...…….medium long pens (but not thin) , P-51 or the Pelikan 600.

Then there was the standard sized P-75. My Pelikan 400NN was forth then. I must have 10-15 top five balanced pens now.

 

The P-45 has for a large pen fairly good balance....and is affordable.

 

I bought my ciselé P-75 for $22 silver dollars...well back when the blue stamp on a dollar bill got you a silver dollar at any bank. The thin MP/BP cost me $18 a fortune to a draft time service man of 1970.

 

The problem with the P-75 is it costs $75 for a 'new' nib. The advantage of the P-75 is it has a squeeze filler, takes cartridges and or a converter.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A decade ago, there were nothing but complaints about the 'new' P-75 ….Sonnet and the new Duofold and just about any Parker pen. So I was cured of any desire to own a modern Parker.

 

I do have a few metal flighter type Parkers that I don't use, in I'm not into nails, but sometimes at a flea market one will buy anything if it's cheap enough.

Edited August 26, 2019 by Bo Bo Olson

[A Smug Dill]

I rest my case about this forum.

To my knowledge, FPN (and its membership) is not a North America-centric organisation and community. We are brought together by a shared 'hobby' — being acquisition and/or use of fountain pens (and paraphernalia) — and its fair to assume we can all read and write in English, but that's the extent of our commonality in a broad sense. We don't necessarily share the same background, native language, political views and geopolitical allegiances, or use cases for fountain pens.

 

As far as I'm aware, fountain pens were not an American invention, and the US does not lay claim the lion's share of active fountain pen users globally today. The Italian brand Aurora and Japanese brand Platinum both celebrated their 100th Anniversary this year, and Pilot and Sailor have even longer histories, so it's not as if they're new to the fountain pen industry or the market.

 

When I read something in this forum that smacks of US-centric sentimentality and romanticism, I regard it with due respect as any other minority opinion among my peers and equals in the community, in the same way my views and preferences are also assumed (by me!) to be in the minority without claim to what is mainstream or representative. None of that warrant endorsement, support or being embraced by others of disparate backgrounds and in our hobbyist community.

 

I am Chinese by race (and Chinese is my mother tongue), grew up in a British colony, and lived in Australia most of my life. Yet I don't think Chinese, UK or Australian brands of pens, inks or paper are "better" or more (or inherently) "worthy" in their standing in the industry and/or hobby, or inherently deserve my support; North American brands are certainly no more so. In my view, they should all just compete fairly in the globalised market for the favour and custom of fickle consumers who are, on the whole, with little brand loyalty and questionable commitment to supporting "local" manufacturers; and I'd like to think that it's a better way to relate to other pen enthusiasts irrespective of from where they hail.

 

It would not be a shame to see any brand – American, European, Japanese or Chinese — lose standing and relevance in the face of global competition, if they cease to become competitive and have to bank on appeals to history and sentimentality to survive in the market.

 

<EDIT>

For the avoidance of doubt: I really, really am not interested in bashing, unduly putting down, or insulting "traditional North American" pens. I simply take the position that they're not inherently better, after I discount any romantic notions of "history" or "heritage" of it being American (which is foreign to me), but they have a place in competing fairly against all other brands — domestic and foreign, established or newfound — for the discretionary spending of my contemporaries without undue regard for their origins. If a $5 Parker model can beat a $5 Wing Sung, or a $50 Parker model can beat a $50 Platinum, or a $500 Parker model can beat a $500 Aurora in unforgiving, unsentimental, no-quarter-given-for-being-traditional-or-North-American "objective" comparison, then I'd be keen to hear about it and maybe spend money on one or several.

 

There's nothing inherently better or worse that a brand (such as Parker) is either North American and/or has a long history. How does it compare to Nemosine, Fine Writing International, and Leonardo Officina Italiana today, all newcomers (from America, Taiwan and Italy, respectively) as brands in the market? How does it compare to Sailor, Pilot, Platinum and Aurora for established brands with 100 years of history or more, in terms of new offerings?

 

I understand that some people here have sentiments and notions about what's "American" — just as others may have about what is "European", Japanese, Chinese, whatever — but I'm frankly not seeing much of, "Those are my personal feelings about it, and 'American' may be of no value or mean absolutely nothing to you, but let me tell you how 'we' can still compete and/or prevail in the market today against everyone else because, you know what, 'we' really are better at it! Bring it on!" The sentiments are not what I'm looking to share, but the clinical, objective, unsentimental results of head-to-head comparison (ignoring place of origin, as if "American" and "Chinese" have no inherent prestige or value) would really interest me as a fellow user and contemporary.

</EDIT>

 

And I reiterate:

Modern traditional North American brands like Parker/Waterman, and Cross don't get the recognition they deserve at this forum. They still make great writing pens.

And I reiterate: I haven't 'met' a Parker pen of which I liked the look and which I found to be a technically competent writing instrument that doesn't dry out relatively quickly when unused. My late father was a big Parker fan (but who only ever used its ballpoint pens) but I don't share his sentiment. If you can point me to a ≤US$40 Parker pen that holds its own in looks and writing competence against Pilot, Platinum, Sailor, Delike, Moonman and PenBBS offerings in the same bracket, I'd like to hear it and maybe buy one to see for myself. If you can point me to a ~US$500 Parker that competes well with all Pilot, Platinum, Sailor, Aurora and Pelikan offerings in that price bracket in terms of materials, workmanship (specifically in the pen body finishes and the nibs), design and technical excellence, I'd like to hear about it too.

 

My Cross Townsends and Sheaffer Legacy Heritage can hold it's own in terms of writing performance and quality build against anything from the land of the rising sun or Europe or anywhere else.

I can't say that of my Cross Townsend titanium herringbone fountain pen (now permanently moved to my fiancée's fleet of pens, since she isn't quite as picky).

 

If flex is important,

Not for me.

 

For many on this forum those foreign [exotic] places are where they live, so perhaps less foreign [exotic] to them. If Parker is defined as traditional North American, foreign to "foreigners", yet lacks cachet then "niche" and "foreign" may not be the great attractors in modern pen choices.

Seriously, I don't get what Parker has to offer other than its brand name, which is not that much older than Sailor, Pilot, Platinum and Aurora, and the Parker name itself has lost much of its prestige once the production of some of its pen models was outsourced to Asia. Being the brand that appears often in run-of-the-mill department stores, next to Waterman, Sheaffer, Cross, Lamy and the supposedly more "premium" Montblanc, does not help its image. When my friends and extended family see or hear about my collection of Sailor, Platinum and Aurora fountain pens and express that they haven't really heard of those brands, because they never encountered them in the average department store or on billboards, my reaction is, "Let me tell you about them..." whereas there is nothing for me to say about Parker and Sheaffer other than, "If you're going to spend $200 on a fountain pen in Myer, let me point you to a Sailor (or Platinum, or Pilot) that's really going to impress upon you what holding and writing with a well-crafted fountain pen is like."

 

Point taken Praxim Exotic and foreign is relative to a point of view. The point I tried to make is that the traditional brands of yesteryear are still very relevant.

I agree, on the basis that Sailor, Pilot, Platinum and Aurora are all "traditional brands of yesteryear" that have survived in the market for a century or longer and are still flourishing.

Edited August 27, 2019 by A Smug Dill

[BaronWulfraed]

The P-45 has for a large pen fairly good balance....and is affordable.

 

 

<blink><blink> The 45 is a "large pen"?

 

Wonder how many women considered the Lady Sheaffer Scripsert to be a large pen -- they are virtually the same size (the cap of the latter will barely slip into the cap of the former). The Sheaffer Prelude and Parker Frontier are larger pens, though not by too much). The tapered cap/barrel make it look slimmer than an Esterbrook LJ/SJ, Sheaffer Fashion II, and a close match to the skinny Noodlers Nib Creeper.

[inkstainedruth]

 

<blink><blink> The 45 is a "large pen"?

 

Yeah, I was wondering about that statement as well. I like my 45s, but, like my Vectors, I don't think I'd be wanting to use one for the Great American Novel -- I have small hands, but I'd need something with a little more girth if I wanted to do that; OTOH, a vintage 51 or 61, or a larger size Vac, such as a Major (or a Junior like my Red Shadow Wave) -- would do very well in that regard.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[max dog]

You should have stopped about 30% into your post as you were making some valid points, but then the brand bashing started, specifically against the North American brands, and all your credibility you built up in the first part of your post crumbled away.

It would not be a shame to see any brand American, European, Japanese or Chinese lose standing and relevance in the face of global competition, if they cease to become competitive and have to bank on appeals to history and sentimentality to survive in the market.

 

 

This part I categorically disagree with you. This kind of brand bashing is not helpful for newbies to the hobby as you've just discouraged them from an entire brand and discovering the pros and cons for themselves. It's one thing to point out your enthusiasm for brands you favor and quite another to bash other brands with the fervor and passion you seem to have for that as demonstrated in your epic essay of a post here. The fountain pen niche market is very, very, very small compared to smart phones for example, and if a Parker, Cross, Pilot, Montblanc, or a Pelikan go under, it is bad for the entire fountain pen community and niche market survival. In my opinion brand bashing is irresponsible behaviour in our vulnerable fountain pen community.

Edited August 27, 2019 by max dog

[A Smug Dill]

This kind of brand bashing is not helpful for newbies to the hobby as you've just discouraged them from an entire brand and discovering the pros and cons for themselves.

It's funny that you call that brand-brashing.

 

I said I see nothing from my first-hand experience as an owner and user (of multiple pens of the brand) to support Parker at all, and I haven't met any Parker fountain pen I liked, but I've invited you and everyone else to point me to some contender models I may have overlooked. After spending thirty or forty thousand dollars on fountain pens over two decades (but mostly in the past eighteen months), I think it's fair for me to say which brands I still find have something to offer — and Parker, Cross, Waterman and its ilk aren't that. That's not brand-bashing in my book but just compare-and-contrast, and wouldn't you say it's a data point that helps other prospective pen purchasers who are equally "neutral" and unsentimental about Parker or any "American" brand?

 

In my opinion brand bashing is irresponsible behaviour in our vulnerable fountain pen community.

On the contrary, I'd say our community of fountain pen users and hobbyists is flourishing, and so are many brands that are stepping up to the challenge and reaping the rewards. We're not here to protect or uphold "heritage" or sustain the continued the existence of any traditional brand if it cannot prove itself worthy year after year in a market full of new customers with "new" dollars to spend on pens and paraphernalia.

 

I was a naysayer when I read all the good things (as well as some bad) people have written about the Nemosine Singularity. I bought one on a lark, loved it, then ordered eight or nine more and told others about it. I bought some more Nemosine pens of different models, too. It has nothing to do with Nemosine being an "American" brand or otherwise. However, the fact that it isn't distributed through retailers overseas any more, and the fact that no free shipping offer applies if anyone wants to buy Nemosine products, also got mentioned because that is true. A North-America-centric perspective and sentiment are not what I bring to the table, and I'd say the majority of fountain pen users globally today would benefit more from a clear what's-in-it-for-me view than saying good things (and avoiding talking about poor and lacklustre experiences or point out how particular brands fail to compete) to keep particular brands or retailers afloat in the market.

 

Fountain Pen Revolution is an American brand, even if its pens (just like Nemosine and Parker) aren't made in US, as far as I'm aware. I got excellent customer service from Kevin at FPR last time, and the pens are OK for what they are and the price points at which they're sold, so I just ordered some more two days ago.

 

"I wouldn't **** on X to save him/her/it if he/she/it was on fire" is exactly the position I take when I cannot see any positive contribution to my wellbeing, enjoyment or profit being brought to the table by X, and that's before I have spent money on X's products and services only to be disappointed; it means whether X survives has no significance to me, but I don't bash him/her/it to accelerate its demise. However, in the consumer market, there is this thing called competition, and if my equals and peers are influenced by my goodwill and enthusiasm for other brands (which have "earned" it) in deciding with which brands they spend their consumer dollars, so be it. One thing I don't have as a person is brand loyalty, but brands such as Sailor and Platinum (with regard to fountain pens and inks) have proven themselves time and again, so I keep buying more. Nevertheless, my wallet is not closed to Parker and "traditional American brands" if they have something to offer to fight their way out of the vast collection of brands that I don't care about in the market whether they survive, and I reiterate: I'm open to suggestions of which new Parker pen models that can compete (from an unsentimental, clinical, purely me-me-me consumer and user perspective) with other offerings in the market today at the same price points.

 

Having an "American" alternative in a marketplace flooded with "equally" good products from Germany, Italy, Japan and China means nothing to me, because while I'd like to think I don't hold that against the manufacturer and count it a negative, that "characteristic" is a flat zero. Equally, a hundred years or more of "history" does not endear a brand to me unless for the same price it can deliver "prestige" or pretensions of sophistication and class (as a value-add to me as the owner) that a more recently-founded could not with comparable product quality.

 

If you want Parker to survive in the name of protecting "our vulnerable fountain pen community", and not for any merit in how it competes with Japanese, European and "niche" brands in the market today, you're welcome to throw your money at its products and other commercial offerings.

Edited August 29, 2019 by A Smug Dill

[Bo Bo Olson]

I have an English P-45 with the thin tapering body, so could be the second edtiton.

It is longer by a tad than my Pel 600, Celebry &381, Geha 725, the same length as my MB Virginia Woolf a large pen and a tad shorter than my Large 146* or Lamy Persona. A very slight tad shorter than my Ahab which is a large pen.

So slides intot he Large Pen category. Perhaps the fat shorter bodied P-45 is shorter a medium large pen like the P-51, I don't have one.

 

 

* Do have a vintage medium-large '50-70 146.

[max dog]

 

I don't think that people on this forum aren't the ones not buying parker and such. We don't buy them all that much because the models are already well established and don't regularly mix things up with new models and finishes that keep discussion going. The matte gold grip, black lacquer 18k sonnet is just as good as it has been for like thirty years. It doesn't really warrant constant discussion. Japanese and european makers keep things spicy among the collectors by routinely releasing special editions. If parker started throwing out special edition inks and unique finishes on the sonnet and sold them for reasonable prices, we'd be talking about them a lot more. Marketing is the biggest failing of the big western brands.

 

The other thing they could do is revamp their lower cost line. Most people who start out with a cross or parker or sheaffer just get some extremely inconsistently made piece of junk for $25-40 at some office supply store, have a bad experience because it dries out or skips or hard starts, and have a sour taste on the brand. So a big change in their line towards something of higher quality, in particular with finer nib options than the mediums that don't write well on the cheap paper everyone starts out with, offering a proper EF, F, M, B, and stub option with high nib QC like japanese brands and good inner caps in the $20-40 price range, would go a LONG way in helping. A lot of people love lamy because of the safari, pilot because of the metro/prera, platinum because of the preppy, pelikan because the pelikano, and TWSBI because of the eco. Get 'em young or cheap, and build that brand loyalty.

 

That said, I only really didn't look at cross or modern parker/waterman/sheaffer until recently because they just didn't seem to offer great value for money. But when I finally found a parker sonnet 18k for under $100 and bought my first cross townsend, I was convertered. I'd put my peerless london against a MB 149 any day of the week, even though it's not a piston filler.

I agree, I think Parker/Waterman and Cross/Shaeffer could certainly pay closer attention to what the pen aficionados are interested in and buying up by looking at what the other brands are doing and where the market is. That would certainly stir up more interest in the pen aficionado niche community for these traditional brands. I think Cross, and Parker/Waterman too, they have a big loyal customer base that may buy a nice Cross or Parker pen, and they are good for years or decades, until they lose it or decide want another one to mark and important occasion, or to gift someone. They remember the good experience they had years ago, and return to Cross or Parker. Their customer's are not necessarily pen aficionados/hobbyist like us who collect or acquire a lot of different pens with passion, and discuss pens on forums and go to pen shows, but the occassional buyer who are into just a few life time pens. I was that person probably 10 years ago before I got into fountain pens. Gold slim Cross pens. When I lost one, or acquired too many dings, I would return to my fave brick and mortar pen shop and buy another, and another over the years. I think that is Cross and Parkers biggest customer base. If you look at their model line up, they don't change them all that often because why mess with success is their motto I bet. Parker Duofold, Cross Townsend/Century, and even Pelikan Souveran,Montblanc Meisterstuck. If you have an icon, why remodel it and change it every few years and introduce new model after model. If Cross suddenly discontinued the Century slim gold pen or changed it so much it was unrecognizable, I would have hated it. There is a reason why something becomes an icon, and it is earned. I think many of the modern brands that cater to the pen enthusiasts would kill to have an icon like a Duofold, Century, or a 149.

 

Lamy I think caters to the aficionado market well while also catering to a loyal customer base with traditional iconic models like the 2000. But they play with the Safari introducing new colors and special editions every year as well as introduce new models often enough. The traditional brands though should pay more attention to the hobbyist/aficionado community I think as they are losing out on a lot of market expansion/innovation opportunity there. Maybe they should be more like a Lamy maintaining a good balance making use of their tradition and legacy at the same time pushing the envelope with new and interesting ideas that the pen enthusiast community crave.

Edited August 28, 2019 by max dog

[welch]

Parker still makes good funtain pens. The modern Duofold is as good as anything available, and Parker seems, like other pen companies, to make most of its profit on its high end pens. The Premier, next down Parker's line-up, has good reviews. The Sonnet had a problem with its inner-cap that causes it to dry out, but even the older Sonnets write well. Sonnet nibs have a nice feel -- slightly springy without going toward ultra-soft or flex. Like the Parker 75 and the 45, a Sonnet nib can be swapped out easily ("buy one pen and three nibs...it's like buying three different pens", as Esterbrook used to say).

 

Current Parker has not released an innovative design -- nothing like the P-51 or the various filling systems leading to the c/c P-45 -- but the fountain pen industry does not innovate. The fountain pen ha not been the primary personal writing instrument since about 1960, when people began shifting to ballpoints and when typewriters became cheap enough that people had them at home.

[max dog]

Agree Welch. I think I will try a high end modern Parker one of these days, maybe a Duofold or a Premier. The Sheaffer Legacy Heritage I tried (Sheaffers high end) turned out to be superb. One of my finest writers. It's too bad it got discontinued. I hope it comes back under Cross ownerhip. The Sonnets I have are very reliable and absent of any drying out issues. I can blow air through the caps,but that is to address a choking hazard. I think Parker resolved those issues in the current offering.

 

While Parker 51s are all approaching 60+ years now, I think they get a bad wrap by a few who purchase one cheap with the nib tipping all worn out and turn around and say it's all hype. I got a mint condition Parker 51 in burgundy with 12K gold filled cap, just like the one Queen Elizabeth owns, and it's nib still have all it's tipping and is perfectly tuned, and the original ply-sac is still in perfect condition able to hold a ton of ink. It's a dream writer, and will probably out last most of the brand new pens you can buy today (no moving parts to wear, and an indestructible sac, what a brilliant design!!!).