Parker Sonnet Like Parker 75 Damier

[allebannep]

 

 

I bought this pen because it reminded me of the Parker 75 Damier produced in 1980. Which was made up of deep machine-engraved horizontal and vertical lines spaced to form an elongated rectangular grid. The material was sterling silver.

The overlook of the Sonnet pen is great, I particularly like the combination of the silver cap and body and the gold of the crown and clip.

 

 

 

 

The box is not too fancy and not too poor, I belong to the group of people who don’t like to spend too much money for packaging, I am interested in pens, not boxes, so I don’t see the point of spending more money just to have a nice box that eventually is going to end up inside one of my closet.

 

 

 

The quality is good, however, if you hold the two models you can tell how the Parker 75 Damier is giving you a much better feeling in terms of weight and general constructions.

 

 

 

 

If there is one thing that really irritates me in a new pen is having a not straight clip. If the clip bends just a little bit to one side it is a sign to me that the manufacturer doesn’t pay too much attention to the quality, very understandable in mass productions processes. Why these things never happens when you buy an handmade pen from a small artisan? Bottom line I had to use my pliers in order to straight the clip of my new Parker Sonnet.

When it comes to evaluate nibs I am particularly picky. In this case I am not happy, in my opinion the smoothness of writing is far away from the one you can get by using a Montblanc of the same value.

Price is reasonable, like all Parker pens that are positioned in the medium-low price range.

It is very interesting to know that if you consider that the retail price of a pen is at least four times bigger than the price the manufacturer sells the pen to the distributor, well, it makes you think how chip these mass-production pens are.

Unless you go with nice handmade pens made by passionate artisans, you realize that the big money you spend for these big brands pens goes for 80% in distribution and nice packaging.

My point and suggestion is that nowadays there are so many excellent pen makers who can offer you extraordinary valuable pens for much less money and you can have the guarantee of owning a real handmade pen.

 

But I understand, the brand is everything.

[rochester21]

Never saw this finish before.

 

On what you said about the brand, i agree- some pens are way too expensive. For instance, i never tried a Montbanc myself, but they get so much advertising that i think the pens themselves could never match in actual quality the prestige that accompanies them. This is true for other pens as well- the waterman le man, sailor 1911, even parker 75(at least some of them), which are good quality pens, but not fantastic.

Edited June 21, 2013 by rochester21

[Montblanc owner and lover]

well it's true that MB are largely overpriced but they're nice and that's all that count for me.When you consider a Yard O Led grand viceroy wich is full silver and cost less than a 149....

[allebannep]

Hi , thank you for your feedbacks. I agree with you.

Over the years I have been buying quite a few Montblanc and Cartier, but now I feel like I want to go further. I would like to explore new brands, possibly small artisans driven by the passion of doing something very valuable.

If you know someone, please advise.