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Pen Pit Stop : Parker 25 Flighter MK I Welcome to the Pen Pit Stop. Here you will find reviews of pens that already have some mileage on them. More specifically, these reviews are of pens that are in my personal collection, and that have been in use for at least a year. I thought it would be fun to do it this way – no new & shiny pens here, but battered vehicles that have been put to work for at least a year. Let’s find out how they have withstood the ravages of time. The fountain pen that arrives at the pit stop today is the “Parker 25 Flighter” in blue finish. The Parker Pen Company is a manufacturer of luxury pens, founded in 1888 by George Safford Parker in Janesville, Wisconsin, United States. The 25 model was introduced in 1975. It was designed as a cheap but very functional entry-level pen. I won’t go into the history here – excellent discussions can be found at: • Parker Pens Penography: PARKER 25 • Parker 25 Review – Collectablepens • Parker 25 I obtained my pen sometime during my pre-university years, so the only thing I’m sure of is that it dates from before summer 1979. I also clearly remember that it was part of a ballpoint / fountain pen combo set, and that I used the ballpoint most. A little bit of research confirms this: it clearly is a first-model MK I pen – with the breather hole and the “Made in England” inscription. These MK I pens were produced in the 1975-1978 timeframe. I didn’t even know I still owned this pen. It’s only after a summer cleanup of old stuff in the basement that I re-discovered it at the back of a drawer. Unfortunately, I was totally ignorant about fountain pens in my youth, so the pen disappeared in the drawer uncleaned with a half-full ink cartridge still in it. It was in pretty bad shape: a rusted nib, caked & dried ink in the feed. I did some extensive cleaning, even using sandpaper to remove rust from the nib. I also cleaned the feed as best as I could. With this crude cleaning job, the pen is presentable again, and writes really smooth. It's not 100% yet – I still experience a minor ink flow issue at times. So probably the feed needs more cleaning… might be a good excuse to finally get me that ultrasonic cleaner 😉 Pen Look & Feel The Parker 25 Flighter is a bit of an odd-looking pen, with a body that tapers near the end. The cap posts securely onto the tapered end, with the inner plastic cap gripping the end-section of the barrel. The grip section and clip ornament are made of blue plastic, with some scratches on it, but fortunately undamaged. The body is built like a tank: it’s made from brushed stainless steel. This is a genius choice by the Parker engineers: the brush pattern is fairly irregular, and seems to absorb dents and scratches. These aging signs feel totally natural, and don’t feel like blemishes at all. It’s like the pen is specifically designed to age gracefully. The pen has a push-cap mechanism, and can be used unposted or posted (and it posts securely). I typically use the pen posted – it’s well-balanced and looks more elegant with the cap hiding the tapered body-end. The pen is a cartridge-convertor that uses proprietary Parker ink cartridges. Not really an issue, because these cartridges can be found everywhere. The Parker 25 has a rounded nib with a distinctive look. I didn’t find a size designation on the nib, but since it was a regular item in a stationary shop, it’s probably an F or M. Anyway – after the extensive rescue operation, this nib has probably a unique size of its own. The pictures above illustrate the size of the Parker 25 Flighter in comparison with a standard Lamy Safari. The pen is somewhat smaller in length, and a lot smaller in girth. Due to its steel construction, it’s also a bit heavier, but not too much so. The pen feels really well-balanced in the hand, and can be used for extensive writing sessions. Pen Characteristics Build Quality : this pen is built like a tank. After over 45 years and ending up rusted and caked-up with dried ink, it was still possible to revive it without any training or experience with pen restoration. The brushed steel body absorbs dents and scratches, and the pen still looks really good for its age. Given its history, I would say that the pen has aged gracefully. Weight & Dimensions : a bit smaller and much more slender than a Lamy Safari. The pen also has some heft to it, due to the steel body. It feels well-balanced in the hand, both uncapped and posted. Filling System : this is a cartridge convertor pen, that uses Parker proprietary cartridges. Parker sells convertors, but I never use them. I find it much more convenient to just syringe-fill Parker Quink cartridges. Nib & Performance : a rounded steel nib of unknown size (and with all the polishing it needed during restoration, it now has a nib size of its own – somewhere in the neighbourhood of a western F). The nib now writes really smooth, but the feed needs more cleaning to improve ink flow. Price : I didn’t buy the pen myself but got it as a gift from my parents. But it was an entry-level student pen, so not at all expensive. A similar entry-level pen today should probably be comparable in price to a Lamy CP1 or Kaweco AL Sport – so in the 30-40 EUR range. Conclusion My Parker 25 Flighter now has a special place in my collection. It certainly is my oldest pen, with a lot of personal history. And I was totally amazed to get it working again, given the mess I found it in when I rediscovered it. Kudos to Parker for building this pen like a tank!

This Christmas brought a Parker 25: its packaging was opened, once, in January of 1977, so that the date could be added to the guarantee card, and then resealed with a bit of sellotape. Since then it hasn't been opened and remained unused until I found it on eBay, a couple of months ago. It's a Mark 1—flat cap-top, breather hole in the nib, recessed plastic lining in the section—but a later Mark 1, I think, as it has a brass thread in the body, rather than steel. It has a fine nib, from what I can tell by writing with it (although I've now swapped it for the definitely fine nib which came with the Mark 0, which has better ink flow). Anyway, since I've not seen this packaging anywhere else online, I thought people here might like to see it.

When I was young, there were few fountain pens in the shops and even fewer I could afford. I had a few gaily colored plastic cylinders from the Sheaffer NoNonsense range but they felt too light and insubstantial. And I had a couple Parker 25 pens. I was not taken with the form of the nib or the barrel but at least the 25 felt more solid and balanced in my hand. Unfortunately, just like the NoNonsense, the 25 was too dry, with frequent flow problems. Quite often there was little difference between writing with a 25 or a ballpoint pen. Many years and many pens passed until a 25 reappeared among my pens. It was by accident: the 25 was in a lot of 20-odd pens that I bought online. It immediately disappeared in a drawer and resurfaced only recently when I decided to experiment with nib grinding. So, I cleaned and inked it. The first letters I wrote with it brought back all those memories of agony and disappointment. The ink flow was too stingy and the pen was too unresponsive. I went ahead with the grinding, which went well, but turning its nib into a decent CI did little to improve the writing experience. Never one to abandon an underdog, I took out the nib and feed, and tried everything I could to improve flow but for the first time I had to accept defeat. No improvement was noticeable. Even worse, the other pen I used in the grinding experiment, a Parker Vector, wrote so much better both before and after - and the Vector is a pen that seems far less appealing than the 25. The only conclusion I can reach is that the 25 simply hates me but Id like to know why. Was it something I did?

So my pen dealer out of the blue messages me yesterday to tell me that she's got a NOS Parker 25 for me. We go back and forth with pictures and pricing and she also discloses the existence of a Parker 45 Convertible GT with a 14K gold nib that is also for sale. Resistance is futile and so I cave in! Today I picked up these two beauties: an old NOS Parker 25 Stainless Steel with black trim with original box, original Spanish sticker price hanging from the clip, and a clear tag identifying this pen as a 25 with a fine nib. Turns out the pen was made in England between 1975 and 1979 as there is no code in the cap. It is a flat top with no dimple. Lovely pen! And then, I get the Parker 45 which came with a black barrel, a 14K fine nib and an original metal squeeze converter. All these for just $53!! I already have a bunch of 45 pens, but none made in the US (only England and Mexico), and none with a gold nib or gold trim. I promptly switched the barrel to a Flighter one I had from a pen that came with a faulty section, since I already have an Arrow and a Convertible pen with a black barrel. What do you all think?

Hi all, I found an interesting Parker 25 set at Greenwich Market today, it's the black trim version, and appears unused - still has the converter in, totally clean, no scratches or scuffs on any of the plastic. Has anyone seen this set before? Parker 25 in exciting tin by Robin Inkysloth, on Flickr Edited to add: Letter code IQ suggests it was made in 1990, initially I wondered if it was a 25 year anniversary set, but that would be year 2000. Hmm.

Ok, so it wouldn't be a Parker 25. It wouldn't even be a Parker pen Sir Kenneth Grange designed a few pens - one of them the iconic Parker 25 shown below: http://i68.tinypic.com/dhcqb7.jpg It has that very distinct tapering on the barrel about 3/4 down and a very flat base. A few years later, Grange also did some work for Platignum designing the Platpen - see below; http://i66.tinypic.com/2pt5x7s.jpg Can you see the same tapering on the barrel? This time way further up on the pen though. These pens are not completely easy to get hold of these days but there is a seller on eBay that is selling NOS/NIB ones (one fountain pen ad one felt tip on in multiple colors) for $7+ shipping. I received mine today and rather do like how "Grange" it looks http://i63.tinypic.com/xogt5g.jpg

So, around 3 months ago I bought a Parker 45 in a nostalgic fit of self indulgence on the grounds that it was the pen that saw me through my school days, or to be more accurate that THEY were the pens that saw me through as it turned out that my fellow class mates were pretty much convinced that property ownership was not an important issue leading to a fair number of pens disappearing never to be seen again. So, having bought myself one pen I found myself buying another, and another ... and pretty soon I seem to have found a new direction to my wanderings on the internet whilst I'm sat here pretending to work, with Ebay as well as several other vintage pen sites firmly bookmarked and inspected on a daily if not hourly basis. At the moment I seem to be leaning towards the metal Parker 45's, especially the Harlequins which I could never afford as a kid, and the Parker 25's which I actually prefer to use over the 45's as a daily working pen. At the moment the main part of my collections looks a bit like this: http://www.fotothing.com/photos/444/444f804f5880464f9bb9a5c18a44504e_f65.jpg As well as several duplicates and a few other models which I'm not sure I want to actually collect. The point of all this is ... At what point does a simple innocent hobby become an obsession? Is it normal to troll through the newly listed items at Ebay quite so often never mind trying to examine bad photos at 300% size in Photoshop looking for clues to identify badly labelled items? Should work really come first or is that Parker T1 that is ending soon the real priority? Any thoughts and ideas appreciated ...