Is This Parker Falcon 50 Nib Bent?

[stefanv]

I just received in the mail a Parker 50 Falcon flighter pen, that is in excellent condition, but it seems to me that the tip of the nib is very slightly "drooped" (kind of like a Concorde landing). I'd like others' opinions (especially all you nib meisters out there), so I've attached a picture. So far, I've only written with this pen by dipping it, and it writes very dryly, which I think would be consistent with a downward droop in the nib, since it would push the tines closer together. I've looked at the nib head-on with a 10x loupe, and the two tines are perfectly aligned with each other.

 

 

Any opinions or suggestions will be appreciated.

[watch_art]

if it's dry, push it up and enjoy the derned thing.

[Video11]

Just looked at my 50 Flighter and there is no droop to the nib. Perhaps your drooping nib is bending the nib away from the feed causing some flow issues?

 

Regards,

 

Rick

[watch_art]

Just looked at my 50 Flighter and there is no droop to the nib. Perhaps your drooping nib is bending the nib away from the feed causing some flow issues?

 

Regards,

 

Rick

 

more likely the droop is causing a constriction. ink can't get thru the tiny gap. so it's a dry writer.

[fibreglass_works]

Do all you can BUT make well care not to bent bad the Nib. It is very bitten prone to damaged the Nib.

[stefanv]

There was definitely an ink flow problem. Here's the original photo again, with a few words on it:

 

 

Because of the droop, the tines were too close to the feed, actually touching it, at the very tip of the feed. They were also too close to each other (touching at the tip). Because of the buckling further back, the nib is too far from the feed there, at least at the edges.

 

I very carefully unbent the droop, which increased the spacing between the nib and feed to about 0.001", and also increased the spacing between the tines to about the same amount. There wasn't anything I could do about the buckling, so I left that (to fix that, the feed would have to come out first, and then someone who knows how to remove dents from small objects could probably straighten it). Here's how it looks now:

 

 

The good news is that it now writes well, with consistent ink flow, and reasonable wettness. I think that the buckling is only near the edges, so that the contact between the nib centre line and feed is the way it should be.

 

Cosmetically, the buckling isn't really noticeable unless you look at the pen with a loupe (or a camera with a good macro lens).

 

I wonder if someone took seriously that the Falcon is the fountain pen you can play darts with.

[SMG]

good job Stefan, really there is no need to get the buckle out of the nib in my opinion.

 

Cheers,

Sean

[stefanv]

good job Stefan, really there is no need to get the buckle out of the nib in my opinion.

 

Thanks Sean. I agree about the buckle, since it only appears to be near the edges. If you look along the centre of the nib, it's perfectly smooth curve.

[Scrawler]

I saw a Falcon 50 Flighter for the first time, today. A friend pulled it out of a drawer where it had lain since soon after he bought it. It is a beautiful pen, I can certainly see its time and place. It looks like a claw when you write with it. But it is very dry. That is why he stopped using it. It seems dryness may be a known problem with these pen. I have cleaned it thoroughly. It seems that as soon as the section is empty it dries up.