Vintage Parker Pecils. Do Any Use 0.5 Mm Lead?

[Michael N.]

I just acquired a Parker 51 vacumatic fountain pen with a 14 k gold cap & transitional arrow clip. (Ernesto restored it.) I plan to use the pen. Would love to get a similar Parker pencil that would accept modern 0.5 mm lead. Does anybody have any ideas? Thanks.

[ANM]

I don't believe any of them accept any size other than 0.9

[randyholhut]

The "51" pencils all use 0.9mm lead, as did the Vacumatic pencils. I don't believe Parker used lead thinner than 0.9mm until the 1980s and 1990s.

 

The Big Red Duofold pencils from the 1920s take 1.1mm lead.

[ANM]

Even in the 1980's and 90's their Duofold pencils still used 0.9 lead

[Michael N.]

Then, what is the earliest Parker pencil with 0.5 mm lead? Thanks.

[LedZepGirl]

You can still buy the thicker leads, if you're wondering. Autopoint 1.1 mm leads and 0.9 leads. They last a very long time and don't break easily which is wonderful.

[nxn96]

Not sure how much this helps, but the earliest datecode for any of my Parker pencils with a .5mm lead date from mid 1986.

 

Again, with no authority here, but just trying to help (i.e., if this is totally off-base, just a simple "no that won't work" will suffice):

 

Parker used to sell an automatic pencil (I think primarily in the Jotter and 45 lines) that employed a lead cartridge. The idea was, much like a ballpoint cartridge, it came pre-filled with lead and when the lead ran out, you simply put in a new cartridge (I guess for those who found putting new leads into a pencil themselves messy or tedious....). The basic mechanism of the cartridge follows the clutch design that Parker used on the 51 Aerometrics for many years. Would one of these cartridges fit into the barrel sleeve of a 51 Aero clutch pencil?

[42N8TT]

Parker used to sell an automatic pencil (I think primarily in the Jotter and 45 lines) that employed a lead cartridge. The idea was, much like a ballpoint cartridge, it came pre-filled with lead and when the lead ran out, you simply put in a new cartridge (I guess for those who found putting new leads into a pencil themselves messy or tedious....). The basic mechanism of the cartridge follows the clutch design that Parker used on the 51 Aerometrics for many years. Would one of these cartridges fit into the barrel sleeve of a 51 Aero clutch pencil?

 

If you're looking for the Liquid Lead refills, best of luck with that; they are rare and (from various reviews) not altogether useful... but that's not likely to be what you're after. If the lead cartridge is what you want, Five Star Pens (http://www.fivestarpens.com/misc_parts_refills_etc_.html) may have them. Scroll down the page to near the bottom and you'll see the item. It appears to have various sizes,. so one may fit your pencil. HTH!

Edited July 18, 2011 by 42N8TT

[OldGriz]

Parker used to sell an automatic pencil (I think primarily in the Jotter and 45 lines) that employed a lead cartridge. The idea was, much like a ballpoint cartridge, it came pre-filled with lead and when the lead ran out, you simply put in a new cartridge (I guess for those who found putting new leads into a pencil themselves messy or tedious....). The basic mechanism of the cartridge follows the clutch design that Parker used on the 51 Aerometrics for many years. Would one of these cartridges fit into the barrel sleeve of a 51 Aero clutch pencil?

 

If you're looking for the Liquid Lead refills, best of luck with that; they are rare and (from various reviews) not altogether useful... but that's not likely to be what you're after. If the lead cartridge is what you want, Five Star Pens (http://www.fivestarp...fills_etc_.html) may have them. Scroll down the page to near the bottom and you'll see the item. It appears to have various sizes,. so one may fit your pencil. HTH!

 

He is not talking about LL refills.... he is talking about a replacement cart that fits in a Parker Jotter and uses .5mm pencil lead.... something totally different...

The lead cartridges you are pointing to are also nothing like what fits in the Parker Jotter...

[streeton]

The earliest incremental advance 0.5mm Parkers in my collection are from 1982, Jotters and Classics - this seems to be the changeover year for this type of mechanism. In the Parker Classic they were previously twist and before that lead cartridge, and in the Parker Jotter where the lead cartridge was used from 1967-c1981/82.

[nxn96]

Parker used to sell an automatic pencil (I think primarily in the Jotter and 45 lines) that employed a lead cartridge. The idea was, much like a ballpoint cartridge, it came pre-filled with lead and when the lead ran out, you simply put in a new cartridge (I guess for those who found putting new leads into a pencil themselves messy or tedious....). The basic mechanism of the cartridge follows the clutch design that Parker used on the 51 Aerometrics for many years. Would one of these cartridges fit into the barrel sleeve of a 51 Aero clutch pencil?

 

If you're looking for the Liquid Lead refills, best of luck with that; they are rare and (from various reviews) not altogether useful... but that's not likely to be what you're after. If the lead cartridge is what you want, Five Star Pens (http://www.fivestarp...fills_etc_.html) may have them. Scroll down the page to near the bottom and you'll see the item. It appears to have various sizes,. so one may fit your pencil. HTH!

 

He is not talking about LL refills.... he is talking about a replacement cart that fits in a Parker Jotter and uses .5mm pencil lead.... something totally different...

The lead cartridges you are pointing to are also nothing like what fits in the Parker Jotter...

As noted, I was thinking about the lead cartridges from the later Jotter/45 period, and not the LL pencil refills (As soon as I figure out how to refill my Flaminaire lighter without blowing up the house, I'll begin work on how to refill my LL pencil...). Since the Jotter/45 cartridge/refills used the basic "clutch" mechanism as did generally the "51" Aero pencils, I thought there might be the possibility of a retrofit. However, I only offered that as a possible alternative and not as a sure-fire solution to the initial question as I've never tried to fit the later cartridge into the barrel of a "51" pencil.

[ceejaybee]

Not sure how much this helps, but the earliest datecode for any of my Parker pencils with a .5mm lead date from mid 1986.

 

Again, with no authority here, but just trying to help (i.e., if this is totally off-base, just a simple "no that won't work" will suffice):

 

Parker used to sell an automatic pencil (I think primarily in the Jotter and 45 lines) that employed a lead cartridge. The idea was, much like a ballpoint cartridge, it came pre-filled with lead and when the lead ran out, you simply put in a new cartridge (I guess for those who found putting new leads into a pencil themselves messy or tedious....). The basic mechanism of the cartridge follows the clutch design that Parker used on the 51 Aerometrics for many years. Would one of these cartridges fit into the barrel sleeve of a 51 Aero clutch pencil?

 

I believe you are talking about the metal .7mm or .9mm-1mm cartridge pencil refill that converts a ballpoint to a pencil? I doubt it would fit into the body of a clutch pencil, the obvious thing to do would be to put one into a 51 ballpoint. Only the later (usually grey plastic) pencil refills came in .5mm lead sizes. You can find them as removeable cartridge or fixed, the latter type use a small circlip to secure them at the nozzle end. With either type you'll need to remove the internal spring from the barrel first, the only problem the OP may encounter is finding the correct colour of 51 ballpoint as they only came in aero colours :hmm1:

 

There's a photo in this thread that shows the different pencil cartridges that can be fitted to cap or button actuated Parker ballpoints to convert them to pencils thread

Edited July 19, 2011 by ceejaybee