You've Got Your First Found In The Wild Parker 51 In Your Hand, Now What?

[jcrowemag]

Hahahahahaha! Good one.

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

Hahahahahaha! Good one.

I'm just sayin'... if you want to be historically accurate, I can help

[PandP]

I did my first P51 disassembly and cleaning today. Taking the hood off was impossible so I soaked the hood part in a glass of boiling water. The hot water cleaned the collector/feed/nib and at the same time loosened the hood enough to unscrew. Once that was done the cleaning bit was quite easy. A few questions I have folowing this:

 

1. When putting the pen back together how do you know how deep to push the feed into the collector?

2. Is there something that indicates the position that the nib should be placed in in order to be straight (without having to go through the trial and error of continuously screwing and unscrewing the hood)?

3. When putting the pen together should I shellac the hood on?

4. Where can I find some shellac?

5. Is there a marking on the nib to indicate what size it is?

6. What can I use in order to polish the micro scratches out of the barrel and hood?

7. What can I use to polish the rolled gold cap?

 

Sorry for all the questions and hope you can help please.

 

[Estycollector]

I've restored several Esterbrook, but for me the 51's require more know how and tools that I want to consider. I sent my unrepaired 51 here. Repairs (parker51.com)

[mitto]

On 1/21/2021 at 5:47 AM, PandP said:

I did my first P51 disassembly and cleaning today. Taking the hood off was impossible so I soaked the hood part in a glass of boiling water. The hot water cleaned the collector/feed/nib and at the same time loosened the hood enough to unscrew. Once that was done the cleaning bit was quite easy. A few questions I have folowing this:

 

1. When putting the pen back together how do you know how deep to push the feed into the collector?

2. Is there something that indicates the position that the nib should be placed in in order to be straight (without having to go through the trial and error of continuously screwing and unscrewing the hood)?

3. When putting the pen together should I shellac the hood on?

4. Where can I find some shellac?

5. Is there a marking on the nib to indicate what size it is?

6. What can I use in order to polish the micro scratches out of the barrel and hood?

7. What can I use to polish the rolled gold cap?

 

Sorry for all the questions and hope you can help please.

 

1) Push the feed into the collector until it stops. 

2) Before you put on the collector+nib and feed assembly into the connector, screw back the hood onto the connector and make a mark where it stops. Now unscrew the hood and put the collector +nib and feed assembly in such a way that the nib is aligned to that mark.

3) Yes, shellacing is advisable especially on P51s with no O rings. 

4) Well, I make my own shellac. But you can Google for shellac suppliers in your area. 

5) No, there are no marking on the nib for tip sizes. 

6) Micro - mesh / Sanding paper of appropriate grades. 

7) Jeweller' cloth. 

[PandP]

@mitto thank you very much for a very helpful reply. Very much appreciated. Thankfully all my P51s have the O-rings, nevertheless I will source some shellac and apply it as precaution. I'll get a jeweller's cloth too.

 

The micro mesh bit makes me a bit nervous. Is there any decent videos that show what grade and how to use?

[mitto]

On 1/23/2021 at 7:23 AM, PandP said:

@mitto thank you very much for a very helpful reply. Very much appreciated. Thankfully all my P51s have the O-rings, nevertheless I will source some shellac and apply it as precaution. I'll get a jeweller's cloth too.

 

The micro mesh bit makes me a bit nervous. Is there any decent videos that show what grade and how to use?

 

[PandP]

My first Parker 51 disassembled, cleaned and reassembled sucessfully.

 

The rest of my 51s look ok so I decided to use the Herbin pen cleaner with the 36 hour soaking method and it yielded good results. I have used a small amount to clean 5 Parker 51s. I believe that the Herbin pen cleaner is multiuse? How does one know when it has been used enough and needs to be thrown away?

[Catpaws]

Hi Pen Friends,

This is my first post. I have been reading this thread because my husband brought me a Parker 51 vac that looks like it did some hard living. I will include some photos. He also gave me an Esterbrook SJ which I know I can get working, it needs a new sack. The sac was rock hard with ink. 

 

Right now I have been soaking the 51 up to the clutch ring in warm water. A lot of ink seems to be spilling out. It has only been a day. The piston or knobby thing seems to spring back with no problems but there are no air bubbles when I do this. 

What could be wrong? My first thought is that there is some hard ink in there like with the Esterbrook or something else is broken inside. Or both.

 

The hood looks like it has some gouges. I also wonder how old it is. 

 

Thanks for any information!

[Catpaws]

And one more photo with the cap

[inkstainedruth]

It could be that you will have to have the diaphragm replaced (you'll need a pro doing the work, most likely -- that's the downside over the 51 Vacs over the Aerometrics).  But it could also just be just that it was really clogged up (Vacumatics and 51 Vacs are a PITA to flush, even when the diaphragm is still good).

As for how old the pen is, there should be a date code somewhere on the Parker imprint on the barrel.  There's a good article on Parker date codes on www.parkercollector.com.  The pen should have a code such as "46", possibly with dots on either side (or both) and possibly also one below it (the dots denote the quarter in which it was produced, and the method is to block off the dots for each successive quarter on the plate). If there's a "T" before the number, it means it was made in the plant that Parker bought from Townsend and originally used to manufacture ink in (I have a couple of 51 Vacs with the T code; I got that information from David Nishamura's website).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Catpaws]

Thank you Ruth!

Later yesterday we saw bubbles! It is still soaking.

My husband found the code "Parker 51" MADE IN THE USA 8

This is like a detective story.

[inkstainedruth]

6 hours ago, Catpaws said:

Thank you Ruth!

Later yesterday we saw bubbles! It is still soaking.

My husband found the code "Parker 51" MADE IN THE USA 8

This is like a detective story.

Okay, 8 without any dots sounds like 4th quarter 1948.

Sadly, they discontinued the date codes in the mid 1950s, then resurrected a different type of coding (just using letters) more recently.  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Catpaws]

Ok. Thank you!

[JParker51]

On 6/9/2020 at 3:06 PM, IThinkIHaveAProblem said:

On 6/9/2020 at 7:48 AM, jcrowemag said:

I guess I should clarify as well.....obviously I understand that the shellac secures the hood to the body. My primary question was that if the hood and body are NOT shellaced together would that mean ink would certainly leak at the clutch ring?

 

In my experience (about a dozen 51s, most with no o-ring) none have leaked. I dont use shellac. If i were selling a pen or repairing for someone else i would use rosin. As it is i use nothing (since they are my pens and i know what to expect) and none have leaked.

I dissembled my P51 that I got on eBay and sealed the hood with shellac. I didn't put enough on because it started leaking after a few months. I took it apart again and applied more, making sure it got all the way around. It hasn't leaked since and is my favorite pen. (I use Anderson Pens shellac.)

Richard Binder has great pages on fixing a 51 (http://www.richardspens.com/ref/00_refp.htm)

 

JParker51

[gyasko]

5 hours ago, JParker51 said:

I dissembled my P51 that I got on eBay and sealed the hood with shellac. I didn't put enough on because it started leaking after a few months. I took it apart again and applied more, making sure it got all the way around. It hasn't leaked since and is my favorite pen. (I use Anderson Pens shellac.)

Richard Binder has great pages on fixing a 51 (http://www.richardspens.com/ref/00_refp.htm)

 

JParker51

 

Why the disassembly?  What was wrong with it?  

[JParker51]

The sac had what I thought was a hole in it (I could hear the hiss when I squeezed the sac) When I took it apart, I found the nipple had seperated from the rest of the section. (It was soft and pliable) I found a broken donor P51 on ebay (for a song) and used its section. Now I have extra P51 parts for my next one!

 

JParker51

[dysmedia]

Okay, newbie here with a simple question. 

 

Elsewhere I mentioned a Parker 51 Special that I inherited from my father.  I uncapped it a few weeks ago, after letting it sit around for a few years untouched (I know: philistine!), and found that it was still full of ink, and wrote flawlessly the moment the nib touched the paper.  I'm wondering whether I should do anything more to it than what I've already done:  since I wanted to change the ink from dark blue to turquoise, I flushed it out with warm water until the water was clear, then refilled it with Pelikan Turquoise.  The sac was only slightly stained with the original ink; now it's properly (and only slightly) stained turquoise.  Writes like a dream, and has continued to do so for a couple of weeks.  I shook it to see whether anything seemed loose inside:  rock solid.  The only issue — and it may not be an issue at all — is that the sac still has a couple of millimetres of air at the top when I've filled it (although it's quite possible that I'm not filling it correctly).

 

So... do I just leave it as is, and write with it?  Or should I go through the whole ammonia thing? 

[Mr Gutsy]

1 hour ago, dysmedia said:

Okay, newbie here with a simple question. 

 

Elsewhere I mentioned a Parker 51 Special that I inherited from my father.  I uncapped it a few weeks ago, after letting it sit around for a few years untouched (I know: philistine!), and found that it was still full of ink, and wrote flawlessly the moment the nib touched the paper.  I'm wondering whether I should do anything more to it than what I've already done:  since I wanted to change the ink from dark blue to turquoise, I flushed it out with warm water until the water was clear, then refilled it with Pelikan Turquoise.  The sac was only slightly stained with the original ink; now it's properly (and only slightly) stained turquoise.  Writes like a dream, and has continued to do so for a couple of weeks.  I shook it to see whether anything seemed loose inside:  rock solid.  The only issue — and it may not be an issue at all — is that the sac still has a couple of millimetres of air at the top when I've filled it (although it's quite possible that I'm not filling it correctly).

 

So... do I just leave it as is, and write with it?  Or should I go through the whole ammonia thing? 

 

 

I wouldn't deep clean it with ammonia, unless the pen was being troublesome and not performing. From your post, it sounds like all is well with the pen filling and writing.

I wouldn't worry about the sac not fully filling, that's completely normal for these pens and the way they fill. The pen has a breathing tube attached to the feed which helps the pen fill to its optimal capacity and retain ink be equalising the internal pressure with the outside. 

 

The only way to fully fill the sac would be to disassemble the pen and eye dropper ink into the sac. This isn't recommended as the pen is not designed to be regularly taken apart and will be sealed most likely with Shellac.  I also wouldn't worry about the staining of the sac from any ink you use. I've owned several pens where the sac is almost stained black and the pen worked great.

[mitto]

+1