21 Super: Grease And Cellotape. Looking For New Hoods?

November 1, 2017

Hi everyone, I thought I would post here about my very first FP adventure.

I own a few Parker 21's (not sure if Mark I or II, but definitely non-Supers and Supers) and try to use only the ones in worse condition, (admittedly my one and only 61 is on my desk at home). I used to carry my 51 until I found out how valuable it was and it is now in my drawer.

I decided to fix a particular 21 Super with a broken nib using another 21 Super as a donor, the latter having a good F nib but a cracked hood in three places. It was leaking so much ink it was impossible to use (grey hood in the photo attached).

I should have really come here first, alas I just went my own way and after reading up a bit I started looking for stuff like shellac, section pliers, nibs etc and came across Pendemonium. I wrote to them and they very kindly gave me excellent advice on what to do - and not to do.

In particular, after using a hot water bath to remove the hood on both units, replacing the nib and screwing the hood back on it would consistently leak around the clutch ring. I then watched a few more pen repair videos and realised hoods are usually shellacked back on. I thought I would need to do that, but Pendemonium suggested I use pure silicone grease as 21 hoods are notoriously fragile.

I was about to buy grease but realised I have a small tub with watch grade grease I have been using to seal watch back covers for years and decided to use it.

I had already placed the nib in the right angle before screwing the hood back on. However after applying some grease with a brush the hood would screw back on further than before when no grease was used, so I readjusted the nib.

All seemed to be well until I realised the pen was leaking because the hood had developed a crack after screwing it back on! Turns out the grease lubricated the thread so the hood screwing further up, more pressure was actually applied to it so it cracked.

When I was younger I used to fix 21 hood cracks with glue and was mostly successful, of course results used to be aesthetically unpleasant. I already had another 21 Super with a cracked hood in two places which I had 'fixed' by carefully cellotaping the crack and the 'fix' had lasted for over a year so went and cellotaped the newly fixed 21 Super. So far so good, no leaks at all, so much so I will take it on a two hour flight next week.

I wonder if I can buy NOS Parker 21 Super and non-super hoods from anyone? Those are the only bits that need replacing on my dodgy 21's (I did buy a few sacs a few months ago thinking I would need to replace those but I have not needed to).

Many thanks for any ideas and for going through my long post.