Fountain Pen Parker 61

[neimad]

Hi, I'm wondering if someone, an expert, can explain the best way to fill my Parker 61 - with the Nib or the Teflon coated side?

Thank You/Damien

[richardandtracy]

Parker originally intended people to dip the Teflon in the ink and allow it to take ink in through there.

 

On my only capillary P61, various inks used over time have obviously made the felt covering the three ink apertures hydrophobic, and the felt does not allow any ink into the pen. So, if this has occurred you have two options:

1. Dip the nib in and wait, sometimes hours. Or
2. Dip the nib in, put your mouth over the Teflon & suck.

Note, 2) has the risk of getting ink in your mouth. Had this happen, while using Pelikan Turquoise ink, and a turquoise stained smile is a thing of nightmares.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

[mitto]

[max dog]

It should take about 30 seconds for the capillary filler to fill up.

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

From my experience with the P61 the condition of the internal 'ink sucking' reservoir varies greatly: some get the job done in less than a minute, while others are on the scale used to measure motion of sloths.

 

I have no hesitation to dip/soak the nib-end of a dry pen in the ink pot - rather like priming the pump - the capillary action of the feed+collector will draw ink towards the reservoir, but whether the capillary cell reservoir will take-up that and more ink depends on the condition of the cell; if dead/sleeping, the usable ink volume is only that of the collector.

 

IMHO the P61 is one of those pens intended for use as a daily writer : goodly thru-put of the same ink on a daily basis.

 

Let us know how it goes.

 

Bye,

S1

 

Also https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/254388-parker-61-capillary-should-i-just-give-up/?p=2802702

Edited February 12, 2018 by Sandy1

[inkstainedruth]

When I got my first 61, the seller told me to flush it out by removing the barrel and sticking the pen, nib down, under the faucet. Well, I don't do that because I have extremely hard water where I live. But I took a bulb syringe and forced distilled water through the capillary filler that way (again, nib down), just until I got a bit of ink flow. When the pen went dry, I did it again. Repeated that at regular intervals until the ink was so diluted that it was no longer really legible on the page, then flushed out the pen really well. That process took me four MONTHS.... Nowadays, when I fill that pen, I leave the back end in an ink bottle or sample vial for a few minutes and it seems to definitely hold enough ink to get a reasonable amount of writing done (several pages at least) before needing to be refilled or flushed a bit.

Doing basically the same thing with my newest 61 (picked up at the Ohio Pen Show in November) for flushing, only instead I'm filling from a container with distilled water in it as if I was filling it with ink -- i.e., with the capillary filler stuck in the container (a straight sided heavy glass votive candle holder which I generally use for flushing pens, soaking nib units, etc.); and that seems to be working fairly well as well....

I do recommend *not* using any ink that has a tendency to clog; I've used Herbin inks and Birmingham inks and they have worked pretty well, since they tend to be wetter inks in general.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

edited for typos

Edited February 13, 2018 by inkstainedruth