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Ink For A Parker 61?


tadas

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A friend, a fountain pen newbie, is getting a Parker 61 (I tried to convince him to go with a 51 to no avail).

 

What ink should I recommend? I personally use Sheaffer Washable blue or Waterman Serenity Blue in my 61s, but he wants black, or blue-black. Besides Waterman Intense Black, what would you suggest? I don't want him to get acquainted with the use of ear bulbs for a while yet. I take heed of the late Susan Wirth's advice to use ink that was around when the particular pen was introduced, but...

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Is your friend getting a 61 with one of the original capillary fill systems? Quink Black would certainly be fine (I'm not a fan of Quink Blue-Black color-wise).

I have also used some De Atramentis and Birmingham inks in my 61s, because they tend to be wetter inks than some brands (I've been running Birmingham Smithfield Street Bridge Truss Blue in one of mine at the moment). But I have to tell you, your friend may have to get used to bulb syringes really quickly: the odds are good that any pen which he buys will still have dried ink in the pen. And since capillary fillers are basically sponges, there may be a LOT of dried ink.

When I bought my first one, the seller told me that the way to flush them out was to remove the barrel and stick them under the faucet, nib down. Well, I have very hard water where I live so instead I used a bulb syringe to flush distilled water through the pen from the back end of the capillary filler. And I did that just enough to reconstitute ink, then wrote with what was in the pen, repeating as needed, for about four months, until the ink became so diluted it was more or less illegible. I just finished flushing out my most recent 61 purchase (from last fall's Ohio Pen Show); in that case I ended up refilling "normally" -- i.e., by sticking the back end of the capillary filler in the ink bottle -- but with distilled water. And even then, I JUST finished flushing that pen out completely a couple of days ago....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: While I understand why you'd want your friend to be getting a 51, I do think that the 61s are underrated. They are a bit more prone to cracking, because of the type of plastic used. And if you're not careful, you can lose the hood arrow. But as long as you don't want to change ink colors often, they are very good pens and hold a huge amount of ink. [i'm always a little amused but the fact that Sheaffer's answer to the incursion of ballpoints is the Snorkel -- with the most convoluted fill system on the planet; whereas Parker's answer is the 61....]

Edited by inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Ruth could not have summed up the 61 any better. Another Interesting Fact: the 61 was one of the first practical uses of Teflon. It was used for the surface of the capillary filler, so ink wouldn't stick to it. I have a mint 61 that has never touched ink. If I ever do fill it, it will probably be with either Serenity or Mysterious Blue.

Rationalizing pen and ink purchases since 1967.

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But I have to tell you, your friend may have to get used to bulb syringes really quickly: the odds are good that any pen which he buys will still have dried ink in the pen. And since capillary fillers are basically sponges, there may be a LOT of dried ink.

 

 

But as long as you don't want to change ink colors often, they are very good pens and hold a huge amount of ink.

 

Thanks for the specific brand mentions, which was what I was looking for.

 

The pen will *not* need a bulb syringe for a while - he got his heart set on the stainless steel "Flighter" that you may (or may not) remember seeing at my table at the Baltimore show - admittedly, I was emphasizing Esterbrooks, but that particular pen stands out. I know it's clean - I flushed it myself.

 

My friend will probably stick to one rater boring ink color (I've warned him about changing ink colors or brands being a Major Production in a Parker 61). I guess that it should be fine, but I've never thought a 61 would be a good "newbie" pen.

 

Tadas

Edited by tadas
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Thanks for the specific brand mentions, which was what I was looking for.

 

The pen will *not* need a bulb syringe for a while - he got his heart set on the stainless steel "Flighter" that you may (or may not) remember seeing at my table at the Baltimore show - admittedly, I was emphasizing Esterbrooks, but that particular pen stands out. I know it's clean - I flushed it myself.

 

My friend will probably stick to one rater boring ink color (I've warned him about changing ink colors or brands being a Major Production in a Parker 61). I guess that it should be fine, but I've never thought a 61 would be a good "newbie" pen.

 

Tadas

 

Well, I got talking to a guy during the dessert party at the Ohio Pen Show last fall, and he said he used a 61 all through divinity school. Admittedly it wasn't my first pen -- I didn't even know they existed until I started reading FPN (of course I hadn't ever heard of 51s either...). And of course when I started out I wasn't buying pens that cost more than about $30. But they were one of those designs that -- when I first saw the descriptions on the fill system -- I thought "Oh, that's so *cool*!" And then one year I spotted one (the black one) at a table at DCSS. After that I got a deal on a turquoise one on eBay because it was missing the hood arrow a while. Then picked up the red one Sunday morning at OPS after talking to the guy at the dessert party the night before.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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