Moonman 80 ( Parker 45 Clone )

[Dan Carmell]

On 7/23/2018 at 5:43 PM, old4570 said:

Drive - Knowledge , and curiosity !

Is the Parker 45 all that and more ? ( The asking prices on them can be a little crazy - to me )

I mean , millions of them were made . So why the crazy prices for what was a budget pen . ( The need to know )

The Parker 45 arrow I picked up needed a lot of NIB work to get it to write reasonably well .….….

 

And once that is done , I can then do a direct comparison with the original .. I might have too much time on my hands ?

Keep in mind that the Arrow was a budget version of the 45. Is the 45 all that? No! I collected them and still have the ones below. They are good pens, but the 800 is just as good, as is the Moonman 80. If the 156/158 was better than the 800, as one poster said, then it’s a very good pen indeed. 
 

The Arrow and several other early versions of the 45 used inferior plastics. It is not uncommon to find a 45 with a severely deformed section because the metal cap clutch was too strong for the weak plastic. Was that limited to a certain time frame? Perhaps but handle a dozen used 45s and I suspect you will find one such.
 

I would say it’s a classic design and good pen, whether it’s a 45, 80, or 800. The 45 was the last popular, widely used fountain pen in America and the first well-made and well publicized cartridge filler in the US. It has an interesting history—it originated with the Eversharp-Wahl Pen Company. It has many colors and variations and offered both steel and gold (I have seen 10K & 12K nibs in addition to 14K) nibs in the widest variety of nib sizes Parker offered, second only to the 75. 
 

But as a working pen, each of these Chinese pens is it’s equal, in my option.