How many Parker 51’s do you have?

[david-p]

I am very conservative about the ink I put in my three 51s and two 61s, usually Waterman Serenity or Pelikan 4001 Königsblau. These are generally thought of as humble products, though I think the colours look very good. I fill my 45s with more adventurous inks — and some inks I only put in LAMY safaris!

 

Based on your response, I will put off getting a vacumatic just for the sake of it — until I see a bargain! The difficulty for me is finding the broad nibs that I like: most 51s seem to be F or M.

 

David

[Glenn-SC]

55 minutes ago, Carguy said:

I like both, but the only advantage in MY opinion is a greater ink capacity. They are good if you intend to leave it inked with the same ink. Not much fun to flush and clean if you like to switch.

Since both Vac and Aero have the same hood/nib/feed/collector system I see no difference in cleaning between them. 
squeeze the bar or push the plunger, air goes out and ink/water goes in.

 

I like vacs better because the barrels have thicker walls and feel (there’s that word again!) more solid and robust to me.  

[bunnspecial]

Right now I'm at 3 Vacs and 3 Aeros.

 

I like the feel in-hand of the Vacs better, and I love the vermeil cap on my dove grey Aero.

 

With that said, some of my Aeros have more interesting nibs. I have an OB and BB on Aeros. I'm somewhat tempted to swap them, but then the interesting nib Aeros are also on English-made pens(which doesn't surprise me) and my Vacs are all American.

[NumberSix]

6 hours ago, david-p said:

What are the advantages of the vacumetric over the aerometric?

 

2 hours ago, Carguy said:

I like both, but the only advantage in MY opinion is a greater ink capacity. They are good if you intend to leave it inked with the same ink. Not much fun to flush and clean if you like to switch.

 

Another small advantage, for me, is that the Vac has a more interesting-looking cap. 

 

But on the whole, if one had only a single P51, I would suggest the Aero. The filling system is more durable, and you can feel comfortable using almost any ink it - unlike just about every other vintage sac filler.

[Hbanger]

13 hours ago, FarmBoy said:

What qualifies as cheap?

An unrealistic around $50.00 or less

[bunnspecial]

3 hours ago, Carguy said:

I like both, but the only advantage in MY opinion is a greater ink capacity. They are good if you intend to leave it inked with the same ink. Not much fun to flush and clean if you like to switch.

 

I was under the impression that the ink capacity of vac vs. aero was roughly the same(1.1ml?)

 

Intuitively the vac would seem to hold more, but remember that the vac mechanism eats up a lot of the barrel whereas the sac on the aero runs nearly the length of the barrel.

[inkstainedruth]

For me, it's a slight preference for the Aeros.  Because 9 times out of 10 you can find one in the wild, and just flush it out well and it works.  Vacs in the wild are more likely to need repair work (such as a replacement diaphragm) and since that sort of repair is beyond my skill set, will end up being more expensive.  OTOH, if I have to do a lot of research and note taking, the (restored) Cedar Blue 51 Vac with the nicely tuned EF Nib is the pen I reach for first -- even now that I have a 51 Aero with a nicely tuned EF nib.  

It may be that that both hold the same amount of ink in the long run, but emotionally/aesthetically it seems that Cedar Blue Vac holds more.  I guess at some point I should put both that pen and the Forest Green Aero with the EF nib back into rotation, put the same ink in them, and use those pens almost exclusively just to see the formal results as to how much capacity of writing I can get done with each pen (although I'm not overly looking forward to write the same things word for word to match accurately...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Nethermark]

so far 9 Vacumatics and 17 Aerometrics. But I really should be selling some of them.

1 hour ago, Hbanger said:

An unrealistic around $50.00 or less

That is what I typically pay for them here in local shops etc. But then I never meet the very rare ones there 

[inkstainedruth]

I've found a few 51s for under $50 US in the wild, but not many.  And one of those was a 51 Vac, which of course needed repairs (so the final cost was more like $80).  
Most of my 51s were in the $56-80 range (including repair costs when needed), but I think it will be harder to find ones at the lower end of that these days.  It's not impossible -- but it is harder.  Of course I also only have one higher-priced outlier (the English-made Navy Gray Aero, but that price included the buyer's premium, and of course it also is the only one with anything faintly resembling an "exotic" nib -- it's an OB, and my other 51s are mostly  Fs, with a couple of Ms and a couple of EFs.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[Glenn-SC]

Oh, are we playing “lowest price paid in-the-wild”?

$4 for a 1st Year Blue Cedar with a Sterling Silver cap.  And the diaphragm worked/still works just fine. 

[Carguy]

1 minute ago, Glenn-SC said:

Oh, are we playing “lowest price paid in-the-wild”?

$4 for a 1st Year Blue Cedar with a Sterling Silver cap.  And the diaphragm worked/still works just fine. 

Quite impressive. I have only found one Vac DJ in the wild, ever.

[NumberSix]

28 minutes ago, Glenn-SC said:

Oh, are we playing “lowest price paid in-the-wild”?

$4 for a 1st Year Blue Cedar with a Sterling Silver cap.  And the diaphragm worked/still works just fine. 

 

26 minutes ago, Carguy said:

Quite impressive. I have only found one Vac DJ in the wild, ever.

 

I got a double-jewel recently with matching pencil. But I sure as heck did not pay $4 for it. Or $40. 

[Carguy]

6 minutes ago, NumberSix said:

 

 

I got a double-jewel recently with matching pencil. But I sure as heck did not pay $4 for it. Or $40. 

Nor did I. I’m going to an estate sale tomorrow that has pictures of pens, and I am hoping that they aren’t priced stupidly 

[mitto]

1119

[Carguy]

My friend, eventually you are gonna own all the known 51’s in existence…except for my 55 of course! 
 

I am jealous!

[Barry Gabay]

Vac 51 v. Aero 51: I  prefer vac because of its greater ink capacity.  But found in the wild, I agree that aeros almost always are in working order; whereas, some vacs require a diaphragm replacement.

 

Lowest price: $1.US at a flea market for my first plum with lustraloy cap! Smooth medium nib. 

 

F & M nibs v wider nibs. In US, there seem to  be far more narrow nibs than wider ones. In the UK, however, I have found a good number of 51s and 61s with B, BB, and oblique nibs. 

 

Finally, Mitto: Congratulations, sir. Your 51 posts always make me feel that obsessive behavior is healthy behavior. At the moment, my collection contains about 10% of the 51s you have. Be well. 

 

Enjoy the weekend, everyone. 

 

 

 

 

[bunnspecial]

Lowest in the wild-3 for $60(plus a 21 and 2 Snorkels in that same lot, so guess we could call it $10 each on average). One was a gray vac/Vermeil cap with the finest nib I've ever used-pretty sure it was an XXXF or finer. I had it restored(well before I'd have tackled a Vac myself) and eventually sold it because the nib was unuseable for me. I kind of wish I'd kept it, especially considering what it sold for and how uncommon that nib seems to be. One was pretty ordinary black XF Aero/lustaloy cap. There was a 51 Special with a nib twisted into a pretzel that I made a vain attempt to straighten, but never got that far as one of the tines broke completely when took the hood off.

 

I'd still like to know if it's actually documented about Vacs having a higher ink capacity. As I've said, every reference I've found with measurements says ~1.1-1.2mL for both. I have a Vac waiting for me to reassemble it, and I'll check its capacity when I put it back together.

 

In general, though, I have a weird affinity for Blue Diamond clips. In fact, even though I find looking at a couple of recent acquisitions, I like the shape and feel of the Oversize Vacumatic better than I do the Maxima(plus one of my OSs has a nicely flexible nib-not what I expect on a 30s Parker) but I'm drawn to the blue diamond on the Maxima.

 

I've found I actually kind of enjoy replacing diaphragms on Vacs. With the right tools(which admittedly is not a cheap investment, and also not something you'd want to jump into just to do one or two) some of the "difficult" steps are relatively straight forward. As an example, I bought a bud burr from PenTooling, and I've yet to damage a pellet pocket using that(and did reliably break about every other one before I had that). I'm sure I will eventually, but using that they either break up and fall out or are easy to grab with a pick and pop out. The whole process of cleaning out the barrel(the seat again is super easy with the seat reamer from PenTooling), getting the diapragm trimmed right, installed, and checked out, and then getting it all put back together is oddly satisfying. I can streamline it even more now that I've put together a few spare fillers-the plastic plunger type that's appropriate for both later Vacs and also all but the earliest 51s-and can easily drop one in if I wanted to do a Vac in a hurry, or found it beyond salvage, or damaged the pellet pocket(the latter of which can be fixed also, albeit it's even more involved).

[Ron Z]

Quote

I am hoping that they aren’t priced stupidly

 

From their perspective, or yours? 

[Estycollector]

One persons cheap is another person expensive…lol!

[VacNut]

One of the latest 51 sets to the collection. They are absolute beauties that are neither cheap or expensive. They just are.