So one of my neighbors hands these two pens at our HOA meeting!

[ChrisUrbane]

I always use fountain pens and generally carry two of them with me at all times.  One in either black, blue, red, and the second in a more vivid color for highlighting, bulleting or underlining.

So one of my retired neighbors just randomly hands me these two pens and tells me that he pulled them out of a drawer that he has had them for 30 years and asks me if I can give them a good cleaning.

 

I finally got around to it this weekend and was surprised at what he actually gave me if If I have identified them correctly.  They are lovely specimens in pretty good shape.  I will try to polish the silver one up and the black and gold one only has a few flakes of corrosion on the arrow. 

 

The all silver bodied Parker 75 Celise with a made in USA body from about 1965 but it does not have the notch as some of the other pens did.  The bladder has also been replaced on it for a converter.

The other is a Parker 75 made in France with a 1991 date code on it.  I am kind of excited to get to play with these pens and he said that we can talk about them 'entering my collection down the road'.

For now, though I will ink them up to use them for a week or so and he has asked that I return them with at least one of them inked up with black ink since he would like to get back in the habit of using them regularly.  

 

Did I identify these two correctly?

[FlighterGuy]

Bladder?  75s have always been converter pens.  The Aerometric converter may have been replaced with later converter.  But that's about it. The Cicele is from the 70s because it's not a Flat Top.

[ChrisUrbane]

_{Cool, thanks.  Any other particular notes on how to further define the Cecile?  It just has the nib size on the under side of it and not a number.}

[crescentfiller]

"So one of my retired neighbors just randomly hands me these two pens "

 

That is so totally amazing! Of all the people in the room, he randomly handed them to the guy who uses and works on pens! Awesome! I mean, like what were the chances? 

 

Be careful when polishing the sterling Cisele; it is best to avoid liquids and just gently polish with a Sunshine cloth, otherwise you can destroy the blackened finish in the cross hatching.

 

Good luck!

[Kalessin]

A little more detail...

 

Many USA-model Parker 75's came with a converter that had a pen-sac instead of the piston-type converters that are now very common.  These squeeze-type converters are also called "Aerometric" converters.  To use them, you squeeze a springy metal piece that surrounds the pen sac ("bladder"), and unsqueeze it with the nib in an ink bottle to fill the sac.  Parker cartridges will also fit all Parker 75 pens.

 

The gripping section on the US-made pen is most likely a replacement; older types had a silver-colored ring at the end of the section nearest to the nib.  These pens take "thin stem" nib units.

 

The black laquer model, made in France, is from later.  I bought one just like it new in 1985 to take notes in college, and wrote what feels like thousands of pages with it.  The nib and section are probably original to the pen; these pens came supplied with the "thick stem" style nib unit, and when they were sold, Parker was only selling the piston type converters.  I used cartridges when at school, because it meant not having to take a bottle of ink with me.

 

The Parker 75 was a very successful model, and came in many finishes, and with matching ballpoints, pencils, and other types like fiber tip and rollerball.  The older website http://www.parker75.com has a lot of information.

 

[ChrisUrbane]

Wow, thanks for the exceptional insight and information from everyone in this forum especially in regards to the Aeromatic explanation.  I have some pens with them and some without..  I wish I would have seen your post earlier @crescentfillersince I think we did remove the black finish from the Cecile.  It came out pretty damn shiny however.  It does seem to leak a little bit around the neck, but I am assuming he had some of those older more corrosive inks in there and just left the ink in them for so long.  It does not get on your fingers unless you grab it very close to the nib and it is not leaking to the point of dripping, but ink collects around the collar.  My goals is to write with the Cecile for about a week then refill it and give it back to him then play with the newer 75.   I hope I did not 'destroy or devalue' the pen with the silver cleaner by removing the dark spots, but my guess is that it will tarnish there again first if it gets used a bit.  Here is a pic of the shined and polished pen. 

[crescentfiller]

Ouch! Yes, you reduced the value by stripping the finish. The black in the grooves wasn't tarnish, so it won't come back. Generally speaking, you want to avoid silver or metal cleaner on pens and you want to avoid over-polishing any pen, hard rubber, celluloid, plastic, or metal. They were never meant to shine like a mirror. And avoid waxing pens!

[bunnspecial]

7 hours ago, crescentfiller said:

Ouch! Yes, you reduced the value by stripping the finish. The black in the grooves wasn't tarnish, so it won't come back. Generally speaking, you want to avoid silver or metal cleaner on pens and you want to avoid over-polishing any pen, hard rubber, celluloid, plastic, or metal. They were never meant to shine like a mirror. And avoid waxing pens!

 

Actually it depends on the exact age of the pen. IIRC some where painted in the grooves, some got an "accelerated" tarnish and then tumble to just polish the high points, and some left shiny with the idea that they would tarnish in use.

 

With regular use, they do tend to fill out nicely as they will stay relatively shiny on the high touch areas and will fill in the grooves. They can periodically be touched up with something like a Sunshine cloth or another non-liquid polish, as that will generally not polish the grooves.

There are ways to expedite tarnishing, although it can take some practice to get an even finish that will then polish nicely. I did it not too long ago on a set of silver flatware that had "ugly" and spotted tarnish and really needed to be taken down to shiny metal,  but the person it belonged to preferred the "dark grooves" look. I polished it sparkling bright, tarnished the handles, and then carefully polished them to only polish the high spots.