I am looking for a Vintage every day writer

[Vcasa]

Hi everyone, I am looking for a vintage everyday writer.  I know the first choice is the Parker 51 but are there any others I should look for?  What else is out there that can handle the workload?  I am cool with Vintage as well as attractive modern pens as well.  Thanks for the advice.

[Mark from Yorkshire]

An Eversharp, or Conway Stewart. They are two I have in addition to various others such as waterman ideal and lady Sheaffer. 

[ajcoleman]

I would consider a Parker 45 as well. It's a solid writer, and I would certainly consider it up to everyday use. The flighter metal version is especially rugged. 
 

Adam

 

[sandy101]

Monblanc has a nice vintage range - the 254 for example. 

 

Parker 51, Duofold from the 40's and 50's grey pearl (it was good enough for James Joyce) and Parker 45 are pretty good. The 45 has the stiffest nib - note in my experience vintage nibs are not always as smooth as modern ones. I'm not sure if it is wear, manufacturing process or fashion - but m vintage nibs tend to be a bit flexible and grip the paper, rather than glide over the page. 

 

Swan Mabie Todd are good too. I have one, but couldn't tell you which only it's from the later 30's/early 40's and is a nice, reliable writer. 

 

Of course, another alternative is the Lamy 2K. Technically it may not be vintage, but it's been in production since 1966. So new, but vintage.

 

I'm sure there's some Waterman and Shaeffer pens you could consider too - but I have no experience of these ones. 

[VacNut]

2 hours ago, Mark from Yorkshire said:

An Eversharp, or Conway Stewart. They are two I have in addition to various others such as waterman ideal and lady Sheaffer. 

Eversharps are great writers, some tend to be more delicate than others, but there are upteenth replacement parts for a Skyline Pen. I tend to stay away from the Dorics and celluloid Coronets due to celluloid rot and finicky piston fillers.
 

Another dependable smooth writer and the English Duofolds from 50’s and Early 60’s. They have Aerometric-style fillers. Beautiful smooth and semi flex nibs - sometimes with a nice big round tip. They haven’t gotten much attention, so they are affordable.

I leave my 51s and 21s unused for over a week and they write like a dream. 

 

Go Vintage!!!

[JasonR]

I use a Conway Stewart 55 as my daily driver.  The Duro nibs are really great and the pen is substantial enough to be comfortable for most hands and not oversized.   The lever-fill mechanism is also super easy to maintain.   I use a variety of CS pens as my primaries.  

[Penguincollector]

  I really like Parkers, I rarely have trouble with any of them from the aerometric era through today. The cartridge/converter pens do well with any ink I try with them, and the aerometric ones hold so much ink and rarely need any work beyond a thorough flushing.  The UK Duofolds are really nice, they come in various sizes and four colours, and there’s one hooded nib model as well. For the cartridge models, it really depends on what appeals to you in terms of size and finish. The 45 and 75 models are very customizable, there are various nibs available that can be bought separately, there’s tons of different colors.
 

 I recommend reading up about the different Parker models on Parkercollector. Here’s the 45 page, and the other models are listed on the left:

 

Parkercollector’s 45 page

 

  I also enjoy the vintage MontBlanc models, but the plastic on some can get a bit wonky, so I hesitate to recommend them to someone just getting their feet wet. I do love the 144 from the 1990s, the resin is good. They’re small pens for some, but the nibs are beautiful and the feeds are ebonite. I’ve had mine for a bit longer than 30 years now and it’s among my favorites. It’s been from pillar to post with me and still looks brand new.

[PPPR]

My vote goes for Esterbrook's J family with the wide range of interchangeable Renew Points. These Esterbrooks and Parker 51 vacumatics and aerometrics are my workhorses.

[InkyProf]

Lots of good suggestions here. I agree with others who've suggested Parkers, including the Aerometric 51 as well as the cartridge/converter 45 (and I'll add: the 25, although its aesthetics don't appeal to everyone), as good places to start (my first vintage pen was an aero 51). The Esterbrooks are also good starting points -- abundant, easy to maintain, attractive. And I'll put in a word for vintage or "modern vintage" Pelikan piston-fillers.

 

But could you clarify what you mean when you say "handle the workload"? Are you wanting something you can throw in a bag and carry around with you to the office/cafe/afterhours rave, without worrying too much about damage? Or would this pen live in one place, so that the question is just whether it's up to regular use?

 

In the latter case, I think your options are pretty wide open. These pens were made to be written with, and with the exception of rarities with now-brittle material or nibs that flex if you look at them sideways, most quality vintage pens that have been properly restored should be up to sustained regular use. That means your decision should depend on things like your preferred size, whether you like a firm or a soft nib, the filling system (some filling systems, especially those involving latex sacs and diaphragms, will limit the range of inks you can or should use; also, if you're writing a lot, a small lever-filler with a latex sac will need to be refilled more frequently than a piston-filler), and the aesthetics of the pen. And, of course, price point.

 

The tricky thing is that it's hard to know what your preferences are, when it comes to all of these things, without trying all the options. Which is one reason, as you're probably about discover, that a lot of us quickly wind up with many more than one everyday writer...

 

[amk]

Pelikan 400s from the vintage period make great everyday writers - lovely reliable pens. Parker 51 and 45, as mentioned, but also the 'English duofolds', are worth considering.

 

And I have a couple of the original Aurora 88s which are lovely piston fillers, really robust, though the nibs are I think a bit of an acquired taste.

[Vcasa]

Gosh thank you all for the suggestions!  I tend to do a deep dive and search the websites of vendors mentioned here. I will keep you updated 

[VacNut]

If you can’t decide, you can get  an italian Colorado Pen. Two nibs and two different colored inks. It is sure to be a conversation stopper during any meeting.

Completely useless pen that is difficult to maintain and use, but if you don’t want to carry two pens…😆😆😆😜

[Penguincollector]

2 hours ago, InkyProf said:

But could you clarify what you mean when you say "handle the workload"? Are you wanting something you can throw in a bag and carry around with you to the office/cafe/afterhours rave, without worrying too much about damage? Or would this pen live in one place, so that the question is just whether it's up to regular use?

  Funny you should mention this. I was the ‘90s club kid who often had my M800, Duofold, 144, and other pens rattling around in a metal lunchbox that I used as a purse. I wouldn’t do it now, but those pens are less delicate than people think. 

[InkyProf]

14 minutes ago, Penguincollector said:

I was the ‘90s club kid who often had my M800, Duofold, 144, and other pens rattling around in a metal lunchbox that I used as a purse.

 

Awesome. 

(There really should be a pen called Fatboy Slim, don't you think? Preferably in a glowstick colorway.)

[pen lady]

My vote would be for a P45, a post-war English Duofold or an Esterbrook J type, depending on your nib preference.

If you live somewhere relatively close to the location of a pen show, that would be a good place to look at many different models, you'll have the chance to try them out too.  Happy hunting.

[Penguincollector]

2 hours ago, InkyProf said:

 

Awesome. 

(There really should be a pen called Fatboy Slim, don't you think? Preferably in a glowstick colorway.)

   That would be so rad! Also, “Praise You” is definitely the theme song for my childhood pens: 

 

We've come a long, long way together
Through the hard times and the good
I have to celebrate you, baby
I have to praise you like I should

 

[VacNut]

I don’t have much experience with Esties or Skylines as a daily user, but well over 75% or the UK Duofolds and Aerometrics I encounter worked after a quick flush or soak. It isn’t absolutely essential for you to purchase a restored pen, if you are a tinkerer at heart.

Sad to say many of these pens are being sold and scrapped for the gold nibs, so there are many replacement parts available on the internet.

[pen lady]

That some nibs are worth more than the 'non-working' pen they are in marks a very troubling trend. We'd like to blame those awful people who just scrap away without thought of the whole pen's value but not everyone is a pen person.  I know a man who collects time-pieces, the same thing is happening in the world of gold pocket-watches. Beautiful antiques are heading to the melting pot all the time. 

[VacNut]

I’ve recently become less sentimental about scrapping the gold nibs. People have been recycling gold since we discovered it was easier to smelt it than digging more ore out of the ground. The nibs we hold so dear were probably the result of smelting intricate Edwardian or Victorian keepsakes. Our elders would have been shocked to discover these artifacts were being smelted down to make the gold nibs we cherish.

For those interested in preserving vintage pens, buy more pens or parts. The gold nibs can be replaced. The parts are more difficult to replace.

 

It’s interesting to think the nibs may have once been part of a pharoah’s death mask?!?!?
 

 

[InkyProf]

I appreciate @VacNut's long view. Still, it would be easier for me to be philosophical about it if what was being "made" out of these nibs was art rather than defensive investment positions in an insecure global economy. Not that hoarding gold as wealth is new, either. But melting down looted Egyptian artifacts for their gold was an outrage, too...