Do you use a fountain pen?

[Robbo 27]

Sway said:

Parker Duofold International I believe. Same as mine, except gold trim where mine is platinum/palladium (can never remember!).

As per my colleague who used to be at Parker (and the source for my pen for relative peanuts, so I like him!) the Queen and Prince Charles have both granted Parker Royal Warrants, however only received pens from the English factory - where they underwent serious additional QA!

I believe she has a Parker 51 as her 'personal' pen, and she's had that for decades.

There is a story about a man that calls parker and asks for repairs to his Parker 51, the reply is that they dont service that pen any more. He is indignant and says -

"If the Queen wanted her 51 doing you would fix it wouldnt you"

"Well yes we would".

"Hers is working fine right now so you can fix mine instead"

[travel is dangerous]

Any suggestions for 2 inks for my first 2 piston-filling pens (a happy result of christmas). I was thinking an interesting/dark red colour and maybe something else? Already covered for blue...

[Robbo 27]

travel is dangerous said:

Any suggestions for 2 inks for my first 2 piston-filling pens (a happy result of christmas). I was thinking an interesting/dark red colour and maybe something else? Already covered for blue...

There is an issue with reports of Diamine inks, especially reds, staining clear piston pens. TWSBI have started turning down warranty claims if the user has used saturated inks such as Diamine.

I would look at a new ink called Robert Oster Maroon,

For a second colour I would suggest a dark green, there is a superb one called Organics Studio James Joyce.

Both these inks are higher priced but they are going to last for much longer than the pain of buying them.

If you have bought a Pelikan I have found that they work well with Pelikan inks

The Writing desk link is attached for the greens,

https://www.thewritingdesk.co.uk/showproduct.php?b...

Always interested in your feedback as to what you bought and what you think about the results.

[Desiato]

Robbo 27 said:

There is an issue with reports of Diamine inks, especially reds, staining clear piston pens. TWSBI have started turning down warranty claims if the user has used saturated inks such as Diamine.

That's quite interesting Rob, I noticed that the Jacque Herbin Amethyst that I loaded into the clear Herbin pen has stained the ink filler. The actual clear pen body is fine but the ink sac has a purple tinge to it now.

Robbo 27 said:

Let us know how it writes, new one to me always useful to know of a good priced quality pen,

As a follow up, I find the Jacque Herbin pen a little short for my liking. It is only 115mm long wit the cap fitted and the end sort of sits in the cup of my hand when writing. It is a fairly fine nib and feels a little scratchy. Nice and cheap for keeping a selection of pens with easily identifiable coloured inks though.

[Robbo 27]

Desiato said:

As a follow up, I find the Jacque Herbin pen a little short for my liking. It is only 115mm long wit the cap fitted and the end sort of sits in the cup of my hand when writing. It is a fairly fine nib and feels a little scratchy. Nice and cheap for keeping a selection of pens with easily identifiable coloured inks though.

Blues, purples and reds seem to be the culprits and also if it is a saturated ink. Not meaning a saturated solution but with a strong colour.

Here are cartridges that have been refilled with Diamine ink, apart from the last two, you will see that they have left a stain




Cartridges can be replaced quite easily, not so easy when it is a pen that is stained



I have taken this matter up with Diamine and, basically, they just dont care.

I havent found a Diamine Blue, Red or Purple ink that doesnt stain plastics.

The only Diamine ink that I would use again is the Sherwood green, even that stains but to a much less degree.

For your pen, because of the length, it sounds like one to be passed to the younger Desiato family. If you want to improve the smoothness of the nib, have a close look to make sure that the two tines of the nib are perfectly in line, when all is ok, find your self a very smooth stone, something like flint or marble, some people have decorative polished stones for house plants - they would be ideal, Fill the pen with water and write figures of 8 on the stone for a minute or so. Then test on paper, if there is any roughness try and work out which edge of the nib needs smoothing and abrade just that edge. Finally I just do a few one inch up and down strokes on the stone, that should improve matters.

[Desiato]

those cartridges really are badly stained aren't they!
As you say though, a much better idea than staining a filler unit.

I will give the nib a go on a stone, we have some decorative stones as you describe. Thanks.

[Desiato]

those cartridges really are badly stained aren't they!
As you say though, a much better idea than staining a filler unit.

I will give the nib a go on a stone, we have some decorative stones as you describe. Thanks.

[alorotom]

travel is dangerous said:

Any suggestions for 2 inks for my first 2 piston-filling pens (a happy result of christmas). I was thinking an interesting/dark red colour and maybe something else? Already covered for blue...

I use the purple own brand bottle ink from the writing desk and it’s a very nice colour wet and dry and doesn’t seem to stain the piston carts either

[Celtic Dragon]

I have a soft spot for Mont Blanc inks, the burgundy red being a particular favourite.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

I have Waterman ink in Brown and also Purple, and have been very happy with it.

For black, you can't go far wrong with Parker Quink.

[Robbo 27]

Desiato said:

those cartridges really are badly stained aren't they!
As you say though, a much better idea than staining a filler unit.

I will give the nib a go on a stone, we have some decorative stones as you describe. Thanks.

I dont know the particular pen you are using but it is possible that there is no blob of material at the end of the pen nib to smooth, some nibs look just as if they are produced by squeezing the end of the nib with pliers. if your nib looks like this you can improve it a little but it will never be super smooth.

Another alternative for smoothing if you dont have a shiny stone is to use a smooth piece of soft metal such as aluminium or copper, or even a ceramic tile, the type with a matt finish should be ok.

[dapprman]

Orange red and purple inks are generally the worse offenders. Also be careful of high sheen inks - some Organic Studio inks are gaining staining reputations, plus their QC has been questions due to variations in batches.

I'd recommend having a browse at the ink comparison charts at The Writing Desk.

As to reds, I've been experimenting on 'real reds' as opposed to dark pinks - actually ahd problems with a number of Diamine inks and will shortly be trying Sheaffer and Waterman.

Piston pens are a PITA to clean unless you can remove the nibs - took me ages on an OMAS Ogiva just a few days back. Depends what colours you like, if you do want sheen, and if your piston pens are demonstrators. The luxury dye inks such as Sailor Jentle, Pilot Iroshiziku and Pelikan Edelstein can be harder to clean due to their saturation.

As to safe inks - I seem to remember John 'Oxonian' Sorowka, Richard Binder, and Mike Masuyama all use Waterman ink for testing.

--
edit to fix URL and nothing to doing with writing Bender instead of Binder ....

Edited by dapprman on Wednesday 10th January 17:31

[Robbo 27]

dapprman said:

Orange red and purple inks are generally the worse offenders. Also be careful of high sheen inks - some Organic Studio inks are gaining staining reputations, plus their QC has been questions due to variations in batches.

I'd recommend having a browse at the ink comparison charts at [URL=https://www.thewritingdesk.co.uk/showproduct.php?cat=colorama&subr=none]The Writing Desk{/URL].

As to reds, I've been experimenting on 'real reds' as opposed to dark pinks - actually ahd problems with a number of Diamine inks and will shortly be trying Sheaffer and Waterman.

Piston pens are a PITA to clean unless you can remove the nibs - took me ages on an OMAS Ogiva just a few days back. Depends what colours you like, if you do want sheen, and if your piston pens are demonstrators. The luxury dye inks such as Sailor Jentle, Pilot Iroshiziku and Pelikan Edelstein can be harder to clean due to their saturation.

As to safe inks - I seem to remember John 'Oxonian' Sorowka, Richard Bender, and Mike Masuyama all use Waterman ink for testing.

Richard Binder not Bender.

Dick Bender sounds like a name for a different type of forum completely.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

Robbo 27 said:

Richard Binder not Bender.

Dick Bender sounds like a name for a different type of forum completely.

And people think that *I'm* the smutty one.

[fizzwheel]

I've inherited my Grandfathers old pen. Which after a bit of googling I believe is Parker Victory MK V

I'd quite like to start to use it, but its been sat in its box for many years. Would anybody have any advice about what ( if anything ) I would need to do with it other than purchasing some ink and filling it up and then starting to use it.

[Robbo 27]

fizzwheel said:

I've inherited my Grandfathers old pen. Which after a bit of googling I believe is Parker Victory MK V

I'd quite like to start to use it, but its been sat in its box for many years. Would anybody have any advice about what ( if anything ) I would need to do with it other than purchasing some ink and filling it up and then starting to use it.

These are great pens, a favourite of mine.

I cannot quite see what type it is.

If the entire barrel will unscrew then the job is easy, inside is a type of rubber sac surrounded by a spring bar, you squeeze the bar to draw in ink.

Its possible that only the last half inch of the barrel uncrews and inside should be a metal button. I dont think that is the type you have but it may be more work to put it to a working condition. Come back if that is your type of pen but the Mark V was a squeeze bar filler.

The pen will have been put away with ink inside it, this needs to be flushed out which you can do by just squeezing the metal bar whilst the nib is in plain warm water. You will probably need to do this for a few minutes.

I would leave the pen overnight, nib down, in 1cm of water, underneath the nib is some fine channels that can become blocked with old ink, this soak will get rid of the dried ink.

The nib looks ok, if you can post a close up pic of the nib then I can give you a better idea.

These pens are quite simple, this should be all you need to get it working.

You can make it look like new with some care. If you have Meguiars PlastrX plastic polish that works well, less well is Autoglym super resin polish. You will only need a samll dab of polish, about the size of a pea. If nothing else a domestic furnture polish can be used, the best I have found is the W5 range from Lidl which has a high concentration of beeswax.Ideally you want something just a little abrasive but not over the top like T cut or Brasso.

There are some much more sophisticated pen polishes but I am assuming that you would prefer to use the stuff that you might already have in the house.

The pen looks in very good condition, there is a bar around the cap with a chevron design, worn examples can be almost smooth, yours looks to be nicely marked.

Look after the box too, if ever you come to sell the pen, i appreciate that this is not likely, the pen with its original box is worth much more than the pen on its own..


In theory, you can use any fountain pen ink (not drawing ink or India ink) but you will not go far wrong with Parker or Waterman, both are readily available on the high street.

Hope you can come back and tell us how you got on.

Edited by Robbo 27 on Wednesday 10th January 17:34

[fizzwheel]

I'm pretty sure its a Mark V

Here is a closer pic of the pen, looks like its has the spring bar and bladder as you described.

[Robbo 27]

fizzwheel said:

I'm pretty sure its a Mark V

Here is a closer pic of the pen, looks like its has the spring bar and bladder as you described.

Looks fine, doesnt look like the pen has been used much, the sac would discolour over a period of time to almost black, yours is practically clear, and the cap ring looks good.

I am a little bit concerned over the tip of the nib but that might be just the camera angle,

Edit, as the sac is so clear, I suggest that you just use Parker washable ink, other inks may stain.

Edited by Robbo 27 on Wednesday 10th January 19:44

[fizzwheel]

OK thanks, the end of the nib does look a little odd in the flesh. Its like one half of the tip is longer than the other.

I have just moistened the end of the nib and rubbed it gently with my finger and I think it just had something stuck to it as now it looks like this

[Robbo 27]

fizzwheel said:

OK thanks, the end of the nib does look a little odd in the flesh. Its like one half of the tip is longer than the other.

I have just moistened the end of the nib and rubbed it gently with my finger and I think it just had something stuck to it as now it looks like this

I think that the tip of the nib has been broken off, but if you could take another pic from underneath the nib I will have a better idea.

It should look like this




You have some choices to make. You can try and make something of this yourself by smoothing it but this is unlikely to be a success.

You can send it away to a specialist, the man I recommend is near Oxford, he will probably try and replace the nib rather than fix it, the nib, thankfully is not so expensive but the cost of the repair will be about the same as the pen is worth.

You can look on ebay for a replacement black Victory and just replace the unit into your barrel and cap, A replacement should be around £30 on ebay, best day to look is on a sunday, especially the evening. That will probably be your cheapest option. If the seller doesnt show a close up of the nib, leave it.