Scored a Parker 51 Special & a Parker 21, cleaned them up a bit, and now I need help!

The two pens have basic black barrels with "silvery" caps. They both look great. No marring, chewing, dings, dents, etc... They both have the aerometric filler.

The 21 flushed out with no hassles. There was lots of dried up ink in the sack and the nib feed section. But, once I had it out and refilled with Squink the ink flowed freely. Here is the but, it looks like a fine point nib but it writes like a medium point nib. It's not scratchy though.

The 51's filler has some corrosion, bubbles on the bar, at the far end (opposite the nib). I flushed the sac and nib assembly. Got lots of color. I blew water through the nib assembly until it ran clear. The pen filled easily. But, it doesn't write. The nib looks fine. I dipped the pen into the Squink and it worked but not very well. It was scratchy and thin. I did a bit of research and found that flushing with warm water is often not going to do the trick if Superchrome ink was their previous owner's first/only choice. Seems it is a very corrosive critter. So, I may have a clogged tube and/or a clogged nib, along with a scratchy nib.

I dropped a huge price on these two pens. $20 for the pair.

They look great. What do I need to do to get them to do their thing well?

What should I be willing to put into them? I know these are both mass market pens. But, from what I've read they are great writers.

I had great results using an ammonia solution in my 51. Flushed it with a 1:6 solution of household ammonia and water, then refilled it with the solution and let it sit overnight nib down in a shot glass with paper towel at the bottom. I let it dry for a couple if days after that before refilling it.

temjeito said:

I had great results using an ammonia solution in my 51. Flushed it with a 1:6 solution of household ammonia and water, then refilled it with the solution and let it sit overnight nib down in a shot glass with paper towel at the bottom. I let it dry for a couple if days after that before refilling it.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion!

Did you put the ammonia solution into the pen's sack?

I have not taken the sack off.

You can use ammonia and water, and fill that pen up with it. Just a bit of ammonia in the water. Let it sit. If that does not help, even after sitting, say overnight, then you will probably need to take the hood off and get to the heart of the matter. If you've never done it before, you'll need gentle heat and something to grip the hood with. There is actually a special tool to hold the pen for aerometrics to remove the hood so you don't snap off the filler, but if you are lucky you won't need it. Once off, ultrasonic (if you have one) or soak all the parts in ammonia/water/pen flush and then reassemble.

I have the 51 and the 21 soaking right now.

After creating the solution and flushing both pens I refilled the sacks and let them sit for 15 minutes. Then I gave each pen three more solution feeds. The 21 gave up a little color. The 51 gave up quite a bit of ink.

Stay tuned, the saga will continue tomorrow...

It's great to hear you're making headway!

This has been an educational project.

The ammonia flush worked. I got lots of ink out of the pen. The hood came off easily. My 51 uses an O-ring instead of shellac. The ammonia soaking removed most of the ink debris. I swished the pieces and parts in the water/ammonia solution and the rest of the ink came right out. A Q-Tip and the solution took care of the hood.

As you can see from the picture, the pen started its first writing test in years beautifully. But, fresh ink was not being added to the collector. My reading says the breather tube is probably clogged. So, as the picture shows, I finished my note with the Parker 21.

Pen repair recommendations are welcomed. this is a great pen and I plan to use it a lot. Feel free to PM me if such a recommendation is not appropriate in the public forum. (Looking for someone to repair the pen for me.)

If you are looking for someone to do the repair, Danny Fudge at the http://writepen.net does great work at a reasonable price. No association other than a very satisfied customer!!!

Tom