Having scored a few Parker 51s, luckily no major issues yet, just needing the old ink cleaned out for the most part. I repeatedly filled and emptied each pen with warm water till the expelled water was essentially clear. Two of the pens I did not want to disassemble to remove all vestiges of the now clear water, one was an Aerometric, the other a Vacumatic. So I just blotted the nib and feed on a paper towel as I worked the respective filler mechanisms until no more water leached out onto the paper towel. I then filled with fresh ink and they wrote just fine. Was there more I should have done to the closed system before filling with ink, short of disassembly and air drying the parts? I suppose one just has to accept the minor dilution of the ink with any small remaining water left inside the pen, it didn't seem to matter as the pens write just fine so far. Any further suggestions?
Another P51, a Flighter had to be disassembled because a previous owner had reassembled it with the nib rotated 20-30 degrees out of alignment with the pointed nose of the section and the feed was not centered exactly under the nib either. It was a bit tough getting it apart, cemented with old dried ink as it was, but was accomplished with no injury to the pen and reassembly was only complicated by the trial and error repetitions to get all the parts in proper alignment. Since it had to be taken apart, I could swab out the sac and air dry the rest before reassembly.
Does anyone know the dimensions of the various Parker 51 nib sizes? I think one may be a Fine measuring about 0.026 in. (0.66mm) and the other two might be Mediums measuring 0.031 and 0.033 in.(0.84mm) wide at the tips.
Another P51, a Flighter had to be disassembled because a previous owner had reassembled it with the nib rotated 20-30 degrees out of alignment with the pointed nose of the section and the feed was not centered exactly under the nib either. It was a bit tough getting it apart, cemented with old dried ink as it was, but was accomplished with no injury to the pen and reassembly was only complicated by the trial and error repetitions to get all the parts in proper alignment. Since it had to be taken apart, I could swab out the sac and air dry the rest before reassembly.
Does anyone know the dimensions of the various Parker 51 nib sizes? I think one may be a Fine measuring about 0.026 in. (0.66mm) and the other two might be Mediums measuring 0.031 and 0.033 in.(0.84mm) wide at the tips.
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