Product Description
| Type | fountain pen |
| Product Name | Parker 61 "Heritage" edition |
| Manufacturer and Year | Parker, USA -- 1957-9 (Mark II model) |
| Length | 5-1/2" |
| Filling System | The fountain pen has the capillary filling system which is unique to this model. See further details below. |
| Color | 1/10 12k yellow gold filled arcing "rainbow" swirls alternating with silverplate (cap). The body is red. Double pearlescent jewels on either end. |
| Nib | The gold nib is not marked but it looks like a medium. The nib is in great shape and not worn at all, lots of dipping material. (It looks a little off center in our photo, but that is just the angle from which the photo was taken.) |
| Condition |
Excellent condition, both cosmetically and functionally. No scratches or dings or dents, really just about perfect aside from one tiny nick in the edge of the plastic on the barrel (see the last photo below). The teflon cell is in good condition with some scratches in the teflon. The spring-loaded valve in the end of the barrel is nice and spring-y. The arrow inset in the section is in perfect condition with no pitting or loose edges. We cleaned and tested the filling system, and got good liquid flow. You'll need to be patient when you fill it the first time, as it takes 10-15 minutes for the capillary system to suck in enough ink to get started. |
A word or two about the Parker 61 Capillary Filling System. If you are not familiar with this unique design, you should read this.
Here is how you fill a Parker 61, and an insight into how the pen actually works. Unscrew the barrel and stick the back end of the pen (aka the capillary cell) into a bottle of ink. Wait a few minutes (probably more like a half hour when you first start one of these older used ones), and let the ink wick up into the capillary cell. The cell contains a sheet of perforated plastic that has been given a 3-D pattern resembling tire tread, and rolled up. The perforations allow ink to seep between the rolled-up layers, and the tread pattern maintains space between the layers. In the middle of this tube, which runs the entire length of the capillary cell, is the feed. To keep things clean, the capillary cell has on a coating of teflonon the outside that is intended to shed ink as the user withdraws the pen from the ink bottle, leaving very little ink to be wiped off. The end of the barrel contains a spring-loaded thingey which covers the open end of the capillary tube, but still allows it to vent.
