Pen Repair

You should probably not try this at home.

I have my father's Parker 51 Vacumatic fountain pen. He thinks he received it as a Bar Mitzvah gift, and he used it for many years, until ballpoint pens were common. I, on the other hand, had learned cursive writing with a fountain pen (required by the Huntsville Alabama public schools), and really liked writing with them, even though I'm a lefty.

Many years later, I found it in a box. It didn't work, and, rummaging around on the net, I found people who repair Parker 51 Vacumatics. It came back all nice and shiny, not cracked, not leaking... I filled it with ink, and (I had not written with it before) loved it. It writes a very fine, smooth stroke.

So it entered into my fountain pen rotation, and I used it a lot. Then, one day I pulled out and... it was in two pieces! Ack!

The quote for repair was more than I wanted to spend. So it sat. And sat. And sat. I kept thinking I could really just glue it back together, but a little voice in my head was saying "DON'T DO THAT! YOU'LL RUIN IT!".

Today I decided I'd either fix it or pitch it (I hear Parker 51 Vacumatic collectors everywhere screaming "throw it at ME!"). A short Superglue session, and all appears well.



Many hours later, all still good. Something went right today!