The Parker 51 was my first fountain pen and I hold a special place in my heart for this model. While in an antique store I had inquired about pens which and was pleasantly surprised by a jewelry box full of them. There is an excited feeling I always get when sorting through a bunch of old pens, looking for something that piques my interest and in this case I saw a few things that I wanted. This Parker was one of them. Considering I have already review a Parker 51 special I will point you towards that post for the similar characteristics.

Brand: Parker Pen Co.
Model: 51 Vacumatic
Year: 1940's
Nib:14k fine
Colour: Black w/ Chrome



Nib & Performance
     The Parker 51 vacumatic has a 14k gold nib, it is smooth and feels slightly softer than the 51 special. The flow is a little wet but the fine nib makes it usable on cheaper papers. This nib is specific to Parker 51 pens and due to the popularity of the model there is still quite a few nib replacements that can be found on the used market.

Filling System & Maintenance
     The filling system was unlike the model I currently had and later discovered it is called a vacumatic filling system. As much information as there is online about this system I got really lucky in that my friend Martin from Woodbin.ca used to collect Parker vacumatics exclusively. Needless to say I was fortunate to learn from someone who has a ton of experience repairing this system. For Parker and the fountain pen industry this vacumatic system was a departure from storing ink in a rubber sac, it used the barrel to store ink and a diaphragm to create the vacuum that draws ink into the pen. I was really impressed with the system and the added ink capacity the Parker 51 now has with this system. It holds more ink than the aeromatic system found in other Parker 51 models. The vacumatic is easy to fill but I find it a tedious process to flush ink out, not one that I would regularly swap inks out of.

Cost & Value