#Vacumatic

[love-shall-not]

Parker 51 “Vacumatic” medium c1944-50.

Diamine Oxblood

Domain, des l’aube by Victor Hugo.

Such a sad poem.

[penhero]

PenHero.com Article

Parker Vacumatic vs. Sheaffer Vacuum-Fil: Sheaffer Wins

An interesting conversation at the 2023 Washington D.C. Pen Show prompted me to revisit this article, originally written in 2003. That year I discovered an undated Sheaffer sales brochure titled, “Fountain Pen Selling Facts: Helpful Information For Retail Salespeople” probably released as early as 1934. Parker got an early start in the vacuum filling game with the release in late 1932 of their new Vacuum Filler, actually the second name used for their new diaphragm filling “sacless” pen which would eventually be called the Vacumatic. Sheaffer was late by a year before offering its own vacuum filler, cautiously offering their new Vacuum-Fil pen as a sub-brand by early 1934. The Vacuum-Fil system was moved to Sheaffer's top Balance pens later that year. But how to compete with the popular Parker Vacumatic? Sheaffer armed their dealers with fact sheets and sales brochures to equip retail sales people to show why that new Sheaffer was better!

Read the story about these interesting pens here:

[pastpens]

Vintage Parker Vacumatic New Old Stock Green Fountain Pen

Vintage Parker Vacumatic New Old Stock- New old stock - never been inked before- original price sticker on cap- Vacumatic plastic filler- Green pearl striped marble with semi-transparent amber barrel - you can see the ink flow inside the body Parker vacumatic fountain pen - Up here is a vintage Parker Vacumatic fountain pen, which was manufactured in USA circa 1930s.The pen is an NEW OLD STOCK, very rare probably never been inked before.On the cap is still the intact label/tag.The pen is in excellent condition.The pen illustrates green pearl striped pattern, and it is amber SEMI-TRANSPARENT, you can see the ink flow inside, highly sought after, rare, and beautiful, and I am sure that you will not be disappointed.It is fitted with a Parker 14ct solid gold nib, writing smooth fine/medium line.A new vacumatic sac has been fitted. The filling system is special and in working order.This Parker Vacumatic has a classic elegance and has been produced to the highest standards of craftsmanship, technology and aesthetics.The pen has been serviced and tested for full functionality. This is rare and very much sought after, of such a collectible and vintage pen in excellent condition.The Parker Pen Company was founded in 1888 by George S. Parker, whose mission was to manufacture a better pen. The Parker Pen Company's tradition epitomizes the highest standards of craftsmanship, technology, and aesthetics. From the 1920s to the 1960s, Parker was No.1 in worldwide writing instrument sales. The Parker Duofold is one of the most recognizable and enduring fountain pen designs. Launched in 1921, the pen was a phenomenal success and put the Parker Pen Company squarely into the front rank of fountain pen manufacturers. Duofold remain popular in Europe being produced well into the 60s in varying sizes and colors when it was revived in the 80's once again as Parker's Flagship model.In 1932, Parker began test marketing the next generation in fountain pens, the Golden Arrow. This radical new pen featured a compact plunger-operated pump filler that nestled at the back end of the barrel, eliminating the space-hungry pressure bar and sac. The Golden Arrow was later renamed as Vacumatic. The Vacumatic went on the market in 1933; and discontinued in 1939, due to the introduction of new Aero-metric filler.Parker pens were frequently selected to sign important documents such as the World War II armistices, and commemorative editions were sometimes offered.You can also view our item on Trumblr.  Read the full article

[dulcemelanie83]

[syncallio]

Is anybody tired of Vacumatics? 'Cause I'm not!

This beautifully green thing had a ton of wear, especially on the barrel. So I gave it a polish with my Micromesh pads and it came out very nicely.

The nib is a bit soft and has some feedback. It writes well - no surprise there.

If you're wondering how I know the exact date of this pen, the photo above shows the date code. The style of the pen tells me it's from the 1940s, and the tiny number "3" is for 1943. It also indicates what quarter of 1943: the number stamp would start off with three dots around it, and with each quarter they'd file off one of the dots. This one has no dots, so it's from the fourth quarter.

Very few pens do date codes. Parker only did it on certain pens. No idea why that is, but there you go.

[oimoi-op]

Mentioned a little while back that I got some more vintage fountain pens so here's one of them courtesy of my mid-at-best photography skills:

It's a Waterman no. 12 eyedropper. No clip but for some reason both Watermans and BCHR pens with clips hate me so this is the norm for me lol. Cap's patent date reads "MAY 24. 1898" so it's very likely it's from right about the turn of the 19th century. Barrel's patent date reads "FEB. 12. & NOV. 4. 1884" so I believe the later date on the cap is probably closer to when it actually left the factory.

Both patent dates are very clear despite visible aging throughout the pen. Barrel imprint "WATERMAN'S IDEAL FOUNTAIN PEN N.Y." is also very legible. The "12" stamped on the end barrel is much more faded and difficult to make out in poor lighting.

The pen's barrel, section, and cap are all made from ebonite/hardened black rubber. I don't see any markings that would lead me to believe this was ever chased/patterned. However, the pen has clearly been exposed to water throughout its life as it's a very uneven brown, with the section and parts of the barrel having turned black.

The no. 2 nib and its ebonite feed are completely intact thank fuck. The section was very stubborn and did NOT want to unscrew thanks to decades' old dried ink. I went ahead with the decision to partially soak the section to where it meets the barrel as it was already very discolored and seemed unlikely to be further damaged by this.

(Side note: it is not recommended to soak rubber pens or expose them to water unnecessarily, especially if the rubber still retains its original factory look. Even in this situation I took care to not soak the barrel.)

After some careful soaking and a little bit of heat (just low controlled heat!! NOT heated water!!!), the section unscrewed in my hand, so I didn't even need my section pliers, which was nice lol. Flushing the inside of the barrel with a syringe made cleaning go pretty fast, so I was able to fill it with ink in no time.

She's a flexy lol

The tines split very easily with hardly any pressure to the point I think I can safely classify it as a true flexible nib, albeit not a wet noodle. Without any flex, it leaves an almost stubbish EF or even EEF line—however, it lays down ink so wetly that unless you're writing VERY slowly, it doesn't look quite so fine lol. And with just barely any pressure, it easily puts down BBB lines, though (as evidenced by the slight railroading pictures) sometimes the feed struggles to keep up.

This is one of the most user-friendly vintage flex pens I've owned. It makes me wish my handwriting wasn't dogshit so I could do it justice :(

Biggest issue is a moderate crack on the cap. It isn't so severe to the point of drying out the pen, but I have to be careful when capping, and just to be safe posting is a no-go. It's functional but I wouldn't mind replacing it.

Overall, this a pretty good example of a user-grade vintage flex. Since there's no mechanism, it doesn't need to be restored, and it holds plenty of ink for writing/calligraphy purposes. I've enjoyed writing with it more than my other vintage flexies and semi-flexies for the past few weeks, and the inky fingertips are so worth it lol

[tournament-for-best-neopet]

Round One!!!

Vacumatic 9000

It certainly does suck!

Wain

If you hear strange noises in the night. Chances are its a Wain racing with its favourite toy.

[2057]

[funkervogt]

Got a parker vacumatic for 16 bucks today im literally god

[graham-greene]

The photo isn’t crystal clear, but pen appears to have a hooded nib and is most likely a Parker 51. The pen I use (shown below) is a Parker 51 vacumatic circa 1947. The salient advantage of a fountain pen over a ballpoint for a writer is having to exert little or no pressure to write.

[stationery-matters]

A 1947 Parker 51 vacumatic with a 14k medium nib. It’s filling mechanism requires restoration, but otherwise appears okay. Stay tuned.

[goldenstorm0]

Okay, I've cooked for a little, I've got a new outline for fixing a lever-fill, but I've realized that there are hurdles that newcomers would want to cross before even considering fixing a pen: ie what is a leverfill and how do I id it? (also maybe how to id other common filling mechanisms, there are a fuck ton and most modern pens are either cartridge, eyedropper, or vacumatic, and it can be intimidating at first); What are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tier pens, how do I get one, and general brand overviews; and most importantly, can you even fix the pen, cause there is some shit that better to just pay a professional.

So I'm going to pause the restoration guide for now and make up an overview of pen brands, why certain ones are considered better than others. Then I'll do a simple overview of different filler systems cause they are cool after, a simple guide on how to id a pen that is worth fixing, and then how to do a basic resac.

......... this was suppose to be an little project. Just a tiny thing. There are already guides out there. I just thought it would be fun and cute to make my own and now it's blown up. Idk if other people even care. 10 bucks it'll get 10 notes when I finally finish it, I'm going to screen shot those notes and frame it along with the absolute stack of note cards I've accumulated and the finished product.

[penhero]

PenHero.com Feature Article:

Mabie Todd Top Filling Sacless Blackbird 1937-1940

When Mabie Todd introduced the Visofil VT series as the replacement for the Swan Visofil V series pens in September 1937, the company also introduced the shorter “top-filling” sacless BT200 Blackbird pen equipped with a very similar plunger filling system. “Top filling” indicates the barrel end is the “top” of the pen when the pen is inverted for filling. Interestingly both the Visofil VT and the Blackbird BT200 were advertised as “sacless” though both use a rubber sleeve in the mechanism that can come into contact with the ink, especially when the pen is pocketed. The Top Filling Sacless Blackbird is very uncommon and has two of the most beautiful and difficult to find celluloids on any Mabie Todd pen.

Read the story about these interesting pens here:

[pastpens]

Vintage Parker Vacumatic Gold Web Double Jewel Fountain Pen

Vintage Parker Vacumatic Gold Webbed Fountain Pen

- Stunning golden web marble amber semi-transparent barrel - Double jewel - Vacumatic lock-down filler Parker vacumatic fountain pen - Up here is a vintage Parker Vacumatic fountain pen, which was manufactured in USA circa 1930s. The pen is in nice condition. The pen illustrates GOLDEN WEBBED pattern, and it is amber SEMI-TRANSPARENT, highly sought after, rare, and beautiful. You can see the ink flow inside the barrel. I am sure that you will not be disappointed. The pen bears double jewel at the barrel end. It has a Parker 14ct solid gold nib. A new vacumatic sac has been fitted. The lockdown filling system is special and in working order. This Parker Vacumatic has a classic elegance and has been produced to the highest standards of craftsmanship, technology and aesthetics. The pen has been serviced and tested for full functionality. This is rare and very much sought after, of such a collectible and vintage pen in excellent condition. The Parker Pen Company was founded in 1888 by George S. Parker, whose mission was to manufacture a better pen. The Parker Pen Company's tradition epitomizes the highest standards of craftsmanship, technology, and aesthetics. From the 1920s to the 1960s, Parker was No.1 in worldwide writing instrument sales. The Parker Duofold is one of the most recognizable and enduring fountain pen designs. Launched in 1921, the pen was a phenomenal success and put the Parker Pen Company squarely into the front rank of fountain pen manufacturers. Duofold remain popular in Europe being produced well into the 60s in varying sizes and colors when it was revived in the 80's once again as Parker's Flagship model. In 1932, Parker began test marketing the next generation in fountain pens, the Golden Arrow. This radical new pen featured a compact plunger-operated pump filler that nestled at the back end of the barrel, eliminating the space-hungry pressure bar and sac. The Golden Arrow was later renamed as Vacumatic. The Vacumatic went on the market in 1933; and discontinued in 1939, due to the introduction of new Aero-metric filler. Parker pens were frequently selected to sign important documents such as the World War II armistices, and commemorative editions were sometimes offered. You can also view our item on Trumblr. Read the full article

[peafowlcreative]

Parker 51

The Parker 51 is one of the most iconic vintage fountain pens, and perhaps one of the most iconic fountain pens, period. It features a sleek hooded design, under which is a tubular shaped nib. The name comes from the year 1939, the 51st anniversary of Parker Pen Company, during which the pen was designed.

Released onto the market in 1941, the Parker 51 was initially sold with a Vacumatic pump filling mechanism. In 1948, the Aerometric filling system was released for the 51, which features a transparent PVC "pli-glass" ink sac. Inside the Aerometric's ink sac was a breather tube similar to the Vacumatic, which would expel air on multiple presses of the filling bar, allowing for a greater fill. To pair with the 51, Parker released a series of inks, at one point named "Superchrome". This ink is infamous for its high alkalinity and potential to damage various pens.

The 51 came in two main size variants, the standard size and shorter "demi". The colors, materials, and finishes provided over the pen's decades of production were numerous. There were steel "lustaloy" caps, gold-filled caps, full-steel "Flighter" models, sterling silver caps, single and double-jewel, 51 "Special" which featured a non-gold "octanium" nib, et cetera. 3rd party makers also created elaborate overlays for the Parker 51 in gold and silver. The 51 continued production across multiple revisions until finally being discontinued in the 1970s.

But the legacy of the 51 continued to live on. In 2002 Parker created a limited time run of recreations known as the "Special Edition". In 2021 Parker created a "new" version of the pen, though with significant changes to aspects of the design. Beyond Parker themselves, the 51's popularity and legacy has spawned countless clones across the years.

The examples shown here are a burgundy 51 Vacumatic with Lustaloy cap, a steel 51 Flighter Aerometric, and a 51 Aerometric with a custom 18k gold "Carioquinha" overlay by Brazilian goldsmith Celestino Praça.

[syncallio]

Here's an early Parker Vacumatic I picked up awhile back:

The section is chewed up for some reason. Maybe a failed repair? Fortunately it's cosmetic and doesn't affect the pen's usability.

Not much else to say about this pen except that it writes very dry, and the material is gorgeous.

Too bad "Helen Mann" is a common name; I'd've liked to find her. She had good taste in pens!