Duofold and 51: The Parker Pens That Ended World War 2
hello there welcome to my channel my name is Doug
and I’m back with another fountain pen review today I have a special two-pen review in
commemoration of the 78th anniversary on Monday, June 6th of d-day the invasion of Normandy
that was effectively the beginning of the end of the second world war and just how to do
fountain pens figure at the end of world war II the big one the end of the war in Europe happened
in Reims, France on may 7th 1945 and the german instrument of surrender was signed using
general Dwight d Eisenhower 1941 parker 51. On September 2nd, 1945 the Japanese instrument of
surrender was signed by General Douglas MacArthur on the deck of the USS Missouri using his bright
red 1921 parker duo fault the two pens like the two generals couldn’t be more different and both
were innovations in their day and have become icons of what constitutes a fountain pen the pens
not the generals and the two pens I have restored and will be reviewing were graciously loaned to me
by my neighbor and new pen-friend, Teresa thank you Teresa for your generous loan of these beautiful
writing instruments this is Teresa’s 1988 parker duo fold centennial designed and released
on parker’s 100th anniversary the pen was redesigned and modernization of the classic parker
the dual fold of the 1920s and the model has become a classic in its own right as we shall see when we
look at its many imitators the second is a 1954 parker 51 that belonged to her late father who
purchased it new and had his name engraved on it both pens were in excellent shape and only needed
some cleaning and polishing to bring them back to their almost new condition let’s look at these
two beautiful classic fountain pens right now so the emphasis for doing a video on these two
pens together come from two sources the first was having my neighbor Theresa show me her two
pens that have a lot of meaning to her personally and then loaning them to me for a review but
the second was just before seeing these two pins from Teresa I read an article from the
national world war ii museums in New Orleans called mightier than the sword the
parker pens that ended world war II I’ll link the article in the description below
it’s an interesting examination of the two parker pens that ended world war ii and how the two pens
reflected the personalities of the two generals MacArthur and Eisenhower I find the dichotomies
of these two pens and the two major figures in history to be endlessly fascinating and
the interesting contrast in these two pens continues my fascination with the
older pen belonging to Teresa’s dad represents the beginning of the modern age of
fountain pens were designed right at the start of world war II in 1939 and the newer pen of
two this 1988 parker duo fold centennial represents the dawn of fountain pen design
in the 1920s although parker has given it a modern treatment as a cartridge converter pen
to celebrate the 100th anniversary of parker’s inception in 1888.
So new is old and old is
new again let’s look at Teresa’s 1988 parker centennial first in all of these discussions of
fountain pen designs and fountain pen innovations it’s important to remember what was happening in
the world and world of fountain pens at the time of their design and release in 1988 might have
been a time of celebration for parker with its 100th anniversary but things were not going well
for fountain pens as far as sales were concerned certainly in the 1950s everyone who was anyone was
sporting a parker 51 with its telltale aero clip prominent in their shirt pockets or at least
the cap anyway those who couldn’t afford a whole parker 51 would just get the cap to make
it looks like they had the status symbol on their person but by 1988 that pocket was more likely
to be occupied by a big crystal ballpoint pen than a fountain pen and financial times were rough
for parker that’s when parker in new haven England which is just west of Brighton launched the
100th anniversary redesigned parker duo fold the centennial the parker duo full centennial was
incredible success and continues today 34 years later with many spin-offs and finish options pens
and pencil designs over the three decades you can get a parker duo to fold 100th-anniversary centennial
brand new today for a little over a thousand bucks this is one of the original centennials it was
made in 1988 when parker offered the new pen in their collector’s editions Teresa’s husband
bought this collector edition set when she started teaching in 1988 it comes with a desk stand that
looks like mahogany to me and it has a groove for the pen and a padded insert for a bottle of parker
quick with an appropriately vintage 1920s label and a brass plaque with the owner’s name engraved
I took some photos of both pens before I did any work on them the centennial was in good but unused
shape and I only rinsed the section and nib out and put it in an ultrasonic bath of pen flush
briefly, to loosen dried ink the 1988 centennials came in three color options black blue marble and
maroon marble each had trim heavily plated with 23 karat gold the barrels are a turned acrylic
called methylmethacrylate to say that 10 times fast let’s look at the features they kept the overall
aesthetic of the original dual fold but made many significant modern adaptations to the black piston
knob from the original has morphed into a tapered black plastic end finial the clip is the more
modern designed parker arrow rather than the ball clip the body and the cap are plastic and turned
acrylic rather than the ebonite of the original and more significant changes are on the inside
from the top, we see a 23-karat gold-plated medallion with centennial the parker arrow logo
and 1888 to 1988 in raised letters this medallion only exists on the 1988 models it is embedded in
a black plastic finial that is straight to a 23-karat gold clip ring and gold-plated parker arrow
clip the clip is perfect nicely springy and usable the cap is straight to two gold bands one thin and
one thick and then the acrylic curves down to the barrel which is straight until we get to two more
gold plated rings that separate the black plastic end finial from the barrel the cap unscrews
with one and about three-quarters of a turn to reveal a black plastic tapering section with
a rounded flare and two gold rings towards the 18-karat gold parker arrow nib in 1988 you could
order either 18-karat gold or 14-karat gold nibs in four standards and 22 non-standard grades
this is one of the non-standard grades as it’s beautifully ground into a medium italic and
let’s get a closer look at this now classic parker arrow nib it has the parker arrow down
the center in ruthenium and then parker 18k and 750 for the gold content and the computer
the designed black plastic feed has no visible fins on the outside as they are on the upper side on
the inside maybe you can see just a hint of those little fins underneath that nip I’ve learned that
parker tumble-polished these nibs in big drums full of walnut shells for like 24 hours to polish
parker claimed the newly designed feed system would allow for the centennial to be used at a quote
normal aircraft flight levels without burping in the 2000s parker changed the nib codes on
the back of the feeds to a lettering system but from 1988 this nib has the code 94 which means
it’s a medium italic the section is another one of those major changes from the 1920s the vintage
the section is short with a two-level step I like the modern redesign very much it’s very comfortable
a good girth and almost a perfect section for me the nib and feet are not part of a nib assembly
that unscrews but are friction fit although I’ve not tried to remove them the section unscrews
to reveal the other internal modernization of the dewer fold the centennial is a cartridge or
cartridge converter pen and takes either one lawn or two short parker cartridges and the inside
of the cap shows a ledge milled into the acrylic which meets up with the section to seal that nib
from drying out the cap posts but not very deeply certainly securely but not very deeply this pen
is not designed to be written with its very very long in the hand but unposted it is
perfectly balanced and feels beautiful in the hand this is a fountain right here, folks
beautiful classic now let’s look at the parker 51. Parker had a hit with the duo fold in the 1920s
and it was the fountain pen to own everything was black until parker discovered a way to make
ebonite in a color red and that big red duo fold was used by MacArthur to end hostilities in the
pacific in 1944 but Eisenhower’s 1941 parker 51 was the modern fountain pen of that time it was
designed in 1939 and released just months before pearl harbor and therefore didn’t hit the
market, until the war was over Eisenhower, had one of the new ones in this gorgeous pen and pencil
set that was used to sign the end of hostilities in Europe after the war Eisenhower presented the
set to president Truman and it now resides in the Truman presidential library which was so modern
and innovative in 1945 well parker created the hooded nib which helped keep the ink from drying
out while the pen is uncapped the internal feed system was also a major innovation as was the
vacuumatic filling system with which the first 51s were equipped the pen is sleek and light and post
deeply to become a truly modern 1945 fountain pen no one had seen anything like this before and
this is a 1954 55 parker 51 with a gold-filled six-line cap that’s almost identical to the cap on my
friend Ron’s dad’s 1954 parker 51 was bought in Canada the only difference is this one’s in burgundy and
this one’s in black and the one in black has been made in the USA on the back of the cap which started
in 1954 and dates them both to 1954 56 along with the used super chrome on the aerometric fillers
which was replaced with use parker inc in 1956. The burgundy 51 was probably made in Canada hence
no made in the USA indication on the cap well why don’t we just say made in Canada buddy well no
one knows where Canada is friend he’s not your friend guy I’m not a guy buddy here’s a photo
of Teresa’s parker 51 before I worked on it it had some dried ink in it and the cap was tarnished and
the clip was loose the pen was sitting on a desk for a long period but this just
shows how well things were built in the 1950s I rinsed everything in pen flush and put
them in an ultrasonic cleaner for a bit to loosen up the grit it took a lot of squeezing
to get all the old ink out I put the barrel on this dowel on which I’ve taped a pencil eraser and
then I used a very fine polishing compound to get out the scratches and polish up the plastic
it is silicone and alcohol-free and I’ve used it for years on the very fragile nitrocellulose
finishes of my six thousand and eight thousand dollar acoustic guitars with great results there are
also, a product called semi-chrome which many people have recommended but I have not tried there are
also, other ways of getting this plastic into a factory-new shiny shape but that involves doing
some abrasive sanding and polishing in sequential steps with micro mesh but for a pen with this much
character and history a good polish is all that’s needed much of that wear is patina made by the
owner and you don’t want to polish that away the cap also polished up beautifully and I used this
jeweler’s polishing cloth to do that and that’s the nice thing about some thick gold plating it
can last for decades and be polished many times without wearing through the metal I tightened
the cap and the jewel finial by pressing it down and turning it on a piece of rubber there’s some
substantial wear where the clip touches the cap but you can’t see that under the clip the plastic
the section had significant scratching and wear but I polished it up with the polishing compound and it
came up very nicely and the parker 51 is the best posting fountain pen ever very few other pens
post so perfectly and make the pen so really nicely balanced in the hand this is the way all
pens should post when I removed the cap on this parker 51 I was expecting to find what you always
find a 14-karat gold medium hooded parker nip but I was surprised when I saw this architect grind
I had no idea architect nibs were around in 1954 or perhaps this was a parker broad that was custom
ground but I expected stock I did find out that parker did make an architect-like nib for the
parker 51 called an Arabic nib that looked very similar to this it was also called a Hebrew nib
back in the day today we call them architects so with a 1988 parker dual fold centennial with an
italic nib and a 1954 parker 51 with an Arabic nib I’m excited to do some writing with these
resurrected beauties I’m going to forgo the size comparisons because these two pens are
so incredibly well known for their sizes and shapes I’ll show some measurements for each
pen and then I’ll get to the writing samples and we’re back with the writing portion
of the review, this is claire Fontaine 90 gsm paper and this is the parker dual fold centennial it has an 18 karat gold medium italic nib let’s check the wetness well this is very very dry it’s not flowing well at all and this
might be due to the ink because the ink is parker quink blue black which is a fairly dry ink that’s where quink comes
from quick ink quick drying ink but it’s not just that I think this feed has some issues with it
it took me a while to get this pen to write I cleaned it out thoroughly using pen flush and an
ultrasonic cleaner but the nib wasn’t flowing I floss the nib and the tines were very tight but
upon inspection with my loop, I discovered there was some pasty white particulate underneath the
feed between the feed and the nib I teased it out with a shim and injected water with force from
a syringe into those edges right there until it finally began to right it still feels ink starved
so I might do some more soaking and cleaning as there is something in there that is blocking
the flow of the ink in the nib is very smooth which is very nice for what
I consider a crisp italic generally you’ll get a lot
of feedback with this kind of nib I bought a bottle of this parker quick
blue-black to fill the bottle that was empty from Teresa’s set but I filled this
with that ink to keep that vintage label intact very nice here are some
close matches to this ink from inkswatch.com and that’s the line variation
well that’s what this pen does and I tell it gives you that thin horizontal and
thick vertical but the nib is very bouncy as well so that 18 karat gold so you can give
it has a little extra pressure if you like it’s very nice and smooth and bouncy nib and
there’s that characteristic italic flavor that you get with no pressure and the line that this
nib makes horizontally zero 0.3 millimeters and vertically it is 0.7
millimeters which make it a western extra fine to medium broad or a Japanese extra fine to broad for our quote this and to some reverse writing well it’s very scratchy and as you can see yeah not designed for reverse writing it is
an italic after all and after some quick writing you can see that it has plenty of issues keeping
up because that flow is impeded so I’m going to do some more work on this nib to make sure that
that feed is unclogged and this is the parker 51 and it is 1954.
And it has a 14-karat gold Arabic nib that we know is an architect today and again the ink is parker quink blue black parker developed a new ink with parker 51
in 1939 and it was uh called super chrome I don’t believe there is super chrome anymore
because was fairly dangerous ink uh to your pen but uh this quink or quick drying
the ink from parker is a match for this pen and that’s the idea to keep the line drying very
quickly as you write and the hooded nib design keeps the ink from drying out while you’re
writing and this pen is incredibly smooth for an architectural style that generally
gets a lot of feedback this is ultra smooth I was astonished by how smooth
this pen wrote the first time I expected a lot of feedback from this architect
style nib and it’s just the opposite I wrote for a couple of hours in my journal with this pen and
all I can say is this is a quick fast smooth light easy on the hand you can write for hours
this pen is an amazing fountain pen it’s light and well-balanced and feels like a
Ferrari on the page I fell in love with this pen instantly and I quickly compared it to some of my
Another hooded pen that I love is my wing sang 601 flighters it has a bobby bent nib or bobby mini fuji which has that characteristic thin vertical and
thick horizontal to it as well I love this pen and then there is another pen that I really
love and that’s the Schaefer icon and this one also has a bobby mini day architect style nib with the thin vertical
and the thick horizontal you can call that semi-hooded I would think and just in case
you want to know if this is Leonardo blue and this is timeline blood but neither of these pens can hold a candle
to the ultra smooth fast riding parker 51.
Arabic beautiful pen I’m hoping that Theresa
will love riding with her dad’s parker 51 as this pen deserves to be used
every day it’s simply the best-hooded nib fountain pen experience
I’ve never had this pen make a 0.4-millimeter vertical line and a 0.6 millimeter
the horizontal line which makes it a western xf to m or a Japanese f to medium broad and for our quote and some reverse writing and very scratchy has to be expected but
it does it and some quick writing this is what this pen does the best I can’t
read it of course but it just keeps up and keeps writing and is smooth smooth smooth smooth
a beautiful pen so what do I like and what do I not like about these fountain pens well they are
true classics aren’t they the duo fold dates from the 1920s and is still a highly collectible pen
the redesigned 1988 parker to a full centennial took the classic duo fold
and updated it for the modern era it was and is so successful that the redesign
has spawned many imitators from the moon man m600 to the jin hao 100 centennial and the kaigalu 316.
and the modern by 1945 standards parker 51 has become another much-imitated innovator in the pen
industry for parker the hooded design seems to be all over the place from this wing song 601 to
the wing song 618 and the jin hao 85 which is more like the modern parker 51 and of course the
hero 100.
It’s too bad parker hasn’t been able to continue its brand dominance for the last century
into the 21st most of their pens are now made in their three factories in china but their high-end
fountain pens are made in Britain and France parker is owned by newell brands and is now in the
family with waterman rotating Papermate and that other presidential pen maker of renowned sharpie
there’s a new parker duo fold-out called the queen’s platinum jubilee 2022 limited edition
and it can be yours for only two thousand six hundred and thirty-eight dollars u.s go wild bye
too but this new Jinhua 100 centennial in the galaxy with ivory section and finials is also really
nice for only 25 bucks and I’ll be reviewing this new Jinzhou tomorrow morning so don’t forget
to watch for that and there you have it thanks go out to Teresa for the lone of these two beautiful
writing instruments that hold so much personal sentiment as well as some fascinating world
history if you like this video please like and subscribe and don’t forget to ring that bell
to get instant notifications whenever a new video is posted and please look in the description for
a link to gold spot pens as I’m now an affiliate of the online store and when you shop at gold
the spot you’ll be supporting my channel as well at no extra cost to you you can also join as a
member of my channel for only 99 cents a month and I guarantee I’ll answer your comments in
the comments section and you’ll get cool emojis badges and sneak peek unboxing videos as well
and that just leaves it for me to say thank you for watching and that’s all she wrote I made this
