This entry was going to be rather different that it has turned out, which proves that leaving things lie before going of on a rant is a good idea.
This time last week, I was getting ready to describe relations with the pen of that day and this as strained, possibly on the build-up to war. I felt badly about the state of affairs, too, because I really, desperately want, to like the Parker 65. I mean, look at it!
Those curves, that Lugosian widow’s peak….
That’s a handsome pen. On paper, it has many of the charms of the 61, and few of its vices (one might even say, looking at the filler, perversions). But this pen and I had had trouble from almost the moment it came into my life. Every time I used it, I then had to return it to the workshop. There were minor issues of tine alignment and things loose rather than tight, but the main problem was a known trouble spot on this model, a seam that runs under the point, which unless properly sealed gives an arc of escape for ink.
This I fixed, at last– no more leak this round. But last week I was getting substantial guff from the feed; all evidence for some blockage was there, although in small ways. I hadn’t been too free with the wax used on the seam, but I may have neglected some fragment of old ink in the feed. Breaking into this pen is tedious. I’ve done it a lot. I was not looking forward to doing it again, and I was ready to call quits when I got to the end of this load of ink… because to do so before would be insufficiently stubborn and self-punishing. I wasn’t thinking in terms of giving the pen one last chance.
Well, since then, there has been a change in the pen. Whatever was causing the trouble apparently dissolved in the week-long presence of a not particularly harsh ink. All the virtues of a 61, plus some spring in the point. The Newhaven tipping. A smart-looking double-jewel design. How could I stay mad, when it was working so hard to make good?
There are, of course, pens I can stay mad at. The best current candidate is a client’s Wearever that bluntly refuses to co-operate; it has the opposite of shrinkage, and just won’t go back together! Doesn’t it know retirement age is an outmoded concept? Patience and slow increments of shellac will eventually win the day.
Today’s redeemed pen: Parker 65
Today’s ink: Herbin Bleu Nuit
What's up at Ravens March. 