How To Care For Your Parker Duofold Fountain Pen aka What happens If You Dont

The Parker Duofold fountain pen is a antique pen that is a favourite of pen collectors. Like any fountain pen, it requires reqular care to prevent the ink drying up and clogging the nib, the ink well, the refill mechanism.

Parker Duofold Fountain Pen Without The Pen Clip

This particular Parker Duofold Senior with the Lucky Curve insignia and wide cap band was badly damage with neglect, the ink sac has melted in the barrel, the ink refill mechanism is stuck to the inside of the barrel, the 14K gold nib has broke into halves, the tip of the pen has got stuck, the insignia on the side of the barrel has faded.  And last of all the rolled gold pen clip that makes the pen stand out in your pocket is missing.

I will attempt to salvage the parts for reuse. The broken solid 14K gold nib may be quite valuable considering the high price of gold today.

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Parker Duofold Pen With Broken Nib

Parker Duofold Fountain Pen Cap With Small Holes.
Not sure what the holes are for. Note that the gold on
the wide cap band is completely worn off.

Parker Duofold Fountain Pen Clip Cap. This cap seems to be a little
too small for the pen cap as it does fit snugly.
There is some attempt at using glue to fill up the slack.

Parker Duofold Fountain Pen Barrel
With Ink Refill Button Stuck Inside.
There seems to be some ink stains on the barrel where
the pen cap is screw on.

Next taking out the nib assembly, the business end of the Parker Duofold fountain pen.

Parker Duofold Fountain Pen Nib Assemly

Parker Duofold Fountain Pen Gold Filled Nib Broken Into Halves.
The material of the nib is 14K gold which seems to be quite brittle.
The nib also shows sign of heavy sanding,
probably to clean off hardened ink.

Parker Duofold Fountain Pen Ink Feed And Section.
This is supposed to be a Lucky Curve Ink Feed, but the
curves at the end of the ink feed seems to have broken off.

Removing the ink filling unit assembly. I need to scrap out the ink sac which has hardened sticking inside the barrel together with some dried ink and also the pressure bar.

Parker Duofold Fountain Pen Blind End Cap. This helps to
prevent ink spilling out into the shirt pocket.

Parker Duofold Fountain Ink Refill Button.
Note that is a little tarnish.

Parker Duofold Fountain Pen Ink Sac
 and Ink Refill Pressure Bar. The ink sac has hardened and
disintegrated.

Parker Duofold Fountain Pen Button Ink Refill Pressure Bar.
It is made of a stiff steel bar to which is attached the springy bar.
Pressing the button at the end of the pen bend the spring bar
which compreses the ink sac.

Parker Duofold Fountain Pen Button Filler Pressure Bar

The barrel of the Parker Duofold fountain pen, clean out off the disintegrated ink sac, old dried ink and the pressure bar.

The pressure bar at the clip end of the barrel should be position
near the center of the barrel to allow the refill button to sit on it.
But here it is stuck to the side of the barrel.

Parker 61 Fountain Pen With Capillary Filler

This is a real antique Parker 61 fountain pen, Made In USA that still works. The gold fill on the cap has some wear. There is a Parker logo and the inscrptions 1 10 12K GF on the sides of the cap. The gray jewels on the cap and the barrel are nice and clean. The gold filled nib is in good condition.

Parker reinvented the pen with the Parker 61, a pen with no moving parts. Capillary action fill the ink well and the teflon ink well repels ink. Just dip the end of the capillary filler into a bottle of ink and the pen refills itself.

When I took it out of storage, the ink has dried. So I soak the nib in water for a while, follow by the end of the capillary filler. I was then able to write with the pen. Amazingly the capillary filler still functions well. I could have written written with some antique Parker pen ink as well!


Gray Jewel At the end of the gold filled Parker 61 fountain pen barrel.



Parker 61 Foutain Pen Cap With Parker logo.

Close up of Parker 61 fountain pen cap

Parker 61 fountain pen gold cap with the 12K GF markings

Parker 61 fountain pen cap with the 12K GF inscription

Parker 61 fountain pen cap with the gray jewel mounted at the end

Parker 61 fountain pen with gold cap and black barrel

Parker 61 fountain pen showing the capillary filler

Parker 61 fountain pen capillary filler tip showing the openings for the ink

Parker 61 fountain pen gold filled cap close up

Parker 61 fountain pen nib

Parker 61 fountain pen nib - writing side

Sample of writing made with the Parker 61 fountain pen.

Parker Duofold Senior Pen Pocket Clip

A little faded pocket clip from a orange Parker Duofold Senior fountain pen. Some gold plating has come off.
The engraved markings on the front top say, Pat. Sep 5-16.  Parker. Making a fountain pen in those days truly requires skills, craftmanship and engineering excellence. Parker must have been very proud to produce such a fine writing instrument which certainly make writing with a feather much easier. Perhaps the invention of the fountain pen spur the growth of greater literacy.

Parker Duofold Fountain Pen Clip. The wear at the ball end of the clip
indicates that this clip has been gold filled which gives a thicker layer of gold
than gold plating.