Fountain Pen Journey Post #1
Parker Vector
Date Started: March 31, 2019 8:50AM
Date Ended: March 31, 2019 6:21PM
How did I begin in this journey? Or as they say the rabbit hole?
My lovely wife gifted me this Parker Vector around 2013. She asked me if I wanted a fountain pen. I said yes sure, I was willing to give it a try.
It came with a box of cartridges. She even had it engraved.
I did not know anything about fountain pens then. It looked cool and nice. Sophisticated even.
I did write with it a few times but since I was a programmer then, there was very little use for it. It languished in my laptop bag.
Fast forward to 2018.
I saw my daughter writing notes on her “diary” which turned out to be a journal. She wrote her assignments, tasks and whatever she can think of on that journal. She was bullet journaling. I was intrigued. I made a few “field notes” and finally made a leather journal. I was happy as can be. I was doing a daily journal. Then I remembered I had the fountain pen. Try as I might, it wouldn’t write. Google has always been my friend. I searched the web on why it wouldn’t write. I cleaned and flushed it. Replaced the ink. It will write a few times, then it will stop. No amount of squishing of the converter will push enough of the ink through the feed. I was not a happy camper. For a supposedly good brand and much more expensive than your common ballpoint pen, the Parker Vector just would not write. And so, I stopped using it.
A few days after, we passed by a known Parker distributor and asked them to have a look at my pen. The service was free, but I had to wait for four weeks they said. As luck would have it, two weeks after, I followed up my pen, lo and behold, they had it repaired. I don’t know what they did maybe they flushed it really, but it had a different cartridge. A much longer one from the original one when I gave them the pen.
And it was writing. Writing beautifully that in two days, I consumed the full cartridge. I refilled the cartridge using a syringe, and again in two days, I consumed the whole ink as I was writing on spare notebooks and old planners.
Being a programmer, I suffered from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Using a pen, even the simple filling up of forms, was a chore. I can’t even fill it up without feeling any pain on my wrist. But with a fountain pen, writing is a joy. It brought back memories on when we were writing so much notes and assignments. I was able to use up an old planner in less than two weeks using the Parker Vector writing quotes, poems, looking up daily words just to have an excuse to use the pen.
Based on experience, it is a good beginner pen. If you have no other experience using a fountain pen, you would think that it is the be all end all a fountain pen. But after having used different fountain pens, I find that the pen is too light and too thin for my hands. But other than that, it is a beautiful pen.
One very good point though, if you search other blogs, reviews of the Parker Vector, being it as an entry level fountain pen, you will note that a lot of users experience ink evaporation and dry nibs. There is a hole in the cap just right under the clip. Many suggested to plug the hole with something, like glue or epoxy so the ink would not evaporate from the nib. But this unit has not experience any dryness. Even though it has been relegated to the pen bag, every time I pulled it to use, it would still write every time. No dryness, no skipping. It will write as its supposed to.
Caveat, for those who enjoy tinkering with their hobbies, it is said that the nib and feed can be removed. SBrown from YOUTUBE has a video of the pen with the nib and feed removed and how he was able to remove it. It is supposed to be friction fit. Try as I might, I can’t even make it move even a little bit.
And that is how I fell in the rabbit hole.
The Parker Vector Plastic Variant
My lovely wife gifted me this Parker Vector around 2013. She asked me if I wanted a fountain pen. I said yes sure, I was willing to give it a try.
It came with a box of cartridges. She even had it engraved.
I did not know anything about fountain pens then. It looked cool and nice. Sophisticated even.
I did write with it a few times but since I was a programmer then, there was very little use for it. It languished in my laptop bag.
Fast forward to 2018.
I saw my daughter writing notes on her “diary” which turned out to be a journal. She wrote her assignments, tasks and whatever she can think of on that journal. She was bullet journaling. I was intrigued. I made a few “field notes” and finally made a leather journal. I was happy as can be. I was doing a daily journal. Then I remembered I had the fountain pen. Try as I might, it wouldn’t write. Google has always been my friend. I searched the web on why it wouldn’t write. I cleaned and flushed it. Replaced the ink. It will write a few times, then it will stop. No amount of squishing of the converter will push enough of the ink through the feed. I was not a happy camper. For a supposedly good brand and much more expensive than your common ballpoint pen, the Parker Vector just would not write. And so, I stopped using it.
A few days after, we passed by a known Parker distributor and asked them to have a look at my pen. The service was free, but I had to wait for four weeks they said. As luck would have it, two weeks after, I followed up my pen, lo and behold, they had it repaired. I don’t know what they did maybe they flushed it really, but it had a different cartridge. A much longer one from the original one when I gave them the pen.
And it was writing. Writing beautifully that in two days, I consumed the full cartridge. I refilled the cartridge using a syringe, and again in two days, I consumed the whole ink as I was writing on spare notebooks and old planners.
Being a programmer, I suffered from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Using a pen, even the simple filling up of forms, was a chore. I can’t even fill it up without feeling any pain on my wrist. But with a fountain pen, writing is a joy. It brought back memories on when we were writing so much notes and assignments. I was able to use up an old planner in less than two weeks using the Parker Vector writing quotes, poems, looking up daily words just to have an excuse to use the pen.
Based on experience, it is a good beginner pen. If you have no other experience using a fountain pen, you would think that it is the be all end all a fountain pen. But after having used different fountain pens, I find that the pen is too light and too thin for my hands. But other than that, it is a beautiful pen.
One very good point though, if you search other blogs, reviews of the Parker Vector, being it as an entry level fountain pen, you will note that a lot of users experience ink evaporation and dry nibs. There is a hole in the cap just right under the clip. Many suggested to plug the hole with something, like glue or epoxy so the ink would not evaporate from the nib. But this unit has not experience any dryness. Even though it has been relegated to the pen bag, every time I pulled it to use, it would still write every time. No dryness, no skipping. It will write as its supposed to.
Caveat, for those who enjoy tinkering with their hobbies, it is said that the nib and feed can be removed. SBrown from YOUTUBE has a video of the pen with the nib and feed removed and how he was able to remove it. It is supposed to be friction fit. Try as I might, I can’t even make it move even a little bit.
And that is how I fell in the rabbit hole.
The Parker Vector Plastic Variant
The cap without the ubiquitous arrows
My name engraved.
The nib with the Parker brand. Sorry for the nib creep. This pen is currently inked with an orange ink.
The back of the nib showing the feed. Supposedly you can insert a thread or something behind here so you can pull out the nib, but I have not been successful.
Technical Specs
Weight
Capped 10.6 g
Uncapped 7.4 g
Length
Capped 13.1 cm
Uncapped 11.4 cm
Posted 15.4 cm
Width
Barrel Width 1.0 cm
Section Width 0.85 cm
If you have any questions, suggestions, feel free to contact me. I hope you join me in my journey and enjoy it too.
Thank you very much.
