When I was home for the holidays a few years ago, my dad and I sat down and he shared his fountain pen collection with me. One of the pens he had actually belonged to my grandmother and he gave it to me at the time. This was the grandmother that taught me to knit, which made the pen very special to me.
If you know me, you know I’m not super into vintage pens (sorry Jesi!) and I mostly stick to modern ones. So I put the pen carefully away and didn’t use it. Recently I’ve been thinking about it though, so I decided to pull it out and see what’s what.
The first thing I wanted to do was identify it. When I did a quick google search one of the first things that came up was “Which model is my pen?” from the helpful site ParkerPens.net. Kudos to Tony for creating such an easy way to navigate vintage Parkers! Basically I scrolled down the page until I found a pen that looked like mine, clicked on the image and started reading. Partway down the page I discovered that my pen is a Parker 45 Classic GT (GT stands for gold trim) and was likely produced in the late 60’s. The body is Teal Blue (also listed as Blue Green) and the nib is a Fine (as indicated on the underside of the pen).
Getting it started writing was a bit rough – I went with a bit of Parker Quink Black ink just to see what was what. While the pen didn’t originally come with a converter, there’s one inside. It could probably use a good soak, but otherwise I’m excited that it writes!
- Papers: Crossfield Journal ($24.00)
- Pen: Parker 45 Classic GT
- Inks: Parker Quink Black (57mL for $12.00)
These pens are extremely easy to dismantle and clean. Take the nib and the last piece of the section between thumb and index finger and unscrew. After some time you can extract nib, hood and feed from the section. Then push back the hood so you can dislodge the nib and clean it. You also then can determine what nib it is. The feed looks a bit like the system used in the older Parker 75.
If that is a squeeze filler you can remove it and just put in a Parker cartridge or a modern Parker converter.
Usually a 45 is a reliable and dependable writer.
Thanks for the tips!
That’s so nice that you have your Grandma’s pen, especially since she taught you to knit. Thanks for sharing this special gift. I’m not much into vintage pens, either, but if they have a family connection, that’s a whole different story. Enjoy your Parker!
How lovely Laura. We aren’t all lucky to get a fountain pen that was used by a family member. I can tell you will cherish yours.
Maybe one day one of mine will end up with a grandniece or such.
I have several Parker 45’s, some with original box and instructions.
They don’t all have gold nibs, but it’s a very cheap route to gold if you can find one, or like me, pot luck that ended up with gold nibs.
Enjoy the one you have.
Hi, Laura. About 10 years ago my mum gave me my late Dad’s Parker 17 and Parker VP pens, pens that were gifts from his parents from when he was younger. I hadn’t actually used them, the gifts coming before and perhaps inspiring my fountain pen venturing, until a couple of years ago when I got married after waiting 28 years for its legalisation. It was a nice way to bring Dad to the ceremony, having me and my husband each use one to sign the certificate. With a clean (and assuredly a pre-ceremony test) they started up straight away, and I particular like the small, light and smooth nostalgic gentility of the “student” Parker 17.
Which is all by way of offering an empathetic, “High five!”. I now have obtained myself some reasonable nice fountain pens but none will ever be as special as these two, other than the one my husband bought me as a late wedding present (all of which shared a place in our emergency bug-out box over the last bushfire summer, invaluable keepsakes).
The 45 arrow was my first parker. Like many of the kids born in the 50s they were a prize possession which came to an end in the 1970s. The 45 battled on to the early 2000s ..outdistancing the 51 and the 75. Why? It was a great pen..different nib sizes..steel gold-plated or gold replaceable nibs..nice writers esp the gold nib ones. Hope you enjoy yours Laura. If you become a collector there are loads of variations and colours. One of my favourite edws stands for everyday writers as opposed to edcs..everyday carry..which means you can lose it by leaving it on a bus stop ..is a flighter with a 14k gold nib from Argentina. Just great .