1944 Parker Vacumatic Black Pearl *SOLD* ($175 US)

Yes! Another Parker Vacumatic! I had promised to restore a 1940 Vacumatic with a broken nib, but I've decided to custom grind that nib and put it on a newly acquired Parker Vacumatic in Azure Blue Pearl that I purchased without a nib. I'll do that resurrection later. Today, I restored a 1944 Parker Vacumatic in Black Pearl.

THIS PEN HAS BEEN SOLD!

Yes, we’re going to do another Parker Vacuumatic today. Last week, I decided to do this pen this week. It’s a double-jewelled Parker Vacuumatic made in 1940 and is in decent shape for its age. However, the issue with this pen is that the nib has the tine broken off. You can see it right there; the tine is broken. I was going to go ahead and grind that nib into a 14-karat gold stub and restore this pen, but then I discovered an auction on eBay. It’s a beautiful Parker Vacuumatic Azure Blue Pearl but has no nib. So, I thought, “Well, I could take that nib, grind it into a stub, and put it on that Azure Blue Pearl Vacuumatic. That would make that a very attractive pen indeed.” So, I will save this pen until that nibless pen comes into my possession in a couple of weeks.

I revisited my archives of Parker Vacuumatics. Yes, I have a stock of them that I’ve purchased but haven’t had the chance to work on yet. Among them, I found a beautiful Parker vacuumatic with a blue diamond clip, a large chevron cap band, and a date code of the second quarter of 1944.

The date code is accurate, indicating that it was manufactured in the second quarter of 1944. The nib appears to be in good condition, although it has been tarnished over the years due to age. The section is free from any major issues, with numerous cap swirls and other details. However, there is one minor gouge on the nib.

The pump is seized, which is a concern. I’m not sure what the issue is, and I’m not sure if the vacuumatic is translucent or opaque black. The colour depends on the amount of old ink in the vacuum.

We’ll take this 1944 Parker Vacuumatic in black and assess its condition. We’ll likely replace the diaphragm and restore its functionality. We’ll do that right now. 

THOUGHTS

So, what are my thoughts on this resurrection? Well, this was the most challenging Parker vacuumatic extraction I’ve ever encountered. It took two days of soaking and heating, along with some cajoling, to get that pump out of there. Finally, I succeeded, and the old diaphragm just dropped out, which was nice. However, in the process of heating, it deformed the end of the celluloid barrel slightly. I was able to grind that so that it’s flat all the way around, and you have to look at it to see the distortion.

The clip also gave me trouble. It took an overnight soaking in my secret sauce to get that top jewel final out of there. Then it didn’t like going back in again. But it was very nice when I got this clip out and polished it up. It looks almost brand new, and I was pleased that I didn’t lose that enamel. I thought buffing it might lose that enamel paint, but I can replace that paint. I’ve done it before.

I’d rather have the original, though. The cap band is polished up beautifully, and the cap and barrel shine up like brand new. The imprint is still there, and that nib, which I thought was in perfect condition, ended up having a bit of an alignment issue. But it polished up beautifully, and now it writes like a champ. It has a very light touch. It’s a fine to extra fine in thickness, and it writes beautifully. There’s a little bit of bounce, and now that I’ve polished it up, it’s very smooth.

I’m very pleased with this restoration. It’s a beautiful black 1944 Parker vacuumatic with a translucent barrel. I didn’t know that was going to be translucent, and of course, now it’s full of ink, so you can’t see through it. This is going to be a nice writer for someone out there. I’ve decided to sell this pen for $175 US plus shipping. Shipping to North America is around 10 bucks these days, even with the Canadian Postal Strike looming tomorrow. My new shipping service avoids Canada Post, so if you’re interested in purchasing this pen, send me an email at inkacquiringminds@gmail.com. I’ll send you instructions on how to pay via PayPal and get a shipping quote. Let me know in the comments below if you’d like to see more!

I know I’m doing a lot of Parker Vacuumatics, but I’m getting rather good at it. Still, I’m an amateur, so don’t get your hopes up. I’ll show you my successes as well as my failures. This was a success, so there you have it!

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