“Unlike any pen in this world…or any other!”

by Paul Erano

Looking back, 1956 was a tough year to introduce a new fountain pen, even for Parker. Ballpoints were outselling fountain pens, their market share expanding each year, and Parker was doing very well with its new Jotter introduced two years earlier. Besides, Parker already had one of the most successful fountain pens of all time, the 51.
Outwardly, the 61 looks like a slimmer and more refined 51. A handsome arrow in the pen’s nose was new and added an elegant touch, and modern barrel colors and caps also helped distinguish it. But it was really the 61’s “space age” Teflon-coated capillary action filler unit that set the pen apart. The unit had no moving parts, and its Teflon coating shed ink to minimize the risk of inky fingers. Unscrew the barrel, dip the end in ink, and wait ten seconds to fill. That’s all there was to it!
Early advertisements claimed of the 61: “Unlike any pen in this world…or any other!” The new filling system was a neat idea, but putting ink into the pen was much easier than taking ink out. Changing inks and flushing the pen was a major problem, and the new space-age filling system ultimately proved to be less practical than the filling system it replaced. Fifty years later, the benefits of the Teflon-coated capillary filling system escape me much as they must have escaped Parker’s more down-to-earth consumers. Surely they wondered, “Why did Parker replace the reliable aerometric filling unit with this space age Teflon-coated unit, even if it does shed ink?”
Once a 61 is filled with ink, much effort is required to empty it out. It is usually necessary to pass volumes of cool water through the pen, so 61 users must choose their ink carefully—and don’t expect to change colors often! Later 61s came equipped with more traditional units and older units can be replaced, but changing filling systems is unnecessary, as I’ll explain. Just remember, it’s difficult enough to remove dried ink from a conventional pen. Cleaning ink from a pen with a filling system similar to a magic marker is even more difficult!   

What to do about cleaning…
Place the nib in cool water and flush it with an eyedropper bulb from the opposite end until the water runs clear. To inject an even greater volume of water, use a larger bulb. Once dried ink is out, the unit may still not fill as intended. Shake out water through the nose (like shaking down a thermometer, but over the sink and with care for the curtains), and fill the pen either by placing the nib in ink using the eyedropper bulb method or the way Parker intended. To avoid disaster, point the nib upwards when filled and carefully remove the bulb. The bulb will contain ink that I pour back into a bottle. [Note that this may introduce contaminants into the ink bottle. —Ed.] A drop or two of ink can fall out of the filling unit, too, so be careful. I suppose it is also possible to soak the entire unit in cool water for a day or two and then flush, and one method may even obviate the need for the other.    
The 61 can have other issues, too. A clogged collector/nib assembly will stop an otherwise perfectly good pen dead in its tracks. Sometimes cleaning between the tines or simply writing with fresh ink will free it up. At other times, the collector and nib have to be taken apart and cleaned. Also, watch for chips and hairline cracks in the nose and body because the injection-molded plastic is less durable than that found on the 51. Lastly, just thinking about how that famous nose arrow shakes lose or corrodes is a sad reminder that Parker could have spent a little more time to get things right.  
These issues have led to mixed feelings about the 61. True, its good looks aside, the 61 lacks the stature of a Parker 51. That its space age filling unit cannot be emptied easily means it is next to impossible to change inks. And most 61s found in their original state are choked with decade’s old dried ink, which does little to help the pen’s reputation. “Why bother,” say some collectors, “when so much history resides in its bigger brother, the 51?”