A pen can save your life, no really.

My grandfather had mentioned a favorite fountain pen to me the other day when he saw me writing in my journal with my Pelikano. He told me a story of his mother buying him a fountain pen before he went off to war and how it never failed him even when he carried it with him to Spain, Africa, Germany, etc., during the War.

A few days later, he mentioned that he found it again in his desk and asked if I wanted it. An antique, vintage, war-era fountain pen that has been in the family for a few generations and was used to write letters back to my grandmother when he and she were dating?

To say that I wanted to snatch the pen like a pack of dingos in a maternity ward... would be the most polite way of describing my eagerness.

So I got it and held it tight and immediately began to search what it was.

From Penspotters:

The Parker Vacumatic is one of the most avidly collected of all vintage pens. They're fairly numerous (and more new-old-stock examples seem to crawl out from under rocks every day), and they range in price (and desirability) from the smaller, later models up to larger 1930s models, or those with special finishes or other unusual features (like the gold-fill metal caps on some later models). Collecting Vacs is an ideal avocation for those who like to impose order on chaos, since you can spend decades tracking down one of each color, style, and model name produced (and there'd probably be a couple more lurking out there in the bushes that you hadn't counted on).

In about 1938, Parker introduced a “Split Arrow” clip with the name PARKER written vertically. (The pen shown here is actually from the 1940s.) Shortly afterward, some Vacumatics appeared with this clip modified slightly by the addition of a star at its top.

The pen has a refillable reservoir inside that's filled by a pump at the base of the cap.

As with any old pen, I assumed that any Vac that survived the War will require some restoration. According to all the websites I've been able to find, his is emphatically NOT a job for a first-time do-it-yourselfer. The diaphragm replacement is not straightforward and requires a special "vac tool" for wrenching out the filler unit


Though I really wanted to dunk the nib into some ink to see if I could get it to write for me, I'm looking around to see if there are some tips for cleaning it. The nib is bent a little but that just gives it character. According to my grand dad, that's the only thing that's wrong with the pen - he dropped it on the floor of the destroyer he was serving on when they got hit by something. When he reached to get it, something flew over his head and "damn near killed him".

Karma pen- thy name is Parker Vacumatic.

-Me