My first fountain pens, Parker Vector, Parker Frontier and an Inoxcrom

Childhood fountain pens | Parker Vector, Frontier and Inoxcrom

November 25, 2009 • Ink & stationery

A few hours ago I looked through one of my pencil cases and by chance re-discovered my first fountain pens, after the the initial excitement was over I found myself decidedly not impressed and wished I had been born in the 50’s so I may have been the lucky recipient of a ‘51 or balance.

Entry level plastic pens from Parkers and Inoxcrom with boring steel nibs just dont have the same oomph factor as the vintages.

However with a certain degree of trepidation I reached for the nearest one which happened to be the Parker Vector and popped in a Quink cartrige. 2 seconds later (I am not exaggerating, it really was 2 seconds later) I almost mockingly dragged the nib across a scrap of paper and lo and behold;

No skipping.

No weird line variations.

No blobs.

It worked.

Seriously.

So a pen which I have not inked for atleast a decade, of questionable quality worked right off the bat and laid down a perfect, slightly wet medium line. I

really really wish I could say that the pen sucked and use this experience to spearhead the mantra of “you get what you pay for” after which we can all feel good about ourselves and our superior $300+ pens but I cant.

I did test the other 2 pens, and the Parker Frontier after some coaxing laid down a suitably smooth medium line, the real shocker was using the Inoxcrom (no idea on the model name)- initially it wouldn’t start, lots of skipping and a very dry experience but after 5 minutes it really got going. When the Inoxcrom gets going it is simply a fantastic nib, really smooth with some feedback, I really cant say enough nice things about it.

So in summary, I will still reach for a Sailor when I want to seriously write however in future I will reserve my contempt & prejudice for targets truly deserving of my scorn.