Parker Jotter Ballpoint Pen Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

The Parker Jotter is a tried and true classic that keeps upgrading, and this new two-tone, all-metal Victoria Violet body feels fresh while still nodding to vintage elegance. I was genuinely surprised by the price of these new editions, because they look and feel like a much more expensive pen. The writing experience was also a pleasant surprise.

The all-aluminum body is made in France. It's quite small and slim, so may not be comfortable for long writing sessions if you have large hands. The clip is stiff and in the classic Parker arrow shape. The edges of the arrow are sharp, so I'd caution against clipping this to light fabrics. The pen is small enough that the clip also ends up hitting my hand when the pen rotates, so I find I have to adjust it from time to time. The finish can be a bit slick to hold if your hands are at all sweaty, but the texture of the aluminum helps with grip under normal writing circumstances. The new line of colors are fun and gorgeous, ranging from whimsical to executive. And the premium styles of the Jotters are downright snazzy.

This pen has one of the most satisfying clicks I've ever experienced. It's loud, solid, and has a good amount of resistance. You could drive people crazy with this click and I love it.

The refill supplied is a blue Quinkflow cartridge, which is specially formatted for smooth, consistent writing. I think it achieves that. The ballpoint glides nicely on paper, and I never had any skips or hard starts. I did sometimes get that blob of ink at the start of a letter, and it will smear a little if you run your hand over the blob. But that seems like a universal ballpoint issue. The pen will take any parker style refill, though, so there are a ton of other options. I think a Fisher Space Pen refill in this would make it the perfect purse pen, or traveling journal pen.

For me, this pen is unseating the Karas Kustoms Retrakt in my I-need-a-pen-that-isn't-a-fountain-pen slot. Other pens that have occupied that seat are the Cross Click Classic and the Retro 51 Tornado. All of those are at least twice (if not three times) the cost of this Jotter, and so far it has performed better than all of them, for me. And if you're primarily a fountain pen user, but you acknowledge the occasional need for a ballpoint, this really is the perfect one. It looks and feels like you're spoiling yourself, but the price is low enough that you'll still have to add a fountain pen to your cart to get free shipping.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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The Parker Vacumatic

(Ron Gilmour is a fountain pen enthusiast, would-be calligrapher, and librarian. You can find him online at Twitter @gilmour70 and Instagram.)

In the introduction to this series, I mentioned that one of the drawbacks to the various sac-filling pens was ink capacity. Because you need room for the sac itself and whatever is compressing it, there's a limit to how much ink you can get into a sac-filling pen.

In the 1930s, Parker came up with an interesting solution. What if suction could be created in the entire pen barrel rather than just the sac? They replaced the sac with a flexible diaphragm at the rear of the pen. When the diaphragm was pushed inward by a plunger, air was forced out of the pen. When the diaphragm was released, ink was taken up. A breather tube was added to prevent ink taken up by one stroke of the plunger from being squeezed out by the next stroke. This innovative mechanism, eventually dubbed the "Vacumatic," allowed a far greater portion of the barrel to be filled with ink than any sac filler.

Another drawback of sac fillers was that it was impossible to see how much ink you had left. (Sheaffer tried to make lever-fill pens that would allow this, but were only moderately successful.) The smart people at Parker realized that once they had eliminated the sac, all they had to do was use some transparent material in the body and the ink level would be easily visible.

And that brings us to the pen's aesthetics. An innovative filling system and a visible ink supply were great, but the Vacumatic might not have been the success that it was if not for another factor: it was gorgeous. The alternation of solid and transparent bands of celluloid still turns heads today. (A friend refers to my silver Vac as "your Matrix pen.") The striking, arrow-shaped clip is a design element that Parker still uses on their pens today. The total package is an Art Deco masterpiece.

The "alternating bands" pattern, available in several colors, is the most common, but there were a number of other patterns, especially on the "junior"-sized pens. See, for instance, Brad's drool-worthy "Golden Web" Vac that he bought at last year's Atlanta show.

Furthermore, Parker in Days of Yore was known for their excellent gold nibs, so a great writing experience is almost guaranteed, barring a damaged nib. I've owned several vintage Parkers (Vacumatics and others) and they have all written smoothly and consistently.

If you're the collector type, Vacumatics are a lot of fun because of their seemingly endless variations. When you take into account the different sizes, colors, clips, cap bands, presence/absence of an end jewel, etc., one can happily collect Vacumatics for decades and never see the end.

Buying a Vac

When shopping for a Vac online, make sure that the pen you're considering is a usable size for you. The Vacumatic came in a wide variety of sizes, some of which are very small, which might not be your thing. You can't depend on model names: both of my Vacs are "Majors," but they're slightly different sizes. Make sure the seller provides measurements, or at least a picture that shows scale.

Also be aware that like sacs, Vac diaphragms are flexible parts that can break down over time. Make sure the pen you're buying has been tested and actually fills.

If seeing the ink level is important to you, make sure that you buy a pen with good barrel clarity. Many vendors will provide back-lit photos to demonstrate this quality.

Nibs on vintage Parkers, and many other vintage pens, have no visible size indication. Most reputable sellers will give you a good indication of nib width in their description: "Writes a wet western fine" or similar. It may be helpful to ask for a writing sample on a known paper marking (e.g., Rhodia grid) to help you judge the nib width.

Given the large number of variations mentioned above, prices will be greatly influenced by the rarity of the particular combination of features on a pen, along with condition. For a functional, but not cosmetically perfect, Vacumatic in one of the more common models, you can expect to pay about $100-150 US. Prices can get significantly higher for rare colors and patterns, for pens in pristine condition, and pens with unusual nibs.

Filling a Vac

Filling a Vacumatic is simple, but may take a few seconds longer than some other mechanisms. First, remove the blind cap at the back end of the pen to expose the plunger. Submerge the nib completely in the ink bottle. Depress the plunger. You should hear bubbling as air is forced out of the pen. Release the plunger and hold the pen in place while ink flows into the pen. Repeat this sequence (press, release, wait) until you no longer hear bubbling when you depress the plunger. Wipe the nib and section with a paper towel, replace the blind cap, and you're ready to write.

Cleaning a Vac

So here's the bad news: Vacumatics are a pain to clean. You can expel ink from the pen by depressing the plunger slowly. Then you can suck water into the pen and slowly depress the plunger to expel that. Repeat this until a) the water comes out clean or b) you're hungry, your thumb hurts, and you just don't care anymore.

Do yourself a favor and use easy-to-clean inks in your Vacumatic.

In Closing

The Parker Vacumatic is one of the most iconic vintage American fountain pens, and is also a beautiful and practical choice for the modern fp user. They are more expensive than some of the other models we will look at in this series, but the combination of exquisite celluloid, large ink capacity, sturdy construction, and high-quality gold nibs makes them a good buy. Try finding that set of features in a modern pen for under $200 US.

Further Reading

• Richard Binder's Anatomy of a Fountain Pen II: The Parker Vacumatic shows details of the filling mechanism.
• Richard Binder's profile page on the Vacumatic is a great place to start for more Vacumatic knowledge.
• Richard Binder's article on Parker date codes explains how to find out when your pen was made.
• Tony Fischier's article on the Vacumatic features images of many very rare finishes.
• Brian Gray's video about his Edison Menlo Pump Filler includes a demonstration of filling the pen. Brian's pump filler mechanism works on the same principle as the Vacumatic, but is updated to use sturdy brass parts.
• David Nishimura's page on the Vacumatic addresses some issues about the complex nomenclature of Vacumatics.

When promises are not delivered: The Parker 5th

(This is a guest post by Sébastien Morissette. You can find more from Sébastien on Twitter @SebMorissette.)

Recently, I have received a gift from my manager. She knows all about my pen addiction, of course, as I do most of my pen usage at work. She gave me a Parker IM Premium 5th Twin Chiseled. 5th in the name means it is the one with a fine liner - felt tip refill that hides under a fountain pen nib shaped hood. She thought she was buying a fountain pen but only realized it wasn’t once back home. She offered me to go back to the store and exchange it for a fountain pen but I refused, by courtesy, and acted like I was happy to get felt-tip pen. And I was in a way: it is not every day that your Manager goes out shopping to buy you a gift as a mark of appreciation. More even so that it is not my work anniversary or my birthday.

At first, I have to be honest, I was a bit disappointed with her buying mistake. What was I going to do with a fake fountain pen? Putting a fake nib on a felt-tip pen is like putting a racing rear spoiler on a Toyota corolla. It doesn’t belong there, it is meaningless, it is useless and it looks silly.

That being said, a closer look to the pen quickly brought me to realize that the pen itself is of good quality. It is made of what seems to be good quality aluminum, and both the shape of the pen and the finish is absolutely beautiful. I got the two toned one with a chromed colored cap while the body is somewhere between gun metal and rose gold. The whole pen is etched with a nice chiseled pattern. The chrome-colored clip is the classic Parker Arrow clip. The grip section is brushed aluminum. There are 3 different finishes in total on the pen between the grip, the pen body and the cap. Without being totally stunning it is a very nice looking pen and does attract attention from my coworkers, more than some of my most expensive fountain pens. The hood is engraved with the Parker’s arrow pattern and the Parker name.

I am not a felt-tip pen person. I do use Sharpie pens from time to time, and do enjoy them, but if I’m reaching out for something else than a fountain pen or a pencil will naturally pick a good rollerball over a felt tip 9 times out of 10. Being a pen nerd, I still was intrigued by this pen and wanted to learn more about the reasoning behind the design choices. I went on Parker’s web site and here is what I found:

“Parker 5THTM Technology: a flexible tip which interacts with the metal hood, and is finely engraved with the emblematic Parker arrow, to provide an exceptionally smooth and fluid writing experience, with an intense and sharp rendering. Adjusts intuitively to the user's style of writing, in just a few words. A highly innovative technology that ensures a clean and simple refill process.”

This refill is rather on the dry side. I did have to adjust my writing angle from low 45 degrees to a good 75 degrees in order to keep a nice wet flow of ink. I wrote for a good 1-hour session on two occasions and had to put the cap back on between pauses to prevent the tip from drying. The pen feels good in the hand and is well balanced. The cap posts well, while keeping a good weight balance. I prefer not to post the cap in general, and this pen body is long enough to be comfortable to use without posting.

The refill that came with my pen is a Medium Tip in a gorgeous green colour. Again my curiosity pushed me online to find out which colour is available for this refill. Again a nice surprise was awaiting me. Parker offers a great selection of bright colour for the 5th type refill: Black, Blue, Burgundy, Purple, Peacock Blue, Olive Green.

But the question remains: Does it do what Parker say it does? From the second that I started writing with this pen I could feel a remarkable difference from a sharpie pen. This Parker refill is Soft. I mean Soft with a capital “S”. Super Soft. Even on cheap copy paper. But the whole idea of a flexy tip that interacts with a hood does not work. The tip bending property does not absorb any sort of the pressure variation created by your hand movement because it hits the hood instantaneously. The concept, while being good, doesn’t work. The hood is too rigid. Parker’s marketing material also states that the tip “Adjusts intuitively to the user's style of writing, in just a few words”; I have not experienced that.

Overall it is not a bad pen. The quality of the materials and the softness of the tip makes it a pen that will find a spot in my non-fountain pen rotation. I will buy refills of each colors and will use them. That being said I believe that anybody who would buy this pen based on Parker’s promises on what the 5th technology writing experience will be disappointed.

As for the aesthetically disturbing nib-like hood, well, it tends to go away when using the pen because that “nib” is not touching the paper, which tricks my brain to believe that it is simply part of the barrel. Because of that I can tolerate it, like I tolerate a trunk lip on a Toyota Corolla, but never a racing spoiler.