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Parker 45 Review
by Ed Svoboda author awarded score: 82/100
A review of the vintage Parker 45 which was introduced in 1960. This pen has recently been re-introduced to the market but we are taking a look at the classic that for many years was a staple of the low cost/school pen market.
The Parker 45 is the best selling low priced pen in the history of Parker. Not necessarily the greatest title to obtain but one obtained through longevity and a quality design. The Parker 45 was one of the first pens given to me by my Grandmother. It belonged to my Grandfather and was given to me when I was about fourteen. She always kept a collection of old pencils and pens around to draw and write with on rainy days. On this day, I asked he if she had anything different to write with and she gave me a Parker 45 and an Eversharp Skyline. I was hooked.
Parker introduced the 45 in 1960 as their quintessential “school pen”at a price of five dollars. The 45 was designed by Don Doman who had also designed the very successful Jotter line and would later design the classic Parker 75. The pen shared some initial styling cues from the clip on the cap of the Parker 51 Special. The Pen had a taper design that ended in flat indented ends reminiscent of the Doman designed Parker 61 . The 45 was designed to be thinner and lighter than the 21/41/51/61 line probably a purposeful design goal given that the pen was meant for younger smaller hands. Another interesting design feature of the pen was that it had a removable nib/feed section. The buyer had a choice of seven nibs from the Accountant Extra Fine to Stub. The pen was the first commercially successful implementation of a cartridge/converter system by Parker. Adjusted for inflation, the Parker 45 would cost about thirty-one dollars today. The recently re-introduced version of the Parker 45 can be found for under thirty dollars from most shops. The 45 also had an even cheaper cousin that shared a similar aesthetic but had a different nib design. The Eversharp version had an all plastic body with a metal clip and retailed for $2.98.
Many people who first came to fountain pens came to them via pens like the Parker 45. It had a reputation of being an affordable pen that was also very reliable. It took cartridges so you could keep your hands a little cleaner if you wanted to avoid filling from a bottle. Some people have commented on how pedestrian the 45 is in terms of design. I would have to disagree. To some degree, the 45 inspired what is probably the best looking design of Parker's recent history – the Parker 75. By the time the Parker 45 was introduced the 51 had been replaced as their premiere offering by the 61. Also by this time the design of the 51 and similar 61 went back nearly 20 years. Parker needed new blood and a new image. In many ways, the 45 was the pen that provided the image shift that was needed.
