Parker S0690580 Duofold Fountain Pen, Medium Nib - Black International with Palladium Trim

Looking at some other reviews maybe I have been lucky with my nib. It is beautifully smooth with a good even flow of ink no matter how fast or slow I move the pen. The line laid down is perfectly judged, to my mind. It allows enough ink for a nice dense colour but not so much that you have to worry about blotting all the time.Although the nib works perfectly, I was surprised to find that the two parts of the nib - the gold bit and the ink channel below it, are not aligned perfectly. It makes it look a little odd if you study it but so what? It works and I will probably never look at the alignment again.I can't fault the pen. It feels good in the hand and it looks good. I do however have a very slight reservation that it does not give a huge feeling of joy to use it nor does it really seem like a luxury product. It is difficult to explain but my other excellent pen is a LAMY 2000. The LAMY is exquisitely made - a really impressive bit of engineering. Nothing like as pretty as the Pearl & Black Duofold but it just feels special whereas the Parker hardly does. Conversely, the Duofold does feel fractionally better to write with and does not give the slightly wet line that the LAMY does. The Parker also seems to make me take more care - so I get a better result - and that's why we use fountain pens, isn't it?Both are excellent products, I just don't quite feel that I am getting what I paid for with the Duofold whereas The LAMY 2000 was superb quality and superb value from day one and it gives the impression it will last forever. The Parker does not impress as much but it really is very pretty. I know I said that twice but it was worth repeating.

I wanted a Parker Duofold for a long time but really could not afford the usual prices. I thought the Centennial (larger) version might be too large/fat and that the International (slightly smaller) would be more appropriate. This Duofold International was for sale at a very good price and I took a chance. I'm happy. It's lovely. Not sure if it really would be worth the full price but then it's a luxury product. It writes very well though I'd comment, as do others on pen forums, that the Duofold medium nib looks surprisingly broad. That's not a criticism, just an observation. It came with only one blue cartridge as opposed to a box of 5, but at the price how could I possibly complain. Besides, it comes with the adaptor for use with bottled ink. It is surprisingly light! Compared to the equally wonderful Waterman Carene it seems to weigh almost nothing and for my medium sized male hands the size is comfortable. I can recommend this pen, but suggest if you buy it as a present, do buy some bottled inks to go with is. The Waterman inks are all nice colours. 5 stars.

I would strongly advise only using Parker Quink on it. My pen has a strong tendency to leak over the top of the nib - which is called nib creap in the collecting world - and the only ink that doesn't do that is the Parker Quink. It is also a very wet writer at a medium nib.I still like it as it is beautifully smooth, but it wouldn't be at the top of my list for a perfect fountain pen, especially at the price I paid at the time. I bought mine several years ago and have never been able to resolve the problem. I have bought Waterman pens which have behaved perfectly, as well as other Parkers, for much less.

I bought this as a graduation present for my daughter as she has always loved writing with fountain pens. I hadn't seen the pen in any shop and bought it with a bit of a gamble based on the previous reviews! I am so glad that I did. It arrived very quickly just before xmas and was packaged in a lovely box with the pen well presented. My daughter loved it. Not only did it look fantastic it felt comfortable to hold and wrote lovely. My daughter is left handed and normally the ink smudges when she writes with a fountain pen but this didn't. This would make a fantastic gift or if you do a lot of writing it is perfect, it is also different to the usual black finish which doesn't really distinguish it from others. I was going to get a Mont Blanc but I am so glad I got this, definitely worth the money.