Parker Premier Matte Black Review
|
|
Parker Premier Matte Black Fountain Pen Design
Do you get frustrated every time you shell out your hard earned dough for what looks like a badass fountain pen then it doesn’t perform? Well, cue the music folks, intro the Parker Premier. This is a stunner that writes all day, all night, all week and all month without hesitation.
This is an all black fountain pen, brass, coated in nickel-palladium alloy and finished with black ceramic for an ultra modern look. The color reads close to oil-rubbed bronze in person.
Why flat black?
Matte-black cars are as popular at car shows as scantily-clad models. Why are Ducati Monster Dark motorcycles matte black? The same reason Rolls Royce sprayed the one-of-a-kind Phantom matte black…
Because this pen is a B.F.D. and it just rolls like that.
It’s dark. It’s mysterious. You usually don’t question why the stranger across the room has a seductive, smoldering gaze, you’re just attracted. If you’ve read this far, I’m guessing you’re attracted too. Here are the details…
There are three closely-spaced rings engraved on the barrel end, cap band and end cap. The cap band has three rings on the backside of the cap band and its flat on the front where it’s engraved with Parker and their trademark arrow piercing an oval. The cap has the famous Parker Arrow pen clip with some spring in it, great for pockets.
When you remove the cap there are six more rings, three on the top and bottom each of the section, carrying the theme through the rest of the fountain pen.
Everything is matte black, nothing is chromed or stands out anymore than anything else… until you get to the nib.
Don’t like matte black? Well this pen comes in several outstanding finishes including a rich brown with rose gold, monochrome titanium, chrome tartan cap with black body, and black with a silver cap.
My Short Video on the Parker Premier Matte Black
The Nib, Most of What Makes Your Writing Experience Rock or Not…
This photo was taken outdoors on a reflective surface to show you the detail on the solid 18K gold nib, so it’s not as silver as it appears here.
The nib on the Parker Premier Black Edition is 18k Gold plated with Ruthenium.What’s Ruthenium? I had no idea so I looked it up for you: The free dictionary online says it’s, “a hard silver-gray acid-resistant metallic element that is found in platinum ores and is used to harden platinum and palladium for jewelry…” Makes sense.
Parker says each nib is hand polished and manually assembled. It’s stamped with 18K-750 solid gold, you can see it if you look closely at the photo to the right.
The nib is WIDE, it is a larger nib overall than most pens its size but that’s part of its appeal.
Please disregard the color, it is NOT silver in person, I took this in extremely bright light on top of a reflective surface to capture more detail for you. The color in person is the same as the first photo on this page… almost a tarnished silver color, but with sheen.
As far as the finish on the body is concerned, if you’ve ever seen brushed-finish concrete, you can tell what the finish on the Parker Premier Black Edition looks like close up.
If you drag a push-broom across wet concrete lightly, it leaves light comb lines in the finish. You can see some of that finish in the photo above, just a really lightly lined finish lengthwise from cap end to barrel end. It’s virtually imperceptible to touch, but you can see it.
The body of the pen terminates to two blunt, squared off ends, you can balance the pen on either end if you wanted to.
Performance
Okay, time for the meat and potatoes of how the Parker Premier Matte Black performs.
This is a wet writer. I’m reviewing the fine nib, and it writes closer to a medium but is still fine. It lays down a gorgeous, wet line. Usually I test all pens with the included cartridges for a feel of what you’ll get from the manufacturer… but this baby… who would spend this much and use a cartridge? Well, I might, but not this time.
I couldn’t resist testing it with a converter full of Diamine Sargasso Sea ink
The results were great.
I didn’t experience any skips or hard starting and it’s smooth as glass. This nib is smooth incarnate. It is just shy of the Sailor 1911L’s 21K nib smoothness, and is right on par with the 18K Sheaffer Legacy’s smoothness. All of these are gorgeous, and great writers. It’s just a question of design appeal.
Because it’s a wet writer it does bleed through a bit on notebook paper. It doesn’t bleed all of the way through to the next page, you just won’t be able to write on the backside of notebook paper. I used it on a legal pad, roughly the same thickness as notebook paper with the same result. I filled out pages of notes in a notepad with this pen and didn’t mind that I couldn’t use the backside of the pages at all.
I used it on card-stock and the Diamine ink feathered ever so slightly as it absorbed into the paper, but tolerable.
The wet writer in this pen means the ink sits on top of the paper shining for quite a few seconds before it starts its decent into the fibers so you have to be patient and not fold your paper or close your book for a minute when you’re done writing.
I enjoy watching the ink dry for a second or two as I reread what I wrote before closing a journal and you will too. The amount of ink this pen lays down means it will smudge if you drag your finger across it before about 20 seconds have passed to give it a chance to absorb into the paper.
The ink flow is consistent, it doesn’t starve on the way up or down your letters, it consistently delivers and never hesitates.
Hand Fatigue
Parker Premier Total Weight 1.55 ounces |
Parker Premier Cap Weight .35 ounces |
With those heavier than average measurements (1.55 ounces total weight, .35 of that in the cap,) you’d expect this would wear your hand out quickly.
Not so.
This pen is so well balanced, the weight so well distributed throughout the pen, my hand never got tired, even writing posted as I prefer to. Because most of the weight is centered in the section of the pen (the part you hold to write,) it isn’t fatiguing at all.
Cap Fit and Maintenance
Parker Premier Matte Black Capped On Bare Metal Roses These roses are welded out of bare sheet metal and the stems aren’t painted so you can see the color of the premier is slightly darker than raw sheet metal. |
Hearts and Flowers, I love this pen.
Cap FitThe cap fits nicely and secures well as the inner plastic coating slides over two of the three rings in the section. You can hear and feel it slide into place when you cap it. I love that. When you post the cap, you use half the inner real estate of the cap so it’s not going anywhere since it’s half full of pen body. It just can’t wriggle off. It seats firmly onto the inner cap liner so you don’t have to worry about scratching the finish either. MaintenanceSimple. Easy. The nib is large so the section holds a lot of ink. Be aware of that when cleaning, you need to take extra time to flush it all out of the nib. It comes with a converter and cleaning cloth. Not sure how the cleaning cloth adds to its value, but it certainly feels special and adds to the mystique. The converter is great and you’ll have lots of fun trying different inks in this baby. |
Overall Value of the Parker Premier Matte Black
The Parker Premier is a solid value for the price. You are expecting outstanding quality at this price point and that’s exactly what you’re getting. It’s hard to critique this pen because I happen to love the design and it writes like it wants to. It comes in several finishes to choose from.
Buttery smooth. Dark, Mysterious and Edgy. What’s not to love?
Find out the price on the Parker Premier at Amazon.
ENTER NOW!!!
To enter a free raffle for #1 in a series of 500 Xezo Maestro 925 fountain pens, just “like” my Facebook Page and follow the instructions on the pinned post at the top! Raffle ends soon, happy holidays!