PARKER Duofold International Fountain Pen, Classic Big Red Vintage, Medium Solid Gold Nib, Black Ink and Convertor (1931378)

Firstly, Good value and delivered from USA to Dubai in just five days. Great service. The pen is reviewed well across pen blogs and does not disappoint.I chose the fine 18ct nib and the line is more medium I’d say. Feed flows well and it’s perfectly set up straight out of the box with a variety of inks. Full marks to Parker for this and the nib is attractive with its ace of spades engraving.There’s no real flex, though the nib has enough give to keep your writing smooth.The converter is Parker branded and a push fit. It’s just ok (Montergrappa by comparison are screw fit and better quality - but then it’s FPs cost a lot more). And be sure to push the converter fully in, otherwise it rattles in the barrel.Overall it’s met my expectations comfortably. For $220 (AED880 delivered) it’s good value meaning the Duofold heritage in the classic colour ( with the cool Duofold vintage style engraving on the barrel) can be added to your collection secure in the knowledge you can use it every day.

Excellent fountain pen.

The Vintage Big Red is a very nice pen overall with some genuine heft and a feeling of luxury - it’s actually surprising how nice a “resin” pen can feel. The fine nib writes close to a medium, and the two-tone colouring is lovely. I can definitely see myself being nervous about scratching the resin in the long-run, but such is life - I don’t have these fears with my metal Parker Premier.Unfortunately I had to return the duofold because the ink converter was damaged at the top - like someone had pushed it in before it was properly aligned, and so I couldn’t draw up ink. A shame.I don’t think the pen is worth more than the £263 Amazon was selling it for, and I think if you’re paying £300-£500, you’ll certainly question the value of what you’re getting. The materials aren’t worth that and in my case neither was the quality control.You also don’t get the larger presentation box as described.

The duofold in Centennial vintage red (actually orange) fine nib is actually faultless and it looks superb like the original pre-war colour. A superb writer (note a fine nib writes like a generous medium, I knew this by reading reviews which state this and I can confirm they are correct) and I got a reasonable price. The one star review relates to Amazon NOT TO THE DUOFOLD PEN. The box had been previously opened and although the pen is perfect and appears unused, the gift box has marks on it and the Parker instruction book and guarantee were missing with just an empty space left in the box! There was not the opportunity on the Amazon website to email Amazon customer services and tell them only a crap virtual chat line which was about as useful as a chocolate teapot! The only option I had was presented with was to return the pen which as the pen is superb an an excellent nib on my mine that I could not take the risk of returning and getting a less perfect nib so I'm risking keeping it with no guarantee! Poor service Amazon.

I am a fountain pen user. When I was a schoolboy, Parker pens were much prized for their quality and durability, but quite expensive. My pens were of other makes that looked a bit like a Parker (eg maybe with the arrow design pen clip). I used cheaper Parker models in my youth, and then luxury German and Japanese ones in my forties. Duofold is Parker's flagship pen, and in orange/brick-red the pen as advertised looked beautiful. The 18k gold nib would be fantastic. Family members thought I might treasure it as a Christmas gift.The pen was delivered ahead of the scheduled delivery date, but the product was disappointing. Except for the nib unit, nothing matched the images on the website. The pen case was not one meant for the Duofold fountain pen (as advertised), and looked shop-soiled! Was the item a demo pen whose box had been long lost? We returned the pen and obtained a full refund.Parker shattered our opinion of them as makers of high-quality luxury pens. (We bought a lovely alternative pen via Amazon.)

Lovely pen in luxury class. Writes beautifully. Super price that fluctuates wildly - caution! Good no frills packaging. Well pleased!

After some questionable experiences woth Parker in the 90s, I bit the bullet on a recommendation of a friend and a decent discount.I have to say, that the Duofold Centennial punched well above expectations. Solid build quality, nice heft and an exceptionally smooth nib which competes with my Sailor and Pilot pens for smoothness.