PenHero 365: Parker Falcon 50 TX Black
by Jim Mamoulides, January 24, 2010
Parker Falcon 50 TX Black fountain pen open
What do you do with a pen with a broken tine on the nib? With most pens you find a replacement nib and get it replaced. What do you do when the pen has a nib that is made as part of the metal section itself? You get professional help!
I found this Parker Falcon 50 TX, the one with the black matte finish and chrome plated trim, as part of a group of pens I bought on eBay. They were as is, and the price for the lot was right, so I bid highest and won. When the pens arrived, I noticed that the Falcon would not write well at all, in fact, it tore paper like a straight pin would. Getting out the trusty loupe, I noticed right away that the nib was missing the tip of one of the tines. Well that's just great. A pen with a permanent nib and yet the nib won't work. Can I get a new section for it? That might cost as much as the whole pen!
Parker Falcon 50 TX Black fountain pen closed
I took the pen to the Triangle Pen Club and asked Deb Kinney to look at it. She said, "I can turn this into a stub." So I left it in her capable hands and about a month later got back this really cool stub nibbed Parker Falcon 50. Wow is this one cool writing pen!
Many collectors look at the Parker Falcon 50 as the "poor man's T-1," the famous all titanium pen with the titanium integral nib Parker introduced in 1970. The pen was a flop, reportedly extremely difficult to make and too high priced to sell. Parker killed it after a year on the market, and now the T-1 is one of the most sought after collector pens.
Parker Falcon 50 TX Black fountain pen integral nib and cap detail
Parker introduced the all stainless steel integral nib Falcon 50 in 1979 with four finishes, Falcon 50 Flighter in all stainless steel with chrome trim, Falcon 50 Gold with gold plated cap and barrel with gold plated trim, Falcon 50 TX in matte brown with gold plated trim, and Falcon 50 TX in matte black with chrome trim. The pen was produced with matching ballpoint pens and pencils through 1983.
This Parker Falcon 50 TX is a slender, smaller size, yet lightweight pen, weighing 0.6 ounce and being 5 1/8 inches long with the cap on and 5 1/2 inches with the cap posted on the end of the barrel. I am careful posting this pen so as not to scratch the matte black finish. This pen already has significant scuffing on the base of the barrel. The clip is a plain version of the traditional Parker Arrow clip yet without any feather markings.
Parker Falcon 50 TX Black fountain pen showing integral nib detail, note short slit due to tines being clipped and the nib being made into a stub
The Parker Falcon 50 TX is a modern Parker cartridge / converter pen, using the same system that began with the Parker 45. I generally use Parker cartridges with it as they are easy to snap in and don't require wiping the nib.
I like the clean straightforward line of the Parker Falcon 50 TX. Closed, it's a basic Parker pen, like a metal 45, but with the cap off, this pen suddenly has major sex appeal. There is nothing else that looks like this pen, with the clean, uninterrupted line from the base of the section to the end of the tines of the nib. Parker brushed the stainless steel of the section up to the nib line, leaving the nib itself with a high polish, so that it stands out, but did not put a breather hole in it, giving it a knife or chisel like look. The stub nib is a smooth as silk and puts down a wide line down and a narrow line across. This is a cool pen to write with!
Because Parker did not make this in many finishes, and the Parker Falcon 50 is not a highly sought after pen, one can quickly assemble a nice collection of very interesting pens that won't be like anything else in the collection. I think the Parker Falcon 50 is one of the most interesting pens Parker made.
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