The Parker Frontier Review
The Parker Frontier is one of the more common fountain pens in Indiawhen you enter the sub premium market. It costs more than the cheaper pens likethe Parker Vector but is not very expensive either selling at around Rs 400($8). Here is my review of this pen.
1. Appearance & Design (1-10) – 7/10
The parker frontier is a very simple looking pen. I have two of these pens, one has a body made out of stainless steel and the other one is also stainless steel but has gold plating at certain places. The two pens are decent to look at with nothing out of the ordinary to catch the eye. The Frontier is cigar shaped and is completely smoothened from all sides;there are no edges in this pen, it is all rounded. The body of the pen like a cigar is thicker from the middle and as you move to the extremities the diameter reduces. The pen has the standard parker clip which is in the form of an arrow with the head of the arrow facing downward. Apart from this arrow shaped clip there is no other mark on this pen which allows you to identify this as a parker from a distance, of course if you see carefully the cap has parker written on it just below the tip of the clip. This is all the detail the pen has, nothing else anywhere, in fact the rear casing of the pen is a simple stainless steel shell with nothing on it whatsoever. The gripping section of the pen is made of plastic. It is comfortable and does its job well. I had no problems of my fingers slipping while writing with this pen. This is a pen which will seldom be noticed because of its design however the stainless steel finish does give it a slightly upmarket feel when you compare it to the other plastic pens which you generally get in this price range.
2. Construction & Quality (1-10) – 5/10
The Parker Frontier stainless steel has a very solidly built outer body.The body is "stainless" steel so you don't have to worry about any scratches or stains on the body. This pen feels very strong and it seems that it can take a lot of abuse (the outer body only). The way the pen opens and closes is reassuring When you unscrew the pen to reveal the converter then also it feels very good for a pen of this cost. The good quality of this pen is however limited to the outer shell only; the rest of the pen is made out of poor quality and you only get to know that after you have used the pen for some time(one year in my case). The gripping section of both the pens I had started to show signs of wear and tear. The plastic has eroded at the point where my fingers are placed on the pen. This is the only pen I have had such an experience with. Same is for the converter. The rubber end of the plunger comes off rendering the converter useless. This is a major problem with parker converters this is less of a problem with the pen itself. (I don't know if Parker makes any other converter other than this but I have not yet come across any other converter by Parker) The converter for this is very cheap and sells for around a dollar and it is not a problem to get a new one.
3. Weight & Dimensions (1-10) – 10/10 There is nothing extraordinary about the weight or dimensions of the pen. Even though the body of the pen is made out of stainless steel the pen does not weigh much and on the contrary feels light. The balance of the pen is also very good, it is well balanced posted as well as non-posted. I however keep my pen posted when I write. The pen may seem to be thicker than your ordinary ball/gel pen but you don't realize this, the gripping section has the proper amount of girth( More than a Lamy). Overall I am happy with both the weight and dimensions of this pen and don't expect any more.
4. Nib & Performance (1-10) – 8/10
The copy of the Parker Frontier that I have has a Medium Nib. The nib is made out of stainless steel and I have had no issues with it. The pen is generally takes no time to start up even if you have not used it for a long time (this also depends on the ink you are using in the pen). Comparing the thickness of the line drawn with a Lamy Safari I find this nib to be slightly broader than the Lamy Medium (which itself is broader than a normal medium I guess). If I objectively compare the width the lines by the two pens I find that both draw a line of the same thickness but I always have a feeling that the line drawn by the Parker is broader. This may be due to the fact that the grip of the Lamy is narrower and it makes an illusion that the line is finer. Anyways I generally write bigger with this pen than I write with a Lamy Medium. The nib was extremely smooth from the very beginning and continues to improve every day. This is one of the smoothest nibs that I have in a pen at this price range. Obviously since the nib is a medium one you are not able to write as fast as you would with a fine nib, and since I find this nib to be broader than the other mediums (even though this may be purely psychological I generally write slower with this pen. I have tried using a fine version of this pen also but that also seems to slow me down. The Lamys on the other hand are very fast. So I guess this has to be something with the design of the Frontier. There is however one very small problem with the nib.If you like your nibs to be spotless and clean with no ink deposits on them then you are in for a tough time. Any ink color shines on the chrome finished nib and is almost impossible to completely get rid of. You can get around it by filing the ink directly into the converter and then inserting the converter into the body,thereby avoiding the nib going into the bottle. Otherwise this is a fantastic nib for a $8 pen.
5. Filling System & Maintenance (1-10) – 6/10 The Parker Frontier uses a cartridge converter filling system that takes the standard Parker converters and cartridges. The converter operates on a push and pulls action where you have to push or pull a small plastic tab for the plunger to go up or down. The converter holds a decent amount of ink and lasts long enough for my daily needs. There is also a small metallic ball in the converter. I am yet to understand the purpose of the ball but it makes a small noise when you shake the pen(though you won't be doing that to a fountain pen).The quality of the converter is not up to the mark. There is a small jerk when you start pushing down the plunger and this sometimes results in the spraying of very small ink droplets from the pen because the air suddenly gushes out.Another problem I have had with a couple of converter is that the rubber of the plunger comes off making it unusable. I have not tried to use any other converter in this pen. I have not yet tried removing the nib of this pen so I don't know whether that would be possible or not. I have not had any issues of maintenance with this pen; it is fairly easy to clean.
6. Cost & Value (1-10) – 9/10
This pen can be bought for Rs 400 in India (approx. $8) id you try hard enough At some places I have seen this very pen being sold at more than twice this amount at Rs 1000 (approx. 20$). So if you try then you can get an extremely good deal for this pen. At $8 this is probably one of the best pens you can get and I have no issues with the price.
7. Conclusion (Final score [SUM/6]: X) – 7.5/10
The minor quality issues are overshadowed by the extremely low price for this pen. Being made out of stainless steel it does not feel like a $8 pen and it performs extremely well for its price. It is a good pen. I recommend it.
The wear and tear of the grip section :
1. Appearance & Design (1-10) – 7/10
The parker frontier is a very simple looking pen. I have two of these pens, one has a body made out of stainless steel and the other one is also stainless steel but has gold plating at certain places. The two pens are decent to look at with nothing out of the ordinary to catch the eye. The Frontier is cigar shaped and is completely smoothened from all sides;there are no edges in this pen, it is all rounded. The body of the pen like a cigar is thicker from the middle and as you move to the extremities the diameter reduces. The pen has the standard parker clip which is in the form of an arrow with the head of the arrow facing downward. Apart from this arrow shaped clip there is no other mark on this pen which allows you to identify this as a parker from a distance, of course if you see carefully the cap has parker written on it just below the tip of the clip. This is all the detail the pen has, nothing else anywhere, in fact the rear casing of the pen is a simple stainless steel shell with nothing on it whatsoever. The gripping section of the pen is made of plastic. It is comfortable and does its job well. I had no problems of my fingers slipping while writing with this pen. This is a pen which will seldom be noticed because of its design however the stainless steel finish does give it a slightly upmarket feel when you compare it to the other plastic pens which you generally get in this price range.
2. Construction & Quality (1-10) – 5/10
The Parker Frontier stainless steel has a very solidly built outer body.The body is "stainless" steel so you don't have to worry about any scratches or stains on the body. This pen feels very strong and it seems that it can take a lot of abuse (the outer body only). The way the pen opens and closes is reassuring When you unscrew the pen to reveal the converter then also it feels very good for a pen of this cost. The good quality of this pen is however limited to the outer shell only; the rest of the pen is made out of poor quality and you only get to know that after you have used the pen for some time(one year in my case). The gripping section of both the pens I had started to show signs of wear and tear. The plastic has eroded at the point where my fingers are placed on the pen. This is the only pen I have had such an experience with. Same is for the converter. The rubber end of the plunger comes off rendering the converter useless. This is a major problem with parker converters this is less of a problem with the pen itself. (I don't know if Parker makes any other converter other than this but I have not yet come across any other converter by Parker) The converter for this is very cheap and sells for around a dollar and it is not a problem to get a new one.
3. Weight & Dimensions (1-10) – 10/10 There is nothing extraordinary about the weight or dimensions of the pen. Even though the body of the pen is made out of stainless steel the pen does not weigh much and on the contrary feels light. The balance of the pen is also very good, it is well balanced posted as well as non-posted. I however keep my pen posted when I write. The pen may seem to be thicker than your ordinary ball/gel pen but you don't realize this, the gripping section has the proper amount of girth( More than a Lamy). Overall I am happy with both the weight and dimensions of this pen and don't expect any more.
4. Nib & Performance (1-10) – 8/10
The copy of the Parker Frontier that I have has a Medium Nib. The nib is made out of stainless steel and I have had no issues with it. The pen is generally takes no time to start up even if you have not used it for a long time (this also depends on the ink you are using in the pen). Comparing the thickness of the line drawn with a Lamy Safari I find this nib to be slightly broader than the Lamy Medium (which itself is broader than a normal medium I guess). If I objectively compare the width the lines by the two pens I find that both draw a line of the same thickness but I always have a feeling that the line drawn by the Parker is broader. This may be due to the fact that the grip of the Lamy is narrower and it makes an illusion that the line is finer. Anyways I generally write bigger with this pen than I write with a Lamy Medium. The nib was extremely smooth from the very beginning and continues to improve every day. This is one of the smoothest nibs that I have in a pen at this price range. Obviously since the nib is a medium one you are not able to write as fast as you would with a fine nib, and since I find this nib to be broader than the other mediums (even though this may be purely psychological I generally write slower with this pen. I have tried using a fine version of this pen also but that also seems to slow me down. The Lamys on the other hand are very fast. So I guess this has to be something with the design of the Frontier. There is however one very small problem with the nib.If you like your nibs to be spotless and clean with no ink deposits on them then you are in for a tough time. Any ink color shines on the chrome finished nib and is almost impossible to completely get rid of. You can get around it by filing the ink directly into the converter and then inserting the converter into the body,thereby avoiding the nib going into the bottle. Otherwise this is a fantastic nib for a $8 pen.
5. Filling System & Maintenance (1-10) – 6/10 The Parker Frontier uses a cartridge converter filling system that takes the standard Parker converters and cartridges. The converter operates on a push and pulls action where you have to push or pull a small plastic tab for the plunger to go up or down. The converter holds a decent amount of ink and lasts long enough for my daily needs. There is also a small metallic ball in the converter. I am yet to understand the purpose of the ball but it makes a small noise when you shake the pen(though you won't be doing that to a fountain pen).The quality of the converter is not up to the mark. There is a small jerk when you start pushing down the plunger and this sometimes results in the spraying of very small ink droplets from the pen because the air suddenly gushes out.Another problem I have had with a couple of converter is that the rubber of the plunger comes off making it unusable. I have not tried to use any other converter in this pen. I have not yet tried removing the nib of this pen so I don't know whether that would be possible or not. I have not had any issues of maintenance with this pen; it is fairly easy to clean.
6. Cost & Value (1-10) – 9/10
This pen can be bought for Rs 400 in India (approx. $8) id you try hard enough At some places I have seen this very pen being sold at more than twice this amount at Rs 1000 (approx. 20$). So if you try then you can get an extremely good deal for this pen. At $8 this is probably one of the best pens you can get and I have no issues with the price.
7. Conclusion (Final score [SUM/6]: X) – 7.5/10
The minor quality issues are overshadowed by the extremely low price for this pen. Being made out of stainless steel it does not feel like a $8 pen and it performs extremely well for its price. It is a good pen. I recommend it.
The wear and tear of the grip section :
Thanks for this review. Is it possible to purchase this pen in stores anymore since it was discontinued in 2012?
ReplyDeleteYes. It is possible to purchase this pen in India as of now. Not only this you can also get the long discontinued Waterman Phileas.
Deletewould you recommend the stainless steel nib or gold nib? please justify if possible, thanks in advance
DeleteThe gold nib is also a steel nib plated with gold so there is no difference in the performance of the two.
DeleteSo you should go for the one which looks better to you.
I have the Frontier as my daily pen, I must say the performance of the nib is very good for the pen at this price range. I had a problem with it once when I was cleaning the nib, I didn't know then and accidentally pulled the nib instead of unscrewing it. Luckily there was no damage done and the pen still writes fine to this day. :)
DeleteDuring my recent visit to India Jan/Feb. 2016, a friend gave me a Parker Frontier GT with the matte black finish. I haven't used the pen yet, but it looks to have the medium nib. Nib and exterior trim are gold colored. I came with the lower end converter. I also received the Inventor K-Nine fountain pen as well. I have used this and like it as it is smooth and gives me no trouble. As the Vectors I have also give good results, I don't really expect any troubles with this, at least not immediately.
ReplyDeleteHow long did it took for the grip section to become like that? I have recently placed an order on amazon. I thought it was made of hard plastic and hoped the pen will last a very long time. After seeing that picture I am in doubt.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it will be much of a problem. I had used the pen very extensively.
DeleteThat's a relief. Because I just love the shape of the pen and it too in silver. My favourite combination.
DeleteAmzing post dear …………keep posting!
ReplyDeleteBest pen printing online