Went a lil crazy on the 'bay on the weekend. I've known about the Japanese 'short' style pens for a while, but was turned off because many were cartridge-only. I've since concluded that I only care about waterproof inks for my journal writing, and that for everyday, work-related note taking, standard inks are fine. So the short pens were back on the wishlist.

The models I have inbound are a Pilot Elite , Platinum Fine-Flex (PKB-2000), Platinum XF (PKB-3001).

While I wait for mine to arrive, I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences with these models.

TIA

The short pens are very worthwhile to own. They have a wonderfully small lower profile making for a decent fit in the shirt pocket. When you post them, they have the length of a normal sized pen. Platinum, Pilot, and Sailor have made these and their nibs are consistently very good. Despite some nibs being called "flex", they always seem to be rather firm--some less than others--but never "vintage flex". I'd say they have "spring" to them, similar to the Pilot VP nibs. There are some flexible nibs to be found, but they're usually on the much older full size models (before the short pens). But if anything, the Japanese excel at providing very thin lines in their extra fine and fine sizes.

Congrats on your purchase and I hope you enjoy them. Please post pictures when you get them. And not to be a hypocrit, I'm well overdue for posting a short pen series review (text is written, but photos still need to be taken). I'll bump up the priority and hope to get it out fairly soon.

Hi NCB,

The Pilot Elite takes a converter and that's all I use in mine. Furthermore, a2z posted an excellent and easy modification to the Platinum twist converter that will make it work in a Platinum long-short. I did it and am not very mechanically inclined and it works great! Give it a shot - worse case you mess up a $4-5 converter. My Elite is the all stainless black cross-hatch and the Platinum is the Day and Night model, both with fine nibs. I'm quite fond of them.

Here's the link to a2z's post:

How To Modify Converter for Short Platinum Pen

HTH, Michael

All three arrived today. I've put blue-black carts into the Platinums, and fitted the con-20 into the Elite with Noodlers Zhivago.

Had a very brief test on the legal pads I use at work, all three are pretty similar. The ball-bearings in the platinum rattle a little and the cart flow seems a little weak. Perhaps they need a good flush first considering they're NOS. I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll enjoy the Elite the most, until I am able to get some different ink carts for them or try out the converter customisation (thanks for the link!).

I'll give them each a good workout over the weekend and report back later.