Purple Pens

[Joe124013]

Despite it being my favorite color, I don't really have any purple pens that I'm happy with. I tried to have one custom made, but the person I was contacting just dropped off contact after a couple months of emails so that went nowhere. Honestly, for whatever reason it seems there's not as many purple as there is for a lot of other colors. In the spirit of the green pens thread, what are people's favorite purple pens?

[melissa59]

Oh, purple, purple, purple. I LOVE PURPLE!!!
And you are right, there are not enough choices for those of us who are purple pen people.

 

I have a limited edition Lamy Safari (dark lilac) that I purchased in 2016. Unfortunately, that color is no longer in production and the few I've seen offered on eBay are expensive.

 

This month, I went out of my comfort zone and splurged on a Sailor Pro-Gear Slim fountain pen. It is currently offered in two purple shades. There is blueberry, which looks to be a dark bluish purple. I picked up the metallic purple, which is a beautiful dark lavender.

 

Pelikan recently had a couple of purple pens. The M200 Amethyst, which is discontinued and being sold on eBay and other sites at an ungodly markup.

Currently, some online shops have the M600 in violet & white. The body of the pen is a purple stripe and the ends are white. At $440, it is way out of my price range -- plus I'm not fond of the white portion.

 

Pilot has a pretty lavender Vanishing Point. I really like the way it looks but I don't think I'd be comfortable holding it for periods of extended writing.

 

Nibsmith has the Platinum 3776 in a clear shade of lavender, called Nice Lavande. And I saw a couple of Opus 88 pens in purple on Goulet Pens.

 

If you are looking for something cheaper, there is the $20 Pilot Metropolitan. I saw that pen in two purple configurations on the Goulet site: Violet Leopard and Retro Pop Purple. Neither struck my fancy but the Metropolitan seems to be popular with some people.

 

If you like demonstrators, TWSBI has two pens that come in clear and purple. They are the TWSBI Eco and TWSBI Diamond 580.

 

I look forward to seeing what purple pens others can add to the list. Thanks, Joe, for creating this thread!

 

Edited to add . . .
I got so excited about the "purple pen" post that I didn't take into account that the OP asked for us to name our favorite purple pens. Just to be clear, the only purple pens in my post that I've actually used and can recommend are the Lamy Safari and the Sailor Pro Gear Slim. I also have two purple Indian pens, a Serwex 1362 and an Airmail 44. Can't say that I like either of the latter.

Edited November 25, 2019 by melissa59

[chromantic]

My LE Metallic Purple Sport. As opposed to the 'flat' finish of the standard Sports or the transparent demonstrators, this one has a shiny, slightly shimmery, semi-translucent finish in a reddish purple similar to L'amant though I have only used Cross Violet in it as I got it back before I could afford L'amant.

 

I have a purple JIF that has a sparkly finish (like the new Star Ruby M205) but it was one of the series with the curved clips that have a tendency to snap off, which it did.

 

I believe I have a dark purple Pelikano Junior in a box somewhere but I can't recall if I ever used it.

[A Smug Dill]

We don't have that many purple-bodied fountain pens in this household, in spite of violet/purple being my wife's representative colour, so there isn't such a wide field for me to choose a favourite from actual ownership and user experience. In descending order of preference:

• Pilot Capless Trend with a violet barrel, black trim and a black ion-plated 18K gold F nib
  We love our Vanishing Point pens, and this one has a matte metallic finish, which I personally think is more comfortable and enjoyable to use than the glossy lacquered ones (e.g. the 2012 and 2019 limited editions, and even our beloved raden models). The black nib performs as well as any other golden or rhodium-plated 18K gold Pilot Capless nib we've used in terms of smoothness, crispness and well-moderated ink flow. It's the counterpart in her fleet of pens to my Pilot Capless VP matte black, which was my EDC for several years.
• Sailor Profit Junior purple demonstrator with a steel MF nib
  It's not that cheap for a "cheap plastic" pen, which is essentially how I think of most demonstrators, and doesn't come with a converter in the retail package, but the nib is good and the cap is effective, and the pen lives up to the Japanese Big Three's reputation for product quality. Very reliable; I just pulled it out of my pen storage box after at least two months of disuse, and it was ready to write — and smoothly at that — as soon as it was uncapped. I wouldn't trust the PenBBS 308 to fare equally as well in that regard.
• PenBBS 308-11SF 'Purple Cloud' with a factory steel F nib
  I think the PenBBS 308 has a good design, is comfortable to hold and the 'Purple Cloud' acrylic is gorgeous, although the one I have is more blue than violet/purple. I'm not a big fan of the PenBBS nibs that come fitted by default on every 308 and 309, but if/when I transplant a Nemosine steel #6 EF or 0.6mm Stub nib onto it, it'll be a lovely pen that writes well.
• Pilot Plumix with a clear purple plastic barrel, and a steel F nib transplanted from a Pilot MR
  The Pilot steel F nibs found on the MR, Prera, etc. are very good, and the Plumix is actually pretty comfortable to use despite the faceted section designed to guide users towards a proper tripod grip, which isn't how I hold a pen when writing. It's not a practical pen to carry, but the comet shape of its body is kinda playful, and fit well with the theme of a children's book my wife wrote, so she had fun doing book signings with it — not to mention it would be no big deal if she got distracted and it got "lost" at such events.
• Pilot MR Animal 'Violet Leopard', with a steel CM nib transplanted from a Pilot Plumix
  The Pilot steel CM nibs kick butt, and I enjoy using them much more than any solid gold Italic, Stub or Music nib I have or had, but this combination is let down by the Pilot MR's failure to seal the nib and feed effectively when capped to prevent ink evaporation. It just defeats the purpose of being a hardy pen with a robust metal barrel as an every-day-carry to live in my wife's handbag, but it's OK if we're just inking it up to write thank-you cards and have little use for it after a few days, and don't care if it dries out after a week.
• Wing Sung 3013 dark purple demonstrator with a steel EF nib
  Cheap and cheerful. The EF nib on it is competent. The "negative-pressure" filling mechanism and large ink capacity earn no bonus points with us, but when completely filled the heft and balance due the volume of ink in the barrel is quite nice.

[praxim]

S T Dupont Line D Atelier Purple Lacque de Chine, is purple. I am not sure whether it is still available new.

[Carrau]

Sailor Pro Gear Cosmos is a blurple, and there’s is a Leonardo Furore in purple.

[whichwatch]

Nakaya makes a finish called "Shobu" which is purple. It definitely leans to the blue side of purple, but is markedly different from pure blue which would be Nakaya's Kikyo finish.

 

Shown here in a Long Piccolo model not often seen in the US

 

 

http://www.fototime.com/%7BCA6A728F-64F6-48B5-AC50-84EC27CC8102%7D/origpict/IMG_2302.jpg

 

http://www.fototime.com/%7B6F364F89-C602-4550-88AF-7AB7A267DB81%7D/origpict/IMG_2303.jpg

[ENewton]

My favorite pen is a Parker 51 Demi in the plum color. In addition to being of exactly my favorite shade, the pen is lovely to hold--I like both its shape and the feel of the material used for the body--and writes a fine wet line. However, I should mention that the Parker 51 in plum is one of those pens for which the demand is much greater than the supply, and people who shop for them on websites such as eBay, in the hope of bargains, often discover that the pen is not really plum but rather burgundy, for example. Therefore, I would say this pen might take more effort to acquire than others I will mention.

 

I have the Sailor Pro Gear Slim in the Blueberry and Purple Cosmos finishes. The Blueberry has a very interesting fine nib; the body is plain purple plastic, with nothing special about it other than the fact that it is purple. The Purple Cosmos looks prettier, dark with tiny dots meant to suggest stars; mine has a broad nib, which is interesting and pleasant to use, even if too broad for most of my writing needs. The Blueberry would probably be easy to find. The Purple Cosmos is no longer in production, so it might require more of a search.

 

I have the Platinum 3776 Nice Lavande in medium. I usually don't like transparent pens, but this one has enough texture to the surface that it doesn't bother me as much as if the plastic were completely smooth. The nib is very smooth and on the wet side, but there seems to be quite a bit of variation in the smoothness and wetness of Platinum 3776 nibs.

 

If you like swirly acrylics, there are several companies that offer them with purple as one of the colors, even the main color, but the only one I have is an old Levenger pen no longer in production.

 

I also have a Peyton Street Pen Works prototype pen in a beautiful, dark, slightly iridescent purple; it is a relatively large pen with a lovely cursive italic nib, but I don't know how accessible that source would be for you.

[inkstainedruth]

I have a few purple pens. Some are ones that have already been mentioned (Plum Demi Parker 51 and Lamy Safari Dark Lilac) and I think someone noted the Sailor Pro Gear Slim Purple Cosmos. Besides those I have a purple Parker Vector (that color was one of the French production re-issues last year), a Platinum Plaisir (one of the first pens I ever bought, and one of the older production with the "color-matched" nibs -- which turned out to be a coating that flaked off.... ) and a Noodler's FPC (not sure if that color, "King Philip Purple" is still available).

But yeah, I don't have a lot of purple pens.... I didn't really like the color of the Pilot Decimo in violet (reminded me too much of the color of the Plaisir). Oh, and one of my TWSBIs, the 580-ALR, has purple for the aluminum parts.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[sansenri]

it's true, there are not enough purple pens around

I can contribute with one only (a nice deep purple though)

Bexley OC 2017

[Freddy]

A post that I made in October '17...Signum Nova in Royal Purple.....

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/316994-what-pens-are-you-using-today-2017/?p=3939962

 

Fred

[em_the_pen]

Pilot Minuet and Custom 74. Took me forever to find the Minuet.

[Joe124013]

Thanks for all the replies everyone! Got a lot of cool pens that I didn't know about and some ideas for the future. To contribute myself, my collection of purple pens boils down to the Cross black primrose which I think looks nice enough but isn't exactly the striking purple I was hoping for and the Parker sonnet purple matrix which has rose gold lines that I'm not fond of in hindsight.

 

And please, keep the contributions coming! There's so many great shades of purple ink, it's nice to see pens that match.

[sharonspens]

I had one custom made by Edison Pens - it is a variegated purple extended length Pearl. They have access to lots of different materials, so they probably have a purple that meets your needs/desires.

 

I also have the violet/white Pelikan mentioned earlier, and a Franklin Christoph in black with a purple end. Now the tyou've brought this up, it is surprising that I don't have more purple pens myself, given that it is also my favorite color!

 

Sharon in Indiana

[taimdala]

Oooh, I have a few purples.

(In no particular order of purchase ...)

1. TWSBI Eco Transparent Purple
2. Conklin Purple Night
3. Lamy Safari Dark Lilac
4. Lamy AL-Star Black/Purple
5. Sheaffer No Nonsense Purple (from Peyton Place Pens!)
6. Platinum Preppy, Fine nib
7. Platinum Plaisir, Lilac (a light icy color)
8. Parker Vector, Violet
9. Olika Violet (kinda like a Preppy)
10. Rosetta Magellan Purple Marble (with R&K LE Aubergine, as a bundle)
11. PenBBS 308/266 Purple Cloud Pen and Ink gift set (Goldspot Pens!)
12. Ohto Dude (from Jetpens)

Edited November 26, 2019 by taimdala

[taimdala]

Pilot Minuet and Custom 74. Took me forever to find the Minuet.

 

That Minuet is darling! Is it like a Sailor Chalana? That is, is it really tiny and slim?

[A Smug Dill]

13. Lamy Safari Dark Lilac

16. Platinum Preppy, Fine nib

17. Platinum Plaisir, Lilac (a light icy color)

12. Ohto Dude

 

Ah, yes, I forgot we have those as well. They're certainly not my favourite purple pens, though.

• Lamy Safari Dark Lilac — I think the one I have is counterfeit, and the black EF nib on it does not fit properly on a genuine Lamy feed (on my CP1). The cap is just OK at sealing the nib and feed, not as bad as that on a (genuine, Japanese-made) Pilot MR, but not as good as a Platinum Plaisir or Sailor Profit Junior.
• Platinum Preppy and Plaisir — The Slip and Seal mechanism works, but their EF ('02') and F ('03') nibs don't deliver what I expect out of a Platinum (or Japanese) fountain pen nib, notwithstanding that these pen models are Platinum's cheapest.
• Ohto Dude — Other than the interesting faceted metal pen cap and body, the tipping on the tiny steel nib (not marked with a nib width grade that I could see, but I believe it's an M and that's the only nib you can get for that pen) was too broad and rounded out-of-the-box (but I've since reshaped it), the matt black plastic section feels cheap, and the cap isn't very good at sealing the nib and feed. I just pulled mine out to test it, and it has lost 50%-60% of ink volume in disuse, leaving the Montblanc Homer Greek Blue ink still remaining in it to turn into a sheeny dark blue just won't dry on Rhodia paper but will easily smudge, kinda like Diamine Skull & Roses.

[SpecTP]

ST Dupont, Stylos, Lamy

 

[em_the_pen]

 

That Minuet is darling! Is it like a Sailor Chalana? That is, is it really tiny and slim?

It is pretty tiny and slim, though I don't know if it's quite as slim as the Chalana.

[miel]

I only have one purple pen - eventhough purple is one of my two favorite ink colors - and this is a Waterman Carene in soft violet with a great stub nib.